Rev'd Kit Bunker
Kit was ordained by Bishop Wicks over 20 years ago but there’s much more to his story than that.
In the late 60’s and early 70’s Kit and his wife Elizabeth lived in Uganda where he taught in a secondary school and the children were born. Then there was a move to Kampala to lecture in the teaching college attached to Makerere University. Kit worked for a degree from London University, taking his final examinations in the Boy Scout hut off Kampala High Street in 1972. He was made a lay-reader by the Bishop in Mbarara and given the responsibility of helping with English language services in the cathedral in Mbarara and later the college chapel at Kyambogo.
From Uganda Kit and his family returned to the UK wher he undertook a research MSc in science education and geophysics. Whilst living in England, Kit was licenced as a ‘Diocesan Reader’; this meant that he was liable to be called out at short notice to take services anywhere in the diocese when an emergency would otherwise have caused cancellation of services.
In 1980 the Bunkers went to Papua New Guinea where Kit took an active part in the life of the Anglican Church. When a crisis developed, he offered to help and was made Deacon by the Bishop of Aipo-Rongo, Jeremy Ashton. In New Guinea Kit worked at the University, lecturing at Goroka in science education
When Kit came to Australia, he worked intially as a teacher in high school, and looked after the Anglican Church at Dunwich, travelling back and forth across the bay most weekends. At first a Priest travelled back and forth with Kit, who as a Deacon needed help when he took communion services. After a few months of this, Kit was invited to be ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Wicks. After that he helped to look after congregations on the islands, at Birkdale, and particularly at Wellington Point
When Kit was 50 he was offered the Shell Post Graduate Scholarship to do a PhD in mining engineering at the University of Queensland, the beginning of something over a decade as a practicing research scientist. Kit says that research is a wonderful activity because, as you learn more about God’s creation, you see how the world actually is.
Modern science came about due to the work of 18th and 19th century Christian Gentlemen who, knowing that God is both good and unchanging, set about elucidating the regulations which He uses for running the Universe He made. The world is the way it is, which is how God decided it should be. The relationship between Jesus and the created order and the Church is most accessibly described in Chapter 1 of Paul to the Colossians verse 15 et seq: