Chaplain Liz Spicer had her life trajectory heading towards working at overseas missions when she discovered a place which appreciated her work closer to home.
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On a placement as a social worker at a Kyabram school, she was nudged into chaplaincy by friends who thought this was her true calling.
Now, after 22 years in the job, she has been rewarded with the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to the community, in the Australia Day honours list.
Liz supports students battling personal issues, needing food, and sometimes just giving them a listening ear.
And sometimes holding hands at the end of their lives.
She is a woman acquainted with grief, having lost her first husband after an 18-year battle with cancer, and having supported families through loss.
“Sometimes it’s just being there; sometimes it’s saying a prayer,” Liz said.
“I understand grief more because of that. Through those times my faith kept me going.”
The mother of two sons and one daughter, she found a new love in her life when in 2022 she married former farmer and now State Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh.
They both have public lives but Liz says she doesn’t talk politics at home.
“We talk about whose turn it is to put the bins out; when was the garden watered.”
Liz is flattered and a little embarrassed by the Australia Day honour.
“The whole thing is so embarrassing because this is an individual award, and I doubt I could achieve anything in the work I do on my own,” she explained.
“I am a community chaplain, incredibly, so generously, supported by the whole Kyabram community, and that means the town has a say in how we operate and a seriously big hand in anything we are able to achieve.”
Her chaplaincy support organisation, Korus Connect, annually raises tens of thousands of dollars.
“As a representative of my community I am just another face in the crowd, and while I do truly appreciate that someone would consider me worthy of this, I genuinely see this as a testament to Kyabram, which has raised money and supported the chaplaincy program, expecting nothing back but wanting to really help people doing it tough.”
A lifelong Christian, Liz cannot remember any time in her life which did not revolve around a church and the community it served.
She can drop God into any conversation as happily and liberally as any Geelong fan can with Gary Ablett (senior or junior).
When she was previously nominated for a community award, one of the people who signed the entry form, a teacher at Kyabram P-12, wrote: “There would not be a single day when co-ordinators do not rely on Liz to help calm, counsel, feed and/or clothe our students, alongside providing a haven for those who are lost, alone or afraid. Liz takes the most difficult students in our school and makes them feel valuable and cared for.”
She was a founder of the national Prayer for Rain group during the millennium drought, a former national co-ordinator of the drought relief committee, worked as a flood chaplain in 2022 and is a Victoria Police chaplain.
Liz worked as a supporter and trauma counsellor during the Black Saturday bushfires at places such as Kinglake, St Andrews and Strathewen.
Some of the most vital work she does is rarely, if ever, seen or fully understood.
At these times, the public face of Liz Spicer, OAM, disappears behind closed doors as she privately, respectfully, hands out school uniforms and books to struggling students, cash to help families pay for excursions and preparing seniors for their deb balls.
But while she loves this grassroots aspect to her role, she is crystal clear that service is the soul of chaplaincy itself.
“Our students and staff must always come first.
“If they need our support it is our role to be there, and we are only able to do that with the amazing backing of the whole Kyabram community, which is the bedrock on which the P-12 Korus Connect chaplaincy has been built.
OTHER 2024 AUSTRALIA DAY HONOURS RECIPIENTS AROUND THE WIDER REGION
DR SUZANNE HARRISON, ECHUCA
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the general division recipient for service to rural medicine.
VIVIENNE DREW, BENALLA
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the general division recipient for service to gliding.
SALLY GAMBLE, BENALLA
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the general division recipient for service to education and community.
RAYMOND CRONIN, AVENEL
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the general division recipient for service to aviation.
DR ANDREW HOGAN, SEYMOUR
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the general division recipient for service to the community of Seymour.
HEATHER BARRIE, COBRAM
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the general division recipient for service to the communities of Cobram and Moira.
BRIAN KEENAN, YARRAWONGA
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the general division recipient for service to the community of Yarrawonga.
MAXINE WEBB, WANGARATTA
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the general division recipient for service to the visual arts and the community of Wangaratta.