september 10 - 16 | 2014
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inside page 7
A life of service
circulating in wangaratta, myrtleford, bright, mt beauty, beechworth, yackandandah, rutherglen, chiltern and districts
By KYLIE WILSON
WOMAN OF FAITH:
Mother Bethley Sullivan is a comforting presence for many in her parish. PHOTO: Wendy Stephens
GARDENING WITH
DEBBI
RSPCA
WITH
JUPITER
FILM TERRA
SOLANUM
WINE TALK WITH
ANITA
HER close cropped hair is habitually colored all shades of the rainbow, she enjoys a joke and a chat, and she is quick to laugh at comparisons with Dawn French’s Vicar of Dibley. But even a brief conversation with Mother Bethley Sullivan shows she is serious about her passion for helping people and her concern for the wider and global community. Mother Sullivan, along with deacon Sue Hall, whom she has known since their school days in Seymour, is central to a vibrant Anglican community of faith in the North East, which takes in Beechworth’s Christ Church and Saint Jude’s in Eldorado. She can trace the origins of her faith back to being heavily involved in church as a child. Her faith developed through her grandmother, Alice Sullivan, and by the tender age of four she was an altar server. “My grandmother told me being a follower of Christ is being a servant,” Mother Sullivan said. “It’s not an easy life. “It can be a lonely life, but I never feel alone.” She spent time as a bush nurse, among other professions, but her experience kept pointing her towards a life in the church, and when she was in her late 40s, she took up studying theology. “Nursing just cemented my faith,” she said. continued page |
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