Maori Michaelangelo in London, John Hovell

Maori Michaelangelo in London
"See how nature - trees, grass, grow in silence: see the stars, the moon, and the sun, how they move in silence … We need silence to be able to touch souls." Mother Teresa

I'd seen Father John at St Martin-in-the-Field church here in London, a three months’ visitor from New Zealand, and discovered his talents as a painter shortly before his leaving for home 1st December. It came out of his casual remark about his being a painter as well as priest.

‘Oh, what kind?’ I asked.
‘Ceilings mainly’, John modestly replied.
Richard Carter, John's host for the last three months and a priest at St Martin's chimed in, ‘Lots of ceilings, all over New Zealand.’
John, incredibly modest, was not very forthcoming and smiled shyly.
‘Do you have a website? thinking it would be wonderful to see some of these ceilings.
‘No!’ John replied in a split second.
Richard laughed and added, ‘John’s not a technology fan. He writes letters.’
Dan, Richard's brother standing nearby added, ‘I ring and ring and ring, sometimes he answers.’
‘Are your ceilings on anyone else's websites?’ I asked, growing more curious after John said his ceilings were filled with sea creatures, sea and estuary scapes.
‘Probably, I've done a lot of Maori Morae, traditional buildings.’

I wheedled out of John that he and Richard had worked together in the Solomon Islands for almost 20 years, teaching theology, John previously had taught art in New Zealand before becoming an Anglican priest. He started doing the ceilings in New Zealand as part of his Maori heritage, art done for free by custom, a gift to the community.
We started searching for John's art on my iPhone, narrowing down to John Hovell, Harataunga Morae, and struck gold. Rakairo, Harataunga, meeting house in Kennedy Bay, eastern Coromandel coast NZ, appeared in Taonga, Sept 03, a NZ Anglican magazine article by Julia Stuart, ‘A Maori Michaelangelo’ (http://www.anglican.org.nz/news/Taonga/Taonga%20Sept%2003.pdf)














It was a ceiling of sea delights, and John explained how he had achieved such a marvel. This was a newer Morae, a Maori meeting house, so they could take down the panels, put them on trestle tables, allowing John to first draw the designs, then paint standing up. Ceilings in older meeting houses had to be done Michelangelo-style, John lying on his back and applying small amounts of acrylic paints. I asked John who had paid for his work, and he said, ‘We Maoris do not take payment for our artwork, it’s a gift from God that we gift on.’ John’s Maori grandmother has made him ‘quarter-cast Maori’ and he follows the custom. Many of his art students have done well, and many of his paintings have been taken as designs by craftspeople working in glass, needlework, other media. He said he had done a series of paintings for a church needlework group to make into tapestries, and they had kept the paintings. He added, ‘I know they’re in safekeeping in someone’s houses, enjoyment for them.’

‘Maori Michaelangelo’ had a photo of the small 50 seat Church St Paul in Kennedy Bay, NZ. featuring Hovell’s Stations of the Cross which evoke Christ’s last hikoi or journey to Calvary.
John’s note near the door explains:
“They are envisaged as a meditative walk across beaches and mudflats, stopping to look at small beautiful elements of the estuarine environment, contemplating the grandeur of God’s plan revealed at the smallest moments of nature.”












John explained how he managed to sandwich his painting between his work as a priest in New Zealand and the Solomon Islands, working on holidays. He’s now going back to New Zealand to prepare an exhibition of his paintings and has promised to send photos of his works, scattered throughout NZ.

As we left St Martin’s I asked if he planned to return to the UK as this had been his first ever visit. ‘Nope, I’ll be too busy. Many ceilings to paint, other work.’ He added: ‘When I’m working I am in complete silence.’

I took some photos of John in St Martin’s and a view outside with John in front of the statue of the child in St Martin’s portico and the National Gallery behind. I was amazed at John’s modesty about his art teaching, his ministry in New Zealand and the Solomon Islands, his art, the bounty of his silent working, bringing the wonders of nature and God to the ceilings and walls of New Zealand, to all of us to touch our souls.

The first Sunday of Advent, the day before John departed for New Zealand, Richard Carter’s sermon for the Advent Carol Service at St Martin’s was about ‘Creating Space’. He opened with a reflection on the nebulae of the universe, coming down to the trillions of cells in our bodies, the wonders of space and of ourselves, our human vulnerability. He mentioned the statue of the baby with its umbilical cord in the portico of St Martin’s and one recent morning finding a homeless man sleeping on top of the baby. Richard kindly asked the man what he was doing there.

‘I’m keeping the baby warm’

he replied. As John returns to New Zealand, going back to his ministry and his painting, I know he’s keeping the baby warm, bringing the sea to ceilings, bringing us somehow into the warmth of creation, allowing us in our vulnerability to experience a taste of ‘all of it’. Richard continued his sermon with a reflection on our human vulnerability, remembering a prayer he and his Christian brotherhood fellow members would say before going to sea in the Solomon Islands:

‘The sea so wide and deep
My canoe so small’

Safe hikoi home, John, and thank you for your visit.