Trinity Update - April 2003

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Trinity College mourns the Revd Dr Evan Laurie Burge, Warden 1974 - 1997

The followin g tribute to Dr Burge appea red in The Age and The Canberra Times.

The Trinity Colleg e com mun ity is deeply saddened by the death of the fifth Warden of the College, the Revd Dr Evan Burge, who passed away peacefully on 27 March afte r a two -year battle w ith cancer.

BURGE, The Revd Dr Evan Laurie

8 February 1933 27 March 2003 The Warden, Fellows, Council, staff, students, alumni and friends of Trinity College in the University of Melbourne deeply mourn the passing of the Revd Dr Evan Burge, muchloved Warden ofTrinity College 1974- 1997. As academic leader, scholar, teacher, priest , liturgist, and friend, Evan was widely admired and loved for his warmth.enthusiasm, generosit y of spirit, erud itio n, dee p spiritualit y, and grace. His remarkable contributions to the heritage ofTrinity College will long endure, as will our gratitude. Our tho ughts and prayers are w ith Barbara, John, Margaret, Ann, Caroline, Geoffrey and Stephen, their families and friends, in their loss and grief, which we profoundly share. '.A.ndnow abide faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.' 1 Corinthians 13: 13

Following a private Requiem Eucharist in the College Chapel on the night of Tuesday 1 April, and a quiet overnight vigil in the Chapel, Dr Burge's funeral service was held at St Paul'sCathedral, Melbourne, on Wednesday 2 April. Mourners were invited back to Trinity College aft erwards. During the service, tributes were paid by the Warden, Professor Donald Markwell, and by Dr Burge's son , John Burge. The sermon was given by Bishop Neville Chynoweth.

Extracts from the tribute by the Warden, Professor Donald Markwell :

Extracts from John Burge's tribute to his father:

'Evan Burge was an encourager and an enabler, with great gifts of empathy and energy - a good, godly, kind, and gentle man w ho touched the lives of all of us.'

' Evan took life, but not himself, seriously. He had a truly wonderf ul sense of humour. This came at least partly from being a man of considerable self-confidence and enthusiasm.'

'As a schoolboy, Evan developed a love for - of all th ings - grammar, and the structure, beauty and rhythm of language, and this grew into a love of languages, first Latin and French, as well as English literature, and then ancient Greek, and later other languages also.'

'Evan was a man of great learning with a marked enthu siasm to share that learning with others. Yet he would never make others fee l inadequate. Rather, he would inspire confidence that they too could learn. He was a true teacher.'

'In 1971, Evan was ordained Priest, and came increasingly to sense a vocation to leadership in an Anglican university college, whe re his academic and priestly callings could flourish toget her.'

' He was a man of love, especially in his love of his family.'

'...he was a deeply loving and deeply loved pastor to t he w hole Trinity College commun ity.' 'A major preoccupation of Evan's in the late 1980s and throughout the rest of his Wardenship and beyond was the development ofTrinity College Foundation Studies perhaps the landmark achievement of his Wardenship.' 'The growth of Foundation Studies through the 1990s made necessary and possible the construction of a new building to house the College library and muchneeded teaching spaces. This building rightly bears the name of Evan Burge.'

'As we now bid Evan farewe ll, we give thanks for his love and essential humanity.' For the full text of these tributes, toget her with a pictorial tribute to the Burge years at Trinity and a timeline of Dr Burge's Wardenship, please visit the Trinity College website at www.tr inity.unimelb.edu.au / news/

'On his retirement, Evan left a college which was culturally aware, internationally engaged, financially stronger, and full of potential to be truly a centre of what Bishop Moorhouse had called "large and liberal education" - a phrase Evan loved.'

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Trinity College I

• Trinity College Foundation Studies

• Theology at Trinity College


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