Margaret Rodgers

Margaret Rodgers AM (18 December 1939 – 31 May 2014) was a prominent deaconess and lay-person in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. Rodgers was Principal of Deaconess House, (1976–85), Research Officer for the Anglican General Synod (1985–93), chief executive officer of the Anglican Media Council (1994–2003), President of the New South Wales Council of Churches and Lay Canon of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney.

Early life Margaret Amelia Rodgers was born on 18 December 1939 in Dorrigo, New South Wales, the eldest child of David Alexander Rodgers and his wife Mavis. David Rodgers was a timber worker, but developed multiple sclerosis, and as a result, the family moved to Dapto, where Margaret and her younger brother Alan attended primary school. Rodgers then went to Wollongong Selective High School. She was an excellent student and also a good hockey player. After being accepted for the Figtree Hockey Team, she fell sick with rheumatic fever and was confined to bed, spending more than two years in Wollongong Hospital. Her heart was permanently affected by the illness.

Academic life

Rodgers moved to Sydney to study, and gained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sydney University. She then undertook a diploma of theology, completed in 1963 with first class honours. She was ordained as a deaconess of the Anglican Church in 1970. From 1969–73 she was a tutor at Deaconess House, (later known as Mary Andrews College), then became Vice-Principal and in 1976 succeeded Mary Andrews as principal, until 1985, providing pastoral care for female students who attended Moore Theological College and Sydney University. Rodgers lectured at Moore College in Church History. Rodgers never sought to become ordained as a priest, which would have necessitated her leaving the Diocese of Sydney, to which she was committed and where she had a wide and effective lay ministry. While supporting women in lay ministry, Rodgers also gave her support and encouragement to those women who chose to leave the diocese to seek ordination as priests elsewhere.

Roles in the Sydney Diocese

From the 1970s, Rodgers attended St Stephen's Anglican Church, Newtown, located in the same suburb as Deaconess House and Moore College. Rodgers was an active member of the congregation, serving on parish council, as a nominator and as a synod representative. regularly reading services and occasionally preaching, at which times her scholarship and her insight into the Christian Church in other countries that she visited were much valued.

Rodgers was a member of the Diocesan Synod from 1976 to 2011, From 1985 to 1993 Rodgers served as the Research Officer for General Synod. From 1981–2000, she was a member of the Standing Committee of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia, and continued as a synod member until 2010. She was a board member of World Vision, Australia, from 1999 to 2008; was a board member, then chairman of New College, University of New South Wales; joint president of the Christian Conference of Asia 1995–2000; an observer of the World Council of Churches and an Anglican representative of the National Council of Churches of Australia from 1994 to 2007. From 2004 to 2007 she was Archbishop's Media Officer to Archbishop Peter Jensen. John Sandeman, who worked with Rodgers on the Anglican Media Council, referred to Rodgers as a "master tactician at the media game", citing her extraordinary ability to get positive press in the general media for the Anglican Church in Sydney, and for the wider Anglican Communion.

Death Rodgers died of a heart attack on 31 May 2014.

In announcing Rodger's death, Archbishop Glenn Davies described her as "a warrior for Christ" and "for many years the leading laywoman of the Diocese of Sydney." He said "She made her mark not only on the Anglican Church in Sydney but also on the National Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole." On 19 June, she was honoured with public service of thanksgiving for her life and service, at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney.

John Sandeman wrote: