Meet the Reverend Edward (Eddie) Bijl (13222) – Old Boy, actor, chorister, pop-up Globe Theatre director, and newly ordained priest.

A member of Corfe House from 2004–2008, Eddie has always been at home on the stage – and now finds himself on a new podium as a curate for the wider Whitstable congregation in Kent, England.

“Faith had never been absent from my life, but during Covid-19 the question of vocation became much more insistent,” Eddie says. “Eventually, I realised that I was being called to lay down a career in professional theatre and turn towards theology and ordained ministry.

“In some respects, ministry is very different from theatre. In others, I increasingly think the earlier life was preparing me for this one. Both require close attention to language, imagination, presence, and, above all, the building of community.”

It was at Christ’s College that Eddie found his first community.

“Looking back, many of my best memories are actually of making things together, such as plays for the interhouse drama competition, senior school productions, films, concerts, and other projects,” he says. “And music also featured strongly. I remember The Big Sing choral festivals particularly fondly, and the 2006 choir tour to Europe was formative. I was 16, travelling, and making music with friends. It opened my eyes to a much bigger world and a whole range of possibilities beyond New Zealand.”

At school, Eddie relished any opportunity to create and perform, along with his role as Deputy Head of the Chapel Choir.

“What stays with me the most from those days was the extraordinary amount of trust we were given. Teachers allowed us to attempt ambitious things and then supported us while we worked out how to do them.”

He adds that then Director of Drama “David Chambers and the whole Drama Department had an enormous influence on me”.

“There was an unwavering belief in us, coupled with the practical tools and discipline required to pursue creativity seriously. I was also fortunate to encounter a remarkable succession of teachers in the English Department. Ben Vink, Ginny Latimer (Patterson), Gillian Towle, Julie Peterson, and Sian Evans all come to mind. They had an infectious intellectual curiosity and genuine love of their subjects, which rubbed off on me.”

He also recalls staff “who gave extraordinary amounts of their own time to creative projects outside the classroom”, including Peter Hewson and James Tolchard, who “invested hours in our various film-making adventures”.

“Education happens through curriculum, but it also happens because people choose to give something of themselves to other people.”

His involvement in swimming and golf were “more significant for their collegiality than for any sporting prowess”, including building a lifelong friendship with now College Fellow Oliver Hickman.

“Some of the relationships you make at College travel with you much further than you realise.” he believes.

However, theatre became his true passion.

“There’s something magical about performing, with an audience knowing that it will never be seen again, and yet it lives on as a shared memory. I knew I wanted to train at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, particularly in classical acting and Shakespeare. It is a small international programme in London, taking about 30 actors each year.”

Eddie eventually returned to New Zealand in 2015 for a six-week Shakespeare project.

“Instead, it became five years of my life,” he says. “I joined Pop-up Globe, a New Zealand-based project led by Dr Miles Gregory MNZM, initially as an intern director. Miles took a punt on me, entrusting me with increasing responsibility, including being involved in casting and directing.”

The Auckland company built “the world’s first full-scale temporary working reconstruction of Shakespeare’s second Globe Theatre”.

“Being part of the production team creating that building, and then being among the artists discovering how to make theatre within it, was extraordinary. It involved experimentation, problem-solving, and slightly mad activity to get the theatre open on time. It was fast-paced and demanding, but enormously happy work. Seeing more than 100,000 attendances in that first season, it felt as though we had defied the odds for a start-up.”

Eddie became the transfer director for Henry V in Melbourne and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Sydney, and, eventually, staff director in Perth.

“Across five seasons, I had a hand in 14 Shakespeare productions, a New Zealand tour, and three Australian transfers.”

It was also during that period that Eddie met his wife, Ripeka, now a fellow curate.

There were smaller personal milestones, too, including presenting Shakespeare at Mona Vale in Christchurch in 2020, and “appearing as a villain on Shortland Street was firmly on the bucket list and tremendous fun”.

He soon realised that theatre was deeply “communal” and “at its best, a company gathers people with different gifts around something none of them could create by themselves”.

“That understanding has followed me into the Church.”

During Covid-19, Eddie recalls that “for the first time in years, I became still”.

“That interruption gave me space to ask questions I had probably been avoiding because life had been moving so quickly,” he says. “What was all this for? What sort of life was I being called to live? What was God calling me into with the unique experiences I’d had?”

Back in his home city, Eddie was fortunate to go through discernment (a period of prayer to help process decisions) in the Diocese of Christchurch under a fellow Old Boy, Anglican Bishop Dr Peter Carrell.

“Ripeka and I were subsequently sent to St John’s Theological College in Auckland, studying theology through the University of Otago. We later moved to Te Tai Tokerau, under Bishop Kito Pikaahu, who ordained us deacons in 2024.”

While in England visiting family, the pair arranged to meet the Diocesan Director of Ordinands in Canterbury.

“From there we entered a rigorous process of discernment that eventually brought us to Whitstable,” Eddie says. “Today, we are curates in the Whitstable Team Ministry, which comprises five Church of England churches serving the town and surrounding communities. We were ordained priests at Canterbury Cathedral by Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover, in July 2026.”

The pair have recently led a special project, uniting their faith and love of drama by gathering members of the wider congregation together to create an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“A Shakespeare production is ostensibly about putting on a play, but underneath it, something else happens. People meet one another. Gifts emerge. Generations mix. People discover that they can do things they did not know they could do.

“For me, this is deeply connected with the Church’s vocation. We are called to build communities in which people can know that they belong, discover the gifts they have been given, and learn to offer those gifts for the good of others.

“None of us does this alone. We become ourselves partly through the communities that receive us, challenge us, and invest in us. Christ’s College is one of those communities. Teachers gave their time. Friends have remained friends across decades and continents. Opportunities I was given there became the beginnings of things I could not possibly have foreseen at 17. I have benefited considerably from others doing that for me.

“If there are ways in which I can now give something back, I would welcome them. Whether that means talking with someone exploring faith or vocation, or working with people interested in the territory where faith, theatre, and the arts meet. Perhaps that is one of the privileges of belonging to a community with a long history. We inherit something from those before us, but we are also entrusted with passing something on.”

Photo credit: Jim Drew