Vale: The Reverend Joyce Polson OAM
POSTED April 23 2024 , News
From Podium to Pulpit
With ideas beyond her time and a career ahead of its time, The Reverend Joyce Sylvia Polson OAM was more than a chaplain, guide, mentor, coach, teacher and counsellor to an unnumbered many in this life; she was our friend.
Along with her two brothers and three sisters, Joyce was born to parents of Swedish descent, her mother a seamstress and her father dying when she was very young. A clever child, Joyce attended Erskineville in Sydney, a school for gifted children. With a Leaving Certificate that she applied herself to later rather than sooner, she achieved strong academic results and initially worked for a stockbroker’s firm. Joyce enjoyed the stock market and a lucrative career beckoned before she felt a calling to become a Deaconess. At the school where she trained, Joyce shared a room with Beth Buchanan (Mickel ’48, Head Girl), and so began Joyce’s journey to becoming a deaconess and later a priest.
Appointed to the Order of Deaconesses in 1953, the ministry that women were restricted to by the Church at the time, Joyce was at a loose end as to what to do and how to best serve people. Beth suggested moving to Perth to look for a position there. After working for the Diocesan Board of Religious Education, Joyce was placed at the Applecross parish with Canon Lawrence William (Bill) Riley, the son of Bishop Charles Lawrence Riley CBE, the founder of our School. There, Joyce thrived under Bill’s guidance, working for 10 years in the parish with roles encompassing youth and social work as much as spiritual guidance.
Joyce developed a strong bond with the extended Riley family and when Bill was transferred to be the Rector at the St Mary’s Church West Perth and Honorary Chaplain to the School in 1967, Archbishop Sambell said of Joyce, ‘I don’t know what to do with you!’ At Bill’s suggestion, Joyce was appointed to a part-time role at the parish and to a second role at St Mary’s, which was in a transition stage between its two campuses at Colin Street West Perth and Karrinyup. The boarders were still residing in houses around Colin Street and attending Sunday services with Hale School boys at St Mary’s Church. The girls and staff were bussed to and from West Perth to Karrinyup each day, and Joyce would joyfully join them, teaching Divinity and Human Relations. Her first lesson was teaching Divinity to Year 9 students.
In 1972, Joyce was appointed full-time at the School and continued to teach and provide counselling and guidance. She was also a member of Western Australia’s State Cricket Team and her passion for cricket led to the introduction of the sport at St Mary’s. She became great friends with Anne Symington (Paton ’33), Principal 1966 to 1982, and assisted her with timetabling, outdoor education and administration. As a woman, Joyce could only assist in religious services at the School and could not conduct them herself. This was, at times, a great source of frustration for her, as Chaplains to the School came and went. The Chapel of St Mary was consecrated and opened in 1981, built incorporating some design concepts from Joyce, including a projected altar and a sloping floor. It won architectural praise and awards, and fulfilled Joyce’s vision for worship at St Mary’s.
In 1986, Joyce was ordained as Deacon, and in March 1992, she was one of the first women in Australia to be ordained as Priest at St George’s Cathedral, along with current Archbishop, Kay Goldsworthy AO. In realising her ambition to become a priest, her ordination meant that Joyce could officiate at services at the School and become Chaplain.
In 1994, Joyce retired from St Mary’s to work at the Yanchep parish and volunteer at St George’s Cathedral. She received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1999 for her services to the community through the Anglican Church. By 2010, St Mary’s needed Joyce’s help once more, and she returned as Assistant Chaplain to the Reverend Canon Gerry Nixon, who said of Joyce, “There is never a dull moment when Joyce is at school. She has a wicked sense of humour! I now consider her my confidante and close friend”.
Joyce was also made an honorary member of the St Mary’s Old Girls’ Association in that year. In 2015, she celebrated her 60th year of ministry and was named Chaplain Emeritus to St Mary’s for her dedication and service to the School. In March of 2016, The Polson Room was opened in her honour. At the opening, Joyce said the important thing about St Mary’s was the “sense of community; a common unity based on God’s love for every person”. She also noted the importance of companionship and conversation, which she hoped would thrive in the newly named communal space.
Famous for her humour, boisterous style, stubborn determination, insightful observations and advice, willingness to take on the new, and most importantly, a deep and unwavering faith, Joyce remembered everyone she met and they her. As Ronda Beck, Deputy Principal 1985 to 2008, recalled of Joyce, “Her influence reverberates still…as her voice did in the past. Former students recount stories in which she played a leading role, with fondness and hilarity. The blend of mischief, wit, wisdom, high standards and devotion to her faith…told in an inimitable style from podium [to] pulpit…”
Past President of the OGA, Jane Gillon (Fisher ’70) once said of Joyce, “Reverend Joyce is a treasured friend, chaplain and confidante who holds a special place in my life and in the lives of so many Old Girls of St Mary’s”.
Let us remember Joyce for her down-to-earth style, her fondness for St Mary’s and her love of God.
She once aptly said, “…we should be emphasising the innate goodness of religion and show children how to rejoice and be glad about God’.
Life’s duty done.
Stephanie Neille
Archivist