John F. H. VANDERBOM

VANDERBOM, JOHN F H (b. Amsterdam, Netherlands, 10 Dec 1913; d. Kingston, Tas, 26 Aug 1992). Minister in the Reformed Churches of Australia.

Raised in the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (GKN), John Vanderbom graduated BD from the Free University of Amsterdam 1938. He m. Willy Van Mazyk in 1943. After GKN assistant pastorates in Hilversum and the Hague he was called to pastorates in Ylst, and later Groningen, where he was challenged by a ministerial colleague to serve Reformed migrants from the Netherlands who were already settling in Australia.

With the support of the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia (PCEA) the Vanderboms, with their four children, arrived in Sydney in May 1951. The Dutch Reformed migration was not wholly absorbed into the Presbyterian Church of Australia (PCA), as the GKN component and others were unwilling to accept masonic lodge membership as tolerated in the PCA. At the same time, few Reformed migrants from the Netherlands could concur with the 'purity of worship' principle as understood and applied in the PCEA. As a consequence, Vanderbom and his counterpart in Victoria, Sjouke Hoekstra, found themselves among the pioneers in the establishment of the Reformed Churches of Australia (RCA), the first congregation of which had already been instituted in Tasmania by late 1951. The RCA first national synod was held in 1952. Hoekstra returned to the Netherlands in 1954, but Vanderbom remained, on occasions preaching at three or more locations on any one Sunday. After ten years service in various NSW RCA congregations, Vanderbom moved to Kingston, Tas, where he remained until after his retirement in 1978. His spheres of activity included the editorship of the denominational publications Trowel and Sword, and Give Yourself to Reading, along with promotional and organisational labours in the fields of overseas missions, worldwide relief, and Christian higher education. He was a strong advocate of congregational involvement in local community affairs, and as a Reformed pastor sought to respond positively in the field of ecumenical relations. In recognition of his outstanding and long term work in the fields of pastoral care and migrant welfare, Vanderbom was awarded the Order of Orange Nassau on 30 April 1956, and AM on 12 June 1982.

J W Deenick, A Church en Route: 40 Years Reformed Churches of Australia (Geelong, 1991)

KEITH C SEWELL