22 October 2025
The appointment of the Rev Erin Pendreigh as the Church’s new Assembly Executive Secretary (AES) has been ratified by the General Assembly today. She will commence the role in February 2026, at the end of the current AES Rev Wayne Matheson’s term.
For the past decade Erin has been the Mission Advisor for the Southern Presbytery. Erin says this ministry position has helped prepare her for the AES role.
“Although there are differences, I believe there are some core values – supporting the broader work of our committees and congregations with timely advice and strategic insights and asking questions when they are helpful for a broader understanding. Encouraging conversation that helps to recognise where God is in our midst and how to continue reforming our practices to reflect God” she says.
Erin will be based at Kaka Point in the Catlins with the intention of being in Wellington and Auckland often. “Currently, I travel a lot around the Southern Presbytery for work, and travel will continue in a strategic way to connect with the national network of presbyteries and partners.”
She is a member of the Church’s National Nominating Committee and convened the Mission Enterprise Review for COA. She was part of the Theological Education and Leadership Training Task Group (TELT) Review team.
Erin says her leadership style is best described as “relational, strategic, not afraid to say what needs to be said”.
Married to Rev Rob Pendreigh, minister at Balclutha Presbyterian Church, together they have three adult children and one grandchild. Their son lives at home, and their two daughters and granddaughter live in Australia.
Erin says she sees the AES role as encompassing “among other things being the Clerk of General Assembly; offering strategic leadership and advise to GA and COA, workgroups, presbyteries to help them in their work; continuing to strengthen the relationships amongst the Church and beyond the Church; leading and managing the Assembly Office enabling them to support God’s mission of the Church. There will be much the AES contributes to the wellbeing and running of the PCANZ that I am sure to discover as time goes on.”
Erin attended Lytton High School in Gisborne, before studying at Waikato University. “After this, I started in the Auckland head office of the National Bank and became a Business Analyst for the International Fund Transfer Department. Obviously, time in between being a mother”.
She has a Bachelor of Theology (by distance) and her KCML Internship was at Arrowtown (part of the Wakatipu Parish). She was ordained and inducted into transition ministry at Wanaka. Erin is currently undertaking part-time a Masters in Change and Organisation Resilience through AcademyEX.
Two experiences that Erin describes as widening her ministry understanding were her time as a Presbyterian Women delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women Conference, New York, in March 2016, and from 2023 to 2024 as part of the Council of World Mission ‘a New Face team’. “We went to Taiwan and the following year to Wales; this was a delegation of women ordained ministers from around the world.”
Erin’s faith journey began when she “went to church as a child - I have a memory of pushing my blue ted to church. Then, a family lifestyle change meant we drifted away from attending church when I was young. I started back when I was in my 20s, we moved to Mosgiel where I rediscovered church and faith attending East Taieri Church. I am now at Balclutha Presbyterian Church, where Rob is minister.”
Erin has reflected on what she sees as the challenges and the opportunities for the Church.
“I said in my interview for the AES role that some of the challenges are the capacity of our ministers and the workload they have – being present in their parish, serving their local presbytery, and contributing on the national Church workgroup. We don’t have enough ministers for all we expect them to contribute to.”
“Another challenge is the risk to our discernment when our lay leaders are disconnected or don’t have a full understanding of the church and its polity and practice. Even if we have an equal number of ministers and elders on a committee, if the elders don’t know enough, then it is increasingly harder for them to contribute their insights.”
Erin has also been reflecting on youth engagement. “How do we engage with younger people in our congregations? We have them in our congregations but how we ‘do business’ and how they engage means we often aren’t including them or benefiting from their insights. I frequently say, how do we pass the baton down the generations? We can’t keep passing it around ourselves. And how heavy is the baton we are passing?”.
A big opportunity for the Church is, Erin says, the “amazing people who are interested in God, their communities and how they can be part of connecting and serving God.”
“I heard Phyllis Tickle say on a podcast a long time ago, ‘the tide will go out and the tide will come back in’ - she was talking about the Presbyterian tradition - it just won't come in the same way it went out. But this is God’s church, and it will keep coming in.”
Erin is encouraged by communities such as “Forge maturing and connecting in new ways, using new language to explore faith in community”.
“I see opportunities in deepening the relationship with Te Aka Puahou and the Pacific Presbytery – the indigenous change methods (as they are called in secular spaces) continue to guide us as a denomination in listening to one another and to the Spirit.”