# Jean Skuse

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{{short description|Australian church worker}}
{{Use dmy dates|date =March 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Jean Skuse
| honorific_suffix   = {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|AO|MBE|size=100}}
| image              = Opening conferentie Wereldraad van Kerken Noordwijkerhout portret van mevrouw J, Bestanddeelnr 930-8794.jpg
| alt                = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption            = Jean Skuse (1980)
| birth_name         = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date         = {{Birth date and age|1932|01|01|df=y}}
| birth_place        = 
| death_date         = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (DEATH date then BIRTH date) -->
| death_place        = 
| other_names        = 
| occupation         = Australian Christian Church Official
| years_active       = 
| known_for          = 
| notable_works      = 
}}

'''Jean Enid Skuse''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AO|MBE}} (born 1 January 1932) is an Australian Christian leader and ecumenist who served as the general secretary of the Australian Council of Churches and the Vice-Moderator of the Central Committee of the [World Council of Churches](/source/World_Council_of_Churches) (WCC).<ref>{{cite book|author=Elizabeth Sleeman|title=The International Who's Who of Women 2002|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6J8xDWDqOkEC&pg=PA533|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-1-85743-122-3|page=533}}</ref><ref name="EWL">{{Cite web |last=Melbourne |first=The University of |title=Skuse, Jean - Woman - The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia |url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0329b.htm |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=www.womenaustralia.info |language=en-gb}}</ref>

==Life==

=== Early life ===
Jean Skuse was born in 1932, and grew up in [New South Wales](/source/New_South_Wales). She was raised in the Methodist faith, as her father was a Methodist minister. She began her professional life in accounting and auditing, working in this field from 1949 to 1963 in Sydney, Australia, and in London, England.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Melbourne |first=National Foundation for Australian Women and The University of |title=Skuse, Jean Enid - Woman - The Australian Women's Register |url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0214b.htm |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=www.womenaustralia.info |language=en-gb}}</ref>

=== Church work ===
In 1963, Skuse became the administrator of a girl's [hostel](/source/hostel) in [Waverley](/source/Waverley%2C_New_South_Wales), a suburb of Sydney, that was managed by the Methodist church.<ref name=":0" /> This marked the beginning of her long-career working for organizations connected to the Methodist Church, and later, the wider ecumenical movement.  From 1969 to 1970, she worked as an observer to the [United Nations](/source/United_Nations), for the newly formed [United Methodist Church](/source/United_Methodist_Church) in the United States,<ref name=":0" /> which was established in 1968 through a merger between two American churches with similar Methodist roots.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our History |url=https://www.umc.org/en/who-we-are/history |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=The United Methodist Church |language=en}}</ref> In 1970, she was appointed to the [UN Commission on the Status of Women](/source/United_Nations_Commission_on_the_Status_of_Women).<ref name=":0" />  She was international secretary of the [World Conference of Methodist Women](/source/World_Methodist_Council) from 1971 until 1976,<ref>{{Citation |title=World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women records, 1928- |url=https://findingaids.library.emory.edu/documents/P-S112/printable/ |page=9 |publisher=Pitts Theological Library, [Emory University](/source/Emory_University)}}</ref> and also served as a member of the executive of the [World Methodist Council](/source/World_Methodist_Council).<ref name=":0" />

In 1971, Skuse was appointed executive secretary of the New South Wales Council of Churches. She became General Secretary of the [Australian Council of Churches](/source/Australian_Council_of_Churches) (ACC) in 1975 and served in this post until 1988. She was the first woman to serve as the head of the ACC.<ref name="EWL" />

Skuse attended the [World Council of Churches](/source/World_Council_of_Churches)' fifth Assembly held in Nairobi in 1975. At this global gathering of ecumenical leaders, she was elected as Vice-Moderator of the Central Committee of the [WCC](/source/World_Council_of_Churches), a post she held from 1975 to 1983.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1975-12-13 |title=Australian elected by churches |work=Canberra Times |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article102191807 |access-date=2022-10-07 |via=[Trove](/source/Trove)}}</ref>  In 1988, she became the national co-ordinator for the seventh WCC Assembly, which was held in Canberra, Australia in 1991.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="EWL" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Uniting Church in Australia Assembly - Ecumenical 80th |url=https://assembly.uca.org.au/news/item/1092-ecumenical-80th |access-date=2022-09-09 |website=assembly.uca.org.au |language=en-gb}}</ref>

Skuse was a member of the group [Christian Women Concerned](/source/Christian_Women_Concerned), which was the first explicitly religious feminist organisation in Australia. This small ecumenical group also included [Marie Tulip](/source/Marie_Tulip) and [Dorothy McRae-McMahon](/source/Dorothy_McRae-McMahon) and together the group published the [Magdalene (newsletter)](/source/Magdalene_(newsletter)) from 1973 to 1987.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McRae |first=-McMahon Dorothy |date=2020-12-24 |title=Christian Women Concerned |url=https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.200709486 |journal=Women-Church: An Australian Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion |issue=40 |pages=17–21 }}</ref>

== Awards and recognition ==
In 1978, Skuse was awarded the [Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee medal](/source/Queen_Elizabeth_II_Silver_Jubilee_Medal).<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 August 1977 |title=Commonwealth of Australia Gazette |url=https://wmoa.com.au/uploads/1977P07.pdf |publisher=Australian Government Publishing Service |page=27}}</ref>  The following year, in June 1979, she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1086177|title=Miss Jean Enid Skuse|last=|first=|date=|website=It's An Honour|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-20}}</ref> For the [1992 Australia Day Honours](/source/1992_Australia_Day_Honours), Skuse was elevated to an [Officer of the Order of Australia](/source/Order_of_Australia) (AO) for "service to religion, particularly through the World Council of Churches, and to women's affairs".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/872576|title=Ms Jean Enid Skuse, MBE|last=|first=|date=|website=It's An Honour|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-20}}</ref>

Some of Skuse's personal papers are held at the [National Library of Australia](/source/National_Library_of_Australia).<ref>[https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6222500 Papers of Jean Skuse, 1969-2011], [National Library of Australia](/source/National_Library_of_Australia).</ref> An interview with Skuse, conducted by Australian historian [Hazel de Berg](/source/Hazel_de_Berg) in 1977, is also held at the National Library of Australia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Skuse |first1=Jean |last2=De Berg |first2=Hazel |date=1977 |title=Jean Skuse interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/38581?lookfor=my_parent:%22(AuCNL)1185498%22&offset=83&max=1301 |journal=Hazel de Berg Collection}}</ref>

==Works==
* ''To See With One's Own Eyes''. Sydney: Australian Council of Churches, 1982.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.jstor.org/site/university-of-divinity/magdalene/ Magdalene on JSTOR Open Community Collections], University of Divinity Digital Collections, [Mannix Library](/source/Mannix_Library)  
* [https://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0214b.htm Skuse, Jean Enid (1932 - )] at the [Australian Women's Register](/source/Australian_Women's_Register)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skuse, Jean}}
Category:1932 births
Category:Living people
Category:Australian Christian religious leaders
Category:Officers of the Order of Australia
Category:Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Jean Skuse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Skuse) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Skuse?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.