Barton Books — Authors
Anne Ranse
Archdeacon Anne Ranse is the youngest child of the late Reverend Canon Fred and Mrs Audrey Dau of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn, being born in the parish of Cobargo at the end of the Second World War. She is deacon at St James Anglican Church in Holt, ACT where she ministers to the elderly housebound and those isolated in the community. Her other roles include pastoral care coordinator at St James, the Dean of Aged Care chaplains and Archdeacon for the Diaconate in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn. Anne is currently President of the Australian Anglican Diaconal Association.
“My life has been one of engagement, with great joy, in the life of the Anglican church, for as long as I can remember. I chose to always follow my father about in his ministry and my mother in her involvement as well. I taught Sunday school, was a member of the YA’s and after leaving school I trained as a nurse at Goulburn Base hospital and Royal North Shore hospital with the specific purpose of using my training on the mission fields. On completion of my nursing training I joined up with the Bush Church Aid Society and served in the Far North West of South Australia at Coober Pedy. During my time there I received a bravery reward from the Royal Humane Society for rescuing a miner who had fallen into a mine shaft. Later I served with the Presbyterian Board of Missions at the remote Aboriginal Community of Ernabella in the Musgrave Ranges of South Australia. It was there I learnt to speak the language of the Pitjantjatjara people, live with them and care for their health in a small mud brick hospital. It was also where I married. We moved from Ernabella to Tumut in NSW for the birth of our first child and then onto Canberra. We have two boys and two foster boys.
I was ordained Deacon in the permanent Diaconate on Ascension Day 24 May 1998 and collated and installed as an Archdeacon on 13 November 2001 in St Saviour’s Cathedral Goulburn. I started to write the reflections in 2005 after a profound experience of God’s healing and his grace has been sufficient to keep them flowing. I love to walk of a morning, at sunrise or before, and it is there in the quiet of the morning that I commune with God and He with me in a deeply personal way. We walk the mornings together. The original concept of the twice weekly reflections was to the deacons, to encourage and support them in their ministries. Now they are open to anyone who wishes to receive them but the focus remains with the deacons.”