Spirited Days

Theological students continued to be a significant presence in Ormond during the 1960s, although an increasing proportion was non-resident.

We were nearly all male candidates for the ministry in the Presbyterian Church and, to varying degrees, we were mature aged. Some had pursued other careers before becoming ‘theologs’.

Classes were held mainly in the mornings and consisted of lectures in Rooms A, K and D at or near the front of Main Building, while smaller groups met in two rooms converted from four bedrooms for freshmen in the south-east corner. The Common Room was in the north-east corner beside Room K (now the Kaye Scott Room).

The professors mostly resided in the College grounds with their families and when one, Professor of Church History, George Yule, took responsibility for the new Library beside the Victoria Wing, he culled a lot of old, unwanted books from the former Library and gave some as prizes to students at the end of the year. On one such occasion he awarded a Temperance Bible to a student who was known to enjoy an occasional counter lunch at one or other of the nearby pubs.

Before his appointment as Master of the College, Davis McCaughey was Professor of New Testament in the Theological Hall and he continued to do some teaching. Both he and George were great advocates of church union and the ecumenical spirit of the times was most evident in increasing cooperation with other Colleges, especially in classes shared with the Methodists at Queen’s.

At lunch time on Wednesdays the Theological Students Association would often invite a guest speaker to give a talk in the Common Room. The invitee usually had a strong church connection but one notable exception was Eric Westbrook, Director of the National Gallery of Victoria. Towards the end of his presentation a couple of students began preparing tea and coffee in the adjacent kitchenette, the noise of which prompted Eric to declare that he and the audience might have been disturbed by a poltergeist! Not so, but those certainly were spirited days.