Theodore Delwin "Ted" Noffs (14 August 1926 – 6 April 1995) was a Methodist (later Uniting Church) minister who founded the
Wayside Chapel
The Wayside Chapel is a charity and parish mission of the Uniting Church in Australia in the Potts Point, New South Wales, Potts Point area of Sydney, Australia. Situated near Sydney's most prominent red-light district in Kings Cross, New South ...
in
Kings Cross,
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, in 1964.
During the youth revolt of the 1960s, Noffs was attracted to what he saw as the life-affirming side of the
movement
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
. Although aware of the problem of drug-abuse and the alienation of youth, he believed that they were "...a part of the paraphernalia behind the revolution, the symbolism behind the revolt." Noffs sought fairness and equality for all. With a focus on the practical, he raised funding from both government and business to set up facilities for the disadvantaged; in many cases these projects were the first of their kind in Australia.
Early life
Theodore Delwin Noffs was born 14 August 1926, in
Mudgee
Mudgee is a town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West of New South Wales, Australia. It is in the broad fertile Cudgegong River valley north-west of Sydney and is the largest town in the Mid-Western Regional Council Local gover ...
, at the Rexton Private Hospital. He was educated initially at
Parramatta High School
, motto_translation = The torch of the mind lights the path to glory
, logo = Parramatta logo.gif
, established =
, type = Government-funded co-educational dual modality partially aca ...
, the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
and Leigh Theological College, Sydney. He entered the ministry in 1947 and was ordained in 1952, a year after he married Margaret Tipping who was to remain his lifelong companion and mother of their children Wesley, David and Theo. After further study in the USA where he gained an MA in rural sociology from
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, and worked as a minister for the Wesley Church, also in Chicago, Noffs returned to Sydney where he took up the position of Assistant Pastor with the Central Methodist Mission from 1959 to 1964.
Career
In 1964 Noffs founded the
Wayside Chapel
The Wayside Chapel is a charity and parish mission of the Uniting Church in Australia in the Potts Point, New South Wales, Potts Point area of Sydney, Australia. Situated near Sydney's most prominent red-light district in Kings Cross, New South ...
and devoted the rest of his working life to a practical, energetic and sometimes controversial display of Christian principles. As part of his pastoral agenda, he established an unconditional relationship with drug-using youths, marginal intellectuals, eccentrics, down-and-outs and other denizens of Kings Cross, an area of Sydney known widely for its crime, drug-abuse, prostitution and, in the late 1960s, its flavour of Bohemian radicalism.
The Wayside Chapel was pivotal to the realisation of Ted Noffs' idiosyncratic ministry, becoming the focal point not only for regular church services, but also topical debates, small theatre productions, its own poetry magazine ''Cross Beat'' and an 'ideas journal' named ''Logos.'' With the added presence of a coffee-shop which was always well attended by a cross-section of 'types,' the chapel represented a dialectic which brought together several otherwise discrete social groups.
The potential drama quickly attracted the broadcast and print media, and controversy rapidly followed. In the Australia of 1964, as in most other Anglo-European cultures, churches were generally conservative, literally parochial in their outlook and areas of pastoral behaviour. The broader social context of the time was rapidly becoming one of debate and division, partly defined by the U.S. involvement in Vietnam which had escalated in the early 60s, becoming a ''cause celebre'' amongst large numbers of Western youth, adding to an already perceived polarisation of the generations and of political allegiances. All of this was grist for the mill for the many and disparate voices of the Wayside Chapel; although there were strictly adhered-to rules and guidelines at the chapel to preserve order Ted Noffs allowed, and was enthused by, the seemingly endless dialogue of viewpoints.
As race equality became more dramatically highlighted as an issue in the United States, with its main focus on the plight of the African-American, there was also a dawning local awareness of the inequalities and prejudice affecting the Australian indigenous population. In 1965, the activist
Charles Perkins joined forces with Ted Noffs to plan and instigate the now-famous Freedom Ride. This initiative, in which a group led by Perkins drove by bus through towns in rural NSW including
Moree, Wellington, Gulargambone, Lismore, Bowraville and Kempsey, was thought of initially by some of the participants as a mere fact-finding mission. In reality it rapidly became a source of controversy, not to mention rage, on both sides of an extremely pronounced racial divide. The Ride had been coordinated at the Wayside Chapel, which was to be, in the words of Perkins, 'our contact with all the newspapers, television and radio.' He continues, 'We did not think there would be much work involved but the chapel was completely swamped. Ted was involved with the media and political figures and with parents.'
It was also at this time that Noffs became increasingly concerned with what he began to see as the beginnings of an epidemic of drug abuse amongst the young. "I would say that we are moving, in our society, into a situation where drug abuse is the most contagious disease in the world among adolescents..."
Timeline
* 1963–4: Co-founder and first Chairman of the
Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs
The Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs (FAA), formerly Aboriginal Affairs Association, and nicknamed "the Foundo", was a community organisation for Aboriginal people in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia between 1964 and 1977. It published an occa ...
* 1963: Involved in the creation of what would eventually become
Lifeline
*1964: Founded Wayside Chapel and became its pastor
*1964: Established Australia's first Outreach Centre
*1967: Established Australia's first Drug Referral Centre, Sydney
*1968: Established Australia's first 24-hour crisis centre
*1971: Founder and President of Wayside Foundation
*1979: Established Australia's first Life Education Centre, Sydney
*1986: Launched Life Education Centres of Great Britain
*1992: Wayside Foundation was renamed The Ted Noffs Foundation
Notable events
1964 Noffs commences work at the Wayside Chapel.
1967 Noffs establishes The Drug Referral Centre at Rushcutters Bay.
1971 Ted and Margaret Noffs form The Wayside Foundation as a non-religious organisation focused on social welfare issues without bias to creed, culture or religion.
1974 Ted and Margaret Noffs develop The Life Education Centre (LEC).
1979 The Wayside Foundation is asked to manage The Errol Flynn Children's Refuge, initially set up to provide a safe haven for teenage runaways.
1987 Ted Noffs suffers a massive stroke and is unable to return to work. Margaret Noffs assumes management of The Wayside Chapel and The Wayside Foundation. Their son Wesley becomes Chief Executive of The Life Education Centre (LEC).
Publications
* The Gates of Hell, Sydney:Wayside Press, 1964.
* The Wayside Chapel, London:William Collins, 1969.
* Cries, Australia:Compass Mountain Publishers, 1977.
* Drugs and People, Sydney:Ure Smith, 1977.
* By What Authority? Australia:Methuen, 1979.
* The Summit of Daring, Australia:Cassell, 1981.
Legacy
In 1987, a tug was named “Ted Noffs”. It was built for
Sydney Ports Corporation’s Marine Towage and Salvage (MTS) at
Forgacs Shipyard
Forgacs Shipyard is a shipbuilding company located at Tomago, New South Wales on the Hunter River. It was originally opened in 1957 by John Laverick at Carrington as Carrington Slipways, and built 45 ships between then and 1968. By 1972, the ...
,
Tomago
Tomago is a combined industrial/semi-rural suburb of the Port Stephens local government area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located just north of the Hunter River and west of the body of water known as Fullerton Cove. ...
,
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 ...
and registered in Australia. As of 2022, it works at
Port Botany
Port Botany is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Port Botany is located 12 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Randwick. Port Bot ...
, south of
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
.
[IMO">TED NOFFS – Tug International Maritime Organization, IMO]
: 8618970 MarineTraffic, accessed 2022-07-06
Notes
External links
Ted Noffs Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noffs, Ted
1995 deaths
Australian Methodist ministers
1926 births
People from Mudgee
People educated at Parramatta High School