About 650 people raised their brollies, turned up their collars and skipped across the puddles to welcome Jo Kelly-Moore as the new Dean of Auckland on Wednesday evening.

It had been a sodden late-winter's day in the City of Sails. But that didn’t stop them coming, or dampen their spirits, and at several points during the installation, the congregation’s good will overflowed.

Such as the moment when Bishop Kito Pikaahu greeted Jo on behalf of the tikanga partners.

He mihi’d her with the same greeting given by Maori to Samuel Marsden and Ruatara in 1814 – and then shared a story the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, tells about a conversation he’d had with a cab driver.

The cabbie had asked Dr Wright what he did for a living. On being told he was a C of E bishop, the cabbie had commiserated with him over the C of E’s anguish about women bishops.

“The way I look at it,” the cabbie then said, “is this: if God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, the rest is rock’n roll, innit?”

And that was Bishop Kito’s encouragement to Jo last night.

If Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, he said, “the rest is rock’n roll”.

Or, if you want to frame that in our terms, suggested Bishop Kito: “The rest is hip hop.”

At which point, one of Jo and her husband Paul’s two young sons piped up from the front row: “I like hip hop!” – and the cathedral dissolved in laughter.

There were special moments throughout the installation. The sheer size of the contingent from St Aidan’s, Remuera (Jo’s last parish) which escorted the Kelly-Moore family to the cathedral, for one. 

Their turnout was so impressive that when their wardens brought Jo forward, and Bishop Ross Bay was surrounded on three sides by St Aidan's people, he quipped: "I hope you come in peace!"

The warmth and the poignancy of the speech of welcome by Monsignor Bernard Keily, of St Patrick’s Cathedral, was another of those special moments.

Fr Kiely told the congregation that ‘Kelly Moore’ was a name he'd grown used to hearing almost more than any other.

His brother, he said, has Down’s Syndrome, and lives at Ranfurly Home, which is an Auckland home and hospital for the disabled – where Jo’s husband Paul had worked for many years.

Whenever Fr Kiely would visit his brother, he would hear a heart-felt mantra, delivered over and over again: “Paul Kelly-Moore loves me. Paul Kelly-Moore loves me...”

Fr Keily said the relationship between the Anglican and Catholic cathedrals was a warm and essential one. For some years they’d shared an Ash Wednesday liturgy, and during St Pat’s recent refurbishment, Holy Trinity had made itself available to St Pat’s for its own Good Friday service.

The sermon was preached by the Very Rev Helen Jacobi, who is Dean of Waiapu Cathedral, and the only other female dean in the province.

Dean Helen told the congregation that Jo becomes the 18^th woman dean in the communion – and that three other women will soon be installed as cathedral deans in other parts of the Anglican world.

“By the end of the year,” she said, “we will be 21 women deans – and 21 has a ‘coming of age’ ring to it.”

She also reflected on Auckland being about to become a super city, and the implications that might have for Jo’s ministry as Dean.

“Holy Trinity has always been cathedral to all the cities of the Auckland region as part of its regional work, but the role may become clearer as you move towards the super city.

“Holy Trinity needs to figure out how it can serve the new city, and Auckland needs to explore what it expects from its cathedral.

“Cathedrals are built with a bigger picture in mind; for diocese, for city, for regions, for pilgrims, for any who might come. And the dean’s job is to keep all those connections alive, to keep the branches growing in many directions at once.”  

Dean Helen said the directions would become clear if folk heeded the message of the gospel reading for the day, John 15 1-11.  

“’Abide in Christ’, we are told… what does that mean?

“To abide is to sojourn or to tarry or to hang with; to continue to be present with; it is an active, ongoing thing, not just a one off. Abiding is about where our centre is, where we stand, our turangawaewae, it is close, it is personal. ‘Abide with me’ Jesus says, ‘abide with me’.”

She also urged the diocese and the cathedral community to allow Jo and the cathedral “to breathe its air” and not become inward looking.

“Do not weigh this place down with a whole lot of shoulds and dos and don’ts. Allow the cathedral to discover anew each year what it means to be cathedral in 21^st century Auckland. How the branches of the vine will grow in the next years is unknown to any of us.”

“What I do know is that… this Cathedral … will be a place where all can gather to pray, to reflect, to sojourn for a while as pilgrims.

“This will be a place where differences can be celebrated and unity upheld, where the tribe of God comes together.”

“And above all, I know this. I know that you will abide in Christ. And, in the end, that is all that matters.”