The image of Three Tikanga Church today
01 Aug 2025
“Reimagining Anglican/Mihinare Identity in our Three Tikanga Church” was the theme of this year’s Anglican Schools Conference, hosted by Christ’s College and St Margaret’s College.
The busy three day schedule saw 90 principals, chaplains, governors and representatives from Anglican Schools across New Zealand and the Pasifika come together for the biennial conference.
Among the many highlights were presentations by four Anglican schools talking about what they are doing to live by the Church’s Five Marks of Mission that provide a framework for understanding and enacting a set of guiding principles.
Tomas Coberger, Head of Service at College, discussed the transformative power of helping others and cited many examples of how the boys are providing responding to human needs.
“These activities are not simple tick-box exercises; they represent a commitment to loving service. By walking in others' shoes, our understanding of the world's complexities has grown. Service has empowered our students to take initiative and lead with compassion, while also fortifying the bonds between our school and the wider community,” Tomas said.
He invited everyone to reflect on how their organisations can further embody this mark of mission.
“Let us continue to challenge ourselves to seek out unmet needs, and to respond with loving service,” Tomas concluded.
St Margaret’s College, The Cathedral Grammar School, and St Mark’s School also gave examples of how they are seeking to uphold their chosen marks of mission.
The students were followed by keynote speaker Archbishop Sir David Moxon who traced the history of the Treaty of Waitangi and its influence on shaping the relationships of the Three Tikanga today.
Until 2017, Sir David was the Archbishop of Canterbury's representative to the Holy See and Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome. He was previously the Bishop of Waikato, the archbishop of the New Zealand dioceses and one of the three primates of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
