Island Bay Presbyterian Church
About our Minister
The current minister here at IBPC is Rev. Nathan Parry. He is married to Amber Parry Strong, a Catholic and research dietitian currently working with diabetes. Together they are the proud parents of 2 budgies, a house rabbit called Lottie, and a daughter called Anwyn, born Nov 2008.
Nathan was born in the 70's in Vanuatu, the second son of a Presbyterian missionary mother from Opotiki, and a father from North Wales who was working for the British Government.
He grew up in Papakura in South Auckland, attending his local Presbyterian Church from the age of 3 to 25. He studied at Auckland University for 6 years, first doing a BA in Anthropology and German. This raised many questions for him about faith and life, and so he continued on and did a Bachelor of Theology majoring in the New Testament (through Carey Baptist College and Mt St Mary’s Catholic Seminary).
Upon completing these degrees he felt a call to serve God as a minister, but realised that all the faith challenges to that point in his life had been purely academic. He had never stepped outside his faith community and put his beliefs into practice in the “real” world. So, he ventured off on a 3½ year OE, teaching English as a second language.
He spent some time in the UK with family before moving to the Czech Republic for 1½ years. His last year abroad was spent teaching primary school children in Korea. On returning, his faith though greatly changed was still intact, and he felt ready to follow the call to full-time ministry. He was accepted by the Presbyterian church and in 2004 began his training in Dunedin.
IBPC is his first calling as a minister, beginning at the end of Feb 2006.
Nathan comes from a charismatic, evangelical background. These days he is more drawn to the Celtic church and the mystics with their quiet, reflective, community-oriented approach to God. He still has an interest in anthropology and the interface between culture and faith. A main academic/missional interest for him is in the so-called emerging church – i.e. the influence of “post-modernity” on the younger generations, and the implications of that for how the Church understands and lives out the Christian message today. He is also keen to explore how the Christian faith can provide answers to the pressing global issues of our age; such as poverty, violence and the environment.
On a personal level, Nathan enjoys fair trade coffee, red wine, vegetable gardening, quality films, tramping, board games, intellectually stimulating discussions, and reading. He is in and out of his office from Monday to Thursday, his office number is 383-8699.
Check out a selection of his sermons here.
For a list of Christian books he would recommend click here.