After relocating from North Adelaide late 1976, the Jesus Centre had to regroup and find its place in a new neighbourhood. It was a year of ‘uncertainty’, and people transitioned to new areas of ministry. It was the consolidation of a core group of about 12 people who were finding their calling in the City of Norwood, just east of the Adelaide CBD. With the resignation of Gordon Fry as ‘pastor’ of the Jesus Centre, new leadership structures were to emerge and links with local churches  and other community organisations started to develop. There was a curiosity from neighbours about the emerging ‘community life’. The Jesus Centre also attracted visitors, some who stayed in community homes for varying periods of time.

 

In January the first Jesus Centre barbecue (BBQ) was held at the King’ property at 59 Sydenham Road.

 

After levelling off the ground and removing rocks from soil, the first vegetables were planted after rotary hoeing.

 

Early morning prayer meetings began three times a week at the end of January - prayer for guidance on the development of 59 & 61 Sydenham Road properties.

 

Trevor was appointed Chairman of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) Graduates Fellowship.

 

In February, the first trees and shrubs were planted on the properties.

 

Jenny Graetz resumed teaching at East Adelaide Junior Primary School. Mal Graetz had work at ‘Simpson Pope’ at Dudley Park assembling wall ovens. While living with the Harris family, they were saving for their world trip beginning in May 1977. They also helped out with the clean up and development of the two Sydenham Road properties.

 

Mal and Jenny Graetz, Maureen Harris, Debbie and Peter Brown, and Tom Ryan attended New Creation Teaching Ministry (NCTM) sessions held at Norwood Baptist Church on The Parade.

 

A regular few met for morning prayer to pray for neighbours and new developments.

 

A neighbourhood BBQ was held on the 4th March with 17 visitors attending along with 9 from the Jesus Centre group. Valuable contacts with neighbours were made while giving out invitations.

 

Another BBQ get-together was held on the 25th March at the King’s house on a Friday evening for parents and friends of members of the  Jesus Centre community. Following the meal, Trevor Harris showed slides of his trip while hitchhiking through Asia and the Middle East in 1969.

 

Peter Leafe returns to live in the Norwood community after being absent for 6 weeks. He helped out with manual work on the properties.

 

Differences were emerging on eldership and the future of the group. There were some personality clashes. Gordon Fry put in his resignation on the 27th March as a salaried pastor at the Jesus Centre. On the 30th March, the Jesus Centre group meet to consider the role of the group, the question of eldership and the implications of Gordon Fry’s resignation. Gordon indicated that he wanted to remain as part of the group but “felt more called to minister in other churches”.

 

Russell Bartlett, Trevor Harris and Mal Graetz convened an elders meeting on the 3rd April. It was agreed that the present eldership continue to exercise pastoral oversight. Other people would be approached regarding confirmation that God was preparing them as elders or deacons. This would need confirmation from the group. It was proposed that Gordon Fry be paid in full up to his resignation. 

 

Peter King and Trevor Harris took leave from their work places and began work on rebuilding the shed in the King’s backyard.

 

There was a visit from the previous owner of 61 Sydenham Road (before the Uniting Church purchase). Mr. Longmire and her daughter Dorothy, who were Methodists, explained that the house had had a history of being owned by Christians and used for hosting missionary endeavours.

 

In April, a combined “House of the Rock” and Jesus Centre baptism was held at Grange Beach. Peter and Debbie Brown, Tom Ryan and Geoff Weir from the Jesus Centre were baptised.

 

In May, Trevor Harris graduated with a “Master of Town Planning” from the University of Adelaide. His thesis published in June 1976 was titled “The Urban and Regional planning implications of alternative lifestyles involving community living, with particular reference to Christian groups in South Australia”.

 

There was a farewell for Mal and Jenny Graetz at Adelaide Airport on the 19th May. They took ‘leave’ from the Adelaide Jesus Centre. This was an opportunity for them to visit Christian communities around the world and learn first hand from their travel experiences. 

 

In May 2020 Mal & Jenny published a book documenting their USA travels and gave this acknowledgement: 

We would especially like to thank Trevor and Maureen Harris who accommodated us for 6 months in their home while we saved for our 12 month trip around the world in 1977-78. Their generosity at our young age of 22 enabled us to explore many Christian communities and groups in North America, the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and SE Asia. We also valued the support of the ‘Adelaide Jesus Centre’ group that was being reshaped in Norwood at the time. We had only been married for 14 months when we left the shores of Australia to explore God’s magnificent world. The journey was life changing and reshaped our thinking as to our part in God’s bigger picture for us and this planet.

We valued the generosity and the hospitality of so many people we met along the way from different countries and cultures. We hope we have shown the same hospitality to friends and strangers alike over our lifetime. We are reminded in Scriptures that we can even entertain angels unaware, and, “when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me”. Thanks also to our families who wrote letters, prayed and provided encouragement and support during our travels. The reverse charge phone calls also helped us on occasions when we felt homesick. We hope you enjoy the read and many photographs. We dedicate this book to our kids and grandkids. Thanks be to God for His ongoing generosity!

A ‘limited’ edition of the Graetz’s USA Travel book is on the website :

https://songsoffaithhopelo.wixsite.com/jesuscentre-jireh/1977-usa-christian-communities

 

Progress was made on the ‘community shed’ with roof and outside timber panelling completed in June. Many passers-by stopped to chat about developments in the front yard of No. 61 Sydenham Road.

 

In July we had a visit by Alan and Meg Roberts and family. They gave a talk on the work of Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in Papua New Guinea.

 

Discussions were held on relating to St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church in Norwood. 

 

A “Christian Community” seminar was held with local groups. The Jesus Centre was illustrated as a ‘pioneer group’ in community living.

 

In August, the Jesus Centre had a mission to Geranium Uniting Church - a “good experience for all”

 

In September: 

- Trevor Harris and Peter King had a meeting with Rev. Geoffrey Bingham from New Creation Teaching Ministry (NCTM) and Rev. Brian Fagan from St. Bart’s Anglican Church to explain the new developments of the Jesus Centre. They agreed to provide a ‘spiritual covering’ in pastoral matters.

 

- The ‘House of the Rock’ (HOTR) community visited the Jesus Centre for a BBQ and sharing time. The following week, the Jesus Centre group played cricket with the HOTR group at Houghton Oval.

 

- The Jesus Centre community resumed financial giving again. 

 

In October:

- Trevor Harris was accepted as a representative on the Kensington & Norwood Community Development Council.

 

- The shed floor is concreted with the help of Ted Cole and community lads.

 

- Trevor Harris and Peter King preached at an evening service at St. Bart’s Anglican Church.

 

- The House of the Rock joins the Jesus Centre in an evening visit from Youth With A Mission (YWAM - Adelaide).

 

A donation is given to Russell and Anne Bartlett for their trip to India.

An excerpt from Russ & Anne’s reflections (dated 2020) regarding their ‘move on’ from the Jesus Centre:

​By mid 1977 we were feeling increasingly unsettled in relation to the Jesus Centre. Our Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) involvement had in turn exposed us to the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). We met two international staffworkers, Hans Bürki from Switzerland and Rev. P.T. Chandapilla from India, both ongoing and significant mentors in our personal and spiritual development. Chanda clearly thought a visit to India would do us good, and with AFES support our family went to India in December 1977 for six months, purportedly to help establish a Christian Teachers’ Fellowship. Not long before we left for India, increasingly aware of our own lack of maturity, and the limited age range within the Jesus Centre, we decided to make the move to Parkside Baptist Church to avail ourselves and our children of a broader spectrum of Christian experience. Little did we realise that God had plans for a long and significant relationship with this church; first as members, then when Russell became student pastor, and four years after that, training complete, when he became full-time pastor for a further sixteen years.

 

While Mal and Jenny Graetz were travelling overseas in the United Kingdom, they received a letter from Maureen Harris while in London. Here are some excerpts from the hand written letter dated 5 Nov. 1977 which gives an ‘overview’ of what happened with the Jesus Centre community during that year:

 

• Often comments are heard [from Jesus Centre people] like, “When Mal and Jenny get back, I bet they’ll be stirring us up regarding various areas of community living....”

 

• Our group has been going through a very testing dry period. Maybe we expected to see things happening more quickly, with people being saved around us and our fellowship growing but it hasn’t been happening that way. We’ve seen a lot of changes around our places, the shed (in King’s backyard) is nearing completion. The cement floors have being laid, the back wall plastered, the electrical wiring is finished. It’s mainly the glass louvres and doors that have to be fitted. Trevor has been doing a lot of work on the shed and Peter been concentrating on the garden (lawns, paving, vege gardens, fruit trees along back wall etc).

 

• Maureen Harris found herself saying, “Gee, I wish there was some fiery church near us we could go to!”

 

• Maureen Roberts and Louise have been talking to me lately and are all fired up.... and excited about what is happening at Parkside Baptist. Barry Manuel is pastor there and Russel Carpenter is youth pastor.... there has been a real move of the spirit. ...healings, spiritual gifts, deeper life in the Spirit.

 

• A good number from the North Adelaide Jesus Centre had gravitated to Parkside Baptist including Sharon Langford, John Hinds, Russell & Anne Bartlett, Jayne & Bill Van der Knapp and Ian & Olga DeBoar.

 

• Gordon Fry has called in a few times. He seems very happy out at Salisbury Baptist Church [as interim pastor].

 

• The Jesus Centre group had been interacting with the ‘House of the Rock’ at Houghton to share in fellowship and to encourage each other.

 

• Ted and Jane Van Eeton had been actively involved with the group and Chris Bolette had shifted in with Tom Ryan. Tom, Chris, Peter and Debbie Brown have just finished another term of Bible School with the Rev. Geoffrey Bingham. 

 

• When they resumed their Monday night prayer times after the Bingham teaching sessions, Maureen shared: “There was a real expectancy with us and a sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit ....I think the Lord is really wanting to release us from our fears and allow us to be free to worship Him”. 

Peter King felt the Lord was saying, “He has missed our love”. 

Peter Brown felt that “the group needed to be a lot more honest with each other, to pray more together and open ourselves up.” 

Maureen continued: “We need to be a committed group of Christians, bound together in love and prayer, sharing our lives, our burdens, our joys; really knowing each other so we can become God’s powerhouse...”

​​

• Helen and Neville DeBoar had a baby boy and Sue Franklin gave birth to Mandy. Sue had moved to a cottage in King street, Norwood, and was living separate from Rob. Some of the men from the Jesus Centre had helped to tidy up her property.

 

• ’The Norwood Stabber’ had been active in our neighbourhood! Maureen commented, “We are waging war against the powers of darkness to win men’s [and women’s] souls…”

 

The Jesus Centre was wanting to be more involved in the broader Norwood community. 

A Christmas brochure was published in December. “Why Celebrate Christmas?” was distributed extensively in the Norwood area on behalf of the Jesus Centre and St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church.

 

Another handbill was also distributed inviting people to a Carols Night Celebration at the Norwood Soundshell. A ‘Carol Singers’ group toured the ‘Old Folks Homes’ in Norwood. This involved the St. Bart’s Youth Group joining forces with Jesus Centre people. The night concluded with an invite for the carol singers to perform at the Mayor’s special party for Senior Citizens at the Norwood Town Hall. ​