Changes & Chances
Addendum 1. The Clergy
In one way and another, directly or indirectly, the Australian Missionary Society (widely known as CMS) has helped All Saints Church with locating suitable candidates for vicar and associate minister to serve the All Saints Church congregations gathered at Menteng and South Jakarta for more than 40 years, but the task of locating suitable and willing candidates became increasingly difficult and the task of obtaining work permits for clergy also became increasingly difficult too during the fifteen years since the end of Andrew’s history. The post of Vicar or Associate Minister could not offer some of the benefits and remuneration that it had done in previous years, and since the British Embassy had relinquished its connection to All Saints Church, the task of obtaining residency documentation became increasingly difficult because of having to deal with an Indonesian immigration and ministry of manpower administration dominated by Islam that aimed to exclude any other religions from foreign support.
The Lake family departed All Saints Jakarta in mid-2004, prior to which departure Andrew left with the March 2004 AGM a simple collection of reflections and exhortations that were incorporated into the meeting. The exhortations included encouragement to optimistically face the future, regard times of crises as an opportunity, persist in prayer, to avoid living in the past, remember our fundamental goal (to draw people to Christ), immerse oneself in the gospel, disciple one another and to set our sights high. Of course, these exhortations would have been appropriate for any period in ASC’s history, but they were particularly poignant for what ASC would face in the coming fifteen years after Andrew wrote these words.
Perhaps, it seems sad to start the period with a departure, but a turnover of clergy is a feature of All Saints Church as it is for many other churches around the world: George Thomas had served as associate minister since 1997, but in early 2003 George with his wife, Judy, returned to Australia for well-earned retirement, which left Andrew Lake to manage the congregations gathered in Menteng and South Jakarta for a few months and to organise his time to minster at each centre of worship on a Sunday, before George’s replacement arrived in Jakarta. This was perhaps the first time that All Saints had operated both centres of worship with just one clergy, and because of this extra burden on Andrew, church council made the suggestion that church members should establish ministry teams at each centre with the objective of assisting Andrew. The teams still continue today with more or less activity according to whether there are two clergy or one and whether or not the Vicar requires more or less assistance.
In March 2003, then, Dale Appleby and his wife, Joy Appleby, arrived in Jakarta taking the position of associate minister vacated by George Thomas, locating to South Jakarta to take care of the South Jakarta congregation while Andrew and his family moved to the Menteng vicarage to take over the handling of the Menteng congregation. However, before Andrew and his family could reside in the Menteng vicarage there was need for some repair and renovation of the vicarage, which was done in February and March of 2003.
In 2003 and 2004, the machinations of appointing clergy did not end with George and Dale however, Andrew had indicated that he would be departing Jakarta in mid-2004 and thus the search was on for a replacement, but since Dale who had been well received was already present, Church Council decided the sensible option would be to offer Dale the position of Vicar and to then search for an associate minister. Having time as associate minster to understand ASC and its people, the handover from Andrew to Dale when Andrew and family departed Indonesia was painless, the church council fully supported the appointment and so too the congregation. After Andrew left, Dale was faced with handling two centres of worship and two congregations as Andrew had done, but whereas Andrew had to manage the two congregations for a few months Dale had to handle the burden for nearly a year before the appointment and arrival of David O’Mara and his family. The ministry teams at each centre, then, had been an inspired idea; the teams discussed some of the difficulties that each centre faced and how each centre could be made more welcoming and attractive while at the same time take some of the burden of handling two Sunday-services off of the clergies shoulders, which were fairly close together in terms of timing and were more than 45 minutes apart in terms of travel time – on a ‘normal’ traffic Sunday(!). Taking some of the burden included, for example, nominating a team of people to act as service leaders of the Sunday 9am Menteng service after Dale left to travel to South Jakarta to take the service there. Certainly, congregation members had active roles in worship services historically when the church was the British protestant community chapel, but since coming more closely in to the Anglican fold, congregational participation had been largely constrained to reading, music or intercessions and so participation of congregation members in leading the service was a first, and what was first begun by Dale has continued and has even been extended by the formation of a team of clergy and laity tasked with delivering sermons.
Dale and Joy, then, managed both congregations for about one year before they were joined by David O’Mara as associate minister and David’s wife Cheryl and their three children, thereby completing the compliment of minsters with one at each centre of worship. David, as associate minster, located to South Jakarta and ministered to the congregation gathering in Don Bosco school, but of course he had several additional individual and joint duties with Dale. The two centres enjoyed a minister at each centre until David departed ASC in 2006, and thus began again a period when the two centres of worship relied on one minster, which on this occasion lasted for 18 months, until Ian and Narelle Hadfield and their daughter, Beth, arrived in August 2007.
Dale remained the vicar of ASC until 2009, and ASC can thank him for improving not only the spiritual life of ASC, but improving too its administration performance, and when the partnership of Dale and Ian, as well as their hard-working and inspirational wives, came to an end, Ian Hadfield became vicar, and thus Ian’s turn to manage the unenviable task of having to minster to the two centres of worship, which he did so for more than one year until the arrival of Jon Cox, as associate minister along with his wife Olwyn and family in March 2010, who located to Menteng. However, Ian Hadfield had again to undertake the strain of serving two centres of worship after the departure of the Cox family in early 2014. Not until the arrival of Alan and Helen Wood in November 2014 was Ian able to hand over the reins of one centre of worship, which on this occasion was chosen to be South Jakarta.
After Ian and Narelle departed ASC in mid-2017, Alan followed in the footsteps of earlier minsters by single-handedly managing two centres of worship and continues to do so at the time of writing this addendum. However, hopefully, Alan will have an Associate Minister joining him soon, Zane Elliott, Karen and family, who we hope and pray will be in place by December 2019 and remain well beyond the 200th anniversary year of All Saints Church. However, Alan has indicated that he too wishes to retire and thus ASC has again been thrust in to finding a replacement vicar, and thus for several months an ASC team has been devotedly searching for a replacement, and though a very suitable replacement was found and accepted by Church Council and the Bishop of Singapore, Andrew Taylor and family later decided to withdraw his application.
During the time of Dale and Ian, the clergy was expanded to include a full-time youth and children’s worker. The church had not had a full-time youth and children’s worker previously although it had always had a very active youth and children’s programme in both worship centres, and even historically the Sunday school was always an important part of the Church’s ministry. Now, however, Church council wished to develop the impact of Youth and Children’s programmes not only within the church but also in extra-curriculum Christian based meetings in several prestigious schools in Jakarta. The first youth worker was Jess Harris, who joined the team in 2009 and remained with ASC for 3 years and after a short period without a full-time worker was then succeeded by Guy Cross who remained with ASC for more than a year. After Guy, there was a 6-month period before appointment of another Youth and Children’s worker, Gabrielle Oudeman who was later replaced by Melinda Situmorang in mid-2019. Of important note during the period since ASC first had a full-time youth and children’s worker is that the religious-based activities in the international schools of Jakarta have come to a halt. Increasingly, school boards chose to avoid religious programmes in their schools, the reasons for which are similar to those for which schools in Europe and America have reduced religious teaching; i.e., the pursuit of secularism and political correctness.
This, then, records the data of comings and goings of clergy at ASC during the period 2004 to 2019, but the data hides the very different styles, contributions, strengths (and weaknesses) of the clergy team. It is remarkable, however, that despite the differences, each has been right and appropriate for the continued development of ASC at a particular time. Perhaps an important feature of the period has been when Vicars, Dale Appleby, Ian Hadfield and Alan Wood, have had to minister to two centres of worship, although ministering and managing more than one congregation and one centre of worship is a common feature of modern church life in the developed and post-Christian countries of Europe, North America and Australia. I met, for example, a vicar in East Devon who was responsible for 5 centres of worship and the congregations in them, but an international, expatriate church like ASC is quite different not only because of the character of the congregation, but the pressures of ministering in a difficult socio-political environment where the vicar has the additional burden of security, communication, work permits, exit permits and visas, multi-racial and multi-cultural congregations, which combine to make the landscape quite different from their counterparts in Europe, America and Australasia.
The Lake family departed All Saints Jakarta in mid-2004, prior to which departure Andrew left with the March 2004 AGM a simple collection of reflections and exhortations that were incorporated into the meeting. The exhortations included encouragement to optimistically face the future, regard times of crises as an opportunity, persist in prayer, to avoid living in the past, remember our fundamental goal (to draw people to Christ), immerse oneself in the gospel, disciple one another and to set our sights high. Of course, these exhortations would have been appropriate for any period in ASC’s history, but they were particularly poignant for what ASC would face in the coming fifteen years after Andrew wrote these words.
Perhaps, it seems sad to start the period with a departure, but a turnover of clergy is a feature of All Saints Church as it is for many other churches around the world: George Thomas had served as associate minister since 1997, but in early 2003 George with his wife, Judy, returned to Australia for well-earned retirement, which left Andrew Lake to manage the congregations gathered in Menteng and South Jakarta for a few months and to organise his time to minster at each centre of worship on a Sunday, before George’s replacement arrived in Jakarta. This was perhaps the first time that All Saints had operated both centres of worship with just one clergy, and because of this extra burden on Andrew, church council made the suggestion that church members should establish ministry teams at each centre with the objective of assisting Andrew. The teams still continue today with more or less activity according to whether there are two clergy or one and whether or not the Vicar requires more or less assistance.
In March 2003, then, Dale Appleby and his wife, Joy Appleby, arrived in Jakarta taking the position of associate minister vacated by George Thomas, locating to South Jakarta to take care of the South Jakarta congregation while Andrew and his family moved to the Menteng vicarage to take over the handling of the Menteng congregation. However, before Andrew and his family could reside in the Menteng vicarage there was need for some repair and renovation of the vicarage, which was done in February and March of 2003.
In 2003 and 2004, the machinations of appointing clergy did not end with George and Dale however, Andrew had indicated that he would be departing Jakarta in mid-2004 and thus the search was on for a replacement, but since Dale who had been well received was already present, Church Council decided the sensible option would be to offer Dale the position of Vicar and to then search for an associate minister. Having time as associate minster to understand ASC and its people, the handover from Andrew to Dale when Andrew and family departed Indonesia was painless, the church council fully supported the appointment and so too the congregation. After Andrew left, Dale was faced with handling two centres of worship and two congregations as Andrew had done, but whereas Andrew had to manage the two congregations for a few months Dale had to handle the burden for nearly a year before the appointment and arrival of David O’Mara and his family. The ministry teams at each centre, then, had been an inspired idea; the teams discussed some of the difficulties that each centre faced and how each centre could be made more welcoming and attractive while at the same time take some of the burden of handling two Sunday-services off of the clergies shoulders, which were fairly close together in terms of timing and were more than 45 minutes apart in terms of travel time – on a ‘normal’ traffic Sunday(!). Taking some of the burden included, for example, nominating a team of people to act as service leaders of the Sunday 9am Menteng service after Dale left to travel to South Jakarta to take the service there. Certainly, congregation members had active roles in worship services historically when the church was the British protestant community chapel, but since coming more closely in to the Anglican fold, congregational participation had been largely constrained to reading, music or intercessions and so participation of congregation members in leading the service was a first, and what was first begun by Dale has continued and has even been extended by the formation of a team of clergy and laity tasked with delivering sermons.
Dale and Joy, then, managed both congregations for about one year before they were joined by David O’Mara as associate minister and David’s wife Cheryl and their three children, thereby completing the compliment of minsters with one at each centre of worship. David, as associate minster, located to South Jakarta and ministered to the congregation gathering in Don Bosco school, but of course he had several additional individual and joint duties with Dale. The two centres enjoyed a minister at each centre until David departed ASC in 2006, and thus began again a period when the two centres of worship relied on one minster, which on this occasion lasted for 18 months, until Ian and Narelle Hadfield and their daughter, Beth, arrived in August 2007.
Dale remained the vicar of ASC until 2009, and ASC can thank him for improving not only the spiritual life of ASC, but improving too its administration performance, and when the partnership of Dale and Ian, as well as their hard-working and inspirational wives, came to an end, Ian Hadfield became vicar, and thus Ian’s turn to manage the unenviable task of having to minster to the two centres of worship, which he did so for more than one year until the arrival of Jon Cox, as associate minister along with his wife Olwyn and family in March 2010, who located to Menteng. However, Ian Hadfield had again to undertake the strain of serving two centres of worship after the departure of the Cox family in early 2014. Not until the arrival of Alan and Helen Wood in November 2014 was Ian able to hand over the reins of one centre of worship, which on this occasion was chosen to be South Jakarta.
After Ian and Narelle departed ASC in mid-2017, Alan followed in the footsteps of earlier minsters by single-handedly managing two centres of worship and continues to do so at the time of writing this addendum. However, hopefully, Alan will have an Associate Minister joining him soon, Zane Elliott, Karen and family, who we hope and pray will be in place by December 2019 and remain well beyond the 200th anniversary year of All Saints Church. However, Alan has indicated that he too wishes to retire and thus ASC has again been thrust in to finding a replacement vicar, and thus for several months an ASC team has been devotedly searching for a replacement, and though a very suitable replacement was found and accepted by Church Council and the Bishop of Singapore, Andrew Taylor and family later decided to withdraw his application.
During the time of Dale and Ian, the clergy was expanded to include a full-time youth and children’s worker. The church had not had a full-time youth and children’s worker previously although it had always had a very active youth and children’s programme in both worship centres, and even historically the Sunday school was always an important part of the Church’s ministry. Now, however, Church council wished to develop the impact of Youth and Children’s programmes not only within the church but also in extra-curriculum Christian based meetings in several prestigious schools in Jakarta. The first youth worker was Jess Harris, who joined the team in 2009 and remained with ASC for 3 years and after a short period without a full-time worker was then succeeded by Guy Cross who remained with ASC for more than a year. After Guy, there was a 6-month period before appointment of another Youth and Children’s worker, Gabrielle Oudeman who was later replaced by Melinda Situmorang in mid-2019. Of important note during the period since ASC first had a full-time youth and children’s worker is that the religious-based activities in the international schools of Jakarta have come to a halt. Increasingly, school boards chose to avoid religious programmes in their schools, the reasons for which are similar to those for which schools in Europe and America have reduced religious teaching; i.e., the pursuit of secularism and political correctness.
This, then, records the data of comings and goings of clergy at ASC during the period 2004 to 2019, but the data hides the very different styles, contributions, strengths (and weaknesses) of the clergy team. It is remarkable, however, that despite the differences, each has been right and appropriate for the continued development of ASC at a particular time. Perhaps an important feature of the period has been when Vicars, Dale Appleby, Ian Hadfield and Alan Wood, have had to minister to two centres of worship, although ministering and managing more than one congregation and one centre of worship is a common feature of modern church life in the developed and post-Christian countries of Europe, North America and Australia. I met, for example, a vicar in East Devon who was responsible for 5 centres of worship and the congregations in them, but an international, expatriate church like ASC is quite different not only because of the character of the congregation, but the pressures of ministering in a difficult socio-political environment where the vicar has the additional burden of security, communication, work permits, exit permits and visas, multi-racial and multi-cultural congregations, which combine to make the landscape quite different from their counterparts in Europe, America and Australasia.