Susanna Pain (Sue Pain, Susanna Leigh Pain) (born 1957) is an Australian

Anglican priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particul ...

, former

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, Sale in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and spiritual director. She was one of the first women ordained as an Anglican priest in Australia in 1992, one of the five women ordained in Adelaide, and the first female dean of St Paul's,

Diocese of Gippsland The Diocese of Gippsland is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, founded in 1902. It is situated in the Gippsland region of the state of Victoria, Australia and covers most of the eastern part of the state. The diocesan cathedral is ...

.The Anglican Church of Australia, 2021, ''Directory / Anglican Church of Australia'' The features of her ministry have been pastoral care, leading spiritual retreats and contemplative prayer, and encouraging use of the creative and performance arts for worship.

Personal life, education and early career

Pain was born in

Cowra Cowra is a small town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre and the council seat for the Cowra Shire, with a population of 9,863. Cowra is located approximately above sea level, on the ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. She is a great-granddaughter of

Arthur Pain Arthur Wellesley Pain (21 August 1841 – 14 May 1920) was an Anglican bishop and the first Bishop of Gippsland from 1902 until 1917. Born in Felmersham and educated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, he was ordained in 1866. He began his ...

, first bishop of the diocese of Gippsland and his wife, Annie Bisdee Pain (Thorne). Pain is married to Nikolai Blaskow who is an Anglican priest, teacher and

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

; the couple are described as being a team and having a "shared ministry". Pain obtained a Bachelor of Science, Australian National University in 1978; Bachelor of Social Work, La Trobe University in 1981; Bachelor of Theology, Australian College of Theology in 1989; Diploma of Remedial Massage in 2006; and a Graduate Diploma of Pastoral Supervision in 2014.Anglican Media and Angela Grutzner & Associates. ''The Australian Anglican directory,'' 2015 Before entering the ministry she worked as a social worker in adoptions and foster care, in hospitals and with migrants and refugees. In the early 1990s she co-founded InterPlay® Australia, a community arts practice with Rod Pattenden and Trish Watts.

Ministry

Pain studied theology at St Mark's National Theological College,

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

and was ordained as a deacon in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn in 1989 and appointed as

Assistant Curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

, Holy Covenant Anglican Church, Jamison,

from 1990 to 1992.

Ordination as priest

In 1990

Owen Dowling Owen Douglas Dowling (1934 – 2008) was an Anglican bishop in Australia. Dowling was educated at Melbourne High School and the University of Melbourne. He was a secondary school teacher until 1959. He was ordained in 1960 and was a curate at ...

, Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, announced he would ordain a group of women deacons as priests. Press coverage showed Pain with the other women ordinands surrounding and supporting Dowling. However, by the date of the ordination service in February 1992, while the ordinands were on retreat, a civil court injunction had been obtained to stop the ordination. The ordination ceremony proceeded and the 11 women deacons, including Pain, affirmed their commitment to become priests and were affirmed by the congregation, then returned to their seats while the male deacons were ordained. The ''Canberra Times'' ran a photo showing Pain in distress after the "non-ordination" ceremony. The next day Pain moved to

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

to take up a position as Deacon-in-Charge at Emmanuel Anglican church,

Wayville Wayville is an inner-southern suburb of Adelaide in the City of Unley. It is most notable for hosting of the Royal Adelaide Show at the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds, Adelaide Showgrounds. The suburb is bordered to the north by Adelaide's South Par ...

where she preached and undertook all the duties of a priest except for blessing and serving the

eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

. On 5 December 1992 Archbishop Ian George ordained Pain as a priest along with Joan Claring-Bould, Flo Monahan (Walters), Sister Juliana CI (Community of the Incarnation) and Susan Straub.

Priest

1992–1998

From 1992 to 1998 Pain was Priest-in-Charge at the church in Wayville where she had served as Deacon-in-Charge. During that time she also worked as Pastoral Chaplain, St Barnabas College, Adelaide from 1996 to 1997. She was elected to the Social Responsibilities Commission of the Standing Committee of General Synod. While at Wayville, Pain wrote about her work as a priest: "It is a privilege to stand alongside men and women in the crisis time of their lives, baptising, marrying, burying, finding ways to express in ritual the pain of divorce, the joy of a new home or a new relationship, listening, teaching, facilitating and learning. I stay in the church because of this. Church is a gathering place for broken people, people searching, hopeful people, real people, and through them and with them I get a sense of God's presence. And by being there we make a difference." In 1994 South Australia celebrated the centenary of

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

in that state. Pain led an ecumenical service at St Peter's Cathedral on 11 February which included a dramatised conversation between Mary Lee and

Catherine Helen Spence Catherine Helen Spence (31 October 1825 – 3 April 1910) was a Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician, leading suffragist, and Georgist. Spence was also a minister of religion and social worker, and supporter of ...

(South Australian suffragists) and a litany honouring the wisdom and struggles of women. The service was organised with other clergy, Elizabeth McWhae and Catie Inches-Ogden and the guest of honour was then Governor of South Australia,

Dame Roma Mitchell Dame Roma Flinders Mitchell, (2 October 1913 – 5 March 2000) was an Australian lawyer, judge and state governor. She was the first woman to hold a number of positions in Australia – the country's first woman judge, the first woman to be a ...

. In October 1994 along with the four other women made priests in 1992, Pain was awarded the

University Medal A University Medal is one of several types of award conferred by universities upon outstanding students or members of staff. The usage and status of university medals differ between countries and between universities. As award on graduation Many ...

Flinders University Flinders University is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across 11 locations in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of British navigator ...

to acknowledge their pioneering role. To celebrate the 1992 ordinations, the Movement for the Ordination of Women ran a photo in its newsletter of Pain laughing with joy (originally from ''Sunday Mail'', Adelaide). In 1997 with Philip Carter, Director of the Julian Centre and the Ministry in Spirituality, Pain hosted and led a "retreat in daily life" attended by people from four parishes including Pain's Wayville congregants. That year with Laura Stephenson and Steve Ashley, Pain organised a conference, "Out of Bounds: Spirituality, the Arts and Culture" at the Lion Arts Centre.

1998–2002

In 1998 Pain moved to Sydney to take up the position of Assistant Minister, St James', King Street, Sydney where she served until 2002 and also as Chaplain at

Sydney Hospital Sydney Hospital is a major hospital in Australia, located on Macquarie Street in the Sydney central business district. It is the oldest hospital in Australia, dating back to 1788, and has been at its current location since 1811. It first rece ...

. The

Anglican Diocese of Sydney The Diocese of Sydney is a diocese in Sydney, within the Province of New South Wales of the Anglican Church of Australia. The majority of the diocese is evangelical and low church in tradition. The diocese goes as far as Lithgow in the wes ...

does not ordain women as priests and women ordained elsewhere are not recognised as priests in the Anglican diocese of Sydney. As Pain was regarded as a deacon by the Sydney Anglican hierarchy she could not preside over the eucharist.

2002–2015

From 2002 to 2004 Pain was Rector of St John's Cowra, the town of her birth in the

Anglican Diocese of Bathurst The Anglicanism, Anglican Diocese of Bathurst is located in the Province of New South Wales. It includes the cities of Orange, New South Wales, Orange, Bathurst, New South Wales, Bathurst and Dubbo. The Bishop is the Right Reverend Mark Calder, ...

. From 2006 to 2014 she returned as Rector to Holy Covenant Anglican Church in Canberra where she had first worked as a deacon and assistant curate. While there she oversaw the employment of a Holistic Care Nurse, Youth Worker, Children's Worker, and the establishment of a Day Hospice. Pain was also

Area Dean In the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion as well as some Lutheran denominations, a rural dean is a member of clergy who presides over a "rural deanery" (often referred to as a deanery); "ruridecanal" is the corresponding adjective. ...

of Belconnen from 2008 to 2009 and

Archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

, Canberra North from 2009 to 2010. In 2007 Pain was invited to open the St Paul's

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...

residence at Sale which had been newly built from the Annie Pain Memorial Kindergarten Hall, named after her great-grandmother. In 2014 Pain was Spiritual Director, Pastoral Supervisor and Retreat Leader at The Well in Lyneham, Canberra then in 2015 she became associate director, Liturgy, Arts and Spiritual Care at the

Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture The Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture is a national Christian ecumenical centre, established in 1993, in Canberra, the national capital of Australia. It encourages dialogue and cooperation among Christian churches and between Christi ...

Dean

2016–2021

Pain was installed as the 23rd Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in Sale on 3 September 2016 by

Kay Goldsworthy Kay Maree Goldsworthy (born 1956) is an Australian bishop of the Anglican Church of Australia. She is the current archbishop of Perth in the Province of Western Australia.ABC Online Upon her installation as archbishop, on 10 February 2018, she ...

, then Bishop of Gippsland. The service was attended by four past deans of Sale as well as three deans of surrounding dioceses, and included liturgical dance and a reading from Corinthians by Pain's husband, Nikolai Blaskow. Pain became the first woman Dean of the cathedral for the diocese where her great-grandfather was enthroned as the first bishop in 1902. She was interviewed in 2020 by the new Bishop

Richard Treloar Richard Stanley Treloar (born 1965) is an Australian Anglican bishop. He is the current Bishop of Gippsland in the Province of Victoria.Latrobe Valley Express Treloar was born and raised in Sydney. He studied theology at Trinity College Theolo ...

about the role of a dean, her family connections with the diocese, the meditation and prayer services she led online and her ordination to the priesthood where she referred to the photo of her distress after the "non-ordination" in February 1992. During the 2020 and 2021

COVID lockdowns Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions colloquially known as lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions) have been implemented in numerous countrie ...

in Victoria when people could not attend in-person church, Pain held services online. She also gave an online talk about her ancestor, former Bishop Arthur Pain and his wife Annie and about living in the deanery which she had dedicated in 2007. Pain hosted creative festivals, concerts and workshops in the cathedral and the diocese, founded the St Paul's Cathedral Sale Music Foundation Trust, introduced

Messy Church Messy Church is "a way of being church for families". Its slogan is "Church, but not as you know it". History Messy Church began as a fresh expression of church in 2004 in the parish of Cowplain Cowplain is a village north of Waterlooville, ...

(family-oriented services) into the cathedral and led spiritual and prayer retreats and online morning meditations.

Later ministry

2022-

Pain is Senior Associate: Community, Spiritual Care and the Arts at Benedictus contemplative church, an independent ecumenical church community with a practice of silent contemplative prayer. She continues to lead spiritual retreats and arts workshops.

References

External links

Susanna Pain
* Pain described her faith, her relationship with Nikolai Blaskow and her ministry in a reflection at Benedictus contemplative church
Life in Abundance (John 10.10b)
on 12 February 2022.