RIP Rt Reverend Brian Carrell
Bishops Justin and Anashuya ask us to join in prayer for the friends and family of the Right Reverend Brian Carrell who passed away recently.
+Brian previously served in our Diocese, including as an Assistant Bishop. Please see below for some words received from +Peter, Bishop of Christchurch.
The funeral service will be held at 10.30 am Monday 8 September, 2025, in the Transitional Cathedral, Christchurch.
May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
From +Peter, Bishop of Christchurch:
On Sunday night the Right Reverend Brian Carrell died at Burwood Hospital, peacefully, with May and their family around him.
Following MA studies at (then) Canterbury University College and ministry training at College House, Christchurch, Brian was ordained deacon in 1956 and priest in 1957, by Bishop Alwyn Warren, and served curacies in St. Mary’s Timaru, and St. Matthew’s, St. Albans, before being Vicar of Hororata (1960-65) and Vicar of St. Matthew’s, Dunedin (1965-71). While in Dunedin he completed BD studies he began when in College House.
From 1971 to 1982, Brian was General Secretary of the New Zealand Church Missionary Society, based here in Christchurch, and Honorary Assistant in the Parish of Bryndwr, from which licensed role he was elected to the Standing Committee of Christchurch, and as a member of General Synod.
In 1982 Brian became Vicar of All Saints, Palmerston North before being elected Assistant Bishop of Wellington in 1991, to serve the northern region of the Diocese, based in Palmerston North. In 1999 Brian and May retired to Christchurch, where they have served the Diocese of Christchurch and the Parish of Fendalton in various ways.
Brian was a member of the Prayer Book Commission from close to its inception in 1964 until its conclusion in 1989 when A New Zealand Prayer Book – He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa was published.
Your prayers for May, his wife of 66 years, for their five children and their families, would be much appreciated as we mourn his loss and prepare for his funeral.
