New President's a Babe
By Stephen Webb
The Mavor crest features a boar's head.That's appropriate, says Rae Mavor, because her husband is pig headed.
On first impressions it's hard to think of the Uniting Church's amiable new President, the Rev. John Mavor, as pig headed. But after hearing of his life of commitment to Christ and the church, it's easier to concede that Mrs Mavor knows best.
Our new President is certainly a man of resolve.
Born in Brisbane in 1933, John Mavor, 7, went to Beaudesert, a country town 64 kilometres south of Brisbane where his father was a teacher.
After studying at Brisbane High ("in same year as Bill Hayden; we played football together") he spent one year in teachers college and, aged 20, went back to Beaudesert — to teach. It was there he met Rae.
Educator
He taught from 1953-54, candidated for ministry and went straight to Imbil near Gympie. He rode a motor bike and led youth groups. In March 1958 he moved to the western suburbs of Brisbane and in May married Rae.
The years until 1960, he said, were marvellous. In 1961 he became associate director of the Methodist Youth Department and from there, though he loved it, never returned to parish life. "The church had other jobs for me."
Under Ivan Alcorn he learned to "feed them hard, run them hard and preach to them hard". He put into action one of his college ideas: secondary school camping, with camps for up to 600 high school students on the Gold Coast in the August school holidays ("One of my most famous campers was George Negus").
At a youth convention in 1960 he started the Methodist Youth Association. One project the association supported was a youth training centre in Papua New Guinea.
Communicator
When the training institute was completed John was asked to head it. From February 1965 he spent six years in Papua New Guinea. Then he became director of the council of the Pacific Islands Christian Education Commission in Suva, later becoming director of Christian Education and Communication with the Pacific Conference of Churches. In that position he chaired the first meeting to promote a nuclear free Pacific.
In 1974 he became director of World Christian Action with the Australian Council of Churches and became a board member of Austcare. For 14 years from 1977 he was chair of Austcare and is now its president.
With the ACC he was part of a delegation to East Timor in 1975, just months before the Indonesian invasion. He is still passionate about East Timor's "just cause" but realises the difficulties faced by Indonesia and "the bind" that Australia is in.
He described his years with the ACC as "mind blowing", and said, "It really helped me mature as a Christian and a person." However, he felt that in the ecumenical movement one was never really in the heart of the church, and his real love was Christian education.
So 20 years ago he put his hat in the ring for the director's position with the Board of Education in the New South Wales Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia.
Moderator
That "great time" ("because people were committed to Christian education") was followed by a move back north where John Mavor became director of the Department of Mission and Parish services in the newly restructured Queensland Synod ("a huge department with all the things I loved").
From 1988-89 he was Moderator of the Queensland Synod after which he returned to Sydney to be Secretary for National Mission and Evangelism, focusing the church's thinking on multicultural work, special areas of mission, and building networks.
As President, John Mavor will continue doing those things that have marked his ministry so far. "To travel and to be with people is part of normal life for me. I want to work for healing and encouragement and to lift up the importance of being an evangelistic church."
The Perth Assembly, he said, "will be a door of possibility or a door of division". "We've got to get the door of possibility open."
The Uniting Church was in a state of tension, he said, because of the sexuality report. "The church will not settle down until that is dealt with."
Even if people didn't agree with the report, he said, they should recognise some of its achievements. "It has put sex on the agenda. It has led to an openness about talking about these topics and what it means to be a church in the 1990s."
Apart from that controversy, he said there were marvellous things happening in many Uniting Church congregations. "The social care is enormous. There are huge things we've done in welfare. That is one of our strengths. We are a caring and community-involved church."
However, he said, while the church's heritage was to be evangelical, that was still not one of its greatest strengths. He saw it as one of his tasks to encourage that part of the church's life.
"We need to get people talking about their faith. Now only nine per cent of people are willing to talk about their faith and go out of their way to do it."
He was also passionate about congregations loving people who went to no church. "Just because we do good worship doesn't mean people will come. It means loving people in the community.
"We must plan the life of our churches so people who have no experience of faith can find a life there.
When he was elected three years ago John Mavor explained how he gave his life to Christ as a boy of 13. "That's been central to my life and it's not going to change now."
He celebrates the occasion on September 19 every year. This year he will observe his decision's 50th anniversary.