The Rev Anne van Gend has today been named as the new head of the Anglican Schools' Office. 

The Anglican Schools' Office Board have announced that Anne will take up her role as the Executive Director in the new year, at which point the office will be relocating to Napier.

Anne van Gend succeeds Mrs Alison Ballantyne, who set up the schools’ office in 2001, and who is retiring at the end of this year.

Archbishop Philip Richardson, who is the Chair of the Schools' Office Board, today expressed his delight that Anne has accepted the task of moving the schools’ office work forward to the next stage of its development.

In a statement distributed on the board’s behalf, he noted that Anne brings wide experience to her new role.  

She is an Anglican priest, who holds a Master’s degree in Theology. She is part-way through her doctorate at Victoria University, which looks at the ways in which New Testament stories and metaphors surrounding atonement are resurfacing in teenage literature. 

Anne van Gend has also taught for 19 years at primary, secondary and at adult education levels. 

“In her recent years as a priest,” says Archbishop Philip, “Anne has focused on ministry support and development for both clergy and lay people, firstly as Diocesan Enabler for Local Shared Ministry in the Auckland Diocese and, more lately, as Ministry Development Officer in the Diocese of Northern Territory, in Australia.”

In that later role, he says, she demonstrated “remarkable resourcefulness, ability to solve problems with minimal resources, creativity – and ability to walk alongside people from widely varied backgrounds.”

On the one hand, he says, she was providing ministry and education training to people who have theology degrees – and, on the other, to people for whom English was their fifth language, who are illiterate in their own tongue – and whose remote communities are cut off for almost half the year during “The Wet”.

Archbishop Philip said that Anne’s ability “to be creative in a demanding situation”, her warmth, intelligence and communications skills made her an ideal successor to Ali Ballantyne.

“The Board is sure,” he said, “that Anne’s depth of experience as a priest and as a teacher will make her ideally suited to work alongside chaplains and Religious Education teachers in our special Three Tikanga church family.”

He said that the Board is delighted that the recent appointment of Anne’s husband Michael Godfrey as Dean of Napier’s Waiapu Cathedral made it possible for Anne to offer herself for the schools’ role. 
 Anne herself says that when she saw the job advertised she did a double take: “This is amazing, I thought. I have spent the last two and half years organising conferences, get-togethers and continuing education… as I did with my LSM work.

“That was about equipping, networking, and liaising, and this seemed to be pulling together into one job so much of what I have done and love. With a lot on top that I need to learn – and that’s also fun.”

Anne says that for her, priesthood and teaching “have always been two sides of the one coin” – and the job as school’s office director combines them in a unique way.

“I had always hugely loved teaching English literature – because it is so rewarding to work out how to communicate your love of something in such a way that people come to love and enjoy it for themselves.

“When I decided to offer myself as a priest, I realised that my task is similar. To work out how to communicate something which is even more deeply important to me – God and faith.

“And I don’t think I get greater joy out of anything other than doing that.”

 Archbishop Philip also paid tribute to Anne’s predecessor, Ali Ballantyne.

The establishment and success of the schools’ network itself “is all down to Ali”, he said.
 “This reality, this network of Anglican schools, which we now hand into the care of Anne van Gend, just simply wouldn’t be there without Ali Ballantyne.

“The Anglican schools throughout our province, and the church at large will always be in her debt for the work she has done.”