[ACNS] The death has been announced of the Rt Revd John Gray, Bishop of Te Waipounamu. He was the first Māori bishop to be appointed to the South Island of New Zealand. He died peacefully, surrounded by his family, after a long illness.

He was born in 1947, ordained as a Deacon in 1982, as Priest in 1983, and as Bishop in 1996. He served as Vicar General to the Archbishop of Aotearoa for 10 years.

“His ministry and courageous leadership . . . will be sorely missed,” the Most Revd Brown Turei, Archbishop of Aotearoa, the Māori part of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, said. “Bishop John leaves behind his beloved wife Helen, his son Robert, daughters Raquel and Rawinia, his mokopuna [grandchildren] and extended family.”

I humbly ask that each of you would uphold his family, and Te Hui Amorangi o Te Waipounamu [the Church in the South Island], in prayer at this sad time.”

The Archbishop added that “our focus, as Bishop John’s family in Christ [should] be on our prayer for him and for his immediate family.”