‘Take the beautiful and make it better’
It’s hard to believe Murray Edridge’s childhood dream was to become a dentist. But maybe it’s not such a surprise. With his perpetual smile, openness to conversation and advocacy for those in need, Edridge’s desire to care for others is obvious.
Since 2018, Edridge has been the Wellington City Missioner. It’s a role that dates back more than a century. The Wellington City Mission is a charitable trust that supports those in need, whether it be with food, finances or a place to stay.
Edridge, a Wellington man, is the first missioner who’s not ordained and the first in two decades who is also the chief executive of the trust.
Looking at photographs of those who came before him, Edridge calls himself a ‘‘man of faith’’; despite not wearing a dog collar, he did not think he was all that different.
Pointing to the mission’s logo on his shirt, Edridge said his job was to help people transform and lead a full life. ‘‘What we do is non-judgmental . . . There’s no us and them.’’
Despite living on the Ka¯piti Coast now, Edridge has heart for Lower Hutt’s Wainuiomata – it’s where he grew up. Edridge’s dad was an electrician and his mum worked a variety of jobs, along with looking after him and his siblings.
Edridge said he was grateful for the childhood he had. In his role, he has seen that others have not been so lucky. ‘‘I didn’t have a lot of stuff growing up. I was loved and valued and that’s what made my childhood incredibly privileged.’’
Being Wellington City Missioner, he said, had been a bit of a ride. He talks to politicians and government officials, and hangs out every day in Newtown with people who are ‘‘doing it hard’’.
‘‘This job really has value and meaning. I’m hopefully making a difference and having fun.’’
Before becoming the Wellington City Missioner, Edridge swapped his dentistry dreams for accounting.
In the 1980s, he worked at the Hutt Valley Energy Board and a few other places before becoming a business manager at Radio New Zealand in the 1990s. At his next job, working for the the role has shown him that others have not been so lucky.
Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, Edridge said he hit a mid-career crisis.
‘‘It was a strange experience. I was unsettled, and I was not sure if I was doing enough for the community.’’
Edridge took a pause – and it was two experiences then that steered his career onto a different path.
‘‘I was given a book to read called Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance, by Bob Buford, which was about changing game plans and made me think about what I was doing to add value to New Zealand.
‘‘I also went on a school trip with my daughter and noticed a lot of kids didn’t have their dads in their lives.
‘‘I knew how important it was for me to have my dad. This encouraged me to do something different.’’
In 2002, he landed a job at Barnardos New Zealand, a charity focused on children. A year later he was its chief executive, a position he held for nearly 10 years.
In 2012, Edridge ‘‘parachuted’’ himself into his next role, as deputy chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development. Leading a staff of 3500, Edridge worked on family and
community funding and helped with transitions that took place at Child, Youth and Family, the state agency that is now known as Oranga Tamariki.
He left in 2017 after security and privacy issues occurred over client data. His boss at the time, Brendan Boyle, said Edridge had ‘‘no direct involvement’’ in the controversy.
This led Edridge to reassess his career again. ‘‘It was a repeat of me wondering, ‘What should I do that adds the most value’?’’
For 10 months, Edridge became the interim chief executive of Genesis Youth Trust, an organisation that aims to reduce youth offending in New Zealand’s most affected communities, before he was approached by the Wellington City Mission.
When he was first offered the missioner role, his initial response was a no. But he quickly came to believe it was the right thing to do.
‘‘There’s trust and security that Wellingtonians have with Wellington City Mission. I want to look after it. It’s about taking the beautiful and making it better. My job is to help create community. We care about everyone.’’