Ted Noffs
Encyclopedia
Theodore Delwin Noffs was a Methodist minister, writer and founder of the Ted Noffs Foundation and Wayside Chapel
in Kings Cross
, Sydney
, in 1964. During the youth revolt of the 1960s, Noffs was attracted to what he saw as the life-affirming side of the movement
. 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.
, the University of Sydney
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
, Chicago
, 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 1959-1964.
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 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..."
Co-founder, Life Line, 1963.
Founder and Pastor, Wayside Chapel, 1964.
Established Australia's first Outreach Centre, 1964.
Established Australia's first Drug Referral Centre, Sydney, 1967.
Established Australia's first 24-hour Crisis Centre, 1968.
Founder and President of Wayside Foundation, 1971.
Established Australia's first Life Education Centre, Sydney, 1979.
Launched Life Education Centres of Great Britain, 1986.
In 1992 the Wayside Foundation was renamed The Ted Noffs Foundation in order to carry on the spirit and actuality of his life's work.
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).
1990 Wesley and Amanda Noffs leave LEC to join The Wayside Foundation.
1991 The Wayside Foundation severs ties to LEC and The Wayside Chapel. Amanda Noffs is appointed Secretary to the board of the Network of Alcohol and other Drugs Agencies (NADA).
1992 The name The Wayside Foundation is changed to The Ted Noffs Foundation. Wesley Noffs develops links to the Health Department and the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), situated within the University of NSW.
1993 Amanda Noffs is nominated for a third term at NADA.
Wayside Chapel
The Wayside Chapel is a ministry in the Kings Cross/Potts Point area of Sydney, Australia.-Description and history:The Wayside Chapel was established in the Kings Cross area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1964. Ted Noffs was the founder of the Wayside Chapel, which was at the time a...
in Kings Cross
Kings Cross, New South Wales
Kings Cross is an inner-city locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 2 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, in 1964. During the youth revolt of the 1960s, Noffs was attracted to what he saw as the life-affirming side of the movement
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
. 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, at the Rexton Private Hospital. He was educated initially at Parramatta High SchoolParramatta High School
Parramatta High School is a public, co-educational high school located in Parramatta, a western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.Established in 1913, Parramatta High School was the first co-educational school in the Sydney Metropolitan area...
, the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
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
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, 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 1959-1964.
Career
In 1964 Noffs founded the Wayside Chapel 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 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..."
Chronology of Third Sector projects
Ted Noffs was co-founder and first President of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs, 1962.Co-founder, Life Line, 1963.
Founder and Pastor, Wayside Chapel, 1964.
Established Australia's first Outreach Centre, 1964.
Established Australia's first Drug Referral Centre, Sydney, 1967.
Established Australia's first 24-hour Crisis Centre, 1968.
Founder and President of Wayside Foundation, 1971.
Established Australia's first Life Education Centre, Sydney, 1979.
Launched Life Education Centres of Great Britain, 1986.
In 1992 the Wayside Foundation was renamed The Ted Noffs Foundation in order to carry on the spirit and actuality of his life's work.
Events regarding the structure of the Wayside Chapel, the Wayside Foundation and the Ted Noffs Foundation
1964 Rev. Ted 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).
1990 Wesley and Amanda Noffs leave LEC to join The Wayside Foundation.
1991 The Wayside Foundation severs ties to LEC and The Wayside Chapel. Amanda Noffs is appointed Secretary to the board of the Network of Alcohol and other Drugs Agencies (NADA).
1992 The name The Wayside Foundation is changed to The Ted Noffs Foundation. Wesley Noffs develops links to the Health Department and the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), situated within the University of NSW.
1993 Amanda Noffs is nominated for a third term at NADA.
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.