It is with deep sadness, we share with you the news of our wonderful Communications Advisor, Duncan Brown, passing away last Thursday 2 December. Many of you across our Movement will have encountered Duncan and his mahi with us since he joined the team in 2016.

Duncan was a phenomenal man of God. From the moment that we interviewed him to work for our Movement it was clear that he was so talented at what he did. But more than that from the beginning and as we grew to knew him we were struck by his love for Jesus; his desire to follow wholeheartedly wherever God called him; to lean into things that challenged what he thought it meant to follow; to see life as a continued learning journey; his deep love of family – his own and the broader family of God.

Duncan was whip-crack smart and had the most awful dad jokes. I could look across the room at him when someone had said something unfortunate and catch his eye and know that he was thinking exactly the same thing. As you’d expect, he loved stories, and it was such a privilege to see him take the good news of our Movement and turn it into beautiful words and video.

And he worked hard – always believing in the goodness of God’s call. Even as he became sicker, he was still working towards a project to explore what it meant to go alongside tangata whenua and help facilitate telling the stories of whenua and our church.

A livestream of Duncan’s funeral, from 1:20 pm Wednesday 8 December, can be found at https://www.tributes.co.nz/ViewMyTribute.aspx?id=16931 which we share with you as our broader Movement family for those who wish to join.

Please continue to hold Ella, Isla, Fletcher and Niamh in your prayers, as well as Duncan’s wider family and the Featherston church family who have gathered around them so beautifully in these final weeks.

Written by Rebecca Apperley, Bishops Projects Coordinator