Assembly 2000

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AS the newly elected Moderator of the Uniting Church in South Australia, Jan Trengove has achieved an important first - and a second and a third.

Mrs Trengove, a farmer from Spalding, 180km north of Adelaide, will be the first country-based person to lead the church.

Her appointment marks only the second time a lay person has held the top position.

And she is just the third woman to become moderator since the Uniting Church was founded in 1977.

The other two were Elizabeth Finnegan in the late 1980s and Margaret Polkinghorne in the mid 1990s. But "flying the flag for rural SA" will be her greatest honour when she succeeds the Reverend Don Catford for a two-year term starting next October.

"I'm the first country moderator that SA has had and I'm really privileged in that," Mrs Trengrove, 49, said yesterday. "It's fantastic because it's a support to country people.

"It's a bit humbling."

Mrs Trengrove and her husband, Ian, farm cereal and seed crops and raise cattle and merino sheep on their property near Burra.

She is chairwoman of the Port Pirie Central Mission Board, which offers services including emergency accommodation, counselling for problem gamblers and a facility for homeless youth. Mrs Trengrove also preaches and leads a children's church group at Spalding, which does not have its own ordained minster. As moderator, Mrs Trengrove will continue to live at Spalding but will commute and spend about two days a week in Adelaide.

"One of the fantastic things about the church is that it does offer lay people plenty of opportunity to get involved," she said. Mrs Trengrove said her aim was to encourage country people to make better use of the services and facilities offered by the church.

"You hear of people in the country worrying about services and things just not being as they were any more," she said.

"I want to celebrate and be proud of and encourage people to use the services of their ministry."

Advertiser, SA (October 17, 2000)

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Views expressed in any comments above do not necessarily reflect those of the Uniting Church in Australia.