Historical information

John (Jock) Corben Lavender
Jock was born in Ivanhoe, but spent most of his youth in Northcote where his father was a bank manager, and where he attended primary school, high school and the Methodist church in High Street which became a central point in his life. He took his first job in the dispatch office at McPhersons nut and bolt factory in North Richmond in 1935. After a short time at McPhersons he moved to the Trustees Executors and Agency Company
in 1936.

While working at the Trustees Jock developed the conviction that his vocation lay with the church. This necessitated studying Matriculation at night school for two years as well as working and studying to become a Local Preacher. The minister at Northcote at the time was the Rev.F.T.Cleverdon who helped him prepare to apply as a candidate for Ordination. Before going to university and Queen’s for his arts degree and theological training, Mr Cleverdon, who was now the minister at Neil Street, Ballarat, offered Jock the opportunity to minister to the small congregation at Brown Hill, Ballarat, which was in his Circuit, and to live with the Cleverdons. He spent a year in Ballarat under the tutelage of Rev.F.T Cleverdon in 1939. Jock was accepted by the 1940 Victorian Methodist Conference as a Candidate for the Ministry and started his studies for his theological training and an arts degree at Melbourne University that year. Because of a shortage of ministers, due to the war, Jock was taken out of Queen’s in 1943 to take charge of two fairly small churches in Caulfield - Hawthorn Road and Bambra Road.

Jock was ordained in 1945 & married two days later to Elsie Chipperfield, with whom he had worked at the Trustees Executors and Agency. He had joined the RAAF as a chaplain and was sent to Borneo. Returning to Australia in early 1946, he was then appointed to Orbost for a year, Bracknell in Tasmania in 1948, followed by Reid in Canberra, 1951. The next move was to Portland in 1954. Unfortunately not long after this, Elsie was diagnosed with breast cancer. This necessitated a move back to Melbourne - to Mitcham in 1957. Elsie died in December 1957.

This period was a very hard time as Jock had four young daughters but his mother helped out by living in for most of the week until Jock was married to Peg in 1959 and their son was born in 1961.

In 1964 Jock was moved to Launceston, his first city church. These years were challenging for Jock as he felt compelled to speak out around social issues, such as the Vietnam War & Aboriginal rights, although many did not agree with his view.

In 1969 Jock was moved to Horsham to take up the role of Separated Chairman of the North-Western District responsible for Circuits, ministers and families for policy issues and pastoral concerns over an area from the South Australian border, up to the Murray and over it to Wentworth and Dareton, up river to Swan Hill and south to Ballarat and Daylesford. It was a demanding job but richly rewarding in the relationships made with ministers and their families.

In 1971 Jock was elected Secretary of the Methodist Conference and in 1972 was voted President of the Conference. He felt it an honour and a vote of confidence by clergy and lay people

The final move was to Geelong in 1976 where Jock was the minister at Wesley until 1983.Jock found Geelong a very satisfying parish in which to finish his active ministry. It was while he was Minister of Wesley Church, Geelong, that the Uniting Church came into being and Jock became the first Chairman of the Barwon Presbytery. There were now two ministers at Wesley – Jock and Alex Peerman, whose joint congregation of St. Giles (Pres) and City Congregational now joined with Wesley to become the City Parish.

Jock was very surprised to be elected as the third Moderator of the Uniting Church in Victoria, to take office in 1979/1980

1983 saw retirement to Portarlington several months’ locum in both Canada & Kununurra. When the property at Portarlington became too large to maintain, they moved in 1994 into the current house in Belmont & returned to the Wesley Church here.

In the words of Rev. Prof. Norman Young and Rev. Peter Gador-Whyte at Jock’s funeral service:

“We are here today to give thanks to God for Jock Lavender;
a gentle man of great compassion, humour and humility.
We gather to remember
the love he shared so generously
the faith he lived so graciously,
and the hope he expressed both in his preaching and in his presence.
As President of the Methodist Conference
and Moderator of the Uniting Church
Jock held significant leadership roles within the church
and did so with great dignity and grace
never lording it over people
but leading by example with an inner strength and faith
that won respect and trust.
There was something really special about him
that is hard to put your finger on.
We have all been blessed by God through Jock.

Mr Alexander Kilgour
Alex Kilgour was for many years an active elder and layman in the Presbyterian and then Uniting Church. He was involved in many committees at Synod level for many years. He was a Moderator of the Synod of Victoria of the UCA—one of the first laypeople to take on the role in the early years of the UCA. He was for many years Executive Director of the Resources Commission of the Synod. He worked at Mitchell Brushes (the company owned by Ethel and John Mitchell.

Physical description

B&W photograph. The Rev. John C (Jock) Lavender and Mr Alex Kilgour, dressed in shirts, are standing shoulder to shoulder, facing the camera.

Inscriptions & markings

C&N 19/3/1986