Anglican Quaker Elected Bishop In New Zealand
Episcopal News Service. March 6, 1986 [86044]
LONDON (DPS, March 6) -- The Rev. Paul Oestreicher, well-known pacifist and anti-nuclear campaigner in England, has been elected Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand.
Oestreicher, assistant general secretary for international affairs of the British Council of Churches, is a member of the General Synod of the Church of England.
Born in Germany, as a child Oestreicher was kept in a Berlin cellar until his parents were able to escape from the Nazis. The family settled in New Zealand, from which Oestreicher moved to England in 1955.
The new bishop, 54, has received world publicity for his work in Amnesty International, the human rights organization, and his decision to withhold taxes as a protest against the British government's nuclear policy.
In 1983, in an unexpected move for an Anglican priest, he joined the Society of Friends (Quakers), who practice pacifism.
New Zealand has declared itself against the nuclear arms race and has prohibited American warships to visit its harbors.
The Anglican Church in New Zealand, the which originated in the missionary work of the Church Missionary Society of England, is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. At present there are eight dioceses in the province, including Polynesia in the Pacific.