Margaret Amelia RODGERS

Margaret Amelia Rodgers, AM  (b. Dorrigo, NSW, 18 Dec 1939; d. Sydney, 31 May 2014) Anglican deaconess, writer and media officer

The eldest of two children born to timber worker David Alexander Rodgers and his wife Mavis, Margaret moved with her family to Wollongong after her father developed multiple sclerosis. A gifted student, she was educated at Dapto Primary School and Wollongong Selective High School. Rheumatic fever as a teenager led to two years of hospital care and left her with permanent heart damage.

In the early 1960s, Rodgers moved to Anglican Deaconess House (now Mary Andrews College), in Newtown, Sydney, for tertiary education, graduating with a Licentiate in Theology with honours from the Australian College of Theology (with classes taken at Moore Theological College), and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney. She taught history and divinity from 1965-1978 at Meriden School for Girls (Strathfield) and Abbotsleigh School for Girls (Wahroonga). From 1969-1973 she was also tutor at Deaconess House, and from 1973-1975 she served as warden of the Church of England Women’s Hall at Glebe (Sydney).

Developing a reputation as kind and intelligent, with keen historical and theological judgment, a dry wit, and common sense, Rodgers was ordained a deaconess of the Anglican Church in 1970. Disinclined to pursue ordination as a priest, which would necessitate leaving the Sydney Diocese, she nevertheless rose to become one of the most powerful lay leaders in the Diocese.

In 1976, Rodgers was appointed Principal of Deaconess House upon the retirement of Principal Mary Andrews, a role she held until 1984. There she provided leadership and pastoral care for female students attending the adjacent Moore Theological College and the University of Sydney. She lectured in church history at Moore College, and was later a board member of Anglican Deaconess Institution (Sydney) Ltd.

From the mid-1970s until her death, Rodgers was a member of St Stephen’s Anglican Church, Newtown, where she served as a reader and occasional preacher, church warden, and representative to Synod. St Stephen’s was associated with the Movement for the Ordination of Women, and attended by many Anglicans who found themselves marginalised as a result of gender identity, marriage failure, or theologically liberal views.

Rodgers was a lay member of the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney from 1976-2011, becoming the first woman to be elected to Standing Committee in 1978. Among other roles, she served on the diocesan Social Issues Committee, and the Ecumenical Affairs Committee. She was an Anglican representative to the NSW Council of Churches, serving on the Council executive and becoming the Council’s first female president in 2008-2010. She was a prolific writer, authoring and co-authoring many articles, reports and occasional papers.

On the national front, Rodgers was a member of the Standing Committee of the General Synod of the Anglican Church in Australia from 1981-2000. She served as Research Officer for the General Synod Office from 1985-1993, where she engaged with a wide range of issues in theology, policy and practice. She was a member of the General Synod’s Doctrine Commission and the Task Force on Mission, Evangelism, Ministry and Training.

While serving the Sydney Diocese, Rodgers was an Anglican representative to the Australian Council of Churches, and then a member of the executive of the restructured National Council of Churches in Australia (1994-1997). She was a representative to the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Wales (1990), Panama (1996), Dundee (1999), and Hong Kong (2002), and attended the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops as a media officer in 1998.

Rodgers also served the Anglican Church as an active participant in the Christian Conference of Asia, including five years as joint president (1995-2000), and as an observer to the World Council of Churches and delegate to the WCC’s Seventh Assembly in Canberra.

In 1994, Rodgers was appointed chief executive officer of Anglican Media, serving the Sydney Diocese, where she remained until 2003. In this role, she transformed the diocesan newspaper, Southern Cross, into a free monthly magazine with a circulation of 40,000 and significantly strengthened the Diocese’s media profile. She wrote a regular column for Southern Cross, penning articles ranging from a critique of the theology of Pope Benedict XVI to a commentary on the morality of the fashion industry. From 2004-2007, she was Archbishop Peter Jensen’s media officer.

During this time, Rodgers was also a board member of World Vision, a board member and board chair of New College, University of NSW, and writer and presenter of a weekly program of Christian social commentary for 13 years on Sydney radio station 2CH, on behalf of the NSW Council of Churches.

Veteran Sydney journalist John Sandeman described Rodgers as “a master tactician at the media game,” and “one of the most powerful people in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney … [which] puzzled everyone, except for those who worked with her and knew that talent had risen to the top.”

Sydney Anglican Archbishop Glenn Davies summed up Rodgers’s contribution to church life, describing her as “for many years the leading laywoman of the Diocese of Sydney,” and “a warrior for Christ, not ashamed of the gospel and not afraid to confront those with whom she disagreed, but always with a winsome smile and a heartfelt desire to see Christ honoured in all areas of her life.”

In January 2014, Rodgers was made a Member of the Order of Australia for “significant service to the Anglican Church of Australia through governance and representational roles, and to ecumenical affairs.”

Margaret A. Rodgers, Deaconesses in the Church of England in the Nineteenth Century: Special attention to the early years of ‘Bethany’ Church of England Deaconess Institution (Sydney, 1977); A Theology of the Human Person (North Blackburn, 1992); Eternity News, 1 Jun 2014, https://www.eternitynews.com.au/archive/margaret-rodgers-christian-communicator-dies/

ROD BENSON