First Steps

Welcome to “Walking the Path with Ros” and thanks for checking in!

My path, as you may well know, has involved almost two and a half decades of visioning, training, ministering, re-visioning, more training, and now ministry in various forms in Australasia and USA. You have all walked with me along my path at some point or points, reaching out a hand at different times, lending an ear, offering a hug, always supportive and very much appreciated.

Flying over the Rockies in Colorado

View of Mt Hood, Oregon from my window seat

The first steps on my ministry path to Australia and New Zealand in 2018 took me to Oregon to see my son Chris and his girlfriend Robyn. Besides the fun tour of some highlights of northern Oregon, I’ve been spending some time preparing for the various services and church activities scheduled in the next few weeks.

The Auckland church has retired ministers, and the Adelaide church has a female lay leader. Both congregations were happy to have a visiting minister help out for a while. I’d hoped to be able to do that for 5 months as an ordained minister, but lack of reliable housing shortened my total time to one month. Lack of a decision on the part of the clergy of the New Church in Australia about ordaining women, triggered by my application for ordination, has left me helping out as an almost-candidate for ordination.

So I’ll be leading worship in Auckland and Adelaide, and Bible study and an outreach programme in Adelaide. In Sydney, there’s a possibility that I’ll be leading a discussion on Sunday morning in the Hurstville church, since the minister will be out of town. Yet to see whether the GC Bishop approves of that.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying the rural setting where Chris and Robyn live in Spray, and our adventures for the last few days!

We started out going to the Painted Hills, Bend where we watched most of the Superbowl, and Sisters where we enjoyed an outdoor hot tub.

Chris and Robyn at Painted Hills, OR

Road trip in Oregon


Drake Park, Bend, OR


Bend, OR the night the Eagles won the Superbowl – we were a lot safer than we would have been in Philadelphia

The next day we hiked through the Mt Hood National Forest on a beautiful day to the Bagby Hot Springs – very relaxing! On the way back we got stuck on a snowy mountain side that even Chris and Robyn’s jeep had difficulty with. Chris masterfully backed down the slope with Robyn directing and me praying, and we got back on track! We ended the day with a campfire lulling us in our gratitude.