Anglican Diocese of Sydney ordains 30 new deacons for task of reaching the city
Four women will be among the 30 people ordained as deacons in the Anglican Church, at a service to be held at 10am in St Andrew’s Cathedral on Saturday, February 8.
In addition, three more women will be commissioned as Diocesan Lay Workers and will serve in full-time ministry in various roles around the Diocese.
The huge number of new ministers is a major boost for the churches and the ministry of Sydney Diocese, which has recently committed itself to the goal of seeing at least 10% of the population of the Diocese in Bible-based churches within the next ten years.
As part of the strategy for achieving that goal, the Diocese is aiming to deploy 1000 full-time pastoral workers, both ordained and laypeople, over the next decade.
With unprecedented numbers of students continuing to enter Moore Theological College, this year’s crop of ordinands represents a significant first step towards achieving that goal.
Archbishop Peter Jensen will officially ordain the deacons for their ministry. Canon Bruce Ballantine-Jones, rector of Jannali Anglican Church, will preach at the service, at which his son, Marshall Ballantine-Jones, will be one of the ordinands.
Also among the ordinands will be David Mears, son of the Rev Ian Mears, and Ian Batey, son-in-law of Bishop Peter Tasker of Sydney’s Georges River region.
While many of the ordinands graduated from Moore College in 2002, several have already been serving in full-time ministry prior to their ordination. They include Tim Bowden (Evangelism Ministries), Bob Cameron (Killara), Denise Chee (Ecom, Diocesan Lay Worker), Ruth Mahaffey (TAFE Ministries/Richmond), Dominic Steele (Christians in the Media) and Brian Tung (Riverwood/Punchbowl).
In September last year, Mr Tung launched the International Bible Fellowship at St Andrew’s, Riverwood, a church service aimed at reaching the people of many different ethnic backgrounds in the area.
“We have lots of contact with non-English speaking people, but it’s not just one group,” Mr Tung said. “The church includes people from Chinese, Colombian, Indonesian, Greek, Egyptian and Macedonian backgrounds.”
A first-generation migrant who came to Australia from Hong Kong in 1979, Mr Tung was at one time drawn to the idea of doing overseas mission work. But he found a need for cross-cultural ministry right here in Sydney.
“These are people who would otherwise have no access to the Bible’s message about Jesus,” he says. “This is not an easy ministry to start, but it the right thing for the parish to do. The rector, Bruce Southwell, has been pushing for it and the church has been supportive.”
Media are permitted to film, photograph and record the service.
CONTACT:
Geoff Robson, Anglican Media Sydney:
(w) 02 9265 1508 (m) 0403 195 841
