Margaret Rodgers (deaconess)

Margaret Rodgers AM (18 December 1939 – 31 May 2014) was a prominent deaconess and lay-person in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. Rodgers was Principal of Deaconess House, (1976–85), Research Officer for the Anglican General Synod (1985–93), chief executive officer of the Anglican Media Council (1994–2003), President of the New South Wales Council of Churches and Lay Canon of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney.

Margaret Amelia Rodgers was born on 18 December 1939 in Dorrigo, New South Wales, the eldest child of David Alexander Rodgers and his wife Mavis. David Rodgers was a timber worker, but developed Multiple sclerosis, and as a result, the family moved to Dapto, where Margaret and her younger brother Alan attended primary school. Rodgers then went to Wollongong Selective High School. She was an excellent student and also a good hockey player. After being accepted for the Figtree Hockey Team, she fell sick with rheumatic fever and was confined to bed, spending more than two years in Wollongong Hospital. Her heart was permanently affected by the illness.

Rodgers moved to Sydney to study, and gained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sydney University. She then undertook a diploma of theology, completed in 1963 with first class honours. She was ordained as a deaconess of the Anglican Church in 1970. From 1965 to 1978, she taught History and Divinity at Meriden School for Girls at Strathfield and Abbotsleigh School for Girls at Wahroonga. From 1973 to 1975 she was warden at Church of England Women's Hall, Glebe. From 1969–73 she was a tutor at Deaconess House, (now known as Mary Andrews College), then became Vice-Principal and in 1976 succeeded Mary Andrews as principal, until 1985, providing pastoral care for female students who attended Moore Theological College and Sydney University. Rodgers lectured at Moore College in Church History.

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