With yesterday’s announcement that the Director General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, will step down it is worth noting the part that his faith has played in his leadership.
Under his leadership, Aotearoa New Zealand has had a remarkably laudable, compassionate response to the Covid 19 pandemic. NZ has had 77 Covid deaths/million (for comparison – Australia 247; Canada 986; UK 2,425; USA 3,018.
Ashley Bloomfield attended the Baptist church in Tawa (a suburb of Wellington) which, he says, “deeply anchored my belief and values and my way of thinking about the world in Christian values.” Going to Scots College, a Presbyterian school, added another dimension to his faith. His wife, Libby, is on the Vestry of the local Anglican Church, St Alban’s, and is on the senior leadership team at Wellesley College (an Anglican Diocesan boys school) with responsibility for chaplaincy and pastoral care.
One of the passages in the Bible that Ashely Bloomfield highlights is the one in James that talks about actions following faith.
The video, above, a lecture given by Ashley Bloomfield on 10 November, 2021, on his faith and its relationship to his life’s work, and in particular his management of his own anxiety and the challenges of public health in an epidemic. It was hosted by New Zealand Christians in Science/Maclaurin Chapel. [More information on the lecture is provided under the YouTube version.
