David John PENMAN

PENMAN, DAVID JOHN (b. Wellington, New Zealand, 8 Aug 1936; d. Melbourne, Vic, 1 Oct 1989). Anglican abp of Melbourne.

David Penman was the son of John Penman, a postal official and soldier during World War TWO, and Irene. The family tree went back to the highland family of Penman-Monteith, connected with the clan of Graeme Stewart. After high school, he entered Victoria University and Wellington Teachers' College, studying for a degree and teaching simultaneously. It was in this period he started attending Bible studies run by the CMS League of Youth, and came to a clear personal decision to place his faith in Christ. He majored in physical education and was recognised by his peers very early as a leader. Late at night he was as likely to be counselling a fellow student about his personal life as studying aspects of sports education.

On graduation, he taught for two years and then felt the call to the ordained ministry. He entered Christchurch College for theological study and in this period met Jean Newson, who would become his wife. They were each in their respective colleges president of the Evangelical Union. David Penman graduated BA and ThL simultaneously, was ordained in 1961 and appointed to a curacy at Wanganui. Soon after he and Jean married in 1962, his call to the Muslim world was affirmed by her call to missionary service in the general sense. In 1965 they trained at St Andrew's Hall, the CMS missionary college in Melbourne, Australia, and were appointed as New Zealand CMS missionaries to Pakistan to do youth and student work.

The six years in Pakistan were the proving ground for the rest of David Penman's ministry. He immediately perceived the need to understand the Muslim world in order to have dialogue with it, so he enrolled in a master's degree in sociology at Karachi University, which he later transformed into a doctorate. He started a youth club in Karachi which broke new ground in reaching Muslims, and some significant converts came from that period, such as Michael Nazir-Ali, later a bishop and in 1993 General Secretary of the CMS in the UK.

A turning point in this missionary phase occurred in 1972 when all positions in the student ministry work were filled by nationals. The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students then invited them to move to Beirut, Lebanon, to take over and develop a struggling Christian student work in the Middle East. It was just before the outbreak of new fighting in Beirut, a very testing time for a young family of three children. They could not have anticipated the dangers of that period. For over three years Penman travelled throughout Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Iran, Iraq and other countries of the region, setting up small Christian groups in universities, sometimes at risk of provoking reaction. The leaders he chose for each group have almost all gone to significant leadership positions in church and evangelical missions. His hard work in this period on Muslim-Christian dialogue equipped him for remarkable opportunities later for intervention with Iran in the hostage dramas of the 1980s.

Penman was invited to return to Australia in 1976 to become principal of St Andrew's Hall. It was a quieter period, when his doctorate was finally awarded; he wrote Bible studies offering a Middle Eastern reading of the parables of Jesus, later turned into a popular lenten book; and ministered widely throughout Australia. His thinking developed about the relationship of the overwhelming needs of humanity in the world, and the need to reach the untouched for Christ: the label 'liberal evangelical' began to be attached to his name.

Then he and Jean could not resist the invitation of the bp of Wellington for them to return home, for David to become vicar of All Saints in Palmerston North, a church with particular opportunities for student ministry at the nearby university. A vigorous two years there, including public intervention in the South African Rugby tour and other social issues, were interrupted by the unexpected invitation from Abp Robert Dann to become an assistant bp in the diocese of Melbourne.

As regional bp for the western region, he was greeted with some suspicion as a 'foreigner' and as an evangelical, but in two years he overcame most of the opposition and became popular in the region, particularly through his immediate pastoral response to disastrous bushfires which swept Mount Macedon, Aireys Inlet and other parts of Victoria on Ash Wednesday 1983. He also became involved nationally in this period with Interserve, the Australian Evangelical Alliance, CMS, and later the Middle East Christian Outreach. Mission to the world remained a priority to the end of his life.

On Robert Dann's retirement the electoral board for the diocese of Melbourne was deadlocked for nine months, until one member resigned, making way for David Penman to be elected abp of Melbourne in May 1984. He faced formidable opposition from within the diocese: some because he was known only in the western region, some because people thought that as an evangelical he would change the diversity of the tradition of the diocese, some because he declared he would not knowingly ordain active homosexuals. His way of dealing with such opposition was to bring opponents together, invite them to pray with him, and talk things through in the fellowship of Christ. It disarmed some opponents, but not all. Throughout his time as archbishop he felt tensions and strains which could not all be eliminated by the authority of the office or by the considerable charm and time he spent dealing with those with whom he differed.

Penman made the most of the mood for change in the diocese which had been reflected in the diocesan Partners in Mission Consultation in 1984, making appointments of James Grant as dean, Robert Butters, Peter Hollingworth and John Wilson as assistant bishops, and later John Bayton. The 'team' meeting every Thursday morning at Bishopscourt became a focal point for consultation about appointments, problems, pastoral decisions and decisions about diocesan administration.

More strains occurred through the restructuring of the diocese than through individual appointments. He emphasised the importance of the department of multicultural ministry, established a new department of evangelism and church growth, created a new youth department on the model of Sydney diocese, promulgated a new Mission Statement for the diocese, with goals which revolved around effective mission in its social context, rather than maintenance of the system. Many welcomed the changes, but they represented for others a drastic shift of power from one set of people and priorities to completely new and untried ones. When these new departments proved to be a success, that did not comfort everyone.

In two areas David Penman became immensely popular: his wholehearted support for the ordination of women as priests, for which he believed there was biblical warrant; and his support in public of difficult causes, such as AIDS victims. He became a member of the Australian Council on AIDS at the invitation of the federal Health Minister and later he became chairman of the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs. This latter role became very controversial when the government for budget reasons reduced and then eliminated the Institute, and David Penman defended its work in public. He was both a supporter and a critic of the state and federal Labor governments in office during this time. He also became a confidential adviser on Iran to the Australian Foreign Minister Senator Evans, because of his previous dialogue in Iran and his private visit there for the consecration of a new Anglican bishop in Teheran.

In his five years as abp he followed a personal policy of conducting two or three evangelistic missions a year, with a team of singers and counsellors helping, including his wife Jean. Two of these would be in parishes or groups of parishes in Melbourne, one away. The most significant mission away from home was in South Africa, at the invitation of African Enterprise and Abp Desmond Tutu. His international reputation meant that at the 1988 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, he made an important contribution by describing his visit on the way to Lambeth to Teheran to dialogue discreetly about hostages held in Lebanon, including Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury's envoy.

His punishing load of media interviews community activities, church functions and pastoral work produced an increasing weakness of the body. In July 1989 he travelled to Japan for the World Conference on Religion and Peace, then to Manila for the Lausanne Congress on Evangelization, at which he gave three Bible studies to 5000 people, but his voice was barely audible. A day after returning home he had a heart attack in Bishopscourt and was rushed to hospital. Interventions delayed his death for 11 weeks, but it was inevitable. The outpouring of grief from the public during the overnight vigil and his funeral was remarkable. There was no question the public mourned his premature passing. His widow Jean some time later felt a personal call to the ministry, became lay chaplain at a church school in Melbourne, was ordained deacon by David's successor Keith Rayner in February, 1993.

ALAN NICHOLS