This is a transcript from the Minute of Appreciation delivered at Synod 2025 for Rev Jane Fry presented by Rev. Bronwyn Murphy and Former Moderator Rev. Simon Hansford.

The Lord be with you! 

Bron and I approach this moment with some trepidation, being fully aware of how little Jane enjoys the glare of limelight. She is quite content to remain largely unremarked, so we face this task of edging Jane gently to centre stage and, for a brief minute, celebrating her gift to the Church.   

This is the deeply critical part of our task: Jane’s understanding of ministry means that her placement and gifts are held, valued and celebrated only in the context of the church she loves and has served, as a faithful disciple.  

Jane was a surprise gift to our faith tradition from the Anglican church. Discerning a persistent and hopeful call to ministry, her then Bishop advised her to grow beyond the limitations of a denomination that only valued one gender in the role of ordained leadership. This same bishop offered prayers for Jane each day in the years which followed her decision. 

A period of attending UTC, as private student, and then as Candidate for Ordination, was a formation, both informal and formal, which led to her ordination on 28th November 1995.  

Jane placement as General Secretary was preceded by Congregation and Presbytery placements, gaining leadership skills to accompany her ministry with word and sacrament. Jane eventually served in a placement as Associate Secretary of the Synod, and then Interim General Secretary before formally taking on the role of General Secretary in October 2017. 

For those who remember, Jane accepted the placement because the Church called, and not because she knocked on the door. 

We should never accept the call of God lightly, or with lack of due care and attention. Jane has never been accused of that. The rigour and responsibility of the role of General Secretary was accepted at the very beginning, and she has grown deeper into the role, as her wisdom and understanding similarly deepened.   

Jane has not only “managed” the diverse and challenging “business” of our Synod, she has also provided vision, encouragement and strategic direction for the Synod to adapt to the changing times. One of the tasks of Synod leadership is to hold the treasure of the Church in one hand, seeking to preserve the gifts and graces which need honour and care; in the other hand, we hold those things which have served their time, hinder the church, and need to be laid to rest. This calls for discernment and courage, not the glib lines of planning and structure, but an understanding of what it means to be a people who are being continually renewed by the Spirit of the risen, crucified One.  

Bonhoeffer stated the “The Church is the Church only when it exists for others”, and that has been at the forefront of how Jane imagined her role and calling as General Secretary.  

Jane, Simon and I sat in George’s Café in Pitt Street, during the first signs we might be emerging from COVID. We were the only customers, the only people within in range, apart from the owner, who served our coffees. We talked with him about debt, and the future and what he was going to do to survive in his business; it was a challenging pastoral conversation.  

As the Synod found its way through Covid, Jane’s guidance and the role of the Synod Leadership Team were critical in navigating waters of which we were entirely unsure, and for which there were very few reliable maps.  

The Synod Office has needed to undergo significant change – structurally and culturally -  as the community around us speaks of risk and compliance, and we acknowledge the human, social and financial costs of being less attentive in the past. Jane has worked constantly, encouraging the Synod Office to see itself as serving the Synod, and the Synod Office has largely responded well to that hopeful challenge. 

I don't know exactly what a prayer is. 
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down 
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, 
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, 
which is what I have been doing all day. 
Tell me, what else should I have done? 
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? 
Tell me, what is it you plan to do 
with your one wild and precious life? (from The Summer Day, by Mary Oliver) 

Jane has been heard to remark that she doesn’t understand how people in ministry survive without prayer. We are thankful for Jane’s disciplined and faithful prayer and devotional life, offering her the strength and the grounding needed for a vocation not easily served. 

Jane preaches with wisdom and mercy, arising from her prayer, her faithful attention to scripture, her ministry and the context in which she serves. 

We have grieved together, as we shared the experience of watching the burden of ministry and discipleship take its toll on colleagues, not just in the Uniting Church. “Faith for some ministers is a dimly burning wick” has been an image that preoccupies Jane, conscious that this season in which we serve is rigorous, indeed. 

One of our greatest challenges is before us at the Synod in Session, as we consider and imagine how the shape of our Church might most effectively serve the world for which Christ died. Jane has shepherded the process, and also left it to the presbytery leadership when needed; this requires the wisdom to know when to speak, and when to keep silent.    

“The Church of the future isn’t coming out of my head” is something Jane would often say. It is the role of the Church’s councils to discern our own vocation and the shape it takes. Let us listen to those often silenced, or who have been told to wait their turn. 

Jane has always seen herself first as a disciple of the crucified and risen Christ, then as a servant of the Church. In this season of change before, and all around us, Jane has worked to engage and enable the Church as a body for active mission and not of the self-interest which so easily infests and infects our debates and vision. 

Both of us give thanks for Jane’s wise and generous friendship; for the ease with which she laughs, as we share stories of our families and friends. Jane’s extroversion has often exhausted the two of us; we just wanted a quiet lunch on our Office and Jane was pestering us to go partying…   

A handy hint for those who are unaware: if you who wish to experience Jane’s slightly sterner visage, ask her to stand for a photograph…   

We give thanks for the merciful gift and wisdom of that Anglican bishop all those years ago, for the faithful discipleship of Rev. Jane Fry, and for the creative grace of God which placed Jane in the role of General Secretary of our Synod.    

A poem, by R.S Thomas which we hope is apt: 

I see them working in old rectories 
By the sun’s light, by candlelight, 
Venerable folk, their black cloth 
A little dusty, a little green 
With holy mildew. And yet their skulls, 
Ripening over so many prayers, 
Toppled into the same grave 
With oafs and yokels. They left no books, 
Memorial to their lonely thought 
In grey parishes; rather they wrote 
On men’s hearts and in the minds 
Of young children sublime words 
Too soon forgotten. God in his time 
Or out of time will correct this. 

– RS Thomas, ‘The Country Clergy’,  

The Lord be with you.