Rev Julie Guest with parish administrator and vestry secretary, Maggie Crossan.
After several years writing thoughtful columns for Te Awamutu News, Julie Guest has finally laid down her pen.
Rev Julie Guest inside Rangiaowhia Church. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
The popular columnist has stepped down as vicar of St John’s Anglican Church to concentrate on her role as Archdeacon of Waitomo, one she has been juggling alongside her St John’s role since late 2023. Her responsibilities as Archdeacon cover a wide swathe of the region, and it’s been tough at times.
Te Awamutu News 12 February 2026
“I’ve been committed to that alongside my role as St John’s vicar,” she said. “It’s been a tremendous amount of extra work and I don’t feel I’ve given it adequate attention. That’s what I will be doing now.”
Writing those columns “terrified me in the beginning”, she said. “I wasn’t sure I was representing a voice that was that of my parishioners. I was mindful they couldn’t be sermons.”
Changes at the church will see Sam Pullinger come in as vicar, and Ben Ong will oversee the transition as priest-in-charge.
Julie and her husband will stay in Te Awamutu, and it’s likely that many of her creative initiatives spreading the faith will remain, as will her legacy of sometimes unorthodox techniques adopted to deal with community life.
Who can forget her 2022 church camp-out with her husband to nab thieves stealing copper from the roof? Or her decision to bring Te Awamutu a Death Café, a lively morning tea event aimed at easing the grief journey for those taking part?
Much of what Julie has brought to her role as vicar has been a combination of her own life experience and personal tenacity.
Christine Bryant, left, and Rev Julie Guest outside Rangiaowhia Church. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
When she came to Te Awamutu in 2019 it was to take on her first role as vicar.
“That was a big gamble. I was the first female vicar at St John’s, and it wasn’t always easy. There were some prickly parishioners I can tell you, people who weren’t too keen on me …”
Julie is made of strong stuff. Her dad spent his first six years in Malta where his father was based with the navy during World War 11. Her dad shifted between the UK, Malta and then New Zealand with hundreds of children transported elsewhere to escape the danger and decided as a young man to return to New Zealand to settle.
In Gisborne he found a warm welcome and a lilting similarity between Te Reo and the Maltese language he learnt as a child; then met and married Julie’s mother, and their wedding breakfast was held on the local marae.
Searing memories of war left her parents with a keen appreciation for their survival. They passed that, and a need to ‘pay it forward,’ to their own children. “My dad used to say, ‘you are a middle class, white New Zealander… each is a privilege and neither of them is deserved’.
With the church and gratitude as guiding principles, Julie pushed aside a period of teen rebellion and went into teaching. It was only after she married and had children that thoughts grew of joining the ministry. The feeling strengthened when one of her children was found to be neuro-diverse, and she learned to approach his differences and those of others she met with patience and love.
It all led to theology training, and once ordained, took her around the North Island before she settled in Te Awamutu.
In order to make sure nobody who wants to be seen remains unseen, Julie has broadened the range of services offered, introduced touches of Te Reo, grown the outreach side. Now, with the wider district beckoning, that role will only grow.
Rev Julie Guest on one of her last days in the job, enjoying a moment with parish adminis-trator and vestry secretary, Maggie Crossan. Photo: Viv Posselt
