Peter & Marilyn Brown's Story
I (Peter) became a Christian in 1976 after giving my life to the Lord in the Rev’d Geoffrey Bingham’s study. I was working as a Psychologist at the time and living at 25 Gray Street, Norwood, sharing a house with a mate.
Soon after this, I made contact with the Jesus Centre, having been given Trevor Harris’ name and address by Geoff Bingham. I was amazed to find that God had provided a Christian group just at the end of the street I was living in!
Meanwhile, my mate moved out of the house, so I asked my sister Debbie to share the house with me because she had recently moved back to Adelaide from Sydney. To my astonishment I discovered that she too had become a Christian completely independent of any contact with me.
So both Debbie and I became members of the Jesus Centre as brand new Christians and started attending regularly.
This was an exciting time for us and I can’t emphasise enough how important the Jesus Centre was to our growth and development as young Christians. The Jesus Centre (later renamed JIREH) had a huge role in informing our understanding of Christianity and providing fellowship and support.
I met Marilyn at work (she was working as a Clerical Assistant in the same Government Department) and she became a Christian in 1977. We started courting and became engaged in June 1978.
Marilyn also started attending the Jesus Centre in 1978 and we were married by Geoff Bingham on 24th February, 1979. Marilyn, up until this time, was living at home with her parents in Salisbury. Incidentally, Marilyn’s sister Debbie also gave her life to the Lord in 1977, assisted by Trevor Harris.
Marilyn and I attended a number of New Creation Teaching Ministry courses, lectures and Summer Schools over the years, which also greatly assisted our Christian learning.
While living in Norwood and being a part of the Jesus Centre, Marilyn and I also started to develop some connections with St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church and helped out on some youth camps and so on.
We travelled overseas in 1980 for approximately 9 months, backpacking around the UK, Ireland and Europe. Some of this included visiting Christian communities focussed on healing and spiritual care.
In around 1981 we started attending St. Bart’s regularly but still saw the Jireh community as the main source of our fellowship. We continued to attend the Jireh community meals, Bible studies and other events.
In Nov. 1984 we bought the house owned by Des and Cherie Fellowes at 45 Gray Street. My sister Debbie continued to live in the house in Gray Street that I left when I got married.
Our involvement at St. Bart’s grew and we were a regular part of the music group playing on Sundays. I also eventually became a Parish Councillor, Parish Magazine Editor, a Lay Assistant, a Lay Reader and then a Lay Preacher under the encouragement of The Rev’d Brian Fagan.
We have fostered two children and the second one, Sharayah, we were asked if we would be willing to adopt (we didn’t seek this), which we eventually did. We also adopted a baby boy, Christopher, in 1988.
In 1988 we moved to Blackwood and I began to test a calling to Ordained Ministry. After much prayer and soul-searching I was accepted as an Ordination Candidate in the Anglican Church and studied full-time at St. Barnabas Theological College from 1989-1992.
I was made Deacon in February 1992 and Ordained Priest in December 1992. We have served in a number of parishes since then, both in the city and the country.
The Jesus Centre-Jireh Community had a significant impact on our lives. The fellowship was very rich due to meeting regularly for all sorts of occasions and because we all lived close to one another. We haven’t found such Christian fellowship to quite the same level anywhere else.
The Jesus Centre was also important for our nurturing as Christians and helped us as we learned about prayer, the Bible, outreach etc.
Also - we had a lot of fun!