It's a Breeze! KATH'S NEW LIFE AS A PRIEST

PRAISE BE! THE DJ IS TUNING IN TO HER TRUE VOCATION

- Rebekah Hebenton

For 10 years, Wellingtonians have been waking up to the trademark warmth and humour of Kath Bier on The Breeze’s morning show.

The bubbly mum-of-two, together with her co-host Steve Joll, has entertained, joked, and disc-jockeyed her way into listeners’ hearts as they’ve wiped the sleep from their eyes, poured their first cups of coffee, and negotiated their way through the morning rush hour.

But after almost 30 years on air, Kath is now hanging up her headphones and following a very different calling.

“About five years ago, I had a really weird thing happen. I felt God call me into being an ordained priest,” says the veteran broadcaster.

The process takes five years and is deliberately intense in order to weed out those who were called by ego rather than God. Now, just months away from being ordained, Kath says she was years into her training before she was 100% confident in her decision.

“Right down to the last probably six months of that whole five-year process, I was thinking, ‘I really don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be a priest.’

“But then, just at the very last little bit of that process, I was like, ‘This is such a call and I so want this. This is exactly what God is calling me to do.’”

Kath was raised by Christian parents, but they never forced Kath or her siblings to go to church. They wanted their children to find God on their own. Part of what drew Kath to Christianity was how amazing her parents are.