# "I Was Ordained in December 1985"

> After more than 40 years in ministry, Rev. Dr Rob McFarlane reflects on his early days at UTC, his first placement at Neutral Bay, and leading the discernment that reshaped the Synod’s presbyteries, with some advice for those entering ministry today.

By Jonathan Foye · 4 November 2026 · Features

Canonical: https://insights.uca.org.au/articles/i-was-ordained-in-december-1985/

When Rev. Dr Rob McFarlane retires on 26 November 2026, it will mark the end of over forty years in ministry, with his final role being within the NSW and ACT Synod.

“I was ordained in December 1985,” he recalled.

“I had just finished at UTC and was super-keen to start in my first placement on 1 January, 1986, presiding at Communion on the first Sunday in January.”

“My college years were very different from what I see today. We had about 40 candidates across the three years—18 in my exit year — all studying full-time during the day, and with very few electives, so there was a really strong sense of community and something happening all the time. 
“This was back at the old site at Enfield, which also meant that college was the only group on-site. It was a bit of a golden era, with no student fees, and student living allowances which you could actually live on, which helped people study full-time as well as do field ed placements that were very focused on their learning goals without having to earn money. My year was the first to be majority women, so there were some things that haven’t changed that much since then.”

“What an adventure I was part of”

Starting his ministry eight years after union, Rev. Dr McFarlane said he never experienced church before union and that his was a career steeped in Uniting Church.

“As someone who hadn’t grown up in the church, I took the Uniting Church for granted,” he said.

“I just thought that this is how church *is”*

‘I remember being puzzled when people asked me, "what were you before Union?", meaning Presbyterian, Congregational, or Methodist. I used to just reply, “pagan.” I didn’t get the sense that this was all new, less than a decade after Union. It’s only looking back now that I realise what an adventure I was part of.”

The technology used for ministry was different when Rev. Dr McFarlane was first ordained in the mid-1980s. Mobile phones were not widespread and his first manse did not have an answering machine. The internet and email were confined to universities and early services like Usenet and not yet part of the average work day.

“I used to take my hand-written order-of-service to a volunteer who would type a stencil and run off copies on a smelly Gestetner,” he said.

“I don’t say this to be nostalgic, but to recognise how technology shapes not just how we do ministry, but what we do in ministry.”

Rev. Dr McFarlane’s first church congregation was St John’s Neutral Bay. He recalled it as being, ‘a group of people who were very permission-giving.”

“They encouraged creativity in worship as well starting an evening contemplative service and young adults’ group,” he said.

“Ministry also felt like being part of the wider community, doing about a dozen weddings and the same number of funerals each year, plus lots of baptisms. I had a great sense of being part of people's lives, in the congregation and the wider community. The people at Neutral Bay were also very supportive of my postgrad study as I began a MTh at Sydney Uni that ultimately would morph into a PhD on Mark’s Gospel. I credit them in my thesis acknowledgments as, “Where I was able to live with a community of people retelling narratives in a rapidly changing social environment.”

Rev. Dr McFarlane’s most recent ministry was as Presbytery Relations Minister, a role within the Synod Secretariat and the Synod Leadership Team, something he said was a good way to finilise his ministry.

“I think that it's a rare gift and blessing to finish with a project that can be completed and delivered: leading the discernment process that resulted in the leadership of the 12 former Presbyteries bringing a proposal to Synod that they be dissolved, and three new Presbyteries be formed in their place.”

According to Rev. Dr McFarlane, this final ministry role brought together threads of experience and learning from his past, including community organising learned through the Sydney Alliance, transitional leadership he took from Intentional Interim Ministry training, transformational leadership learned through a Master of Educational Leadership, presbytery leadership roles in Moreton Rivers Presbytery (Qld) and Parramatta Nepean Presbytery.

All of this, he said, was grounded in pastoral ministry, “as much as being by a bedside as people take their last breath or holding a precious baby and proclaiming the grace of God in baptism.”

“I’m curious about the word “young.” People enter ministry at many stages of life. Some young, like I was, and entering a first life vocation. Others enter ministry as part of a mid-life transition after another career or parenting.”

Rev. Dr McFarlane said the main lessons he learned were to try to maximise strengths or gifts, and how to manage challenges or weaknesses. 

“Entering ministry young, do it with energy,” he siad.

“Entering ministry in mature years, do it with wisdom. Always use your continuing education to grow your gift or specialisation PLUS have a focus on the areas in which you need to do some painful work.”

“Another lesson is to take or make every opportunity that you can to grow. For me, a lot of that growth has involved travel, such as a ministry exchange in London or leading study tours and pilgrimages in the Middle East and beyond. Do some higher ed studies if possible, but mix it up, not just more of the same. Go to different institutions, faculties and disciplines to hear different perspectives and be asked different questions.”

Rev. Dr McFarlane told *Insights* he will not become a retired person busier than when he was working. “The main thing that I hear from retired people is choice; being freer to say "no" to other people’s agendas, and freer to pursue my own passions and wellness,” he said.

“Busyness is the curse of meaninglessness. What I commit to is saying that I can be more discerning where I direct my energy.”

Filed under: retirement, Rob McFarlane, ordination, ministry, Presbytery Relations Minister, presbyteries, Synod Leadership Team, St John’s Neutral Bay, leadership