By STACEY BODGER
ROTORUA - Bishop Te Whakahuihui Vercoe, who today receives one of New Zealand's highest royal honours, says his greatest achievement is yet to come.
Bishop Vercoe, the Anglican Bishop of Aotearoa, was made a Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
Bishop Vercoe, who celebrated his 72nd birthday with family yesterday, said that while the award recognised more than 40 years of dedication to Maori and the Anglican Church, he was still motivated by one main goal - to bring Maori back into the Church.
"I want to reinstate our people, those who have fallen by the wayside, and recall them to the Church.
"Many have become disillusioned but they should see that the context is now changing to bring our culture back into the fold," he said.
Bishop Vercoe, born in Opotiki in 1928, became a priest in 1951 and served as an Army chaplain in Malaya and South Vietnam, which earned him a military MBE in 1970.
He returned to Maori pastorate work and later became Archdeacon of Te Tairawhiti on the East Coast and Vicar-General of the Bishopric of Aotearoa.
Between 1971 and 1976, he was the principal of Te Waipounamu Maori Girls College in Christchurch.
In 1981, he was appointed the fourth Bishop of Aotearoa and has since spent about seven months a year visiting overseas missions as a member of the Anglican Indigenous Network.
Bishop Vercoe, who has lived in Rotorua for 20 years, said yesterday that he was excited about his honour but also humbled that people thought he had "done a good job."
This year's highest Queen's Birthday Honour, membership of the Order of New Zealand, goes to Cardinal Tom Williams, Catholic Archbishop of Wellington.
Cardinal Williams has led the Catholic Church in New Zealand since 1979 and was created a cardinal in 1983 in Rome, where he had been ordained 24 years earlier.
He said yesterday that he doubted he deserved the honour, which he saw as recognition of the Church's contribution to New Zealand society.
"But as the archbishop of a diocese celebrating 150 years of service, I readily accept if for our people, to whom it properly belongs."
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