Another new role for Stan Pilbrow

Rev Stan Pilbrow will be inducted as Priest-in-Charge at Kerikeri's St James' Anglican Church in September. Photo / Supplied

If there's a classic pathway to becoming an Anglican priest, Stan Pilbrow doesn't appear to have followed it.

Born and bred at Whatuwhiwhi, he was for 27 years a regular in the New Zealand Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, holding command and staff appointments in New Zealand and serving in the Middle East with the United Nations as a military observer on the Golan Heights, in South Lebanon and Jerusalem.

He was posted as a tutor at the Jungle Warfare Centre in Malaysia, and has worked in the South Pacific on Army and church projects.

He has a NZ Operational Service Medal, a Long Service and Good Conduct medal, which he suggested was for "undetected crime," a United Nations Truce Supervision Medal, and in 2014 was awarded the New Zealand Defence Service Medal.

He has worked in a gym, as a probation officer in Kaitaia, as a Corrections Service manager in Kaikohe, Whānganui and Dargaville, and as the programmes manager at the Northland Region Corrections Facility at Ngāwhā.

He also found time to be a father to son Justyn, guitarist with rock band Elemeno P, of which he was a founding member.

Now he is about to become a full-time Anglican minister in Kerikeri, and if it seems a contradiction that a career soldier trained in the art of warfare is now a priest, Rev Pilbrow doesn't see it. The 'art' of warfare, he said, involved teaching leadership, organisation, problem-solving and logistics.

"They are skills that come in handy in a church setting, and when you've helped move 100 people to Namibia for peace-keeping duties, organising a church fete is not such a difficulty," he said.

His ties to Northland are extensive. His iwi is Ngāti Kahu through his mother; his Pākehā father is from the Bay of Plenty. He undertook his primary schooling at Rangiawhia, Whatuwhiwhi, followed by Taipā District High and Kaitaia College.

He thinks Pilbrow Hill, just north of the Brynderwyns, "might be named after a rellie."

As for his Anglican faith, that began early.

"I attended Sunday school every week until I began high school. The church and karakia were important parts of Māori rural life, and very few of our life milestones occurred without prayer, a service or celebration at our marae," he said.

Five years at Auckland's College of St John the Evangelist had also been a powerful influence on his life. He has a Bachelor of Social Services degree, and needs just four more papers to complete his Bachelor of Theology.

On September 10 he will be inducted as the new Priest-in-Charge at St James' Anglican Church in Kerikeri.