Diakonia UCA

Deaconess Lorna Stevenson (20 June 1922 – 19 September 2016)

Deaconess Lorna Nellie Stevenson was born on 20 June 1922 and passed away in Alice Springs on 19 September 2016.

Lorna trained as a deaconess at Rolland House in Melbourne and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in Adelaide on 28 January 1960. She then worked as a field officer with the Christian Education Department of the South Australian Presbyterian church. She was an elder at Scots Presbyterian Church in Adelaide and a leader in combined Christian Young Adults group set up by the three churches long before they united.

Lorna went to Darwin in May 1969 as a deaconess in the Darwin Parish and in 1972 filled in at the Katherine Parish when there was a vacancy there.

Lorna was in Karratha in Western Australia with Frontier Services in 1973-74 serving with the Karratha Kamp team.

In 1976 Lorna travelled to Alice Springs and was a member of the Northern Synod Standing Committee from 1979 to 1982. She retained an active interest in the work of the Synod and frequently interrogated General Secretaries as to what was happening across our Synod and nationally.

After an overseas trip she acquired a brand new bright yellow car and moved into a new cottage at the Old Timers in 1980. Lorna maintained an active role in the local church. Every morning during the 1980s she was in the church office editing the weekly church bulletin, acting as secretary to the Centre Presbytery and was a member of a review team that visited the APY Lands. During this time Lorna also assisted in the ministry at Tennant Creek when there was no patrol minister there.

Up until her illness in 2016, Lorna would sometimes officiate at communion in the John Flynn Church if the minister was away, and took an active part in the small monthly services at Old Timers.

A long time friend, Eldrene March said of Lorna – she was a good thinker, a great typist and administrator which was a blessing to the John Flynn Church.

(Source: Peter Jones, General Secretary, Northern Synod).