Reverend Lynda McMinn, the new rector of Ainslie's All Saints Anglican Church, has much in common with the physical home of the faith community she now heads.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Both have taken interesting paths to the positions they now occupy.
One of Canberra's most unique buildings, All Saints spent the first 90 years of its life as the railway station at Rookwood Cemetery.
When the building was damaged by fire in the 1950s Ainslie's parishioners bought the splendidly Gothic remains for 100 pounds and rebuilt it, stone-by-stone, in the ACT.
Pews replaced railway platforms and train tracks, a 158-year-old pipe organ was ensconced on a mezzanine above the entrance and a stained glass window recovered from a bombed out church in Gloucestershire during World War II was installed behind the high altar.
Reverend McMinn, who was born in Liverpool of Irish Scottish emigrant stock during the 1950s, grew up as a member of the Brethren before converting to the Anglican faith after arriving in Australia with her parents, " 10 pound poms", at 17.
"We were good value," she said. "They paid 10 pounds each for mum and dad and got eight children for free."
"My first career was having a family. I have five children and when the youngest began school I enrolled at the University of Western Sydney."
Reverend McMinn completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in history and sociology while maintaining close ties with her local Anglican congregation. A pianist who taught herself to play the organ, she served as the organist and revelled in the freedom to think about, explore and grow in her faith.
"I struggled with the call (to the ministry) for 10 years," she said. "I received strong encouragement from my local minister and Bishop George Browning (the 9th Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn).
"As soon as I made the decision I knew it was right."
Reverend McMinn studied at St Mark's, the school of theology of Charles Sturt University, and was ordained in 2000.
"While my role within the church has changed my relationship with God, my sense that `God Is', has not," she said.
Reverend McMinn, who is researching a doctoral thesis on martyred Lutheran pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, said she is an advocate for a dying faith.
"People have been predicting the death of Christianity since the first century," she said. "The church has the opportunity to come back to where it needs to be."
That is to accept Bonhoeffer's advice and put the sermon on the mount front and centre.
"That is where the rubber hits the road."
Reverend McMinn said her gender was only significant in that women bring different gifts to the church than men.
"I am a priest who God has called and ordained. I am also a woman," she said. "I am not (just) a woman priest."
