Rev. D. Morrell will serve as Missioner

Press, 18 June 1982, Page 4

Rev. D. Morrell will serve as Missioner

The Rev. David Morrell will serve as the Christchurch City Missioner from mid-October.

His appointment results from the Rev. Peter Coughlan’s move to be vicar of St John’s Church, Latimer Square. Mr Morrell will join the mission in one of its busiest years. It faces an unprecedented demand on its services.

“I fear that we are going to see more unemployment and housing difficulties and all the problems that go with those things,” he said. The problems were not short-term, and they created their own momentum, he said. “If you are really short of money, you cannot buy meat specials because they are often bulk buys and you cannot afford the outlay or a freezer to store them in,” he said.

A previous experience had prepared him for the rigours of the job, he said.

He had worked as a probationer, part-time in Britain for two years while he was studying at the University of

Birmingham for a diploma of pastoral studies. Mr Morrell has also served as a hospital chaplain for nine' years, first at the Christchurch Hospital and now at the Burwood Hospital-

It was a post that he would leave with some sadness, he said.

Asked if he thought that he might find mission work

depressing, Mr Morrell said that, if he did not, he would not be able to do the job properly. ’ “If you haven’t got the capacity to find it a little hard at times, you have perhaps lost the capacity to feel,” he said. The load would be lightened by the support that the community gave to the mission, Mr Morrell said. This was shown by the 400 volunteers who worked there, and by the donations made to it.

“We are in the middle of the biggest winter appeal target that we have set, and the money is coming in.” he said.

■ The son of Professor W. P. Morrell,' Mr Morrell was educated in Dunedin, graduating from the University of Otago in 1962 with a bachelor of arts degree. He then went to St John’s College in Auckland where he studied for the ministry. Mr Morrell is 41, married, and. has an 18-month-old daughter. Mrs Morrell has been a social worker in Christchurch for many years.