The church has two ministers: Rev. Nathan Parry and Rev. Bruce Hammil. Bruce is our Community Minster, working part time in the southern suburbs.
Rev. Nathan Parry is married to Amber Parry Strong, a research dietician. They are the proud parents of Anwyn, Calvin, and Miriam.
Nathan 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. 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 headed off on a 3½ year OE, teaching English as a second language.
Nathan spent some time in the UK before moving to the Czech Republic. 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, began his training in Dunedin in 2004, and was ordained into IBPC Feb 2006.
Nathan comes from a charismatic, evangelical background, while these days being drawn more to a reflective, community-oriented approach to God. On a personal level, Nathan enjoys fair trade coffee, Kiwi wine, vegetable gardening, films, tramping, board games, chatting, 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.
