Newly installed Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa moderator Peter Dunn of Invercargill has Te Korowai Tapu, a ceremonial cloak tied on him by Te Aka Puahou moderator Rev Tamiana Thrupp during the installation service on Monday. Former moderator Rev Rose Luxford of Oamaru watches in the background. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
"Never in my wildest dreams" did Windsor Community Church senior minister Peter Dunn think he would become the elected spiritual leader of one of the country’s mainline churches.
However, on Monday at the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa four-day general assembly in Christchurch, Mr Dunn was installed as moderator or elected spiritual leader.
Mr Dunn said he was honoured to be in the role.
"It means a lot.
"It is a big honour because you’re leading quite a large church."
While his father Cliff was a Presbyterian minister, he never intended on becoming one himself.
"I was going to be rich and famous."
Aside from the first five years of his life living in Owaka, Mr Dunn grew up in Waikaka, where his father was the Waikaka Knapdale parish minister. His family had close ties to the area as his great-grandparents were some of the early settlers there. After he left school, he trained as a carpenter in Gore and later worked on the Tiwai Aluminium Smelter site building the third potline. He married wife Helen Voss in 1982 and the couple have five children.
He received the call to ministry after his work at the smelter finished. He was unemployed when a thought came to him.
"It was almost in the first person, you know — ‘I want you to become a minister’ — which is a million miles from what I was."
Several years later, he studied at the University of Otago and graduated in 1986 with a bachelor of arts.
He completed a bachelor of divinity in 1989.
He ministered at the Waipu Presbyterian Parish in Northland for 22 years.
Since 2012, he has served at his present church, in Invercargill.
At the installation, he wore his father’s Geneva preaching gown, which was about 100 years old and had belonged to an earlier generation member.
" I wore that in honour of him, yeah, because he’s a big influence."
During his term as moderator, Mr Dunn will focus on his chosen theme: "We believe".
His theme was inspired by interactions with people in the church who were part of its community outreach, he said.
Many came from non-Christian backgrounds and were given time and space to discover their own sense of belonging. "What most want is a safe place, so they will watch with suspicion how we, as a Christian community, interact. "If they see that we do not live out our faith, it is over between us. " Sometimes people came to the church for two or three years before they came to faith. "Then, we believe together." Throughout the two years of his term, he would ask church members to affirm what they believed "together as faithful Christians".
That was the heart and soul of the Presbyterian church, Mr Dunn said.
While people had a personal faith, they were part of a community who believed.
"Part of being a Christian community is communication, getting to know people, even if you don’t agree with them."
It was important for people to know what they believed so they could explain their faith to those who asked questions, he said.
"People make up their own minds
— either eventually become Christians or say ‘thank you very much, it was interesting’ and move on."
