Jim Malcolm
Jim Malcolm has regularly taken a lead in worship at Wembley Downs for many years. His background is diverse, including degrees in agricultural science and economics and several years performing professionally as a tenor soloist with WA Opera. He also plays veterans’ field hockey.
Jim believes we are all called, each of us, to work out what God and the way of Jesus mean for us.
In preaching, he invites you to join his exploration of the scriptures and how they speak to us today.
Rev. Marion Millin
The Methodist chapel was a key factor in my early life growing up on the border of Cornwall and Devon. I can still recall a visiting soloist sing “if I can help somebody as I pass along, then my living shall not be in vain”– made sense to me as an 8 year old and still does. However, the sudden death of my father in my last year of high school saw the start of a long journey (through university, getting married to my beloved Martin, migrating to Perth, raising two wonderful sons, a career teaching English to refugees and migrants) as well as a questioning of traditional Christian doctrine and exploration of other philosophies and world religions. But it also planted the sense of a ‘God-seed’ within everyone, and expanded my intuiting of an energy permeating creation also there ‘for’ us.
In the mid seventiesI started reconnecting with a worshipping congregation at Swanview mainly so that my sons could experience Sunday School! This was not long before the Uniting Church came into being and then, on moving to Manning, I ended up taking an active role both there and in the local community, and my long held understanding of Jesus’s inclusive ministry and theology became grounded in his sense of a caring divine relationship embodying concern for social wellbeing (based on love, justice and peace) and the worthness of everyone. But I also became concerned that our church language and liturgies did not reflect this inclusive understanding that Jesus had of ourselves as God’s beloved and of God’s realm as being as much about the feminine dimensions of ‘Ruah= Spirit’ and ‘Hokmah= wisdom’ as the masculine sense of ‘Yahweh= LORD’ and ‘Abba= Father’.
The early 90’s reclaiming of the Deacon role within the Uniting Church coincided with experiencing a sense of call to ministry. Three years of theological studies and ministerial formation later I was ordained into ministry and served in a placement half-time as prison chaplain and half-time as minister to the Wembley Downs congregation. My prison chaplaincy also took me down a track involving a process of prison reform resulting in more humane conditions at Bandyup Women’s Prison and the building of Boronia Prerelease Centre for Female Offenders. I was also part of the initial setting up Rainbow Lunch groups supporting those who were experiencing isolation or mental ill-health issues – the fortnightly lunch is still running nearly two decades later at Wembley Downs UC.
My last placement before retiring due to my husband’s ill health was serving in a new role as Associate General Secretary (Pastoral) to the WA Presbytery enabling ministerial and congregation support especially in WA’s country areas. It was tiring travelling long distances and stressful too at times but I got to see some great scenery and meet some amazing church folks faithfully witnessing through both hardship and fun times to the caring love that is God personified. On retirement a decade ago I was fortunate to be able to return to Wembley Downs and have appreciated the same sense of loving kindness and grounded theology as a congregation member there ever since.
