The Most Reverend Archbishop Emeritus Sir David Moxon KNZM MA (Hons) Oxon and Massey

A citation on the occasion of his graduation at Massey University in the degree of Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa), prepared and delivered by Rt Hon Sir Anand Satyanand GNZM QSO LLD (Honoris Causa) Auckland

An honorary doctorate is awarded conventionally to individuals who have been deemed worthy of special recognition, either for scholarly work or for other contribution to society.

I have the privilege of advancing the case in those regards, for Archbishop Emeritus Sir David Moxon to receive that preferment from this University.

Although currently resident in Rome as the Representative of the Anglican Church to the Holy See, the Archbishop is a well known individual in the New Zealand community for his work in that Church as a teacher, priest and Bishop, and was, incidentally, the youngest to date to be ever so appointed in the Anglican Church of New Zealand.

Underneath that, his background is that of the immediate community served by the main campus of this University, having been born and raised in Palmerston North.   Although he holds degrees from four Universities, one of his undergraduate years and his Masters degree in Education and Sociology arose out of Massey.

While he has risen to occupy the highest posts in the church, he has never lost roots in the general community, having worked as a young man at the Longburn meat works and as a Volunteer Service Abroad worker in the Pacific.   Ordained as a priest in 1979, he worked as a parish priest in Havelock North and Tauranga for nearly a decade before taking up an educational role within the church.   At this time such things as the Christian Initiation Resource Kit and a Bi-Cultural Education Resource Kit gave some idea of the breadth of contribution for which he would become known.

His versatility is widely respected – an example being the range represented by authorship of A Once and Future Myth an applied theology of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, through to an easy facility in Te reo Maori.   This latter aspect has been underlined by marriage to his wife, Tureiti, and their four children whose lives are an outstanding example of bicultural expression.

Most recently, has come the work he undertakes representing the Archbishop of Canterbury in relations with the Pope, his appointment having come about almost coincident with that of Pope Francis.   The winds that are beginning to blow from the new leader of the Catholic Church signal important developments for those of Christian denominations and their relationships with other religions.   As erstwhile Chairperson of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission, Sir David is positioned at the centre of huge developments in that field.

To this moment I have mentioned achievements which are of course part of any person’s makeup.   I have not identified characteristics which have made all of this possible.

My inquiries have ranged through written material and that provided by people who have known and worked with him.   What the achievements leave out is an impression of the person himself.   I am pleased to be able to speak for a person who is warmly recalled by many who have done that.   Where many people can relate to, and be admired by their peers, it is less usual for the same people to appeal to peers as well as elders, although that is not unknown.  It is rarer still for someone – anyone to be admired by peers and elders and as well by those younger.   The inquiries I have made, speak of his ability to relate to young and old with humility and, as it was put to me, a deep and infectious faith.  Anecdotes can often make a crucial point and two seem appropriate to mention.  The first is connected with the Archbishop having been more than once the right person in the right place.  In Suva, Fiji just prior to independence celebrations there in 1970, the community group practising who would stand where and do whatever, needed someone to play the role of HRH Prince Charles –and a tall young New Zealand Volunteer Service Abroad worker named David Moxon filled the bill entirely suitably.  The second that has come to attention is the farewell occasion for Sir David as Archbishop before him leaving for Rome.   At that occasion, instead of someone senior or a group of senior people leading this, there was one contribution sought and delivered – from a woman in her 20s who described the inspiration he had been to her and to young people generally.

Adding together, then, the things to which I have referred – outstanding student and teacher, respected priest, author, family man, holder of high office – whose work is not by any means complete, I submit a person who meets the criterion for the doctorate in terms of scholarly work which is prodigious and in terms of general contribution to society which has functioned admirably in New Zealand for 40 years, and now continues in an international setting.

Chancellor, I thus present to you for award of Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa), Archbishop Emeritus Sir David Moxon.