Dr Jenny Plane Te Paa, head of Te Rau Kahikatea at St John's College in Auckland, is to be granted an honorary doctorate from Virginia Theological Seminary.

The Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, degree will be conferred at the seminary's annual academic convocation on October 7.

Dr Te Paa has served as Te Ahorangi (principal) of Te Rau Kahikatea since 1995. She is the first lay woman to be appointed head of an Anglican theological college.

She has served as a member of General Synod for the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia since 1998, and recently finished 10 years' service on the National Anglican Church Social Justice Commission. She also served on the Lambeth Commission on Communion that produced the Windsor Report.

Others to receive the Virginia doctorate will be Rt Rev Larry R. Benfield, Bishop of Arkansas; the Rt Rev Shannon S. Johnston, Bishop coadjutor of Virginia; and the Rt Rev Sean W. Rowe, Bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania. A Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, will be conferred upon Russell V. Palmore, Jr., chancellor of the Diocese of Virginia.