Thank you, John and Valmai
The LCANZ gives thanks for the service of Bishop John Henderson who has retired after eight-and-a-half years in the role and forty years in the ordained ministry, and for his wife Valmai.
On 5 December at his home church in suburban Adelaide, Bishop John laid down his pectoral cross as part of a final rite of farewell.
Pastor David Altus, South Australia–Northern Territory District Bishop, led the rite of farewell that day and, as the longest-serving member of the LCANZ’s College of Bishops (CoB), also spoke as part of a farewell to Bishop John during the online sessions of the Convention of General Synod on 2 October.
‘Together with the other members of CoB, I thank God for your availability and support, your vulnerability and strength, your encouragement and direction, and ultimately your reliance on Christ which is our best witness to each other’, Bishop David said. ‘For all these gifts and ways in which you have served, and more, we thank you and we thank God for you. We pray that you will leave office with a healthy sense of godly satisfaction, thanksgiving, and in his peace.’
Bishop Mark Whitfield from the Lutheran Church of New Zealand also thanked Bishop John for the way he had conducted his ministry, sharing ‘the breath and life of the church’.
‘You have shared in the challenges and joys of our ministries, always reminding us that the only breath that really matters is the breath of the Holy Spirit of Jesus, that makes us new in Christ’s love and compels us to and empowers us for ministry in his name’, Bishop Mark said.
‘Thank you for your servant leadership of Te Waka o te Whare Karakia – the ship of the church. You have led us with a sense of purpose and direction and have reminded us to always be filled with the hope of Jesus that will not disappoint us.’
The members of the LCANZ thank Bishop John and Valmai for their years of service and sacrifice for the church and pray for God’s richest blessings on the Hendersons as they step out in faith into a new chapter in their lives.
LCANZ Bishop-elect Paul Smith will be installed as Churchwide Bishop on 20 February 2022.
