About 70 people attended the mass including the Filipino choir which led the singing.

Parish priest Mark Field said it was a good turnout on a perfect spring day.

Hamilton bishop, Richard Laurenson presided at the Mass, and afterwards Phyllis Stewart, a parishioner for over 50 years cut the cake. Read more

Delighting longtime residents, Fr Mark Field recently began his new role as parish priest at St Mary's Star of the Sea Catholic Church.

Field was a familiar face in the town from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, when he taught religious studies and geography at Campion College in Gisborne.

Field describes his homecoming as "quite surreal".

"It's been fascinating meeting people I knew 40 years ago and haven't seen since.

"Often it's the parents of kids I've taught."

From Brother to Father

Originally from Hamilton, Field joined the Marist Brothers who appointed him to Campion College after his teacher training in Auckland.

He spent about 20 years with the Brothers before feeling "a niggle about becoming a priest".

"I thought I had to try this out, and I'm glad I did" he explained, commenting on two decades ago going to the seminary in Auckland to begin training for the priesthood.

"I've worked in Hamilton, Rotorua and in Tauranga, so I've had half my working life as a brother and half as a priest" he told The Gisborne Herald.

An active Parish Priest

In his new role, the energetic Field hopes to revive his long-abandoned hobby of leadlighting for stained glass.

"I never had enough time for leadlighting, so I gave all my stuff away. But I think I will have time here."

He is also a keen cyclist and walker.

Field's appointment was one of the first made by recently installed Hamilton Catholic Bishop Richard Laurenson.

The former St Mary's priest Fr Tovio Iusitino has moved to Morrinsville.

Source

• The Gisborne Herald
• CathNews

Father Mark Field, a priest at catholic churches in Morrinsville, Te Aroha and Paeroa, confirmed to Stuff the parishioner unknowingly met someone who had been in contact with another person from the Auckland cluster. Read more