20 October 2025
The Right Rev Peter Dunn of Invercargill is the new Moderator, or elected spiritual leader, of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. He will begin his two-year term from the afternoon of Monday 20 October 2025.
Peter will be installed as Moderator at St Paul’s Trinity Pacific Presbyterian Church which is currently hosting the Presbyterian Church’s General Assembly.
Born in Dunedin, he studied at the University of Otago and graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts. From 1987 he studied at the Presbyterian Theological Hall, completing a Bachelor of Divinity in 1989. He ministered at the Waipu Presbyterian Parish in Northland from 1990, where he served for 22 years. Since 2012 he has ministered at his current church, Windsor Community Church in Invercargill.
Married in Invercargill in 1981, Peter and wife Helen raised a family of three girls and two boys with church and community support. They have 13 grandchildren.
Peter is a follower of the Celtic model of spiritual exploration that finds the thin places where heaven and earth meet through prayer, contemplation and listening for the voice.
He was called to ministry after a period training in carpentry in Gore, and working as part of a large and diverse workforce constructing the Third Potline at Tiwai Point Aluminum Smelter.
During his term as Moderator, Peter will focus on his chosen theme that is at the core of the Presbyterian Church: “We believe”.
The catalyst for his theme was engagement with people in his church associated with its community outreach. “They come from non-Christian backgrounds, with no experience of what it means to belong to a Christian Community. We give them space and time to find their sense of belonging. What most want is a safe place, so they will watch with suspicion how we, as a Christian Community, interact. If they see that we do not live out our faith, it is over between us. People often can come to our church two or three years before they come to faith. Then, we believe together,” he says.
Over the coming two years Peter will be asking those in the Presbyterian Church to affirm what “we believe together as faithful Christians”, which is, he says, “the heart, the soul, the mind and the integrity of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand”.
Peter has served the Presbyterian Church in a number of leadership roles, including on the Presbyterian Church’s Council of Assembly; as Co-convenor of its Resourcing for Mission Policy Group; as Synod of Otago and Southland Moderator; on the leadership of the Northland Uniting District Council - later renamed Churches Together in Northland (CTN); was a member of the group that worked to form the Northern Presbytery; and was on the board of Presbyterian Support Northern.