Fr David Kennerley to succeed Fr Brian Cummings as Marist Provincial

Fr Brian Cummings sm

Fr David Kennerley has been elected Provincial of the Society of Mary in New Zealand.

He succeeds Fr Brian Cummings in the role early in 2014. Fr Cummings will have served two three-year terms as Provincial, having been re-elected for a second three-year term beginning in February 2011. A provincial in the Society of Mary in New Zealand can be re-elected only once.

David comes from Clive in Hawkes Bay where he was born to Val and Harry Kennerley in 1955. He has two brothers, Philip and Peter, and was educated at St Joseph’s Primary School, Hastings, and Napier Boys’ High School, Napier.

Fr David Kennerley sm

He studied at the Society of Mary seminary at Greenmeadows and was professed a Marist in 1978, having completed a novitiate at Highden, near Palmerston North. He was ordained in Hastings by Bishop John Rodgers sm in 1982.

He taught at St Patrick’s College Silverstream (1983-1992) with a year’s full-time study at Auckland University, residing at Marcellin Hall.

David then trained to be a novice master at Black Rock, Ireland, and Rome (1993-1994). He was novice master at Maryknoll, near Napier, in 1995, lived at Futuna, Wellington, in 1996 and joined the seminary staff in Auckland in 1997.

After a novitiate in Tutu, Fiji, as socius (assistant), further time was spent in the United States first as novice master (1999) at Isabella St, Boston, Massachusetts. He had a year at Notre Dame in Detroit and then was novice master for two novitiates at Cambridge, MA. He was then novice master for two novitiate groups at the Marist English Language Novitiate in Sydney, Australia (2004-2005).

David returned to NZ in 2006, living and ministering at St Mary of the Angels parish, Wellington (2007-2008) before undertaking a renewal programme in Ireland at Milltown, Dublin.

In 2009 he joined his present community in Wellington, Pa Maria, which focusses on spirituality ministry. David was elected to the Society of Mary Provincial Council in 2012 and then as Provincial-Elect in June 2013.

David has had a broad education, having obtained a B.A. from Victoria University, Wellington, and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the Angelicum, a Dominican University in Rome, during his seminary course.

He qualified with a M.Ed (Guidance/Counselling) from Auckland University and for the NZ Teacher Registration. He attended a Religious Formation Programme at Loreto House, Dublin and a Marist Family Renewal at Marcellin Hall, Auckland. He has also studied at the Christian Institute for the Study of Human Sexuality at Silverspring, Washington D.C.

Fr Kennerley is engaged currently in ministry with Marist Laity groups throughout New Zealand and with Rachel’s Vineyard, a group for women in need. He also does retreat work and reflection days for individuals and groups and is part of the Cenacle Retreat in Daily Life Team. He has a special love of ‘things Marist’ and Marist history and so is well equipped to lead the NZ Province of the Society of Mary.

The Provincial’s role is to promote the mission of the Society and unity of purpose within the New Zealand province. He is to inspire and encourage New Zealand Marists to pursue, both individually and corporately, ways of accomplishing the goals New Zealand Marists share, and he is to ensure the accountability of all.