Anglican Communion News Service

The Reverend Helen Jacobi has been appointed as the new Dean of St John's Cathedral in Napier, a city in the North Island of New Zealand.

Currently serving as the Vicar of Wadestown in the Wellington Diocese, Helen will become the first woman to hold the office of Dean in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia and one of only a handful world wide.

Ms Jacobi brings a wealth of experience to the job, both in New Zealand as a priest, social worker and researcher and with the Anglican Church overseas in Paris and Ottawa, working in Christian education, and social services for the homeless.

She holds a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the University of London, and advanced qualifications in congregational development from New York.

Dean-elect Jacobi is looking forward to the challenge of ministry in a cathedral context.
"I'm looking forward to working out the particulars of ministry in a bigger church and bigger church community. It'll be fun working out what it means to be a cathedral church in the broader picture of city, diocese and region."

Ms Jacobi leaves her church community in Wadestown with some sadness. Over the last four years at St Luke's she has focused on rebuilding the church and its congregation.

"It will be sad to leave the people," she said. "We've worked hard together building up the congregation and rebuilding the church complex. There are some very interesting and dynamic people in that parish." Just as Helen is due to leave, a new church complex will be built at Wadestown to the design she has worked on for the last two years.

The Dean-elect will move to Napier with her husband Stephen and their two daughters after Easter, and be installed in her new position by the Rt Revd John Bluck, Bishop of Waiapu, on 2 May 2004.