Bishop Tom [Brown] was then elected to succeed Archbishop Davis, and he was installed as the 10th Bishop of Wellington in February 1998.
He hit the ground running.
In his charge to his first diocesan synod Bishop Tom declared that change was on its way ”“ and he’d start that by disbanding the diocesan standing committee.
When he outlined that move, he says, applause broke out in the cathedral ”“ led by the clergy.
“The standing committee had swollen to 27 members,” Bishop Tom recalls, “and it acted like parliament. There was a left wing, a right wing, liberals, conservatives ”“ catholics, evangelicals and charismatics, all fighting for their own patch.”
