Revd Neville Watson Minister in Association

Neville Watson was born on 9 October 1929, and had an immediate impact on the world. On that precise day, the stock market crashed and the world entered into deep depression. Some say that the world is still reeling from his birth, such has been his concern for peace and social justice. In 1952 he went to the Third World Conference of Christian Youth in India with Bob Hawke. Bob lost his faith at that time; Neville’s was radicalised.

In 1955 he was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Western Australia and in 1959 was ordained within the Methodist Church. He describes himself as a lawyer by trade and a Minister by calling. After five years in parishes he was, at his request, left without pastoral charge and set up a lay training centre at Faversham House in York. In the seventies he worked amongst aboriginal people, both in the courts and in their camps, and was engaged in food production programmes in Asia. In the eighties he protested the aboriginal cause and was involved in the March Across Australia. His close association with the Church of the Saviour in Washington led to a keen interest in prayer and contemplation, which he describes as `practising what it is like to be dead`. In the nineties he became a Peace Activist and was involved in wars in Bosnia and Iraq, along with organising opposition to arms manufacturers, Defence Force recruiting Programmes and the like. He has been arrested `more times than he can remember` and is proud of his criminal record. He spent his 60th birthday in jail after such an encounter.

Neville has been involved in the Wembley Downs Uniting Church for over 35 years and is at present `Minister in Association`. He maintains that without this Church congregation he would be `a lost soul`.

Revd David Robinson

Born in Mildura, Victoria 30/7/1926 to Australia father and Scottish mother

RAAF and AIF 1945-1946
Melbourne Uni 1948-1951; Ormond Theological Hall 1952-1955
Married Lucie Fouvy, daughter of Swiss immigrant 1953
Four children – 2 male and 2 female

Ordained into ministry of Presbyterian Church 1956
Murrayville United (Methodist & Presbyterian) Parish 1956-1959
Secretary Victorian Council of Churches 1959-1962
Elizabeth Presbyterian Church, South Australia, 1962-1970
Princeton Seminary 1967-1968

Principal St Columba College 1970-1984
Moderator Presbyterian Church of WA 1976
Nedlands Uniting Church 1984-1991
Minister in Association Nedlands 1991 –
Locum Englishtown, New Jersey 1967-68
Geneva 1991, 1993
Langbank Scotland 2001
Airdrie Scotland 2003
Budapest, Hungary 2006

Karen Sloan Pastoral Assistant

While each of our Christian journeys is different, as a preacher at Wembley Downs Uniting Church, I would like to tell you how my Christian journey has led me to be in this place at this time.

We will skip the birth, and childhood memories, other than to say I was raised in a non churchgoing environment and besides the occasional visit to a Catholic church when staying with friends my experience was very limited.

At University, however, things changed. I was learning and then subsequently teaching Anatomy and Human Biology, and when dissecting dead people it is hard not to think about deeper things. Not that I instantly ‘found God’. Quite the contrary! I held out for quite a while. However, it is hard to run away from such things, and when I returned after spending a couple of years overseas, very much broader in my outlook on life I also returned to the question I had left, ‘Did this God thing really have something for me and the way I live my life?’
So I looked for a church that might be something a bit different. This was in 1986 and someone called Keith Jones, a funny, warm and above all questioning Christian co-worker at Royal Perth Hospital, suggested I attend Wembley Downs Uniting Church. Many of the people who were around then, are still around now, reflecting the strong community existing within the church. And eventually people were so welcoming and warm that I joined in for a coffee and a chat.

This was a time in our church’s history when we had a mixed theological message from the pulpit, reflecting the mixed position of its preachers. As a person searching it was fascinating to hear different points of view, but needless to say it was Neville Watson (still the Minister in Association) who became the preacher I instantly related to. Suddenly I found someone who acknowledged the difficulties in the texts, who identified the broader issues in the community and who had a strong image of Jesus as a man instead of a shadowy divine figure. So I stayed. And stayed, even meeting my husband there, who I have been married to for 20 years!

Yet there have been times over the years, when the idea of God seemed remote and clinging to it seemed ancient and outdated, particularly as I was engaging in scientific research, somewhat at odds with religious pursuits. I eventually got to a point when it would have been easy to give up altogether. I did not believe much of what the bible said, and certainly did not take it literally, so even while the church was very open and flexible I was becoming very distant from the notion of a loving, personal God.

I had reached a watershed point, a point I believe many people reach, and often choose to leave the church altogether. Yet as Val Webb says, doubt can be a catalyst for new beginnings. So instead of leaving I decided I needed to get more information, I needed to find like minded people, not just in our church but in writers and theologians who reflected a different view. So I went to Murdoch University and did some theological units. Wow, what an eye opener! Suddenly I was not alone with all those things that I had difficulty with. Suddenly it was all right to be a Christian, to claim Christianity without owning some of the baggage of the past. Jesus was still central to me, but a real Jesus, whose life meant as much as his death.

I also came to realize that the bible, a document of how people have experienced God in the past, and their attempts to explain that experience, has a lot of parts that require deciphering, and I began to search for people who would do that. As a lay person this was itself a revelation, as in the last 10 years there has been an explosion of scholarly literature aimed at the general reader. My journey, while still doing theological units at Murdoch University, has also lead me through the writings of John Robinson, Charles Birch, Karen Armstrong, John Selby Spong, Marcus Borg, Matthew Fox, Bill Loader, Sally McFague, Val Webb, Brian McLaren, and the Jesus Seminar writers like Robert Funk to name just a few. But also the writings of Jim Wallis and the Sojourners community in Washington, who see social justice and the care of the poor as central to the gospel message.

These are people who as their starting point reflect the need to address the challenges facing believers in the 21st century. For we live at a time of great change and I want to join them in encouraging people of faith to be open and enquiring, to see God as part of an evolutionary process that has not finished, and not to be afraid of new discoveries whether they be in science or psychology. Our lives are full of ups and downs, yet the one constant is God’s presence, the ground of all being as Paul Tillich would say. This is the God that holds our community together, with love and laughter and mutual support, even with our differences in outlook and experiences. Please join us in sharing some of the results of our searching.

Terry Quinn

I was born in Sydney in January 1942. As a child I lived in Maroubra with caring parents, one brother, one sister and a cousin, Margaret. I attended Catholic primary and secondary schools in Kensington and Darlinghurst. In 1959 I went to Sydney seminaries and studied Philosophy for three years and Theology for four years. In 1965 I was ordained as a priest and served in parishes for five years. In 1970 I taught English, History and Religious Education in Newman High School, Pendle Hill, Sydney.

In 1972 I trained as a District Welfare Officer with the Department of Youth and Community Services in NSW. I worked in inner-city Sydney.

I moved to WA in 1974 with my new wife, Christine and worked as a Community Adviser with the Ngaanganawili Community in Wiluna. From 1974-1987 I worked with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in many parts of Western Australia: Kalgoorlie, Perth, Bunbury, South Hedland, Broome, Derby and Kununurra.

From 1988-1990 I was employed by the Uniting Church in WA as a consultant for mission and social justice. I have travelled with church groups to India, Chile, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. When ATSIC was formed in 1990 I became a planning and training officer working with indigenous communities throughout Western Australia. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s I did further studies at Murdoch University in Theology, Scripture, Indigenous studies and Education.

In 1996 I left ATSIC and worked as a tutor of Aboriginal Studies in Hakea and Wooroloo prisons tutoring in literacy and at a university level. Since 1997 I have been the Executive Officer of the Catholic Social Justice Council in Perth. I have four adult children, Esther, Amy, twins Niall and Liam and five grandsons, Jacob (12), Oliver (9), Rohan (2) and Julian (1).

Elaine Ledgerwood

I was born in Perth in 1975, the youngest of three children. After a few moves, I found myself at the Wembley Downs Uniting Church as an 8 year old and have been involved in the congregation for the rest of my life. This has meant that the congregation, and especially people such as Neville Watson, have had a major impact on the way I think about God and particularly my passion for social justice. Of the two sermons that I can remember in any detail, one was by Neville in around 1990! It must have meant something to me at the time.

Since finishing high I studied Occupational Therapy and this took me to India where I worked as a volunteer working in a hostel for children with polio. This challenged me personally, professionally and spiritually. During this time I learn to `chat` with God, who was often the only other person around who understood English. I saw a community that was a community in a way that Westerners do not experience – with its good and bad points – and I saw the spiritual penetrate every aspect of daily life. I also learnt to have roaring arguments with God and when I later read the book of Job, I realised that I was not the first and probably would not be the last. At that point, I also learnt to swear at God.

On returning to Australia I started my theological studies with the view towards becoming a Deacon in the Uniting Church and working with those whom our society marginalises. This led me to completing an Honours Thesis examining suffering and hope in the context of chronic disabilities (inspired by my Occupational Therapy work). Since completing my Honours I have taken a detour to write a PhD exploring suffering and hope in further detail. I do not think that anyone can come up with answers about how we talk about hope – and God – in this world of suffering, but I do aim to throw the cat among the pigeons and see what lands. I think it is time to once again stir up debate on the topic.

When I am not sitting at my computer or under a pile of books studying, I can be found sitting in the ’cello section of an amateur orchestra. At other times I am madly running around doing dog training with my puppy. Writing my PhD lets me work at home and play with my puppy while I work . . . it makes the hard work worthwhile.

Jim Malcolm

I was born in Subiaco, Perth, Western ustralia on 24 June 1944, and though I’ve done some overseas travelling, the western suburbs of Perth have been my home ever since.

I’ve had a life-long connection with first the Methodist and later the Uniting Church, taking an active role in worship and especially music.

Multi-skilled is probably the best word to use in describing me. I have an Honours degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Western Australia and a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Manchester, England. With those qualifications I spent the first 18 years of my professional life working in the field of agricultural economics.

I then changed course, and for another 15 years I worked in the Department of Environment on environmental impact assessment and the drafting of legislation.

Along with my full time job I was lucky enough to sing professionally as a tenor soloist with Western Australian Opera over a period of 13 years. I keep fit playing veterans’ hockey and golf and walking with my wife, and soul mate on the faith journey. I am revelling in the joys of being a grandfather to five grandchildren, all under 4 years!

I have found my spiritual home in the Wembley Downs Uniting Church, where taking the occasional service, despite no formal theological qualifications, has enabled me to explore and develop my faith, share the faith journey and to ask some of the
really important and uncomfortable questions that some churches would prefer one not to ask.

Barry Preece

Born in Cottesloe on 5 October 1939. Schooled in Cottesloe and Claremont.
Commenced Sunday School at Hardey Memorial Methodist Church when I was three; my Mother was a teacher there. Heavily involved in the whole life of the church there until 1968 (with a 12 month period away when working in Sydney 1959).

From 1955 until 1968 most of my working life was with Taxation Consultants/Accountants which gave me opportunity to travel over a large part of rural and north Western Australia.

In 1967 I was privileged to play piano for the visiting Elcho Island Children’s Choir and spent a month traveling with them and the Yirrakala Dancers. One of the teachers challenged me to think about working with Aboriginal Children.

I guess this was my ‘Sea Change’. I was accepted by the Methodist Overseas Mission to work at Mogumber Methodist Training Centre from June 1968. There I met my wife to be. Together we continued work in this field for many years. My work as Director in Residential Child Care and Education Hostels for Aboriginal Children and Students continued though to 1988 when I handed responsibility to an Aboriginal man, to move the work forward in a culturally appropriate way.

From February 1989 I worked in the Division of Mission and Nurture of the Uniting Church (part time) as I studied History and Theology part-time at Murdoch University.

Music has always been an important part of my life. Singing as a child, playing organ from and early age, conducting Sunday School Anniversaries (the big platforms with 80+ people singing); studying singing with an inspirational Ukrainian teacher, competing successfully in many singing competitions and eventually singing as chorus and soloist with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society and then the Western Australian Opera Company over a 20 year period; taking opera into schools and the wider community as far north as Exmouth.

I was greatly supported in all I did by my wife until she died in 1997.

I retired from the paid work force at the end of 2006, but have kept my singing and organ playing as part of my life. Playing the organ at St Aidans in Claremont (on a roster basis); singing the Role of Cantor at New Norcia Benedictine Abbey regularly. I currently conduct Uniting Singers (which was started by the late George Idle).

I have two daughters, one living with her husband and two children in Canberra the other with her husband and one baby in Adelaide.