Dean Eland retired from full time ministry five years ago concluding 41 years
in active ministry in three states. He trained for
the ministry at Parkin College SA and was ordained as a minister of the
Congregational Union in Stow Church (now Pilgrim) in March 1963. Four years
later he married Judy in the same church as they met at a Stow youth camp.
After serving as minister of the Hectorville Rostrevor Congregational churches
for four years Dean was called to minister in Sydney's inner city and for 12 years
was based in Redfern. Judy and Dean returned to SA in 1979 serving at Whyalla for
five years and then Port Adelaide from 1984 to 1991. In 1992 Dean was appointed mission
planning director for the Uniting Church in Victoria and in 1999 was called to the
Sunshine Parish Mission in the heart of the western suburbs of Melbourne. Officially
retiring at the end of 2003 Judy and Dean returned to Adelaide.
For a number of years Dean was convener of the Assembly Working Group on Missiology
and has been active in community ministry in each of his placements. Currently Dean is
a member of the reference group of the Urban Mission Network in SA and the Presbytery
Pastoral Relations and Placement Committees. He is also a member of the Council of the
UCA Historical Society and has written a number of articles on the history of congregations
in the Port Adelaide region. Dean's Doctor of Ministry thesis with MCD was based on a
research project investigating the changing identity of the church in the western region
of Melbourne. In October 2008 Dean produced a paper for an international conference on the
theme, City Churches: Pulpit or Platform comparing established and new forms of the church
in the City of Adelaide.
Judy is a teacher of English to adults and has been involved in developing
and teaching courses for new arrivals and refugees for the last twenty
years. They have four grandchildren and enjoy traveling, Australian history
and bush walking.
