The symbolism is abundant, and wonderfully fitting. A black sheep, stumbling into - or perhaps abandoned within - the sanctuary of a church carpark.
Sickly – not with leprosy, but with a nasty case of flystrike – and needing some serious healing.
The sheep is a year-old Romney hogget, according to Ian Davey who attends St Thomas Church. It was found a couple of weeks ago, sheltering under a grapevine in the carpark near the minister’s house.
Ian is a retired farmer of 60 years, so “sheep are not all that foreign to me”, he says.
It is impossible to know whether the sheep was abandoned, or whether it escaped from a nearby property, but Ian says that either way, “it wasn’t a happy chappy” and was easy to catch.
He contacted a friend who owns a farm in Riwaka, and that is where salvation lay.
The sheep was transported to this good shepherd’s property, where it was nursed back to health. Despite having strayed far from home, the sheep is now living its best life, although the farmer would be equally happy to return it to its flock.
