She saw a noncommunicative child select a song in Australia, helped tie tomato boxes together to make a stage in Zambia and marvelled at what a united church could achieve in South Africa.

Ven Dr Anne van Gend will probably be thinking of all three moments when she is ordained as the new Bishop of Dunedin early in the New Year.

The South African born educator, archdeacon and mum of two's election announcement came as a perfect 58th birthday present for this week.

Archdeacon Anne succeeds former Bishop of Dunedin Rt Rev Steven Benford who has returned home to England after seven years in the role, and says she is grateful for “the model of being a bishop that Steve lived”.

“He was humble, he was faithful and he had an incredible pastoral heart and it was a privilege to work with him.”

Aotearoa New Zealand’s newest bishop will serve the 360,000 people living across Otago and Southland through the diocese's 30 Anglican parishes.

It will mean a lot of driving -  but that’s not daunting. She has previously worked in Australia's Anglican Diocese of the Northern Territory which is five times the size of New Zealand.

And, as she points out, southern Aotearoa is a glorious place to travel – “one beautiful place after another”.

There will be a familiar face to meet in Queenstown in the form of the vicar there, Michael, who is her husband. He will retire next year and become the bishop’s “chauffeur” when needed.

New Zealand has been home more than once – her parents moved to New Zealand  when she was four and Anne – the youngest of three (six if you count the cousins she grew up with) spent her primary school years in Stratford and Taumarunui.

The family later moved to Grafton in New South Wales. Anne went on to university where she concentrated her studies in music in order to work in music therapy.

She was working at a school in Grafton when she saw what music could achieve. Matthew was a nine-year-old child with a “glorious smile” but no mobility beyond the use of a hand and no means of communication. A scrap book with symbols was made for him with pictures of items.

She still gets goosebumps when recalling the day he could not only communicate that he wanted to hear a song – but also pick which song.

Her time spent at university included completing a special education teaching degree. From initially having no desire to teach, she found herself qualified to do so. An offer came from an uncle to teach at his school – in Zambia.

“So I taught English and I really loved it.”

There was a stage performance to remember there too – the children improvised by making the stage out of tomato boxes so that they could put on “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat”. At the end of three years she decided to make another move.

This time it was back to her country of birth, and another branch of the family in South Africa. There she got to know the Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu – “an amazing man”. She started her role as the Secretary to the Cathedral Foundation at St George’s in Cape Town in 1993. In 1994 South Africa’s first post-apartheid Government was formed.

“It was an incredible time to be in South Africa and an incredible time to be in involved in the church - to see what a church could achieve when it was united around a just cause.”

She was inspired. At the end of a year there she had decided to study for the priesthood, and returned to Australia to do it. 28 years later she still loves her priestly calling.

“I thought about how much joy I got out of teaching English  - and then how much more would I love to do the same talking about God.”

She has held posts in the church on both sides of the Tasman since 1998, including as Director of the Anglican Schools Office for Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. Most recently she served as Ministry Educator for the Diocese of Dunedin and goes into the role with plenty of ideas, but says her first year will be about listening to people.

“I’ve been in a position over the last five years to start a lot of things in the diocese – but pretty much every one of them has been sparked by a conversation with someone.”

Among the first to welcome Anne into her new role was Archbishop Justin Duckworth.

“I am so grateful to God for the call upon Anne’s life and for her servant heart in responding to this call,” he said.

“There are beautiful green shoots growing in the Diocese of Dunedin and I am confident that Anne will nurture these with care. The Diocese is fortunate to have a leader of such experience and depth shepherding the Church into the next season. I look forward to having her join the house of bishops.”