Rev Anandanayagam (59), who has been vicar of St Luke's in Oamaru and St Andrew's at Maheno for the past nine years, is bound for Auckland.
He has accepted the position of vicar at the parish of Bombay-Pokeno and will leave after a farewell service at St Luke's on January 18.
Rev Anandanayagam is hoping his two adult children, who live in Auckland and Wellington, will attend the service.
Holy Eucharist will be celebrated by him, along with Revs Jim Brook and Bernard Wilkinson, who are retired ministers of the parish.
St Lukes, on a prominent site on the corner of Itchen and Tees Sts, celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2005.
Rev Anandanayagam and his family were forced to leave their homeland of Sri Lanka due to political trouble.
They lived in India for three years before looking for emigration opportunities.
A friend from theological college was, at that time Bishop of Hamilton and he looked for vacancies within the Anglican Church in New Zealand.
He found an associate priest position in Ashburton.
Rev Anandanayagam also worked as a minister in Invercargill before moving to Oamaru.
Looking back, he believed the family made the right decision moving to New Zealand.
While he had enjoyed his time in Oamaru, there had been sadness with the death of his wife, Gowri, a doctor, from cancer in 2005.
The parish had been very supportive of the family, he said.
As well as starting at a new parish, Rev Anandanayagam will also be starting a new life as he is getting married in Auckland on January 31.
He will wed at St Peters, one of two churches in his parish, and the other church - St Mary's - was a very popular for weddings, "So I'll be in business", he laughed.
