My Account
The fact that Ian Hanley was brought up a Catholic, became an Anglican and is currently serving in Red Beach Methodist Church exemplifies the twists and turns that characterise his life of service. His career has run the gambit from tax collector to police sergeant to priest but his allegiance to God has never wavered. Ian’s Christmas services on the Coast will be his last, and so he took time to talk to Terry Moore before jumping aboard his motorbike to head off for a well-earned retirement.
I started life as a tax collector in Buckinghamshire in the UK. My father worked for the British Foreign Office and I was lucky in that my parents didn’t farm me off to boarding school, but kept me with them as they travelled around the world. So I grew up in places like Switzerland, Libya, Kashmir (where we lived on a houseboat) and Singapore. In those sorts of places you get very well looked after; it was a privileged upbringing, but of course as a child you don’t think about that – a sandpit is a sandpit. My first job was with the tax department and while I was there I met my wife Gwenda who was a globe trotting Kiwi at the time. I’d always had an interest in joining the police, and so I became PC 25 in Buckinghamshire Constabulary just before Gwenda and I were married. I was Roman Catholic and I decided to become an Anglican, like her, before we married. I went to Libya, where my parents were living, and told them I was becoming an Anglican and my mother cried for three days. However, I’ve always worked on the basis that God operates on TV1 as well as TV3. After my mother died at the age of 59 my father re-married and became an Anglican too. Gwenda and I came to NZ in about 1968 and I joined the police, working in Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington.
Having a religious background, you often found yourself having to think creatively in the police force. I was a Senior Sergeant during the Springbok tour and involved with the Auckland Harbour Bridge where there were 60-odd demonstrators who parked their cars to close it off. We had just received information that there might be a bomb, so had to move the cars quickly. They were locked, so the team were breaking into them to get them shifted. Instead of charging the demonstrators with something that would affect their future, I charged 62 of them with ‘breaching the peace’, so they had no long-term criminal convictions. I would often see church colleagues amongst the demonstrators. Later that day we formed a line near Eden Park; we had the Red and Blue squads to deal with the more violent stuff, but while they were busy we were in the front line and tried to make sure people kept their cool. There were people in a tree throwing missiles onto the demonstrators, so they approached us about that – it was a complicated ethical situation to be in. Afterwards all the police gathered and we were all shell-shocked because at least half the police were in favour of the rugby and half were against. I’m not in favour of apartheid, so there were mixed emotions running through that day.
During my time in the police I was ordained as an Anglican decan, and in 1980 as a priest. God had always been important in my life. When I was a child some Catholic nuns had told me I should be a priest, but I wasn’t of a mind to be celibate for the rest of my life. After ordination I looked after a parish for some friends of mine and decided this was a good thing to do fulltime. My first position was as assistant curate in Tawa, at St Christopher’s, then I went to Opunake, in South Taranaki as a parish priest. In those days you just got a letter saying “go straight to Opunake” – there was no discussion and you did as you were told. A rural ministry like Opunake is fabulous. I’ve always liked to see the possibilities of doing something different in my ministry – things like the time when 10 of us celebrated Eucharist on top of Mt Taranaki at 5pm one day, then ended up having to climb down in the dark, which is not recommended. While in Opunake I also drove the local ambulance as a volunteer, which meant on occasion someone who had called the ambulance would see the priest walk in and think they were a lot sicker than they’d thought they were! I applied to be a Services Chaplain and spent five years at the naval base, HMNZS Tamaki and Philomel, in Auckland as well as doing nine months of sea time. I am the world’s worst sailor, which shows that God has a sense of humour. This was clearly demonstrated when I took a baptism on the HMNZS Monowai and it was the quickest baptism ever because I was sick from the rocking of the ship, even though it was tied up to the wharf. After that I was with the army for five years, in Papakura, during the time when they closed the base, so I decommissioned the chapel with a bishop and had to deal with people who had been made redundant. At Linton Army Base I celebrated the wedding of the current Governor General, who was then commanding officer of the infantry battalion. Eventually I retired from the services and became vicar of Campbells Bay Anglican Parish, then Dean of Waikato based at St Peter’s Cathedral in Hamilton. Because I’m a member of the Order of the Holy Cross, an Anglican Benedictine Order founded in America, I was invited to help grow two parish churches in the Mojave Desert in a place called the Yucca Valley. It’s something I’ve always done – trying to pick people who have a calling and nudge them into thinking about ordination. For a while I was at 29 Palms Marine Base where soldiers leave for Iraq and Afghanistan, and return after they’ve done their tour of duty. There’s a moving service held when soldiers return where they call out the name of each one three times, after which it’s presumed the person died in battle. There were a lot of young men and women there who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder.
I have loved motorbikes ever since I learned to ride a Triumph 350 in England after joining the police. It was the best way to get around so I had to get a licence in one day, then drive around England and Wales with a police instructor who corrected all my mistakes using colourful language. I got into Suzukis and Hondas and arrived at Harleys, of which I’ve owned four. Soon I’ll collect my latest bike, a Suzuki Boulevard, which is a small cruiser. I’ve used motorbikes in my ministry as well, taking people for rides – and the extraordinary thing is that everyone who travels on the back of my bike ends up praying! While in the States I joined the Patriot Guard – which forms a motorcycle escort for the troops as they return. People line the streets as the buses carrying the troops drive past, lead by the motorcyclists – most are on Harleys, but I was on a 1200cc Yamaha. Gwenda and I did Route 66 on that bike, with her riding pillion. We rode from the Yucca Valley to Chicago over four days, then joined a group of New Zealand bikers and came back on Route 66 to Los Angeles over eight days. We had everything from rainstorms and thunder, through snow to over 40° heat.
On coming back to NZ, I did a fill in ministry as relief chaplain at the Seafarers Centre in Auckland, and then had about a year or so at North Shore Hospital before coming here to Red Beach. Red Beach has been a great experience and the Methodists are wonderful. There’s an exploration going on in NZ as to whether Anglicans and Methodists can have recognition of each other’s ministries so they can work in each other’s parishes. The two groups have much in common. Every denomination has its challenges because you are often dealing with people who are facing a ‘total eclipse of the heart’. I believe that the arms of Jesus are open to everyone, even people that we may not like personally. The goal is to introduce them to the gift of spirituality. I am open to different pathways because how people relate to God is between God and that individual and it’s the same with sexuality. The church is relevant because we all have a spiritual side that comes to the surface at different times and helps us deal not only with the fun things in life, but also the difficult times. Gwenda is the coordinator for Seasons Grief Programme and helps people going through a grieving process whether that’s a separation, a partner who has gone to prison or there’s been a suicide. She works with children and teenagers through to adults and they come through that as wholly different people. That’s a fine example of what ministry is about.
They say a priest never retires, but Gwenda and I are moving to Hamilton soon to a sustainably built home with solar heating and double glazing and insulation. Manly Methodist Church is holding a farewell choir service for me on December 23, and I’ll be doing my last service at Red Beach on Christmas Day. Once we move to Hamilton there will be more bike trips for sure, around NZ, and I still have a dream to go to Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota – more than half a million motorcyclists end up there each year on a sort of pilgrimage. I also do a lot of walking. In recent years I had prostate cancer and had most of my stomach removed because of hiatus hernias, so I know what it’s like to have that sort of diagnosis. Men really should make sure they have those regular checks. I was lucky that my cancer was found early and had an operation by robot in the States. A hernia can be a sign of stress and of course I have lived with stress almost all my life; you internalise things, whether that’s in the police or even in the parish – there are bound to be people who manage to get up your nose. However, what I’ve tried to convey in my ministry is that God is not just a judge – he also laughs a lot, and I’m sure I keep him entertained. I’ve always written my own sermons and the underlying theme is always the same – God loves you.
