No regrets at job-choice

Press, 8 December 1976, Page 18

No regrets at job-choice

The choice of the Anglican ! ministry over a career in i banking holds no regrets for .Archdeacon Samuel Woods, I of Purau, who retired last week. He said his mother was from a banking family, but since his father was the Bishop of Lichfield, and his uncle the Bishop of Winchester, he was naturallydrawn to the ministry, even though he did not want to “fall into” it. “I always wanted to serve people, and I felt 1 could meet people’s needs more as a clergyman than a banker,” he said. “My chief recollection of the ministry is of being able to help people in their everyday lives and at,, times of crisis.” I, , Archdeacon Woods was| ordained in Canterbury! Cathedral in 1937, and camel' straight out to New Zealandh as the country’s first university chaplain stationed at 1 what was then Canterbury ' College. This position lasted i for four years, and Arch- ! deacon Woods with his wife, t Sybil, went to South-West-land, spending 18 months ’ there before being stationed i in Rotorua as an air force !

! chaplain during the war (years. ' In 1946 he returned to 1 England and spent several (years at the parish of (Hatfield, where he did a lot of industrial chaplaincy through the De Havilland aircraft works, and worked in a team ministry with five curates under him. In 1955, Archdeacon Woods returned to Christchurch to the parish of St Saviour’s, Sydenham. After

;his came a period of hospial chaplaincy. In 1961 he moved to the jarish of Merivaie and soon ifter became Archdeacon ol Sumner. Later, Archdeacon Woods .pent time as vicar of St Vlary’s in Timaru. and as krchdeacon of Timaru. This was followed by a seriod as procentor of the Christchurch Cathedral, and ;hen home to England for a •est. “It is rather exhausting aeing a clergyman,” said the Archdeacon. “It’s not a nine-.o-five job.” On returning to New Zealand he became vicar ol Vlayfield and in 1973 was appointed Archdeacon o Akaroa and Ashburton. During the 1930's Arch deacon Woods was involvec in the Friends of Reunion organisation — one of the country’s first church unior movements — established ir Christchurch. He was saddened by the collapse of the plan for union last year, but sees tre mendous scope for co-oper ation in a reconciliation ol the ministries.

J The future holds firstly his (son’s ordination in England, land then retirement at his ■home in Purau.