Caro Willis

In 2012 we began attending St Paul’s Anglican Church in Waiwhetū. Over the next few years, I felt the call of God on my life towards ordination.

As an artist, a teacher, a storyteller, a wife and a mother, God, the Master Weaver, asked me to join them in creatively weaving people into God’s love and God’s church. In 2016, Bishop Justin affirmed my call to the Vocational Diaconate and he asked me ‘to be open to a further priestly call.’ Over the last ten years I have been honoured to serve as a vocational deacon, and I am grateful for this deep spiritual formation of service. I worked in community ministry in Waiwhetu with St Paul’s, running a community playgroup, leading stream plantings, working with a team to establish Godly Play for our tamariki and then as the Chaplain at Chilton Saint James School. 

Over the last decade in my own discipleship journey, I have experienced beautiful healing and deep transformation in my life as Jesus has gently asked me to be willing to give God all of my will and my life. In 2024, God called Steve and I and our girls to St Matt’s and the parish of Taitā. It has been such a joy to live, work, and minister in this neighbourhood, and I am honoured to be walking with others in this community, bringing Christlike compassion and Kingdom manaakitanga to our neighbours.

My call to ordination as a priest has grown from being immersed in this beautiful and somewhat chaotic daily life, seeing God at work in this community and His people. God has asked me to continue to care for the lost, the last and the least in my community, and to bring the needs of the outside world into the church and yet to also grow into the roles of shepherding, healing and discipling. I have learnt that I never feel quite ready for anything God asks me to do, but as long as I am willing, I know that God, as the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, will make the way.