St Mark's was established as a mission to university students by the Diocese of Armidale. Until the 1980's students formed almost the whole of its membership.
University of New England and Regional Archives, Media Resources Unit photo/s (C3-1078). |
The original St. Mark's Chapel building was established in 1959 during the chaplaincy of the Rev. J.0. Rymer. At this time the Anglican Chaplain to the University also served as Chaplain to the New England Girl's School. He continued as Anglican Chaplain until 1965.
Shortly before the end of his Chaplaincy the University of New England Anglican Society was formed on 27th September, 1964. The inaugural committee had a staff representative, Vern Williams who was a member of the University Physiology Department and remains a regular worshipper at Chapel services.
In 1965 Maurice Betteridge became Chaplain, a position he held until 1972. During this period the old building became increasingly inadequate in terms of size and minutes of the Chapel Council meetings at that time indicate that various methods of increasing the seating capacity were tried. Eventually some services and other activities had to be held in Madgwick Hall in an attempt to ease the problem. Clearly this was not a satisfactory long term solution and the Diocese of Armidale agreed to support the provision of a new building. The building cost approximately $41,500 unfurnished. This was financed in part by the sale of the Ohio Boys' Home and land at Walcha, partly by the generosity of students, graduates and friends of the University and partly by a bank loan that was paid off by the Chapel congregation by 1978. The old building is still in Armidale where it belongs to the Drummond Park Preschool Association in Carey Avenue.
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The new St. Mark's Chapel was officially dedicated on 4th July, 1971, by the Bishop of Armidale, Clive Kerle. During the period of Maurice Betteridge's Chaplaincy the Chapel developed a more ecumenical outlook in line with the Diocesan view that the Chapel act "as an outreach of the Church to those associated with the University". In addition the joint Chaplaincy with NEGS was terminated at the end of 1969 when he was appointed to the academic staff of the History Department of the University.
In 1973 the Anglican Society's first Treasurer, Tony Doran, returned as the University's first full‑time Anglican Chaplain. His successor was Michael Hill who served as Chaplain from late 1974 to mid 1975. Kevin Giles became Chaplain in third term 1975 and remained until the end of 1980. During this period the proportion of non-students members began to increase. In due course a Sunday School was established and this provided an opportunity to involve students, a practice that continues. The involvement of members of the Chapel in all aspects of its life increased significantly. Preaching and leading services, particularly the evening services, became a regular practice for members of the congregation and students were presented with opportunities to develop qualities of leadership in an environment that would be difficult to achieve in a normal parish situation. The wider outreach to all students continued and this was strengthened by the Anglican Society changing its name to St. Mark's Christian Fellowship so as to indicate the ecumenical nature of the Chapel community.
During 1981 Greg Tobin acted as part‑time Chaplain and encouraged the continuation of congregational involvement in the life of the Chapel. He was succeeded by Hugh Begbie and during this period there was a further increase in the size of the morning congregation. The evening service has always been student oriented and had gradually become a less traditional Anglican service. The morning service remained a more traditional service. It was also around this time that the practice of closing St Mark’s over Christmas and New Year ended. Until that time members of St Mark’s attended St Peter’s Cathedral in town. Another innovation at this time was the introduction of part-time assistants, usually student members of Chapel who had competed their studies and remained in Armidale.
In 1990 Greg Burke became chaplain and the morning congregation expanded considerably during his chaplaincy. Prior to this much of the expansion was from UNE staff who moved from churches in town to St Mark’s. Since then, a major part of the growth has been among people not associated with the university. The position of paid part time assistants became established as a regular feature of St Mark’s. To some extent this was the period when a division between the two congregations became wider. There have always been members involved in both congregations and this continues today, but the balance from a time when a majority of members of the morning service would also attend the evening changed, in part due to the growth in numbers, but also due to the evening service becoming more informal.
The present Chaplain, Martin Trotman arrived in 1998 and the growth of the non-student congregations has continued to the extent that a separate service was developed on Saturday evening. This service has developed in response to the needs of some of the younger non student members of the congregation and younger singles. Martin also introduced a more formalised training programme of part time ministry trainees who are now paid by a grant from the Armidale Diocese for student support. As a result the trainees support the student members of St Mark’s. This has provided an excellent training ground for students who have usually completed their studies or are studying part time to become involved in ministry and receive training at the same time.
The growth of the total St Mark’s congregations has been such that a second ordained minister, first Gary Eastment and now David Morgan have been appointed to work alongside Martin. For current staff see http://www.stmarks.net.au/staff.html
The financing of this, at the moment, means using reserves that have been built up in recent years, in an attempt to cope with the needs of the growing non-student congregations. The student congregations have generally been fairly stable over time as the number of internal students at UNE has not changed significantly over the years. This does highlight the dual nature of St Mark’s in serving two distinct congregations. It is probably fair to say that the majority of the non-student congregation recognise that St Mark’s main mission is to the students and that it is different to most other churches.
The one feature that has remained constant over time has been the evangelical tradition of the Anglican Church. In general this has ranged from what might be described as a more liberal evangelical theology to a more conservative approach that has been the position of the previous and present chaplains. The growth is also producing non-student congregations covering a much wider age range with a number of retirees and a large number of children. Initially many people who joined St Mark’s had an Anglican background, but over the past 15 years more have come from other denominations. The students have always tended to be from a wide range of church backgrounds emphasising the non-denominational outreach of St Mark’s.