Media Releases

The Presbyterian Church has added its voice to those speaking out against New Zealand’s binge-drinking culture, saying that more alcohol-free activities for youth are part of the solution.

Providing more “dry” all-ages community and neighbourhood events will contribute to addressing the problem drinking habits of Kiwi young people by providing safe, alcohol–free alternatives, says Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, the Right Rev Andrew Norton.

The Presbyterian Church has enthusiastically welcomed Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment which addresses one of the great moral challenges of our time, climate change.

“Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods,” the papal statement says. “It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.”

While Christmas is often a time of joy for reunited families, for others it is a time of arguments, old grudges and reminders of the differences that separate us.

A recent survey found that the average British family will have at least five arguments on Christmas Day, often over family gossip and grievances. In New Zealand, family conflict leads to increases in domestic violence during the Christmas holiday period.

The Very Rev Dr Graham Redding has been appointed Master of Knox College, Dunedin. He takes up the role from 12 January, 2015.

For the past eight years Dr Redding has been the 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.

7 October 2014

In celebration of the increasing number of ethnically diverse congregations in its midst, the Presbyterian Church today declared itself to be a cross-cultural Church.

On Tuesday 7 October the Church’s General Assembly agreed unanimously to adopt a new policy statement that declares the Church to be “a cross-cultural and multicultural Church with a bicultural commitment”.

The Rev Wayne Matheson has been appointed as the national Assembly Executive Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. The role is the equivalent to a General Manager and will be based in the Church’s national office in Wellington.

Wayne will be inducted into the role at a special service at St John’s in the City Presbyterian Church, Wellington, on Tuesday 21 October at 6.30pm.

The Rev Richard Dawson of Dunedin will be the next leader of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Richard has been elected Moderator Designate and will take up the role of Moderator in late 2016. The result of the election was announced at the Church’s General Assembly 2014 in Auckland on Tuesday 7 October.