Congratulations to King’s Birthday Honours Recipients

Congratulations to Reverend Rosemary McMillan, Priest Associate to the Parish of Woodville and Gail Spence who received recognition for their service in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours. Both belong to the Diocese of Waiapu.

Reverend Rosie McMillan received the Kings Services Medal (KSM) for services to the community. Rosie has served as the Anglican Vicar of Woodville since 1998. She has had a connection with the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Woodville since she was christened and confirmed there. Rosie went on to serve on the Vestry and completed her education for ministry in the 1990s. In 1998 she was ordained as a community priest, since which time she has volunteered as the Vicar of Holy Trinity. In the role she takes funerals, cremation services, baptisms and weddings of members of the Parish and wider community. Rosie encourages members of the Parish to take active roles in the weekly services.

Reverend McMillan has also reached out into the wider community in and around Woodville, providing leadership and drive for community initiatives. She makes home visits and provides meals for the elderly, sick and bereaved, and has fundraised to support the combined churches food bank. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, she co-organised the Parish’s meal service and contributed to the local marae’s community outreach activities. She assists with community initiatives including the annual Horticulture Show, mid-winter dinner and regular newsletters and previously taught Bible classes at the local school. Reverend McMillan has served as the Padre of the Woodville Returned and Services’ Association since 2019 and is involved in the town’s Anzac Day services.

Gail Spence was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for over 40 years' service to language education. She has held voluntary executive roles with the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers (NZALT) since the 1980s, including terms as President from 1996 to 1998 and 2000 to 2001. Gail is currently Project Leader of the 50-year history of NZALT. She contributed to NZALT’s journal ‘The New Zealand Language Teacher’ from 1975 to 2022 and has presented papers at both national and international language conferences. She was employed as the inaugural Curriculum Facilitator: Languages by the Ministry of Education from 2001 to 2007. Gail oversaw languages added as a new learning area in the New Zealand Curriculum and commissioned pedagogical research into this new learning area. 14 languages had published curriculum guidelines for the first time, and she wrote ‘Learning Languages: A Guide for New Zealand Schools’ (2002).

From 2007 to 2022 Mrs Spence worked with NZQA, publishing companies and education providers on more than 60 contracts to support Learning Languages for international languages, te reo Māori and Pacific languages. Materials she developed to teach languages from early childhood to Year 10 are still used today and have been foundational for developing NCEA pathways for te reo Māori and the five most spoken Pacific languages in New Zealand.

Rosie McMillian (left) and Gail Spence (Right)