Dorothy McRae-McMahon


Dorothy McRae-McMahon is a retired Australian Uniting Church minister and activist, formerly Minister at Pitt Street Uniting Church—renowned for its human rights work and local "street level" activism.
McRae-McMahon has been a feminist Christian trailblazer since the 1970s. Involved in women's liberation, human rights, :Category:Opposition to apartheid in South Africa|anti-apartheid, anti-Vietnam War and in religious and spiritual matters.
Coming out as a lesbian at the age of 50, McRae-McMahon created a major stir and homophobic attacks, engendering public discussion and acceptance of homosexual clergy.
McRae-McMahon volunteers at a Uniting Church parish, co-edits the South Sydney Herald, speaks at public forums and writes.

Early life, marriage and children

Dorothy McRae was born in 1934 in Zeehan, Tasmania, Australia where her Methodist Minister father had been appointed to his first parish. She married Barrie McMahon in 1956 and lived in Melbourne, Victoria. Originally a pre-school teacher, McRae-McMahon spent 16 years at home caring for her four children, born between 1957 and 1969: Christopher Barrie, Robert Anthony, Lindy Louise and Melsissa. The eldest, Christopher had an intellectual disability and went into autistic withdrawal shortly after Robert's birth. In 1964 the family moved to Sydney, where McRae-McMahon joined the Australian Labor Party and became involved in peace activism.
In 1987 McRae-McMahon ended her marriage, recognising herself as a lesbian, an identity she made public in 1997, declaring that she had been living in a committed same-sex relationship for many years.

Work and activism

McRae-McMahon began her training in the ordained ministry of the Uniting Church in 1976. On ordination in 1982 she was appointed to Sydney's Pitt Street Church where she gathered a congregation committed to a range of activist causes. Their involvement in the anti-apartheid cause attracted the attention of right wing group National Action, which led to a campaign of harassment against the Minister and her congregation.
McRae-McMahon has been a Minister in the Uniting Church, a National Director for Mission of the Uniting Church in Australia and was the first woman to become Moderator of the World Council of Churches Worship Committee. She was instrumental in 'Mothers and Others for Peace', 'Christian Women Concerned', the first Church Commission on the Status of Women and the journal MAGDALENE.
In 1997 McRae-McMahon came out as a lesbian at the National Assembly of the Uniting Church in Perth. She resigned from her position later that year. An episode of "Australian Story" was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about her life, family and relationship with the Uniting Church.
McRae-McMahon became a leader in the successful campaign to have homosexual ministers formally accepted by the Uniting Church, arguing that homosexuality is a sign of wholeness rather than moral decay.
McRae-McMahon had occupied a position of power within the Uniting Church but found she was more comfortable embracing a theology of moving to the edge—believing 'the margins are the places where Christ is closest to us'.

Published works