My husband, Ian Braybrook, was born in 1945, trained for the Anglican ministry at St. John’s College Morpeth and in 1968 we were married. Ian was ordained deacon in the Melbourne Anglican Diocese in 1969 and priest in 1970. He served as curate at St. George’s Malvern in 1969/70 and then at All Saints Newtown (Geelong), in 1971.
At the end of 1971 Ian was appointed curate at Werribee where plans were afoot to create a new parish in the fast-growing suburb of Hopper’s Crossing. Services and Sunday School began in the vicarage in 1973 and it proved to be an exciting but demanding adventure for us. Ian brought to the task his wide skill base, boundless energy, innovation and love for people. I enjoyed working with him and the congregation thrived.
By the end of 1974 the lounge room, family room, study and bedrooms of the vicarage were all overflowing on Sunday mornings and plans were put in place for the first stage of a church building next door. Everything progressed well and Sunday attendances grew in their new location. In October 1976 Ian felt that God was calling us to South Croydon Anglican Church on the other side of the city.
In January 1977 we moved to South Croydon with a toddler in tow. Ian found adapting to this new parish stressful since there were new people with different expectations. The situation was exacerbated because during the previous year the vicar and a few parishioners had experienced the charismatic renewal movement which at that time was making an impact in many churches around Australia. This phenomenon was completely foreign to Ian so he politely declined when asked to come to events.
I was curious and accompanied some parishioners to a few Anglican charismatic services. I was excited but unsure about what I observed but by the August of that first year, after attending Camp Farthest Out, I moved ahead to ask for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. I became overly enthusiastic which vexed Ian considerably but six weeks later a difficult baby arrived which brought me down to earth.
In November 1977 Ian also sought this extra touch from God and soon he was throwing himself into working within the charismatic realm. The congregation grew rapidly with healing becoming a key feature of the ministry. Ian with his pastor’s heart found himself counselling up to 40 hours a week beside his other duties. To add to the stress another baby arrived. Now I was trying to survive with three children under five in a frantic vicarage. The parish grew at a rapid rate from a congregation of 50 to 150 in a couple of years. Ian threw all his considerable energy in creating a unique environment of love and acceptance, which people still remember to this day.
It was predictable that considering the enormous pressure we were under both from the parish and our quickly expanding family that our marriage began to falter. Ian decided to put strategies in place to enable us to cope. The first decision was to recruit volunteers to man the phones during the week and help with the secretarial work. Later a paid secretary was employed along with a part time member of staff and this assistance was valuable.
In 1981 over six acres of land next to the church became available for purchase and Ian felt God was calling us to buy the property. Over the next few years more than $100,000 was raised within the congregation to purchase the land that we called Emmaus. We were part of a group within the parish that met weekly with the thought of forming a Christian Community and moving together to live on the land. Amazing and exciting as this was it did increase Ian’s work load and stress level. The land would remain empty for nearly 20 years until the parish organised a joint project with the government to develop housing for the underprivileged. Today Jubilee Housing manages the site with the parish providing pastoral support. Emmaus continues to provide a safe haven for refugees and other needy members in the community.
The development of Emmaus went hand in hand with an ever-expanding congregation and Ian often found himself out of his depth since he had not been trained for what he was encountering within the Charismatic movement. In particular some of the theological and authority issues that developed with the change from traditional to more informal Spirit-based worship were to prove problematic. Many Pentecostal people who joined the congregation wanted Ian to move forward at a rate that he found uncomfortable. It was a time of intense excitement and encouragement to see the congregation growing and their faith deepening but accompanying these positive outcomes were strong tensions which Ian struggled to resolve. During this time because he was breaking new ground he was not accountable to a supervisor for his counselling, nor was he part of any support network and we were both oblivious to his deteriorating health.
Without warning, disaster was to strike in August 1986 when at the age of 40 Ian was diagnosed with bowel cancer. The shock was electric. Many people believed that God would heal him miraculously but this did not happen. The cancer was removed by surgery but left him with a colostomy with which we both struggled. Ian fell into depression and I developed burnout accompanied by a long period of deep lows.
It was from this low point that Ian made significant changes. He still worked exhausting hours but he made time for exercise and diligently walked around 1 -2 hours a day as well as modifying his diet. He began to look for help and joined a clergy support group. Over the following years he set up a variety of small groups. He made more time for me and the family and cultivated some friends outside the parish. He used his day off to optimum advantage, planned frequent holidays, and used his long-service leave as it became available. He also modified some of the extreme expressions of the charismatic movement that had developed in the parish.
In 1987, Pastor Ian Richardson who was an associate at Life Ministry Centre had the vision of setting up a branch of Tabor College in Melbourne and asked for Ian’s assistance. As an academic at heart who loved pioneering ventures, Ian was enthusiastic about this opportunity. He gave the first lecture of Tabor College in Melbourne and over the next 14 years gained much satisfaction in the training of candidates for ministry.
The parish had now grown to around 200 in number but this expansion posed problems, for although Ian was adept at running a parish alone, he was not good at handling staff. The secretaries were worth their weight in gold but other full-time staff members proved a challenge to him, perhaps because he expected too much of them. This increased his stress and crises developed.
Ian knew it was time to move but he was wary about relocating and the Diocese had branded him a crazy charismatic which limited the possibility of moving to other positions. I pleaded with him to take a couple of years out of the ministry but although this did not happen we did decide to buy our own home in November 1995. For me moving out of the vicarage was a life-giving change but it left Ian with an office in a converted garage, which put extra stress on him. At this time Ian forged ahead with studying some subjects for his Master’s Degree in Ministry, which led to this thesis being written.
After nearly 23 years at South Croydon Ian was invited to become vicar at St. Luke’s Sydenham, another new housing estate. They were looking for a minister with a charismatic style but not too way out and he fitted the bill. Ian and I worked as a team: something we had not done since the early days of his ministry. Services were held at first in a prefabricated building next to the vicarage which held 30 people. In the first year the congregation grew from 30 to 70 and we moved the worship services into the local Anglican school.
In the second year Ian became unwell and investigation revealed he had prostate cancer which had spread. He was 54. He continued as vicar and began this Master’s thesis while receiving radiation therapy. The day in May 2001 when he graduated at Wilson Hall in the University of Melbourne brought him much joy since he had thought he may not live to experience this milestone. He had recently sprained his ankle and was using a stick to enable him to walk. The whole auditorium laughed at the irony that was created when the title of his paper, Maintaining Health in Anglican Clergy within the Diocese of Melbourne, was read out as he hobbled across the stage. Little did they know that Ian was seriously ill.
Ian finished at St. Luke’s Sydenham in November 2001 just before his 56th birthday. By then the cancer had completely spread throughout his body even affecting his vocal chords, meaning that he could only speak in a whisper. We were able to move back to our home at this time and after a painful battle, Ian died in September 2002.
In 2016 I decided to put Ian’s Master’s thesis on a web site. Clergy health had become a hot topic and this was something that Ian was passionate about. I felt there was a contribution to be made by sharing his experience and research.
This ministry profile was written by Joy Braybrook
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