We are excited to announce Collins St Baptist’s Reverend Carolyn Francis has been appointed as the new lecturer in Baptist Identity and History.
The preacher, musician and public speaker, says she is excited by the opportunity and is eager to thoroughly and passionately present Baptist identity and history to a wider group of people.
The appointment continues a long relationship between Whitley and Collins St Baptist Church, the beginnings of which hark back to the early days of the college’s existence.
She will start her new role in January 2022.
“This feels like a coming together of the past 20 year’s work, study and research. So much of what I do at Collins St has been around teaching and preaching. This is a way of expanding and developing my lifelong commitment to the Baptist movement.”
Rev Francis says she was born into the Baptist church and that she is now Baptist by conviction.
She already has a relationship with the college and has even taken on some adjunct lecturing over the years. However, her initial association with Whitley goes back to 1999 when she was a Bachelor of Theology student. In fact, this was when she met her husband Karl. “It was in our first class, Introduction to Mission with Ross Langmead. People seem to enjoy hearing this story of how we met.” The couple now have two teenage children.
Rev Francis says she loves the free exchange of ideas which happen in the classroom, and that she is looking forward to developing strong relationships with colleagues and students.
She also anticipates furthering her own research at Whitley and plans to do a PhD around the topics of religious freedom and freedom of conscience.
When she is not working, Rev Francis describes herself as a passionate Western Bulldogs supporter; even going so far as to calling her commitment “a second religion.”
Another fun fact, she is a classically trained singer and in non-pandemic times performs with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra!
Rev Francis will be taking over for Rev Dr Marita Munro who will be retiring at the end of the year.