How can I leave a place I love? A place that has been the location of incredible experiences, learning, friendships, challenges, beauty, opportunity and so many partnerships?

We’ve been living in Mallacoota for almost eight years. For Andy this has meant working as a Fisheries Officer, for myself the role of Priest-in-Charge of the Cooperating Parish of Croajingolong. I became the longest serving incumbent in the Parish’s 100-year history.

Why stay so long in this small, beautiful, isolated and challenging location; in a parish that has a congregation that rises and falls in number like the tide; where it takes an hour to drive to the secondary centre; and where there are no other churches so the minister must cater for a diversity of denominations, theology and expectations?

We stayed for love, joy, partnership, and carrying on a good work until it felt our tasks here were ‘complete’.

We’ve been here through the bushfire; an experience that has shaped me and my ministry in a way that is yet to be fully recognised. We’ve been part of a community where the boundary between church and community is blurry. Where many see me as their ‘Community Priest’ even if they’ve never attended church. I was voted onto MADRA (Mallacoota and District Recovery Association), starred in an ABC TV documentary, been the community rep on the school board, the Police chaplain, presented a weekly radio show, led the annual community Christmas Carols, and spent time each summer with Scripture Union Family Mission and Theos teams.

These are the stories that feature in articles from The Real Australian, Gippsland Anglican and other publications. While they have been incredible opportunities, what’s kept me here is the partnership with the people. The radio listener who asked for a Bible. The regular Opshop customer who invited me to meet her dying partner and then take the funeral, because “you will show her respect and that’s important”. The stressed-out Mum who wants to talk about her teenager. The congregation who now ask, “I wonder?” as we approach the Scriptures, who accept each other’s differences, and who have both laughed and cried together through fire, COVID, and all that life has sent our way. We began here in 2018, our partnership with BCA began in 2020. For six years we have been blessed with this partnership, a reminder that even when Mallacoota seems so isolated, we are part of a much larger body of Christ around Australia. We have been blessed financially, making the church braver and bolder in activities and mission ideas for the Kingdom of God. We have been blessed through prayer support, monthly encouragement through phone calls, emails, even regular cards and letters – these have been appreciated, even if I’m not always good at replying. Andy & I have been blessed with the Field Staff Conferences, and with meeting colleagues from around Australia who are also ministering in rural, regional and remote places.

So how do we leave a place we love?

We leave with grief because change is hard, but we also leave knowing that the Parish is not ours. These are God’s people, and God who began a good work over 100 years ago will continue it on to its full completion.

We leave with joy because of all that has been done. We leave with prayer that I will be able to use the experiences of fire and recovery to help others in their ministries when facing difficulty. We leave with hope that one day we’ll be back – in the house we own, in the garden we’ve established. But for now, our task is to entrust the Parish to God, and ourselves to new chapters.

But we do ask for your ongoing prayers for the Parish, for the community, for a new Priest to come and for us as we begin again elsewhere. “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.” Philippians 1:27