ADELE DAVIES -- A Dedicated Life, 1938-2013
Adele was christened Joyce Adele Davies, however, she liked Adele better. Apart from the fact that she attended Canterbury Girls High School, we know little of what she did before she came to Balmain Teachers College in 1956.
At college she seemed a quiet unassuming person, almost dour, yet she was a very thoughtful person and had a great sense of humour. She wore her hair long in plaits over her head, a not uncommon fashion among conservative Baptists at the time. Like a number of the women at college, she did not attend any of the National Fitness camps, swimming camps, or play centre camps organised by the college, and seemed not to be involved with any sporting activities.
Her first appointment as a teacher was in 1958 to Panania Public School in Sydney's south west, an area with a migrant population. She stayed there for four years before being appointed to nearby Padstow Public School where she stayed until the end of 1964 when she resigned from the teaching service in New South Wales in order to train as a deaconess in the Baptist church. For a time she worked for the Baptist Union in preparing booklets for students and teachers for scripture teaching in schools and in Sunday schools.
She moved to Melbourne, probably in the late 1960s, where she joined the Victorian Baptist Board of Christian Education. By 1973 she was writing teachers' notes for scripture lessons which were being published under her name. In November 1979 she became associate minister at the Baptist church at Ormond, a 25-minute drive to the south-west of Melbourne. While she was at Ormond she began a university degree and published The Juggler, a biography of Rids Van Der Zee, a famous Dutch magician who had come as a migrant to Australia. The book was launched by Derek Nimmo who happened to be in Australia at the time.
In February 1981 Adele was inducted as the pastor of the church at Port Melbourne, almost in the heart of Melbourne, in a predominantly industrial area. By this time her plaits had gone in favour of short hair. The church consisted of less than 20 parishioners, and although they called her 'a godsend', they could not contribute enough to meet her daily needs. To supplement her income, Adele drove taxis in Melbourne during the week, something I find very surprising for the woman I knew at college. She told a news reporter that there was not a rush of clergymen for Port Melbourne as the inner city appointments were not plum jobs. She also thought that other parishes would not have accepted her because she was a woman.
She moved to Melbourne, probably in the late 1960s, where she joined the Victorian Baptist Board of Christian Education. By 1973 she was writing teachers' notes for scripture lessons which were being published under her name. In November 1979 she became associate minister at the Baptist church at Ormond, a 25-minute drive to the south-west of Melbourne. While she was at Ormond she began a university degree and published The Juggler, a biography of Rids Van Der Zee, a famous Dutch magician who had come as a migrant to Australia. The book was launched by Derek Nimmo who happened to be in Australia at the time.
In February 1981 Adele was inducted as the pastor of the church at Port Melbourne, almost in the heart of Melbourne, in a predominantly industrial area. By this time her plaits had gone in favour of short hair. The church consisted of less than 20 parishioners, and although they called her 'a godsend', they could not contribute enough to meet her daily needs. To supplement her income, Adele drove taxis in Melbourne during the week, something I find very surprising for the woman I knew at college. She told a news reporter that there was not a rush of clergymen for Port Melbourne as the inner city appointments were not plum jobs. She also thought that other parishes would not have accepted her because she was a woman.
In 1981 the church building at Port Melbourne suffered minor vandalism which would have gone unreported had not Pastor Adele been in the news over the ordination question.
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As events unfolded there was truth in her statement that some churches would not accept a woman pastor, but there were other undercurrents. In 1981 she was on the list of those to be ordained as ministers in the Baptist church. In the late 1970s the Baptist Union of Victoria had already ordained two women so that Adele's application was not out of the ordinary. It became extraordinary when in November 1981 she married Rev. David Scott from South Australia. There was nothing wrong with marrying a Baptist clergyman, even one from South Australia; the problem was that David was recently divorced and there was considerable opposition in Baptist churches to divorcees remarrying. And for many it was unthinkable for a pastor to marry a divorcee. Here was a really thorny problem.
Adele was stood down as a candidate for ordination until the situation was reviewed. The reviewers saw no good reasons why she should not be ordained and when it was put to the general assembly of the Baptist church it passed by a narrow margin for Adele to be ordained. Then came a period of lobbying and discussions that led to a rescission of the earlier motion for her to be ordained. Despite her disappointment, Adele continued as pastor of Port Melbourne church until 1993. During that time she undertook a course in pastoral education at Peter McCullum Cancer Centre which may have helped her win her first bout with breast cancer. In the early 1990s she and her husband, David, moved to the rural village of Everton, about 3 hours drive north of Melbourne, to a 26-acre property they had bought in 1986. It was there that they built a large pole house. Adele flourished in this new life. She took a course in viticulture at Charles Sturt University at Wagga (a course not offered at Balmain Teachers College), planted out 500 Cabernet Sauvignon vines on the property, and became an accomplished wine maker. She also continued her role as a marriage celebrant, mostly for locals in the Everton area. She then became involved with a group of people with a passion for wool and natural fibres. This group used fibres obtained from their own coloured sheep or goats. Initially Adele started with coloured English Leicester sheep, which were her favourite but also acquired goats. She also bred bantams and experimented with new breeds and different approaches to farming. Adele had a great interest in pursuing different techniques of dyeing and there was a great day when all sorts of colours were tried over the initial grey yarn and the skeins were hung out to dry in front of the house, accompanied by a little tippling from the wine store underneath the pole house. |
One of her friends said of her: 'On the working front Adele had extensive experience in the fields of psychology and social work and put these skills to great use, influencing the direction of many people who had lost their way. She trained groups in management skills in Australia and also in Singapore and Malaysia. More recently she conducted courses through The Centre in Wangaratta. She was particularly interested in the training of apprentices for the wine industry and at various times each year would travel to vineyards throughout the region to meet with the apprentices and their employers.'
Another one of her friends said: 'What I will always remember is the passion she had for her sheep, spinning, dyeing fibres and promoting rural women; … her declining health was taking a toll on her energy but not on her intellectual capacity to inspire and guide many community groups. She was always a driving force behind our coloured sheep breeders group "North East Yarns", focusing on advancing our profile and reaching out to craftspeople and consumers.'
Another one of her friends said: 'What I will always remember is the passion she had for her sheep, spinning, dyeing fibres and promoting rural women; … her declining health was taking a toll on her energy but not on her intellectual capacity to inspire and guide many community groups. She was always a driving force behind our coloured sheep breeders group "North East Yarns", focusing on advancing our profile and reaching out to craftspeople and consumers.'
Unfortunately the breast cancer she thought she had conquered in the 1980s returned leading to her death in 2013 and the end of a busy life. She had sought and hopefully found that 'goal eternal' of the BTC anthem during a dedicated life.
Madeline, Adele (middle) & Kate model Kate's eco-dyed tops, 2011 |