Tony Gerritsen’s new job – he’s the first Manukura, or Principal of St John’s College – is about as weighty as jobs come in the Anglican Church.

That’s the view of Bishop Kito Pikaahu, who chairs Te Kotahitanga – which is the college’s Board of Governors.

Bishop Kito played a key part at Sunday's service of welcome and installation for Rev Gerritsen, and the bishop told the gathering that, in some ways, the manukura’s task was on a par with the archbishops’ ministry.

The three archbishops are ultimately responsible, he said, for making sure the three tikanga church hangs together and flourishes.

And the manukura has those same responsibilities at the place where the leaders of the church of tomorrow are formed. What’s more, those responsibilities are vested in one person, and not three.

There’s no doubt that Tony Gerritsen’s appointment is a ground-breaking one.

He succeeds Mrs Gail Thomson, who was brought in as College Commissioner two years ago after the Reeves-Beck inquiry had found that the previous structure of the college wasn’t working.

Tony is now responsible for the overall leadership and management of the college, with the three tikanga deans reporting to him.

Wellington's gift

Tony Gerritsen has served for many years in the Diocese of Wellington – most recently, as their Archdeacon for Ministry Development – and the Bishop of Wellington, Justin Duckworth, preached at Sunday's service.

He told the gathering that in choosing Tony, St John’s had taken “the best Wellington had to give.”

He also paid moving tribute to Tony and his wife Jillian. They had already built a lasting legacy in their nurturing of their own family, he said, and three generations of the Gerritsen whanau were on hand yesterday to support their husband, father, father-in-law and granddad.

Bishop Justin had a strong challenge to make, too.

He told the story of an Italian Catholic priestwho, in the mid-1950s, had been sent to an impoverished mountain village, where all the peasant children had been written off as failures.

He set about teaching those children – and in the late 1960s, those children wrote Letter to a Teacher,which is one of the most articulate and influential 20th century critiques of school and social class.

The students not only wrote compelling prose to make their points. They also used sophisticated statistical analysis to demonstrate how badly skewed in favour of the rich the Italian education system was.

What letters will they write here?

Bishop Justin then asked a rhetorical question: in the years to come, what letters might be written about St John’s College?

Letters that showed that St John’s had resourced and served the wider church through the priests it had prepared – and the education it had offered to the wider church?

Or letters that showed it had buttressed the elite?

Tony Gerritsen has, it seems, already gone some way to answering those questions.

He’s announced that he’ll spend the first six weeks in his new job by going walkabout.

He’ll visit every episcopal unit in the province – every diocese, every hui amorangi – listening to what their hopes are where St John’s College is concerned.

Both for the people they send to the college, and who are later returned to them, and in the wider service that the college can fulfill.

“My role is to lead and manage the college for the next five years,” he says, “and I will start that by listening.

“Listening to the dioceses and hui amorangi, to other stakeholders, and listening always to Scripture and the Spirit.”