Parish of Manuka South Canberra
Clergy & Staff
RECTOR OF MANUKA (Parish Priest)
The Reverend Ben Edwards
BA(Hons); LLB(Hons); BTh; PhD; GDLP;
Cert Legal Business; CMusA; AMusA
Ben has been rector of Manuka since late 2018. Ordained in 2004, he has held appointments in urban, regional and rural parishes and educational institutions. Ben has also been a Visiting Fellow in the Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies within the Divinity Faculty of the University of Cambridge (2009-10) and resident of Westcott House, Cambridge.
Liturgical worship lies at the heart of his ministry and spirituality. His great passion in ministry is to synthesise the riches of the Church’s heritage with the creativity and insights of today, and for building community through hospitality.
ASSISTANT CURATE
The Reverend Kay Pendlebury
BEc (Hons); MEc; Dip Asian Studies (Sanskrit); Grad Dip Thl; Adv Dip Christian Ministry and Theology; MTh (cand)
Kay grew up a cradle Christian in Bunbury, Western Australia, where she attended Sunday school in a little church up the road—St David’s—and later services at the new St Boniface Cathedral.
Kay moved to Canberra in the 1980s and began worshiping at St Luke’s in Deakin. She joined the bell ringing band at St Clement’s in Yass, and also at St Saviour’s in Goulburn. After funds were raised for the bells at St Paul’s she started ringing and worshiping at St Paul’s. She joined the EfM group, and began to serve in the sanctuary. Kay was ordained deacon in February 2018, and priest in February 2022.
As a teenager, Kay came across this quote, reportedly by St Francis, ‘The citadel one has to capture is the heart, and no man has yet carried it by repression and reprisal. These do but harden the defences against you, which succumb only to the long siege of love.’ That has stayed with her always, and she is now a tertiary member of Anglican Third Order of Franciscans.
Before children, Kay worked as a university tutor and lecturer (in economics!), and after the children grew up, as a Hansard reporter in the Australian Parliament. She lives in the Old Rectory with her husband, Terry, and has three daughters, three sons-in-law, and nine grandchildren all in Canberra, keeping her wonderfully occupied at all times.
Kay’s ministry at St Paul’s includes serving in the liturgy, facilitating the pastoral care team, visiting parishioners unable to attend church, preparing families for infant baptism, looking after the succulent garden, supervising the young singers in the Junior Choir, and generally hanging around the office and vestry. Kay preaches on occasion. Unfortunately, she rarely gets into the bell tower these days.
ASSOCIATE CLERGY
The Reverend Canon John Campbell Teach Cert; M.Ed; Assoc. Th (Hons); Grad Dip Christian Ed; ATCL; LTCL; FTCL.
John was made deacon in Tasmania in 1985 and priested there in 1986. As one of ten children, after the death of his mother in 1954, John lived in an Anglican Boys Home in Tasmania for eight years. It was there thathe came to know Christ.
He consciously determined to serve him as an educator and clergyman. John taught for 42 years mostly in independent schools, 28 years of which were as a Headmaster or Chaplain. John also taught Speech and Drama privately for many years and served also as an Adjudicator and Examiner from time to time as needed.
He is a widower with four children and six grandchildren. As a clergyman, he has held appointments with the Bush Brotherhood of St Barnabas in Nth Queensland and in the Diocese of Bathurst.
He has served as Warden of St David’s Close and as an Associate Priest in this Parish. He is an honorary canon of St Saviour’s Cathedral, Goulburn.
THE REVEREND ELAINE FARMER
The Reverend Elaine Farmer
BTh; MTh
Elaine was ordained in 1993, among the earliest women ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Church of Australia. She has served in several parishes, taught homiletics and ministry formation, and been Associate Editor of St Mark’s Review, Australia’s oldest theological journal. She also served on the Council of St Andrew’s College, Sydney University, and is a Fellow of that College.
A book of her sermons, (Australasian Theological Forum 2006) was translated into Bahasa Indonesia by the Jesuits and given episcopal and . She was also a contributor to, a book on preaching and worship also published by the Australasian Theological Forum.
THE VENABLE JOHN GIBSON
THE VENERABLE JOHN GIBSON
ThL; Dip R.E.
John was a parishioner here at St Paul’s when he entered St Johns Theological College in 1965. His roots go back to Northern Ireland where he was born in 1942 at Ballymoney, County Antrim. He married Narelle at St John the Baptist Church, Canberra in 1970 and they have two married sons, two delightful daughters in law and five grandchildren.
On retirement from fulltime ministry John and Narelle returned to Canberra in 2007 and to St Paul’s, where he continues to serve as a hon Associate Priest which has been interspersed with locums in the parishes of Kaleen/Giralang, St John’s Wagga Wagga, Deakin and three times at St Paul’s.
THE REVEREND DR. JOHN MOSES
THE REVEREND PROF JOHN MOSES
MA; PHD
John is of Lebanese Antiochian Orthodox and Scottish Episcopalian parentage and was educated an Anglican by the Brothers of St Barnabas in Atherton NQ, then at All Souls’ School, Charters Towers. His further education took place at St Francis’ Theological College in Brisbane, then at the University of Queensland and later in Germany at the universities of Munich and Erlangen where he studied Reformation History, Eastern European History and completed a doctorate in German Labour History acquiring an expertise in democratic socialism, Marxism-Leninism and Nazism. He is especially interested in Church resistance to totalitarian regimes and this led to a book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer against Nazism and to many articles in academic journals on the Church in Communist ruled East Germany. On return to Australia John Moses began teaching at the Uniiversity of Queensland and was ordained in 1975 an auxiliary priest by Archbishop Felix Arnott. He served in the Diocese of Brisbane together with some six other Anglican clergy who were at that time also full time members of the University staff. For 17 years he functioned as a voluntary assisant curate in the Parish of Kenmore and after retirement served briefly in Canberra (Hall parish) and then in Armidale for 8 years. In 2006 after the move back to Canberra John Moses has been licensed to officiate at St Paul’s Manuka.
He is also a Professorial Associate at St Mark’s Theological Centre and continues research and publishing in a range of fields including Bonhoeffer Studies and ANZAC as a manifestation of civic religion. Currently he is working on a larger project that investigates the rise of Communism and National Socialism in Germany as so-called “murderous Utopias” or false religions. Finally John Moses might be designated as a “polemical Anglican” and a champion of ecumenism.
THE REVEREND CANON PAUL BLACK ThDip; DipMin.
THE REVEREND SANDIE KAINE JP BTh; LLM
THE REVEREND JASON WRIGHT BTh; MMDS
THE REVEREND GAYL MILLS OAM DipMedLabTech; Grad Cert Diaconal St; Grad Dip Pastoral Counselling; BTh
MUSIC DEPARTMENT
Matthew Stuckings: Director of Music matthew.stuckings@gmail.com
Organists: Christopher Erskine, Mary Anne Neilsen, James Porteous
Junior Choir Director: Kate Edwards juniorchoir@stpaulsmanuka.org.au
Prep Choir Directors: Greta Claringbould & Alison Waddell
CHILDREN’S MINISTrY & SUNDAY SCHOOL
Belinda Leslie. belinda@stpaulsmanuka.org.au
ADMINISTRATION
Parish Office Team: office@stpaulsmanuka.org.au
Parish Executive Officer: Gwen Munshya
CHURCH WARDENS
Parish Wardens: Bruce Glendinning, Greg Mills, Fiona Cochaud
Email: wardens@stpaulsmanuka.org.au
St David’s Red Hill Wardens: Lorraine Litster, Duncan Anderson, Robert Goodrick
Email: stdavids@stpaulsmanuka.org.au
Treasurers – James Porteous & Duncan Anderson
Email: treasurer@stpaulsmanuka.org.au