"I am delighted to announce that the Rev Justin Duckworth has been chosen as the next Bishop of Wellington. Justin was nominated by an Electoral College ably chaired by Bishop Richard Ellena, and Justin's nomination has since been formally confirmed by the House of Bishops and members of the General Synod.

Justin, who is 44, has been at the cutting edge of mission and ministry in Wellington for 25 years. He was a co-founder and leader of Urban Vision, which runs houses in some of Wellington's neighbourhoods, in which young Christians live alongside folk from the margins. Justin and his wife Jenny also pioneered Ngatiawa, a contemporary monastery which provides a welcome to those who are struggling, those seeking prayerful retreat, and those seeking a missional lifestyle. The Electoral College clearly identified Christian lifestyle, Christian discipleship and Christian mission in Justin – and I am confident his election will challenge, invigorate and grace the church with a deep sense of the breadth and height and depth of the love of God. A date for the Ordination of Justin to the Episcopate will be announced as soon as it is known."

Archbishop David Moxon
Primate and Senior Bishop of the New Zealand Dioceses
29 April 2012

A Bishop with dreadlocks

Yes!

At 14, scorched by the flame of faith

later, a school leaver already at work

among the city's destitute.

With wife and children

making a home in Cuba Street

among those society calls "down and out"

fostering troubled teenage girls

four at a time

forty in all.

Seeing himself not as rescuer

but rather as a man privileged

to have shared their journeys.

He walked, often barefoot,

where we don't dare, and found

resurrection manifest in lives made new.

Looking for change and rejuvenation -

for a man of the times - the miracle is

that those who decide, saw him,

this man with smiling eyes,

not as Christ, but as his disciple

"the one that Jesus loved."

© Robin Fry

Good and gracious God,

light of the faithful and shepherd of souls:

we give you thanks that you have called Justin Duckworth 

to be the bishop of our Diocese, 

to feed your sheep with your word 

and to guide them by his example; 

give us grace to pray for Justin, Jenny and their family, 

support, guide and strengthen them with your Holy Spirit, 

and bring us all to walk in the steps of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

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