The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, formerly the Church of the Province of New Zealand, is a province of the Anglican Communion serving New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands. Since 1992 the church has consisted of three tikanga or cultural streams: Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia. The church's constitution says that, among other things, it is required to "maintain the right of every person to choose any particular cultural expression of the faith". As a result, the church's General Synod has agreed upon the development of the three-person primacy based on this three tikanga system. It has three primates (leaders), each representing a tikanga, who share authority. The Anglican Church is an apostolic church, which claims to trace its bishops back to the apostles via holy orders. 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. The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is not established as an official church of any sovereign state, unlike the Church of England from which it grew. However, Anglicans have taken a preeminent leadership role on New Zealand state occasions. It historically has been the largest Christian denomination in New Zealand; Catholics now outnumber Anglicans, according to recent census results, which recorded 314,913 adherents in New Zealand. Since the 1960s the New Zealand Anglican Church in general has approved the marriage by a priest in a church of someone whose earlier marriage was dissolved (even though the former spouse still lives), and has approved blessings for same-sex couples. Names Until 1992, the church was formally called the "Church of the Province of New Zealand", and was also referred to as the "Church of England". It is now known as the "Anglican Church", reflecting its membership of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Members of the church typically identify as "Anglicans". The Māori name for the New Zealand Anglican Church, – meaning "the missionary church" – reveals its origins in the work of the first missionaries to arrive in New Zealand. History First New Zealand Anglicans While heading the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 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