Today in a colourful ceremony involving the laying on of hands by past Moderators, and the transfer of a heavy ceremonial cloak, Te Korowai Tapu, the Right Rev Dr Graham Redding was installed as the new Moderator or elected leader of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand.
The ceremony took place in the church that the new Moderator was formerly a minister at, St John’s in the City Presbyterian Church, Wellington.
Graham is principal of the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership, which is the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Dunedin-based training centre for ministers and lay leaders. Graham took up this role in 2007. Before that, he served as a very popular parish minister at St John’s for six years and Somervell Memorial Presbyterian Church in Auckland for nine years.
Graham is married to Jenni and has three teenage children. He and his family live in Dunedin.
Graham will remain the Church’s Moderator for the next two years.
The Presbyterian Church is the third largest denomination in Aotearoa New Zealand, with more than 400,000 people identifying as Presbyterian in the 2001 Census, and 30,000 regular church attenders.
/ENDS
Notes to reporter
The worship service that installed the Right Rev Dr Graham Redding as Moderator is the opening of General Assembly 2008. General Assembly will be held at St Patrick’s College, Silverstream, Upper Hutt, from 2 to 6 October 2008.
If you would like to arrange an interview or would like more photographs of the service,
Please contact:
Angela Singer
senior communications advisor
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
DDI 04 381 8284
027 455 0098
angela(at)presbyterian.org.nz