Bryan Findlayson

The journey
      I grew up in Killara, situated in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. As a toddler I was marched off to Sunday School at St.Martin's Anglican church. I graduated about a year later after getting bashed up one Sunday morning. My education continued in a more secular vein at Knox Grammar School, a Presbyterian school where I learnt the art of singing "adjusted" words to the hymns at assembly.
      I had a very fortunate childhood. We had a happy home, although my father did get a little intoxicated during the week - the stress of work and all that. There were the holidays and in my early teens, "the farm". The Farm was a property on the Hawkesbury river at Gunderman. What a wonderful place to spend weekends and holidays - tractors and motor bikes, this was the life.
      Confirmation was an important "social" event for a young person having reached the magical age of 14 and so, with much protest, I was back at St.Martin's under the jolly hand of Rev. Norman Fox. My grandfather, a staunch Presbyterian, was not amused. I was soon a member of the Servers Guild, learning to appreciate the art of liturgical worship, but above all, under the hand of Richard Frith, a young trainee minister serving at St.Martin's, I was introduced to Jesus. I was attracted, but cars, girls, ... these were the order the order of the day.
      Having left school, I started training as a perfumer at my father's company, Cox Findlayson & Co. Learning to distinguish hundreds of essential oils and chemicals, blending them, matching and creating, was quite a task. The strange thing was I just couldn't settle at the job, fascinating though it was. I had this strange sense that I should become a minister, a preacher of the Word. I was more gifted at perfumery than preaching, but God's call gives little weight to natural gifts. Anyway, the more I thought about it the further I ran.
      Marriage, a new home, raising kids, had me away from church, but deep down I sensed His hand still reaching out to me. It was when I went to see our local minister at Eastwood for my child's Christening that I was again confronted by Jesus. The Rector, Rev. Allen Funnel, gave me a pamphlet, "Becoming a Christian", by John Stott. I read his little book and I knew I could run no longer. By the way, the 1923 Rugby (a Durant in the US) was a toy, not my regular car!!
      After my conversion I felt I had no other choice but to enter the ordained ministry. I teed up an interview with the principal at the Sydney Anglican training center, Moore Theological College. Of course, the then principal, Dr. Knox, asked the obvious question: "how long have you been a Christian?" I innocently told him it was a matter of a few weeks. He was very kind, letting me down gently. Still, I kept coming back and after two more years he let me in. The year was 1968.
      Four years of training and then six years as a minister in training (Curate). My first parish was Helensburgh with Stanwell Park, an urban area South of Sydney. With Doreen my wife, and three kids, we made it our home for 17 years. For me the focus was community/fellowship and outreach. The church community took on a "Fisher Folk" style. Something quite special evolved over those years - one in Christ. I do love The Burgh (Burgh as in iceberg).....
      The youth outreach program ended up one of the largest ministries on the South Coast of Sydney - The Jesus Light and Power Co (not an original name by the way). Club House with jukebox, pin ball machines, pool table, etc. and of course, Buses. Over the years I have owned three buses, total madness. One was actually a double decker bus, a 1948 Albion with vacuum breaks and a top speed of 30 miles per hour. It was possible to go faster in "angel gear", for those game enough to try it.
      A camping ministry soon developed at a 30 person camp site on a 5 acre riverside block of land on the Hawkesbury river. I took 10 weeks leave and built the lodge with the wharf and boatshed coming a few years later. So, it was canoes, tinnies, and a sailing dingy to keep the troops occupied. Behind the lodge was a sheer mountain with a half hour climb to reach the top. Anyway, youth camps were soon a regular part of the church outreach program.
      The weekly Bible study at our home was something special, particularly as I had picked up the "Wesley" virus. I was attending a Bible Study led by one of my mates. He was tackling what Paul meant by "the law" in Galatians. I was undone. Just like John Wesley I was a pietist through and through. I was into sanctification by obedience. It took a year or two, unlike Wesley, but in the end I discovered the extent of God's grace. I was set free by the discovery of His total acceptance of me in Christ, even with all my terrible sin, recurrent and ingrained. 'Amazing grace!'
      By 1990 I was getting a bit tired and having some difficulty reconciling my new freedom in Christ with my Calvinist leanings and the emergence of the new perspective on Paul. The answer was to take a sabbatical. We sold the Gunderman camp site and purchased a beautiful Californian bungalow in Braidwood, a historic town on the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. In the mornings I worked on the grace/law issue and in the afternoons played house and gardens. It was a wonderful break.
      In 1991 I was appointed to the parish of St.Andrew's Cronulla, a southern beach suburb of Sydney. St.Andrew's was substantially a traditional Anglican church and my focus there became the preached Word and liturgy. I particularly enjoyed the challenge because the majority of clergy in Sydney were into dismantling Anglican form on the premise that the adoption of pop-culture in worship provided better access for the gospel. Oops! isn't the gospel itself the power of God unto salvation?
      During my final years at Cronulla I hit a wall, the proverbial "burn out." My personal life ended up a mess and my marriage in tatters, prompting an early exit from ministry. My wife and I finally separated some years later and in 2007 I remarried and moved to the seaside town of Kiama, south of Sydney. Of course, I don't look back on my down-times with any pride. Still, it's when we are down that we are most able to experience God's grace: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
      On leaving full-time ministry in 1999, I became a local celebrant, set to and restored Pumpkin Cottage, returned to my books and developed lectionarystudies.com. Now fully retired, much of my time is spent in the study and enjoying every moment of it. I finally got a handle on "the new perspective" and the law/grace issue. Mind you, many of my "theo" friends are not fully convinced, but then, when have theologians ever agreed? The search, along with the cut-and-thrust, is a joy in itself. I am still brought to tears at the wonder of Biblical truth.
      In January 2008 my wife Tricia and I moved from Kiama to the Comboyne plateau in Northern New South Wales. What a wonderful part of God's creation, some 700 metres above sea level, high rainfall, basalt soil metres thick. Our cedar cottage sits on two acres surrounded by farms and playing house and garden is the order of the day - with study in the morning, of course. The little village of Comboyne is three kilometers down the road for life's little essentials - coffee at The Udder Cafe!
      So, that's my journey; a step closer to glory and that day when I will hide behind my mate Jesus and say to the Boss, "I'm with him." So yes, I'm a Conservative Evangelical believer of reformed persuasion who is committed to Anglican liturgical form and polity. In simple terms, I am one of the many Prayer Book Christians who rest on the amazing grace of God."