Our People
We are blessed by the people who make up the various congregations with in the Anglican Parish of Waterloo Bay. Perhaps the quality that makes our people a blessing is that they are warm friendly and caring. Most of the parishioners live in the suburbs that fan out from Waterloo Bay; that is in Wellington Point, Birkdale and Thorneside. Many of our people have lived in the district for decades, however we also have others who have migrated here from other parts of Australia and the globe.
Leadership with in the parish comes from Nicholas under the headship of our Lord Jesus Christ within the embrace of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane. Nicholas is very grateful of a team of clergy who are able for different reasons to offer their ministry for the most part in an honorary capacity. Having clergy with a variety of backgrounds and interests provides the parish with a strong ministry base enabling it to relate to a large cross-section of the community.
The Wardens and Parish Council play an important role in the life of the parish. They see that the property of the Church is well maintained and continues in itself to give glory to God. The Parish Council also gives oversight to the various programmes within the parish.
Together the clergy and the Parish Council make up the leadership team of the parish. This team has a commitment to listen and respond to the movements of the Holy Spirit and to listen to the people of God in confidence that they already have a passion for the mission of the Church.
At the Annual General Meeting, the parish elects three Wardens whose task it is, together with the parish priest, to form the “executive” of the parish.
The Parish Council members are elected at the Annual General Meeting and meet monthly to manage the parish by looking after the finances and fabric of the church.
Additional information can be found under Governance and Our Future
Below are the profiles of those in office for the 2008-9 church year.
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Fr. Jim Cosgrove
Jim Cosgrove is an Army Chaplain working at Enoggera and living in the parish with his wife Jeanette.
Jim has been in the army for 21 years, the first ten years in the Army reserve in Brisbane and since then he has served in Sydney, Darwin, Townsville and Canberra. -
Rev'd Canon Neville Knott - Locum Priest
Neville was ordained in Brisbane in 1965 and served as Assistant Curate in the parishes of Ekibin and Southport and in the parish of Stretford in Manchester UK. Returning to Queensland he served with BCA at Moranbah in Rockhampton Diocese before returning to Brisbane Diocese as Rector of Fortitude Valley and then Cleveland and Southport before “retiring” in 2005.
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Rev. John Bretz
John is an Ordained Anglican Deacon who lives within The Redlands and assists in an honorary capacity. John’s participation in the parish includes visiting, liturgy and worship, and young families at the Wellington Point end of the parish. John is married with a young boy and girl.
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Rev. Kit Bunker
Kit was ordained by Bishop Wicks over 20 years ago but there’s much more to his story than that.
In the late 60’s and early 70’s Kit and his wife Elizabeth lived in Uganda where he taught in a secondary school and the children were born. Then there was a move to Kampala to lecture in the teaching college attached to Makerere University. Kit worked for a degree from London University, taking his final examinations in the Boy Scout hut off Kampala High Street in 1972.
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Rev. Nicholas Whereat
Nicholas became the rector of the parish on the 6th of April 2002.
Born in Tewksbury, England into a faithful Christian family, he came to Gordonvale, North Queensland as a small child.
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Rev. Sarah Leisemann
Sarah is an ordained Anglican Priest who leads worship at the 9am Family Service. She is also a school chaplain at the Canon Hill Anglican College (CHAC).
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Dawn Williams
Dawn moved around Queensland as an Enrolled Nurse, working at the PA Hospital Brisbane, Winton, Beaudesert. In 1972 she moved to Esk, where she lived until her retirement in 1997.
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Helen Stoodley
Helen is the third generation of the Stoodley family who has attended St George’s Church over the past sixty years. Her late grandmother and mother both played the organ & piano for church services & also volunteered their time in assisting with the Ladies Guild & church fetes. Helen, her mother and Grandmother were drawn to the church through their involvement and also the warm and friendly welcome of the parishioners.
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Lionel McNamara
Lionel has a long association with The Anglican Church commencing as a server at age 9 and now is a licensed Liturgical Assistant and trained Education for Ministry Mentor.
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Aline Stinton
Aline is our Functions & Catering Director
She has been worshipping at St George’s and living in Wellington Point for the past five years.
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David Haase
David has been married for thirty years, has two adult children and has worshipped with us for the past 4 years. He is a retired secondary teacher of maths and science who now spends much of his discretionary time in property renovations.
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Don Allen
Don has been married for 41 years, and is proud of 2 adult children and 1 grandson. Now retired, he spent 39 years with the Australian Taxation Office and the last ten years worshiping at APWB. The Allens moved to Birkdale shortly after Don’s retirement and found a welcoming family and an ideal “spiritual home” in a warm and friendly congregation.
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Graeme Elliott
Graeme was born in Victoria 59 years ago and has been happily married for 33 years. He has three adult children. He started work mowing lawns at age 9 and has had an interesting and varied career including work on the family farm, in a variety of roles for Telstra and now as employment coordinator in the disability industry
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Ian Carr
Ian Carr is a member of the parish council with responsibility as Outreach Director for the parish. Ian and Margaret were married at St Georges in 1974 and have four adult children, Matt, Greg, Kim and Phil. Before his retirement in January 2008, Ian was a Project Manager of IT projects relating to mapping with a State Government department.
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James Francis Stahlhut
James is a long-standing parishioner in the parish of Waterloo Bay where he chooses to attend the more traditional service.
He is happily married to Shirley for the past 41 years and together they have 3 children and 3 grandchildren. James continues as a security guard; a vocation he has pursued during the past 20 years. Both at work and at home he makes every effort to live his faith, practicing his Christian principles and values at all times.
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Lynette Kay
Lynette, who prefers to be known as Lyn, has been married to Barry for nearly 45 years. Together, they have had four children all of which are happily married plus 7 grandchildren.
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Stephen Sharry
Stephen is our Public Relations Director.
He was confirmed in St George’s two years ago and is married to Fiona who was confirmed at St George’s when a child living at Thorneside. They live locally at Birkdale.