A New Zealand Prayer Book, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa (ANZPB/HKMOA), containing traditional liturgies, rites, and blessings, is central to the church's worship.

[5] While heading the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807, William Wilberforce championed the foundation of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1799, with other members of the Clapham Sect including John Venn, determined to improve the treatment of indigenous people by the British.

He had met the Ngāpuhi chiefs Te Pahi and Ruatara when they travelled outside New Zealand, and they invited him to visit their country.

[citation needed] For the first years of the mission, intertribal Musket Wars hampered the missionaries' movements and Māori interest in their message.

Evangelicals, as loyal Anglicans, accepted this status and encouraged Māori to look to the British Crown for protection and recognition.

As a result CMS missionaries, especially Henry Williams, played a leading part in encouraging Māori to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.

[12] Henry Williams was concerned with the actions of the New Zealand Company in Wellington and felt he had to agree with Hobson's request to ensure the treaty would be as favourable as possible to Māori.

He added a note to the copy Hobson sent to Gibbs stating, "I certify that the above is as literal a translation of the Treaty of Waitangi as the idiom of the language will allow.

When the missionary Carl Sylvius Völkner was suspected of spying by Māori in 1865, the fact that he was a member of the Anglican clergy afforded him no protection, and he was executed.

[15] The first St Paul's building was in Emily Place, just off Princes Street, where a plaque still marks the site of the beginning of the Christian church in Auckland.

He later wrote, "The services began with a native congregation at nine; some of whom having only heard of the opening on Saturday evening, paddled a distance of twelve miles by sea during the night, in order to be present.

The greater number were in full European clothing, and took part in the Church service, in a manner which contrasts most strikingly with that of the silent and unkneeling congregations of the English settlers."

[19][20][21] Selwyn generally advocated for Māori rights and was often a critic of the unjust and reckless land acquisition practices that led to the New Zealand Wars.

[22] St Paul's was considered a garrison church, but when the first regimental colours unfurled in New Zealand were donated to the church after the New Zealand Wars, its second vicar, Rev John Frederick Lloyd (who was also a chaplain in the wars) turned them down so "no jealousies of race or feelings of hostility should ever be permitted to enter, but where men should remember only that they are one in Christ".

At national and regional levels, bishops, and representatives from the clergy and laity met together but voted separately on church matters, ensuring that each group had an equal voice.

Selwyn refused to ordain any Māori ministers despite ability, believing that anyone who was not trained in the Greek and Latin languages was inappropriate to serve as a bishop.

[citation needed] A New Zealand Prayer Book, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa, was published in 1989, after a period of revision that started in 1964.

This structure has been criticised by some, with one Anglican priest comparing the tikanga to apartheid or ghettoization, arguing that the system has resulted in churches which are divided along racial lines.

[citation needed] Residential theological training is carried out primarily at St John's College, Auckland, which is also organised according to the three tikanga approach.

[citation needed] The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia has allowed the ordination of women as deacons and priests since 1977[32][33] and as bishops since 1988.

This diversity indicated a lack of an authoritative Anglican Church position on issues like abortion and a loosening of traditional attitudes.

[36] The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia has no authoritative, definitive position on homosexuality and same-sex relationships.

[47] In 2011, the Waiapu Diocese adopted a resolution affirming the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy and asking for an authorised liturgy for blessing same-sex relationships.

This proposal drew the opposition of the most conservative factions of the province's clergy and laity, with a submission presented by two clergy and a layman stating that the church's constitution stated that "No doctrines which are repugnant to the Doctrines and Sacraments of Christ as held and maintained by this Church shall be advocated or inculcated by any person acknowledging the authority of General Synod.

"[53] While the blessing services were being developed and discussed, the resolution said "clergy should be permitted 'to recognise in public worship' a same-gender civil union or state marriage of members of their faith community.

"[54][55] In 2016, the committee responsible for developing the rites of blessing released its proposed liturgies for same-sex couples to be discussed by the General Synod.

[57][58] The church's spokesperson said that "[the Synod] needs more work and time to create a structure that can allow for blessing of committed life-long monogamous same-sex relationships.

[38][61] The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in New Zealand was started in April 2016 with two conferences that took place in Auckland and Christchurch with nearly 500 members of the province.

[63] FCA New Zealand was represented at GAFCON III in Jerusalem, in June 2018 by a 56 members delegation, plus two from Fiji, led by Jay Behan.

This followed the decision taken by the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia to allow the blessing of same-sex marriages and civil unions.