Sunday, April 29, 2012

Salt and Light appearance, nek minute Bishop of Wellington

I had heard a rumour that Justin Duckworth was going to be a candidate in the election for the Bishop of Wellington. When I spoke with him at the Society of Salt and Light Festival at Gore Bay in February about his 'plans for this year' he was diplomatically coy. His appearance at that Festival was in keeping with his ministry: at the cutting edge of change and connection to people in changing cultures and challenging communities. Nek minute he is the next Bishop of Wellington, as announced formally and officially here. Let no one say our church is incapable of adroit decision-making in response to the pace of change and the size of the chaqllenges we face. ADU congratulates +-elect Justin and prayerfully wishes him the best for this new role.

PS Off to clergy conference this week, which will be in retreat format, appropriately in the electronic wilderness, i.e. patchy mobile signals, so no posts and (probably) no chance to post comments after noon Monday for a few days.

CAMPBELL LIVE Tonight at 7 pm, according to a commenter @Liturgy, will feature an interview with +-elect Justin (Aotearoa NZ viewers only).

5 comments:

Scott Mayer said...

Hi Peter,
I only know of bishop-elect Justin from an feature article in a recent Taonga, but he seems like an excellent and interesting choice.

Scott

Zane Elliott said...

Ha! I said to Karen some weeks back 'when this announcement is made the key feature on Tonga will have to be his dreadlocks' - I wonder if they would have run the headline 'balding pioneer....' or 'Ginga pioneer...' if someone else had been elected.

Excellent video interview with bishop-elect Justin here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICXmVnBArT4&feature=youtu.be

He has laid out that he believes in the resurrection, and transforming power of Jesus in this opening interview... all looks very promising!

Simon said...

An exciting appointment - the Holy Spirit clearly at work in an astonishing way at the electoral college meeting.

Chris Nimmo said...

It was definitely a very special process!

I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that Justin supported the covenant last year as well :p

Father Ron Smith said...

So, Bishop-Elect Justin supported the Covenant last year. Perhaps he will need a little catch up on the goings-on with GAFCON, ACNA and the FoCA. Just as long as he doesn't join Bp Ellena in his distaste for Lambeth.

Apart from that little glitch, it really looks as if the Holy Spirit was working overtime in the Wellington Synod. Deo gratias!