The head of religious studies at Pompallier Catholic College has written a book about 22 young men who entered St Mary's Seminary in Hawke's Bay in 1976 to train as Catholic priests.
The author of On a Mission, Shaun Davison was one of those trainee priests but he leftin his fifth year of the eight-year training.
On a Mission is about his journey of self-discovery during those years, the shift in his view of where God fitted in, and the divide he perceived in the Church's connection to a changing world.
Mr Davison's story is told in the form of "letters" based on diaries he wrote at the time. Through them he gives insights into what it was like to train for an ancient vocation in the beautiful Hawke's Bay setting of "the Mount", which had been a Marist seminary for 100 years.
"The contemplative, sometimes gruelling lifestyle forced the seminarians to confront their personal beliefs in God, in the Church, in their identity and in the purpose of their lives," Mr Davison writes.
Among the 22 men whose life stories Mr Davison researched for On a Mission, some went on to become priests before eventually leaving the profession. Only a handful are still in the priesthood.
Two other Whangarei men were at the seminary with Mr Davison. They are Phil Mahony, deputy principal at Kamo, and Tim Howard, a community worker and environmentalist.
The Marist brothers traditionally made wine at the vineyard venue downhill from "the Mount", now better known as the Mission.
