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

Robin is a Parishioner at St Augustine’s, Petone

#

Diocesan prayer for the Bishop-elect

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