After more than eight years as minister of Dunedin’s Knox Church, he led his final service yesterday.
The 69-year-old is looking forward to retirement and all it offered, he said.
However, a look back on his time as minister also offered positive recollections.
A Christmas Eve service at the church attended by 700 people was especially memorable.
"I meant to say ‘please remain seated for singing’, but instead I said, ‘please remain seated for sinning’.
"Everyone burst out laughing, and I learned from that how uniting laughter is — it’s not all serious, dour stuff here."
He had shared deeply personal moments of people’s lives, and he would miss these experiences, he said.
"It’s sad to leave people I’ve journeyed with for eight and a-half years."
After the final service, a farewell event was held in which video messages from New Zealand and further afield were played, including from the Uniting Church in Australia and his son in Canada.
"It was quite a collection of people because I’ve been a minister for nearly 40 years, in quite diverse roles."
Through the Uniting Church he had worked with communities in Australia, the Pacific, Asia and Africa.
He had also served as the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand national assembly executive secretary, and has been the minister at St Paul’s, in Whanganui, and St David’s, in Ashburton.
A large part of the job promoting values such as inclusion and compassion.
"Unless they’re embodied and lived out in the community, they’ll disappear."
Dr Enright had also practised law, and his regular contact with young offenders made him increasingly concerned, motivating him in his ministerial work.
"I felt that our society was becoming increasingly punitive instead of dealing with the underlying issues and building a community.
"The recent National Party policy on youth offending feels like a return to the dark ages."
His successor at the church has yet to be appointed.
