In our diocese, you’ll find many reverends who may no longer serve from the pulpit but have an abundance of wisdom and stories to share.
During a recent trip to Blenheim, I had the pleasure of having a meal with Marlborough’s retired clergy – or “not-so-retired clergy”, some called themselves. I spoke with each person to hear some of their stories (although you’ll notice Richard and Hilary Ellena, present in the photo, have been omitted as they require entire articles to themselves to fit their tales).
Pam was ordained at the spritely age of 70.
A self-professed dyed-in-the-wool Anglican, she had initially “trotted along to church as a dutiful wife”. She became so involved that eventually everything she did was through church.
The nudge toward ordination finally came in her senior years. It was during a supervision session, where her supervisor – herself a priest – maintained the professional practice of not directing her thinking, that Pam called it: “Are you trying to tell me I should think about ordination?” To which she received the dry reply, “Well, it took you long enough to get there.”
Pam didn’t think her husband would ever agree. But when she told him, he responded, “Oh, I’m not surprised – I’d been expecting it.”
Moving from the Waikato in 2009, Pam arrived at St Christophers in Blenheim. On her first Sunday there, she told them she was a priest. “We’ve been praying for your arrival!” they said. She became involved in ministry to older people, blessing the parish with her talents and passion.
Derek introduced himself as “Derek the Cleric”.
From southeast England, Derek spent 30 years as a policeman, working in forensics, before feeling called to ministry by his parish. He was ordained as a priest in 2002 and served as a non-stipendiary minister.
He has also worked in transitional ministry – accompanying parishes through difficult changes in their nature and circumstance. That has sometimes meant helping a congregation through grief, whether after the death of a vicar or something more scandalous, like “when the priest ran off with the organist”.
It’s “collaborative ministry” that is Derek’s specialty, though. He was once involved with the Archbishops’ Council on questions of training for rural and collaborative ministry. He laid the groundwork for a collaborative parish model at Spring Creek from 2010 to 2012. He still works with St Lukes, administering communion.
When I asked what collaborative ministry means, Derek said it’s about finding out where God is and joining in. “Too many vicars just tell their parish how to run, and so when they leave, the parish is lost,” he said. “The thing is not to ask What's your vision for this parish? but How will you work with the parish to achieve their vision?”
“It’s in the blood,” Terry said.
Terry is the son of a minister, one of seven children – nearly all of whom became missionaries. He felt the call of God on his life from age 19, although he resisted it at first. “I saw what ministers go through and didn't want that.”
He trained with the Elim Church in Blenheim and served as senior pastor for a number of years before moving to Nativity as “Richard’s sidekick”, where he spent a decade as assistant priest.
Terry loves “God, cars and motorbikes”. With a background in automotive trades, he worked in technical diagnostics. He also spent about two decades as a chaplain in the Air Force. After his ordination, he started a business as a celebrant, conducting weddings and funerals (1,400 funerals, he told me).
He described himself as semi-retired, then laughed, “I’ve got so much to do – I’ve got to live to 90.”
Miriam told me she’s a “home-grown minister”. A teacher and farmer’s wife, she went to church in Ward, which alternated between Anglican and Presbyterian week to week until the parish united under the title - Awatere Christian Joint Venture in 1992.
Over time, she became more involved and started preaching every month. A lay preacher’s licence followed, and theological study extramurally through the Bible College of NZ (now Laidlaw College), before an interregnum she quietly held together, then a suggestion to consider ordination. She was ordained in 1997 and became assistant to Rev Martin Harrison, before taking up the role of minister in 2003 in the Awatere Parish, a sprawling rural patch with five worship centres.
The role involved a lot of travel, but Miriam liked visiting people. “In a rural parish, you don’t just visit those who attend church.”
Miriam believed that the church shouldn’t always expect the community to come to them. So several times a year they took church outside – Harvest Festival services in vineyards, Pentecost services on farms with room for kite flying, services in woolsheds, a service and safari at Bluff Station in the south of the parish, a service at Molesworth Station in the North of the parish and two memorable services at Cape Campbell Lighthouse where around 200 people turned up. A gifted musician and teacher gathered the children and had them singing, and the percussion section adapted to wherever they happened to be – a “flower pot band” in the vineyard, shells and found objects at the beach. She baptised young people in the sea. “Fun years,” she said.
Around 2008, the parish received an influx of seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands, who “raised the spiritual temperature at church”. After retirement from the Awatere parish in 2010 Miriam worked as an advocate for a seasonal worker company in Seddon and led weekly devotions at the workers’ houses. She has visited Vanuatu many times.
Miriam is a chaplain to retired clergy in Marlborough. She arranges the gatherings for retired clergy to catch up and encourage one another.
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We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
In our diocese, you’ll find many reverends who may no longer serve from the pulpit but have an abundance of wisdom and stories to share.
During a recent trip to Blenheim, I had the pleasure of having a meal with Marlborough’s retired clergy – or “not-so-retired clergy”, some called themselves. I spoke with each person to hear some of their stories (although you’ll notice Richard and Hilary Ellena, present in the photo, have been omitted as they require entire articles to themselves to fit their tales).
Pam was ordained at the spritely age of 70.
A self-professed dyed-in-the-wool Anglican, she had initially “trotted along to church as a dutiful wife”. She became so involved that eventually everything she did was through church.
The nudge toward ordination finally came in her senior years. It was during a supervision session, where her supervisor – herself a priest – maintained the professional practice of not directing her thinking, that Pam called it: “Are you trying to tell me I should think about ordination?” To which she received the dry reply, “Well, it took you long enough to get there.”
Pam didn’t think her husband would ever agree. But when she told him, he responded, “Oh, I’m not surprised – I’d been expecting it.”
Moving from the Waikato in 2009, Pam arrived at St Christophers in Blenheim. On her first Sunday there, she told them she was a priest. “We’ve been praying for your arrival!” they said. She became involved in ministry to older people, blessing the parish with her talents and passion.
Derek introduced himself as “Derek the Cleric”.
From southeast England, Derek spent 30 years as a policeman, working in forensics, before feeling called to ministry by his parish. He was ordained as a priest in 2002 and served as a non-stipendiary minister.
He has also worked in transitional ministry – accompanying parishes through difficult changes in their nature and circumstance. That has sometimes meant helping a congregation through grief, whether after the death of a vicar or something more scandalous, like “when the priest ran off with the organist”.
It’s “collaborative ministry” that is Derek’s specialty, though. He was once involved with the Archbishops’ Council on questions of training for rural and collaborative ministry. He laid the groundwork for a collaborative parish model at Spring Creek from 2010 to 2012. He still works with St Lukes, administering communion.
When I asked what collaborative ministry means, Derek said it’s about finding out where God is and joining in. “Too many vicars just tell their parish how to run, and so when they leave, the parish is lost,” he said. “The thing is not to ask What's your vision for this parish? but How will you work with the parish to achieve their vision?”
“It’s in the blood,” Terry said.
Terry is the son of a minister, one of seven children – nearly all of whom became missionaries. He felt the call of God on his life from age 19, although he resisted it at first. “I saw what ministers go through and didn't want that.”
He trained with the Elim Church in Blenheim and served as senior pastor for a number of years before moving to Nativity as “Richard’s sidekick”, where he spent a decade as assistant priest.
Terry loves “God, cars and motorbikes”. With a background in automotive trades, he worked in technical diagnostics. He also spent about two decades as a chaplain in the Air Force. After his ordination, he started a business as a celebrant, conducting weddings and funerals (1,400 funerals, he told me).
He described himself as semi-retired, then laughed, “I’ve got so much to do – I’ve got to live to 90.”
Miriam told me she’s a “home-grown minister”. A teacher and farmer’s wife, she went to church in Ward, which alternated between Anglican and Presbyterian week to week until the parish united under the title - Awatere Christian Joint Venture in 1992.
Over time, she became more involved and started preaching every month. A lay preacher’s licence followed, and theological study extramurally through the Bible College of NZ (now Laidlaw College), before an interregnum she quietly held together, then a suggestion to consider ordination. She was ordained in 1997 and became assistant to Rev Martin Harrison, before taking up the role of minister in 2003 in the Awatere Parish, a sprawling rural patch with five worship centres.
The role involved a lot of travel, but Miriam liked visiting people. “In a rural parish, you don’t just visit those who attend church.”
Miriam believed that the church shouldn’t always expect the community to come to them. So several times a year they took church outside – Harvest Festival services in vineyards, Pentecost services on farms with room for kite flying, services in woolsheds, a service and safari at Bluff Station in the south of the parish, a service at Molesworth Station in the North of the parish and two memorable services at Cape Campbell Lighthouse where around 200 people turned up. A gifted musician and teacher gathered the children and had them singing, and the percussion section adapted to wherever they happened to be – a “flower pot band” in the vineyard, shells and found objects at the beach. She baptised young people in the sea. “Fun years,” she said.
Around 2008, the parish received an influx of seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands, who “raised the spiritual temperature at church”. After retirement from the Awatere parish in 2010 Miriam worked as an advocate for a seasonal worker company in Seddon and led weekly devotions at the workers’ houses. She has visited Vanuatu many times.
Miriam is a chaplain to retired clergy in Marlborough. She arranges the gatherings for retired clergy to catch up and encourage one another.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
