Série 093/4 - Letters composed by Mary Andrews

Zone d'identification

Cote

AU AU-MTC 093/4

Titre

Letters composed by Mary Andrews

Date(s)

  • 1930-1996 (Production)

Niveau de description

Série

Étendue matérielle et support

Loose papers

Zone du contexte

Nom du producteur

(1915-1996)

Notice biographique

Mary Maria Andrews was born at Dry Plain Station (near Cooma, NSW) in 1915 to Albert and Ann Andrews. The family moved to Mittagong in 1925 then Sydney in 1927 for educational purposes following the separation of her parents. Mary was educated at Homebush Intermediate High School and later Hornsby Girls' High. She underwent training as a General Nurse at Gladesville Mental Hospital from 1933-1935, . studied at Sydney Missionary and Bible College from 1935-6 and was a resident at Deaconess house from 1937-8 at the recommendation of the Church Missionary Society of Australia (CMS), to which she had applied as a missionary to China in 1937.
Sailing to China in September 1938, she engaged in language learning at the College of Chinese Studies in Peiping (which was under Japanese occupation at the time) and later in Lin Hai, where she performed missionary work until she was forced to leave in late 1943 in fear of Japanese troops. She worked in Lahore, India, during 1944, and returned to Australia on furlough in 1946, during which time she was 'set apart' as a Deaconess. She returned to China in June 1947, working as a missionary in Shaohsing until she was forced to leave due to pressure from the Communist government in 1951.
Following her missionary career she continued to be heavily involved in CMS Candidates and General Committees and was a committed supporter of the South American Missionary Society (SAMS) and served on their Candidates and Pastoral Committee.
She began work as the Principal of Deaconess House in 1951, and was commissioned as Head Deaconess in the Diocese of Sydney in early 1952. As Principal, she oversaw a dramatic expansion of the institution in both physical size and occupancy. She held the position until her reluctant retirement in 1975. Many of the women who trained at Deaconess House continued to correspond with her, confide in her and shares the joys and trials of ministry with her until her life's end.
She then took on the role of part-time chaplain to three retirement villages - Goodwin Village, Woollahra (where she also resided); Elizabeth Lodge, Kings Cross, and St John's Village, Glebe. Not only did she conduct Bible studies and hold devotional meetings with the residents but she also encouraged them to give generously to missions, other Christian work and organisations for the aged. Additionally, she increased her involvement in a number of ecumenical and women's associations and was a fixture at these for the remainder of her life. Material found in her papers suggests that she supported the Healing Ministry at St Andrews Cathedral, Basilea Schlink of Darmstadt and that she attended the Billy Graham Crusade in 1979.
In 1980 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her Services to Religion.
Mary Andrews throughout her career and ministry was a strong proponent of greater inclusion of women into church life. She was actively involved in the events leading up to a number of milestones, including an increased prominence of the Deaconess order, the inclusion of women in the Anglican synod, and the ordination of women as Anglican Deacons. Late in her life she was fiercely in favour of the ordination of women as priests, and was a member of the Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW).
She had a healthy interest in a wide range of Christian beliefs and recorded broadcast interviews of Chrisians from Roman Catholic, Anglican, Pentecostal, and various other Christian denominations from Australia and abroad.
Recreationally she enjoyed traditional hymns, English Cathedral music and when time permitted attended performing arts particularly 'classical' music. In fact she entered into correspondence occasionally regarding the programs of concerts and the choice of operas if she thought they were unsuitable. She also had a life-long interest in photography and left behind an exhaustive documentation of the work of Deaconess House, the organisations that she was involved with, her many overseas trips, significant occasions in the ministry of former students and friends and of women's ministry in general.
She died on the 16th of October 1996, a few weeks after the 50th anniversary of her 'setting apart' as a Deaconess.

Histoire archivistique

Source immédiate d'acquisition ou de transfert

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Portée et contenu

This series contains letters written by Mary Andrews, some of which are drafts and some of which are letters which had been posted but which were returned to Mary at a later date. In some cases, letters were preserved for Mary's benefit at her explicit request in the body of the letter - for example, in the case of personal letters which doubled as travel memoirs.
The series includes letters sent to CMS during Deaconess Andrews' time on the mission field (with the exception of circular newsletters and submissions to The Round World magazine, which have been included in Series 5), drafts of letters to bishops and other ecclesiastical figures, drafts of letters to the editors of publications, personal letters (and drafts thereof) including letters to relatives, and informal notes left around Deaconess House or (later) the Retirement Villages.
The letters have been arranged in chronological order, with some approximation.
Letters with insufficient contextual information for a definite date have been grouped together at the end of the series.
The content of this series was separated in part from Mary's collection of personal letters received (see Series 1), and was otherwise collected piecemeal from miscellaneous unsorted paperwork distributed haphazardly throughout the collection. It is unknown if there was any original intended order to these latter papers (though it seems unlikely) or if the arrangement was an arbitrary decision by Archives Consultant Debra Leigo, who supervised the re-boxing of the collection in 2011.

Évaluation, élimination et calendrier de conservation

Accroissements

Mode de classement

Chronological

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Open access

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