It has been a life on the move for Bishop Ron and Lisbeth Stone since they were married fifty years ago.
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Their marriage took place in the NSW railway town of Junee, situated almost half way between Melbourne and Sydney.
The couple met in Junee when Ron was posted there as the assistant curate following his ordination in Canberra.
Ron and Lisbeth were married in St Luke’s Anglican Church, Junee on the 29th August, 1964.
After four years in the Parish of Junee they were moved to serve in their first parish, the Parish of Kameruka, in the Bega Valley.
After four years, this was followed by 13 years in the Parish of Kerang, and then eight years in Bendigo as the Archdeacon and Vicar General and second Chair of St. Luke’s Family Care.
In 1992 Ron was ordained a bishop and the couple moved to Tasmania where Ron served as the assistant bishop for four years before being elected as the Bishop of Rockhampton and serving in Central and Western Queensland – a vast rural and remote area diocese larger than Victoria.
Ron and Lisbeth’s entire marriage and ministry has been focused on “country” people.
Lisbeth exercised her own ministry as a clergy wife, particularly in the dioceses of Tasmania and Rockhampton, where she would visit and pastorally care for isolated families, including clergy families, in remote areas cut off from family and other support systems.
Bishop Ron’s long ministry, as a champion and advocate for the rights and needs of rural and remote area Australians, was recognised when he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2008. He said at the time that the award was as much Lisbeth’s as it was his for throughout their marriage and ministry they have always worked as a team.
Ron and Lisbeth have three adult married children, Narelle, Wayne and Tim and two grandchildren.
They see their fifty years of marriage as being a very rich blessing.