Deacon Dr John Collins and Dr Sandra Carroll, 9 November 2023
As a ministerial couple, Deacon John Collins and Sandra Carroll are quite something. Both have done Doctorates in theology, though they don’t like to brag about the fact. They have also spent their lifetimes discerning and living out their baptismal calls in amazing intentional ways.
Sandra grew up in western Sydney and John in a middle class suburb of Melbourne. They both explored different forms of religious or clerical Catholic vocations, and spent time with various orders. However, they noted a difference. Sandra’s experience was mainly outside parish life, in areas such as housing trust flats, involvement with indigenous people at the parish in Redfern, women’s ministry and the Eucharistic Congress. John’s experience was parish-focused, with sports, YCW, scouts, altar service and running a youth group.
However, in time, both discerned away from their religious congregations of interest. Sandra found her vocation in teaching, and taught religious education and then teaching formation. John did various kinds of work, including adult faith education, marriage and relationship education, grief and parenting strategies. He moved to the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Commission, where he worked in the Catholic Enquiry Centre and National Office for Evangelisation for 8 years. It was a challenging time to be in such a role during the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
It was at Sydney University that their two paths crossed. Sandra met John while doing a Masters of Theology. They wed and had two children, living their marriage as a form of ministry. They see it as an outward-looking service that is open and supportive of all. When the children were young, John became the primary carer while Sandra continued to work. They laugh as Sandra says, “I don’t see myself as a typical wife. I can’t cook, but I can give a talk or write a paper.” And John responds, “Well, I can cook!”
To add to this, John’s calling to the diaconate was finally the answer to his earlier explorations. Even while they were dating, he spoke about it with Sandra, but put it on hold until the children were older. He had a complicated journey through two dioceses, but “I couldn’t let it go or it couldn’t let me go.” Bishop Anthony Randazzo and Bishop Vincent Long were very supportive and open to receiving his gifts as a prospective deacon. John was ordained on the 11th of June, 2021, for the Diocese of Parramatta.
As well as parish responsibilities, John is on the diocesan vocation team for deacons, and both he and Sandra were elected onto the Council for Deacons. Even while John was in diaconal formation, they shared their particular expertise around marriage and ministry with the other candidates. John was also “heavily involved” in the diocesan Synod and a major part of his work is providing pastoral supervision for clergy.
John sees that his ordination as a deacon has given him a certain credibility and authority to provide for pastoral needs in his parish and diocese. He works closely with, and provides support and nourishment to, the parish priest and leaders of the Parish Pastoral Council. Moreover, the diaconal ordination was a “formalisation and closer connection with what I had been doing with the altar. It was a sacramentalism of what I had been doing all my life.”
As an example, John paints the picture of a small prayer group that has become “one of the richest parts of my life in the parish”. It began as part of the mystagogy period for a new Catholic, but took on its own life. Every gathering the participants simply read the weekly gospel, reflect and pray the liturgy of the evening Prayer of the Church. It is where “all the marginal parts of our lives are brought into the safe prayer space.” Complicated lives and challenges such as illness or breakdown in relationships are shared as the stories of their lives. They are then brought to liturgical prayer. I am sure that John and Sandra’s long and varied experiences have prepared them perfectly for this ministry of liturgy and life.
Liturgy on the Margins 