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Paul Oestreicher OBE (born 29 September 1931, Meiningen) is an Anglican priest, Quaker, peace and human rights activist.
In 1938, shortly after he began school, his family had to leave their home in Germany due to the Jewish ancestry of his father, the paediatrician Paul Oestreicher (1896–1981). They found asylum in New Zealand in 1939, where he grew up. He studied Political Science and German Literature at the University of Otago and the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand from 1949–1955, completing an MA with a thesis on the history of conscientious objection to WWII in New Zealand (1955). Whilst he was at the University of Otago he was editor of its student newspaper, Critic. He then moved to the University of Bonn for a two-year Alexander von Humboldt research fellowship to study Christianity and Marxism under professor Helmut Gollwitzer. Between 1956 and 1958 he trained as an Anglican Priest at Lincoln Theological College. There, he married the Berlin physiotherapist Lore, née Feind. There followed four children Barbara, Martin, Nicola and Daniel (dec.).
He spent from 1958 to 1959 as assistant guest pastor to the German Protestant Church in Rüsselsheim in the church province of Hessen-Nassau, at the invitation of Church President Martin Niemöller. In 1959 he was ordained deacon in St Paul's Cathedral London and priest a year later. He served as curate in the parish of Holy Trinity Church, Dalston in east London, where he was trained by vicar Stanley Evans, a founding member of the Christian Socialist Movement, now Christians on the Left. From 1961 to 1964 he was a Features Producer in the BBC religious broadcasting department, winning an American Radio Award for a programme on abortion.
From 1964 to 1969 he was the Secretary of the East-West Relations Advisory Committee of the British Council of Churches, continuing this role in an honorary capacity until 1985. He took an active part early on in the Christian Peace Conference (Prague) and in 1964 was elected to its executive committee. On account of his critique of Soviet policies he was expelled from the Executive in 1968. He said his 'parish' stretched from East Berlin to Vladivostok, and he paid 77 pastoral visits to East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
He was a member of the General Synod of the Church of England from 1970–81 and 1995–97. [1]
From 1968 to 1981 he was appointed the parish priest of the Church of the Ascension, Blackheath by John Robinson (bishop of Woolwich). During this time he appointed Deaconess Elsie Baker to lead the pastoral work of the parish, well ahead of the ordination of women to the priesthood. The Church of England eventually ordained her in her 85th year. Oestreicher was a founding member of the Movement for the Ordination of Women.
In 1974 in his personal capacity, he was invited by the West German Minister of Justice, and the families of the prisoners, to help bring to an end a long-lasting hunger strike by the imprisoned members of the Red Army Faction, which had led to deaths inside and, in retaliation, outside the prison system. This entailed mediating between Attorney-General Siegfried Buback and the prisoners. Although partially successful, this mission did not prevent the subsequent deaths of the leading RAF prisoners.
In 1979 he encouraged Helen Bamberto set up the Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture. In 1995 he became President of Action by Christians Against Torture.
From 1981 to 1985 he was Director of the Division of International Affairs of the British Council of Churches. As part of this work, in cooperation with the South African Council of Churches, he was actively involved in the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Later, at the invitation of Desmond Tutu, he helped to bring an end to the armed conflict between the African National Congress and Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party. During this period he became a member of the Society of Friends. He made a substantial contribution to the work of the Dresden Trust, which raised funds in the UK for the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche in Dresden.
In 1985 the Diocesan Synod elected Oestreicher Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand. The Anglican Church leadership declined to ratify this election.
From 1985–1997, Oestreicher was Canon Residentiary and Director of the International Centre for Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral UK. This enabled him to further the work of the Community of the Cross of Nails. After his retirement, he continued to work in an advisory role with his successor Andrew White (priest).
In 1993, he spent a sabbatical year as Humboldt Fellow at the Free University of Berlin, studying Church-state relations in East Germany.
After his retirement in 1998 Oestreicher continued to work at Coventry Cathedral in an advisory capacity, remaining Canon Emeritus. His wife Lore died in 2000.
He then moved to Brighton, and in 2002 married his second wife, the New Zealander Barbara Einhorn, a professor of Gender Studies at the University of Sussex. They first met after Oestreicher helped get Einhorn released from arrest and imprisonment by the Stasi for befriending a women's dissident peace group. In 2010, Einhorn and Oestreicher both taught for one semester at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, of which they are still Research Affiliates. He and Einhorn are amongst the founding members of Jews for Justice for Palestinians.
From 2004 to 2009 Oestreicher was honorary Quaker chaplain to the University of Sussex.
In 2011, Oestreicher held the keynote speech on the abolition of war at the World Council of Churches International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) in Kingston, Jamaica.
A lifelong pacifist, Oestreicher was co-founder of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship in New Zealand, and remains a Counsellor of APF UK. In 1959 he joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and is still one of its Vice-Presidents. He joined Amnesty International at its inception in 1961 and was Chair of AI UK from 1975 to 1979.
In 2020 Oestreicher returned to New Zealand with his wife. They live in Wellington.
Oestreicher was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to peace, human rights and reconciliation. [2]
Since the 1990s, the Anglican Communion has struggled with controversy regarding homosexuality in the church. In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture". However, this is not legally binding. "Like all Lambeth Conference resolutions, it is not legally binding on all provinces of the Communion, including the Church of England, though it commends an essential and persuasive view of the attitude of the Communion." "Anglican national churches in Brazil, South Africa, South India, New Zealand and Canada have taken steps toward approving and celebrating same-sex relationships amid strong resistance among other national churches within the 80 million-member global body. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has allowed same-sex marriage since 2015, and the Scottish Episcopal Church has allowed same-sex marriage since 2017." "Church of England clergy have appeared to signal support for gay marriage after they rejected a bishops' report which said that only a man and woman could marry in church." The Church of England's 2019 General Synod was set to discuss a diocesan motion "to create a set of formal services and prayers to bless those who have had a same-sex marriage or civil partnership". At General Synod in 2019, the Church of England announced that same-gender couples may remain married and recognised as married after one spouse experiences a gender transition provided that the spouses identified as opposite genders at the time of the marriage.
Sir Paul Alfred Reeves, was a New Zealand clergyman and civil servant, serving as Archbishop and Primate of New Zealand from 1980 to 1985 and 15th Governor-General of New Zealand from 20 November 1985 to 20 November 1990. He was the first governor-general of Māori descent. He also served as the third Chancellor of Auckland University of Technology, from 2005 until his death.
Helmut Gollwitzer was a German Protestant (Lutheran) theologian and author.
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Sir Lloyd George Geering is a New Zealand theologian who faced charges of heresy in 1967 for teaching that the Bible's record of Jesus' death and resurrection is not true. He considers Christian and Muslim fundamentalism to be "social evils". Geering is emeritus professor of religious studies at Victoria University of Wellington. In 2007, he was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civilian honour, limited to 20 living people. Geering turned 100 in February 2018.
A provost is a senior official in a number of Christian Churches.
The Diocese of Wellington is one of the thirteen dioceses and hui amorangi of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The diocese covers the area between the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand up to the area of Mount Ruapehu.
The Diocese of Dunedin is one of the thirteen dioceses and hui amorangi of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The diocese covers the same area as the provinces of Otago and Southland in the South Island of New Zealand. Area 65,990 km2, population 272,541 (2001). Anglicans are traditionally the third largest religious group in Otago and Southland after Presbyterians and Roman Catholics.
George Augustus Selwyn was the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand. He was Bishop of New Zealand from 1841 to 1869. His diocese was then subdivided and Selwyn was Metropolitan of New Zealand from 1858 to 1868. Returning to Britain, Selwyn served as Bishop of Lichfield from 1868 to 1878.
John Atcherley Dew is a Roman Catholic bishop. He is the sixth Roman Catholic Archbishop of Wellington and the Metropolitan of New Zealand, serving since 2005. He was also created a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2015.
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Sir David John Moxon is a New Zealand Anglican bishop. He was until June 2017, the Archbishop of Canterbury's Representative to the Holy See and Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome. He was previously the Bishop of Waikato in the Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki, the archbishop of the New Zealand dioceses and one of the three primates of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. In the 2014 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the Anglican Church.
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The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship (APF) is a body of people within the Anglican Communion who reject war as a means of solving international disputes, and believe that peace and justice should be sought through non-violent means.
All Saints has been open since 1865, and is presently in the Dunedin North parish which includes the northern part of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand and is made up of the former parish of All Saints and the former parish of St. Martin's North East Valley. It is part of the Diocese of Dunedin. The parish boundaries include North East Valley, Pine Hill, North Dunedin, Ravensbourne and Leith Valley. The building is the oldest church still used as a place of worship in Dunedin. All Saints Church is the chapel of Selwyn College, Otago. The College was built around the church and the college and parish have a close relationship. Selwyn College was built as an Anglican theological college in 1893, from the beginning it also housed non-theological students from the university. All Saints' is located close to the campuses of the University of Otago and the Otago Polytechnic.
Thomas John Brown is a retired Anglican bishop in New Zealand. He is the former Bishop of Wellington.
Justin Charles Hopkins Duckworth is the current Anglican Bishop of Wellington in New Zealand.
The Reverend Frederik Hermanus Kaan was a clergyman of Dutch origin who served in the Congregational Church in Britain and a prodigious hymnwriter.
Frank Derek Nelson is a South African-born Anglican priest who served as the Dean of Adelaide from 12 October 2012 to 4 April 2021, and previously served as Dean of Wellington from 2004 to 2012.
Alastair Murray Cutting is a British Church of England priest. Since 2013, he has served as the Archdeacon of Lewisham & Greenwich in the Diocese of Southwark.
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