The Right Reverend Derek Lionel Eaton

The Right Reverend Derek Lionel Eaton

eaton.d.a@gmail.com

On 9 January 2009, Bishop Derek and Alice Eaton will retire, again, and return to Nelson, New Zealand.  The Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa expresses its heartfelt thanks for all that Derek and Alice have done over the years.  We will miss them considerably, and we will welcome them back at any time.  May the Lord bless them and their family in this new season.

Bishop Derek and Bishop Mouneer at Clergy Retreat

Bishop Derek at the Consecration of Bishop Bill

Bishop Derek & Alice, Nancy & Bishop Mouneer

Bishop Mouneer & Bishop Derek

In a news release on 4 May 2006, "Nelson Bishop Heeds Call to Africa"

The Bishop of Nelson, Derek Eaton, is resigning in order to return to Egypt.  Bishop Eaton, who will turn 65 this year, will stand down in October, after more than 16 years in Nelson.  Early in the New Year, he will move to Egypt, to become the assistant bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Egypt, North Africa, Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.  In a very real sense, Bishop Derek and Alice will be returning to their first love. For much of their early adult lives, Derek and Alice Eaton lived in North Africa, and they raised their family in Tunisia and Egypt.

In 1983 they decided, when Derek was the Dean of Cairo Cathedral, to return to New Zealand for the sake of their three children’s tertiary education and to encourage the nationalization of the Egyptian church.  “In one sense,” says Bishop Derek, “when we returned to New Zealand, we felt our ministry in that part of the world was being interrupted.”  God, it seems, intended a lengthier interruption than they envisaged. In 1985, Derek Eaton was made the Vicar of Sumner and Redcliffs in Christchurch, and in 1989, he was elected as the Bishop of Nelson.

“I said I would be Bishop for a minimum of 10 years, and I have stayed for 16. They have been 16 fantastic years, some of the most exciting and challenging of my ministry. But the diocese is in good heart and hands – and I feel I have given all I know how to give. It’s time to step aside.”  While the Eatons have not lived in North Africa for more than 20 years, they have maintained close links with the church there.  Derek Eaton was elected as the Bishop of Nelson because, he says, the diocese “wanted someone to lead them in mission and evangelism.”

Those two areas have been hallmarks of the Eaton years, and ten folk within the Nelson diocese have chosen to spend extended ministry stints in Egypt during that time. Bishop Eaton himself and Alice have returned regularly for short visits.

Next year’s return – which will be for a minimum of two years – is at the request of the The Rt Rev Dr Mouneer Anis, the Bishop of the Anglican Church in Egypt, North Africa, Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.  Bishop Eaton says he believes Egypt “has a crucial role to play” if there is to be hope for peace in the Middle East – and the Anglican Church has a significant role to play within Egypt. It is, he says, a trusted broker between the much larger Coptic Church, and the various protestant denominations, and between Christians and Muslims.

“There is,” says Bishop Eaton, “a lot of good Christian-Muslim dialogue – and whereas in New Zealand there tends to be a lot of hedging in those discussions, over there it’s much more direct. Good, direct dialogue doesn’t have to be confrontational.”  One of his aims in returning to Egypt will be to free Bishop Mouneer to become more involved in this dialogue, and in his vast and growing diocese and the wider province.  Bishop Eaton says neither he nor Alice is unduly fazed by the dangers of the Middle East.  “Going into a risky region,” he says, “has never been our first consideration. We’ve lived through an attempted coup in Tunisia, and the assassination of President Sadat in Egypt. By the time each of our children were 12, they had seen people shot in the streets.

“Death does not frighten us: we are not stupid or irresponsible, but we do have hope. The bottom line for us is obedience.”  One of the characteristics of the Eaton’s ministry has been the way churches in their care have grown. When they returned to New Zealand in 1984 and were asked to lead the Sumner Redcliffs parish in 1985, it was a parish ready to grow. By the time they left, in 1990, Sunday attendance had grown to more than 400.

Church attendance in the Diocese of Nelson itself grew more than 40% during the first 10 years of Bishop Eaton’s leadership, and although that growth appears to have leveled out now, there are other significant elements of renewal in place.  The Nelson diocese now has some of the youngest and most academically qualified clergy per capita in the Anglican Church in this country.  Derek Eaton was raised in Christchurch, educated at Christchurch Boy’s High and was, in his youth, a national swimming champion. He met Alice at the Christchurch Teachers’ College in the mid sixties, and they both went to Bible College in Tasmania.  It was there, he says, that they “felt a call to the Islamic world”. During a stint as students in London they were advised to head to Tunisia where, in 1968, they enrolled at the University of Tunis to study Arabic and Islamics.

When the chaplain of the local Anglican Church fell ill and had to leave the country, Derek was asked to stand in for a few weeks. That relieving arrangement continued for more than a year. During that time the church in Tunis grew significantly and Derek, then in his mid 20s, was approached by the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, the Most Rev George Appleton, to train for ordination.

Derek did further theological studies in Britain, and returned to Tunisia in 1972 as the vicar, and chaplain to the expatriate community. The Eatons also worked with Tunisian students and other local people.  They lived in a large, rambling Arab-French house in the slums of Tunis, and their home became a mecca for students, travelers, hippies and young people struggling with drug addictions. During the Eaton’s remaining seven years in Tunisia, around 500 young people stopped over at their place – some for just a night, others for up to three years.

During this time too, Derek Eaton also did further post graduate studies in Lebanon and the USA.  In 1978, he was called to be Provost (or Dean) of All Saint’s Cathedral in Cairo, where the family remained until returning to New Zealand in 1984 – with Derek now bearing a QSM, which was awarded for his work in Egypt.  One of the young students who stayed with the Eatons in Cairo was Peter Carrell – now The Rev Dr Peter Carrell, Director of Studies at Nelson’s Bishopdale College, the diocesan centre for theological training.

“Wherever they have lived,” says Dr Carrell, “Derek and Alice have been outstanding in their service to the church. The Diocese of Nelson has benefited enormously from Derek’s visionary leadership, his passionate commitment to theological orthodoxy, and his superb skills as a Bible teacher. We will miss them. But I know they will be warmly welcomed back into Egypt.”

Bishop Eaton says he and Alice have been asked to spend five years in Cairo. They have committed themselves to two years, with a possible extension.  “We have grandchildren,” he says, “and I want to see that our being in Egypt really does work. I want to be satisfied that we are making a vital contribution.”  And when their time in Egypt finally is completed, the Eatons will be returning to the other significant place of their ministry. They will retire in Nelson.

An April 2007 message at "New Wineskins Global Conference"

The Church of Jesus Christ is growing faster now that at any time in its 2,000 year history. Globally more than 90,000 new converts come to Christ each day with 20,000 new Christians confessing Christ daily in Africa, and 28,000 new Christians coming daily to Christ in China.

The Rt. Rev. Derek Eaton, former Bishop of Nelson, New Zealand and now Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Egypt told more than 1,000 missionary-minded Episcopalians and Anglicans at a New Wineskins for Global Missions conference that despite Western timidity and a deconstructionist gospel being foisted on the American Episcopal Church, there are 8,000 new adult Anglican believers coming to Christ each day across the globe.

"We are seeing 400 new Anglican churches open each week around the world. In the Province of Nigeria there are more Anglicans in church on Sunday than all the UK, North America and Australasia put together," he told a stunned audience, many of whom live with revisionist Episcopal bishops who no longer have a biblical gospel to proclaim.

The newly installed Middle East bishop said mission is integral to the Christian Faith, and without mission there would be no Christianity. "We have a gospel for the whole world. Since Jesus is unique he has universal and global significance and therefore he must be made known to everyone in the world," said Eaton who described himself as New Zealand's only evangelical bishop.

"Christian mission is rooted and grounded in the very nature of God himself. Mission is indispensable to Christianity. It is rooted in the triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God has created a missionary church, and He is working towards a mission consummation. We worship and serve a missionary God. If you want a biblical base for mission it is not possible to choose less than the whole Bible. This is the world God loves - our God is a missionary God.

"Mission is taking place whether we like it or not. The question we must ask is, do I want to participate and be a part of the global plan or remain parochial. In the Province of Nigeria they have consecrated 20 new bishops and created 20 new missionary dioceses in the past year. The Church is not dying it is growing, let us be encouraged."

"In Indonesia the church has seen a 500 percent growth in 20 years. In South Korea more than 30 percent of the population is Christian. Ethiopia has more than 7,000 new congregations. In Tunisia there were only about dozen or so Christians, now there are several hundred Tunisian Christians, and some are worshipping openly. There is now an Arabic service. The truth is there are many exciting stories to tell of God's missionary plan to extend His Kingdom globally."

"We are called to be his missionary people. The God of the Old Testament is the Father and maker of the universe. The OT begins with Adam not Abraham, not with a covenant but with creation, not with a chosen race but with the human race. God's purpose and promise was to bless all the nations of the earth. In the NT we see the Christ of the Gospels as a missionary Christ. God had only one Son and he was a missionary and a physician. The Holy Spirit of Acts is a missionary Spirit; nobody can be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and keep that Spirit to himself. Where the Spirit is He flows forth and if there is no flowing forth He is not there. The church of St. Paul's letters is a missionary church."

Citing Archbishop William Temple's dictum, Bishop Eaton said, "The church is the only society on earth that exists primarily for the benefit of its non members. We've got to turn the church inside out to serve the world out there. It is a world that needs Christ. Each local church is to exhibit the 'missionary' character of the Church universal."

The Book of the Revelation is the climax of history and it is a missionary climax. St. John's vision of heaven is the company of the faithful. To proclaim Christ and his cross in a world of pluralism is to invite opposition. Mission lies at the heart of God. Mission is the global outreach of a global people of our global God."

"We need to repent of our indifference. Have we resisted the missionary call, here it afresh. Our god is a missionary God. He loves the world he has made and we are called to be his missionaries. Equal to anything that God calls us to be or to do are His resources. Let us do it."