Noel was previously stationed at Avondale, Warkworth, and Sandringham, and before that in Wales, having originally trained for ministry in Auckland. He combines his duties at St Thomas with the position of Port Chaplain for the Mission to Seafarers Auckland Inc. He is also the Regional Chaplain, Northern Region, for St John New Zealand, responsible for some 25 chaplains in the northern part of the North Island.
 

He was previously a senior legal academic (Auckland University of Technology and Aberystwyth University, where he was Professor of Law, and Head of the Department of Law and Criminology), and also a barrister (Inner Temple, and New Zealand). He is the author of a number of chapters, articles (published in such journals as Churchman, Law and Justice, Journal of Anglican Studies, Journal of Law and Religion, Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, and the Ecclesiastical Law Journal), and books (including Church and State in the Post-Colonial Era: The Anglican Church and the Constitution in New Zealand (Polygraphia (NZ) Ltd, Auckland, 2008), and Priest of the Church or priest of a church: the ecclesiology of ordained local ministry (Rowman & Littlefield, London, 2021).

 

He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Fellow of The Guild of Church Musicians, and was formerly a Distinguished Academic Associate of the Centre for Law and Religion. He is President of The Royal Commonwealth Society Auckland Branch,
 

Noel is married to Katy, and they have two small dogs, Teddy and Wilbur, and one cat, Clara, who rules them all.