Knox College
Induction of Very Rev Dr Graham Redding, Master of Knox College, Dunedin.
March 1st 2015
Readings: 1Kings 19:11-13
“A voice on the hill”
I love the founding story of this college.
 The vision and stubborn determination of Andrew Cameron (he could not be
stopped by any church committee!)
 The generosity and skill of John Ross and William Hewitson
 The ownership by the whole Presbyterian church (a ministry of the whole
church – not just the south)
 The commitment to theological education
 The commitment to vocational training for students of all walks of life
To you we owe our deepest gratitude!
I was also delighted to read that the moderator is a “visitor” of the college.
I look forward to being shown my room.
Today we have a wonderful opportunity to ask:
Is the future of this college worthy of the vision from the past?
I’d like to pick up on one aspect of what I see as a vital part of the vision for the
college and our ministry as a Presbyterian Church.

A commitment to vocational training for students of all walks of life
Let me put it first in the negative
This is not a boarding house for students. We are not in the business of providing
accommodation! It was never intended to be that!
It was intended to be a community of learning and tutoring where theological
reflection formed the basis of leadership development for all academic and
professional disciplines.
That is our gift to this nation.
Students from all over the country come to the University of Otago for an academic
qualification to prepare them for their profession.
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I would argue that Knox College could undertake the vital work of vocational
development to prepare students to become Global citizens.
Vocation comes from the Latin word voce, or voice.
This voice is a “calling”
Your task is to help each student to find their voice; their calling in life.
Students from all over the country will come to this mountain to find their voice.
They may listen for it in the thousand other voices that would call them and name
them.
It will not be found in the wind, earthquake or fire.
It will be heard in the gentle whisper of God that asks “what are you doing here?”
This will be a voice that will become a calling; a vocation.
Blessing of Voice
In the beginning chaos and darkness heard the voice of God;
light, land and all living things came into being.
In the chaos and darkness of your being
may you hear the voice of God,
creating in you the image of the speaking God.
May you find tōku reo,
your voice beyond all voices.
May you utter sacred words
that separate light from darkness.
May the words whispered deep in your soul
find their voice on your lips,
bringing hope and healing to a wearied world.
May God bless your voice!
Andrew Norton
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1. Vocation – Calling is found by listening
Parker Palmer says,
"Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do
with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up
to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent."
There are many voices that call your attention saying this is who you are. But you
must first learn to listen.
Listen for the one true voice that is your own.
This is who you are. This is the voice that you are to live.
Could this College be a community of deep listening?
For it is in the place of listening that we become open to the One whose image we
are all created in.
That we might hear the words,
“I am created in the image of God; fearfully and wonderfully made!”
Only then can I ask what shall I do with my life?
2. Vocation – calling is shaped by failing
Gandhi’s autobiography is sub titled “Experiments with truth”.
What a liberating subtitle. We are able to experiment with truth! And by the very
definition of experiment we are allowed to fail.
A personal story.
I owe my university degrees to one lecturer - Dr Rayburn Lange. He failed me!
I handed in an essay, he refused to mark it
I reworked the essay and handed it in again, he refused to grade it, but this time
wrote many comments in red pen all over it.
I reworked it a third time and it was returned with a “D”.
Later that year in the final exams, the same question I had failed came up in the
exam.
I passed!
I passed because I learned from failing.
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Ask Me
Some time when the river is ice
ask me mistakes I have made.
Ask me whether what I have done is my life.
Others have come in their slow way into my thought,
and some have tried to help or to hurt:
ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.
I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look at the silent river and wait.
We know the current is there, hidden;
and there are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says,
that is what I say.
William Stafford
Ask me the mistakes I have made
Could this college be a place where you teach how to fail?
3. Vocation/Calling is sustained by creativity
In Ephesians 2 verse 10 we are described as the “workmanship of God”. The word
used is poēma, from which we get the word poem.
You are God’s poem, you are God’s artistry! You have been created in the image of
a creative God.
We have been created to be creative.
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Let us bring some good theological reflection to the future doctors, lawyers,
educators, business leaders and researchers of our country by inspiring creativity!
If the creative edge is lost we function purely as human machines, we fail to
demonstrate the glory of God displayed in our humanity.
Could this be a college that ignites the Spirit God in the creativity of all its students?
4. Vocation / calling is authenticated through service
Frederick Buechner asserts when he defines vocation as "the place where your deep
gladness meets the world's deep need"
True vocation is the joining of self in service to others.
This is the kind of Global citizen we so desperately need in our world.
Has anyone told you that we already have an oversupply of selfish, self centred and
greedy professionals in the world today?
We don’t need any more!
The desperate need however, is for those who understand their profession as a
vocational calling of service.
These are the kind of citizens our nation and world needs.
Could this be a college that is counter-cultural to the “selfie” generation and
meets the world’s deepest need, not in greed but in service to others?
I return to my closing words with Parker Palmer,
“Today I understand vocation quite differently - not as a goal to be achieved but as a
gift to be received. Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some
prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess.
Vocation does not come from a voice "out there" calling me to become something I
am not. It comes from a voice "in here" calling me to be the person I was born to be,
to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.”
Your task as a college and our mission as PCANZ is to provide a community of
learning, a premier institution, where the next generation of New Zealand’s leaders
will emerge to fulfil their calling, the original selfhood given to them at birth by God.
Such a worthy cause is worthy of our highest effort.
Amen
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