Fewer tools needed to do God's work

Ngarahu Katene began his ministry at St Faith's.

Ngarahu Katene used to fix buses. Now, he says, he fixes up people.

The 65-year-old former mechanic has been appointed Anglican Bishop of Manawa o Te Wheke, the central north island diocese of the Anglican Church.

"As a mechanic you have a tool box with tools but when you're working with people all you really need is the bible and the word of God," he says.

For 35 years, Bishop Katene worked as a mechanic for New Zealand Railways Road Services.

He started his fulltime stipendiary ministry in 1990 while working as the garage supervisor at the road services bus depot in Rotorua. For seven years he would knock off from workshop duties and clock on as a minister, working in the evenings and weekends.

He was also assistant vicar at St Faith's, Ohinemutu.

Eventually, the Government closed all the road service garages and Bishop Katene accepted the job as the fulltime vicar at St Faith's.

It has been an interesting road, he says. His decision to devote his life more fully to the church came after the birth of the fourth of his six children.

When his wife Kay gave birth in Whakatane Hospital in 1964, their new son Wally Wharekonehu was not expected to survive.

In desperation he called the Maori minister, Brown Turei, who turned up to pray at 2am.

Wally survived.

Bishop Katene's work as a mechanic in the 1980s took him from Rotorua to Southland.

In 1994 he travelled to Sydney where he ran Te Wairau Tapu, a focal point for Maori living in Sydney. The church, based in Redfern, doubled as a marae.

Bishop Katene returned to New Zealand in 2000 and was installed as archdeacon of Te Tai Hauauru.

His wife Kay died shortly afterwards.

He has recently remarried and although it is still undecided where he will be based, Bishop Katene and his wife Kamana Solomon believe it will most likely be in Rotorua.