Mark Wormell is an Australian lawyer and Anglican minister based in Sydney, New South Wales. He practised as a banking lawyer at Allen Allen & Hemsley and later trained at Moore Theological College, after which he served as an associate minister at an Anglican church in Broadway, Sydney. He is also the author of Coming to Christ in Dementia, a 2016 pastoral book.
Background
Wormell's professional life was rooted in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, where he studied, practised law, and later trained for ministry. Macquarie University, where he earned his undergraduate degrees, had been founded in 1964 as the third university in Sydney's metropolitan area, responding to population growth and rising demand for university places in New South Wales.
His career therefore spanned the postwar expansion of higher education in Sydney and the growth of its professional institutions, from the city's long-established law firms to its theological colleges. His education and working life remained centred on the city throughout these stages.
Education
Wormell studied at Macquarie University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws. Macquarie was established in 1964 through an act of the New South Wales Parliament, and it was the third university founded in the Sydney metropolitan area. From its early years, the university presented itself as a pioneering institution and experimented with open admissions and student choice.
Macquarie Law School was created in 1972, becoming Sydney's third law school. The law degree he completed therefore belonged to one of the newer legal education programmes in the city, established after the university's founding.
Wormell's theological training came after his legal career. He completed a Bachelor of Divinity at Moore Theological College in Sydney. The college was opened in 1856 by Bishop Frederic Barker in Moore's former home at Liverpool, New South Wales, and it later moved to Newtown. Its Bachelor of Divinity was a four-year full-time degree that combined biblical and theological study with preparation for Christian ministry.
Career
Wormell's legal career was in banking law at Allen Allen & Hemsley, a Sydney firm that is described as a predecessor of the present firm Allens, with origins traced to 1822. Alfred Hemsley joined the Allen practice in 1894, which led to the firm adopting the name Allen, Allen and Hemsley. The firm joined the Australian Legal Group in 1987, an association of Australian firms that cooperated without merging, and in 2001 it merged with Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks to form Allens Arthur Robinson.
The firm's own description at the time listed 104 partners and more than 200 legal staff, with specialist areas including finance and banking, corporate and commercial work, litigation, and intellectual property. Wormell was admitted to the bar in New South Wales in 1982. A biography of him describes his work as a lawyer in an Australian-based international law firm from 1982 to 2009.
After this legal career, he completed his Bachelor of Divinity at Moore Theological College. He then served as associate minister at St Barnabas' Anglican Church in Broadway, Sydney, and taught a course on ministry with seniors at Mary Andrews College.
(A pastoral introduction for carers, pastoral ministers, f...)
2016
Religion
Wormell is an Anglican minister and associate minister at St Barnabas' Anglican Church in Broadway, Sydney. Anglicanism traces its origins to the Church of England, which emerged from the English Reformation in the sixteenth century. In Australia, Anglican churches developed from colonial-era Church of England institutions and now form a national church within the wider Anglican Communion.
His theological training at Moore Theological College links him with the evangelical strand of Anglicanism. Moore College is widely known as a centre of evangelical biblical theology, and although it is Anglican in foundation and governance, it has also trained Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, and others who share its evangelical emphasis on Scripture.
His book Coming to Christ in Dementia reflects a Christian pastoral outlook. It considers how people whose memories are fading can come to know Christ, and it presents God as one who does not forget them.
Views
Wormell's written work focuses on the Christian understanding of what it means to be a person and what it means to come to know Christ. His book approaches these questions for people living with dementia, along with their carers, families, and pastoral ministers.
The book's concern with memory, identity, and the presence of God in later life reflects a pastoral theology that treats personhood as something that persists beyond cognitive decline.
Connections
Wormell is married to Kah Lin. The couple has an adult daughter.
Wife:
Kah Lin
References
New Book: Coming to Christ in Dementia
A February 2016 announcement of Wormell's book, which includes a short author biography describing his legal career from 1982 to 2009, his Bachelor of Divinity at Moore Theological College, and his ministry and teaching roles.
