News Release

Tauranga City and Church Honour Early Mormon Missionary

An historical marker placed in a park in the New Zealand city of Tauranga honouring Matthew Cowley, an early Mormon missionary serving in New Zealand a century ago, will be dedicated Saturday, 15 April 2017.

The park, previously named Churchill Park, was renamed Matiu Kauri Grove by the Tauranga City Council in October 2016 following a request from members of the community. Matiu Kauri was the Maori name given to Matthew Cowley.

       

“It’s inspiring that Matthew Cowley’s influence is still being felt in this wonderful land after more than a century has passed,” said Elder S. Gifford Nielsen of the Seventy who is in the Pacific Area Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints headquartered in Auckland.

In 1914, the 17-year-old missionary would often go early in the morning to the quiet grove adjacent to the Huria Marae in Judea, Tauranga, where he was living among Maori. There he would pray, fast, read the scriptures, and study the Maori language.

Elder Cowley's devotion during his five years of service, his language fluency and his enjoyment of local hospitality, inspired a warm regard.

He returned for a second mission from 1938-1945.  His assignment was to supervise the Church’s missionary program in New Zealand.

In 1940 all foreign missionaries were returned home by the Church because of WWII. Only Elder Cowley stayed on with his family throughout the long war years, sustaining the New Zealand Church and earning the love and respect of its members.

On his return home to the USA in 1945, Cowley was called to serve in the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until his death in 1953.

The dedication ceremony will be held in the Matiu Kauri Grove on Churchill Road in Tauranga, at 11:00 am on Saturday, 15 April, 2017.

         

Elder O. Vincent Haleck of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and president of the Church’s Pacific Area will dedicate the historical marker.

He will be accompanied by other senior Church leaders including Elder S. Gifford Nielsen and Church Historian and Recorder Elder Steven E. Snow of the Seventy, who is travelling to Tauranga from Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah for the special event.

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