Order of St John Investiture

May I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Māori, Cook Island Māori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.  

Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the afternoon (Sign)

May I then specifically acknowledge Clergy, Confreres, Members, Postulants and guests of St John, notably Dame Grand Cross, June, Lady Blundell; Bailiffs Grand Cross John Strachan and Neville Darrow; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen.

I would especially like to greet you Dean, the Very Reverend Ross Bay, Dean of Holy Trinity, and to acknowledge your warm welcome of us to this magnificent cathedral and to this most important occasion in the life of the St John Order in New Zealand.

May I also acknowledge Garry Wilson, on whom I will have the responsibility of conferring the accolade of Knight and Install as our Chancellor presently. The Chancellor’s position is charged with providing leadership for St John in New Zealand within the context of the traditions, its charitable purposes and objects of the Order of St John. 

You are well known and respected as a leader with a distinguished career in public service and a deep understanding of our country’s health sector, and as one who has chosen to share the St John mission of care.

I want to thank everyone for your support for Chancellor Wilson in attendance on this very special day as he is welcomed into the Order of St John.

I would like to pay respect to former Chancellor Rob Fenwick who completed his term recently.  Mr Fenwick guided St John through a period of significant change – and that St John continued to do well, and grew the provision of services across the country, in his time, is a testament to Mr Fenwick’s service to St John and I extend to him the Orders’ best wishes for the future.

There is shortly to be published a book called First to Care, which charts 125 Years of the Order of St John in New Zealand.  An observation that its author, Graeme Hunt, is said to make is that: “No peacetime event in New Zealand tested St John more than the 1918 influenza pandemic.”

Some 90 years after that 1918 crisis, our country’s capabilities are again being challenged as New Zealand and the world deal with the effects of the H1N1 influenza virus.  While the full impact of this illness on our communities is yet to be seen, it is clear that it is placing there is enormous pressure on the health system.

St John is deeply involved with the Ministry of Health in helping to manage the response to spread of the virus.  While there is this new influenza virus infecting humans, we need to take it seriously while not creating unnecessary fear or spreading false information. The immediate goal for St John is to minimise the effects of the virus on our ability to provide services to our communities.  This will be achieved by minimising the number of personnel who develop influenza or who may require quarantine.

As a community-based voluntary organisation, St John is ideally placed to help and support the health system.  The importance and capabilities of St John are well known and we are being asked to help.

I was pleased to see on 4 June that the resourcing needs of St John and the whole ambulance sector were recognised by Government with the announcement of additional funding for specific initiatives, including provision for additional ambulance officers.  This was welcome news, especially given the economic climate and the general budget pressures affecting all parts of our society.

At his recent installation in last November 2008, in London at the Priory Church, Clerkenwell in London, the new Lord Prior of the international St John Order, Professor Antony Mellows, said that he wanted people working everywhere in St John to feel that they are part of what he called “one St John”.  He also said in the same speech that he wanted to encourage an attitude of looking beyond ourselves and to be always looking outwards.  In what he described as his “big picture”, the Professor said he wanted to see during his stewardship “one organisation, an invigorated organisation and an organisation which is relevant and effective going forward”.

In the harder times we are to endure, we are reliant on leadership to steer us through.  I suggest that the challenge offered by the new International head of the Order constitutes an excellent challenge for our commitment here to constantly improve our service to New Zealand communities and to those other areas we can help influence for the better, such as in the Pacific.

The foundation of our work has its roots in the medieval Order of St John whose sisters and brothers followed the principle set by Blessed Gerard, the founder in 1099.  Gerard directed the first Hospitaller knights of the Crusades – that is the original Knights of St John to, as it was put: “Serve our lords, the sick”.  This exhorted the great to bend themselves to give help to the wounded and sick, friend or foe. 

Like so many simple messages, it is compelling and it has successfully invigorated St John hundreds of years later and in other parts of the world, now as an Order of Chivalry established in the middle ages, banned by the Tudors, revived by Queen Victoria and which is flourishing under Queen Elizabeth II.

Today, all St John members inherit that tradition and constitute a unique and dedicated team of skilled volunteer and paid members working together side by side and collectively making a tremendous difference to New Zealand communities.

I congratulate all those whom I will invest today and thank you for the work you do for our communities.

Thank you all for your presence here today and for all that you do for St John.  Return safely to your homes, and may God bless you all, as you continue to care for our communities and for each other.

And on that note I will close in our country's first language Māori, by offering everyone greetings and wishing you all good health and fortitude in your endeavours.  

No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.