Te Nakahi Parahi and Urupa

Also known as St Philips Church, the Church of the Brazen Serpent and the Waipawa Pastorate Church it was built in 1900 in commemoration of Hori Ropiha who travelled to England with the Maori King Tawhiao when he presented a petition to Queen Victoria requesting a separate Maori Parliament and a independent commission of enquiry into confiscations of Maori land.

NZ poet Kendrick Smithyman tells the story:

TE NAKAHI PARAHI

In the '70s another stirring:
Himiona, of Maketu and Motiti Island
who (1880) built a church on Motiti,
a place to itself.
He taught matters in common with Ringatu
and differences too;
with the King's Tariao
and differences too;
he talked again of Israel, so they kept
the Jewish Sabbath and Old Testament foretelling,
that too.

Himiona had a brother, Rihara Te Reke.
Rihara moved off, up to the Bay of Islands,
famous as a tohunga not as an innovator.
Himiona had visions, he heard commands;
one of them ordered him, "Sacrifice your daughter."
She didn't agree with that. Next year'83
King Tawhiao came on a visit.

Himiona died in 1904. Some of his went over
to Ringatu, some went back to the Anglicans
but after the Great War enough remained
to build a new church on Motiti,
dedicated
to Te Nakahi Parahi, the Brazen Serpent.