Peter Byrne enjoyed a long and successful legal career before tackling a Bachelor of Theology degree at Pilgrim Theological College.
By Andrew Humphries
After a long career in the legal profession, and then a stint driving buses, Peter Byrne could have been forgiven for winding down a bit when he hit his late 50s.
Instead, his thoughts turned towards an opportunity to pursue something he had been thinking about for a long time, a pursuit which led him to Pilgrim Theological College and the commencement of a degree in theology.
Along the way, though, one or two challenges were thrown his way.
Thankfully, though, through his own commitment, and the support of Pilgrim faculty and staff, his story had a successful outcome.
It’s a journey which really begins in 2010, when Peter, in his mid 50s, decides to call time on a successful legal career and drive buses.
Even he admits it was a strange decision to make, but behind it was an ongoing search for a sense of meaning.
“I had been a lawyer for a long time and had worked in that field until 2010, and I made a rather odd decision, in some people’s minds, to give that away and drive buses,” Peter explains.
“While I was driving buses, though, I was also going through a process of thinking about something I felt I needed to be doing, based around an interest in theology I had stretching back to the mid-1990s.”
Peter’s father had been a Presbyterian elder. It was the Uniting Church which appealed to Peter and his wife and they began attending worship with their young children on a regular basis.
“At Leighmoor Uniting Church in Moorabbin I had many helpful conversations with the Minister Peter Whitaker around 2013-14 and he was a really good sounding board for me, helping me to discern where my developing interest in theology could lead,” Peter recalls.
“I had had a real interest in theology for many years, so in 2015 I began a period of discernment and study at Pilgrim Theological College, and I think I may even have been the first person to enrol there.”
Unfortunately, though, Peter’s first year of study coincided with a cancer diagnosis for his wife Suzanne, meaning he decided to put his studies on hold.
“We went through all of the chemotherapy sessions together and, thankfully, we were able to come out the other side,” he says.
In 2016 Peter returned to driving buses, admitting he needed a “sense of regularity” in his life, but that “itch” around theology remained.
“That process of discernment was ongoing for me,” Peter says.
“More than anything else, my time at Pilgrim gave me the equipment to really grapple with my faith and the divine mystery, and to put some real meat on the bones around those concepts,” says Peter Byrne.
Having previously done four fulltime units in 2015, he returned to Pilgrim and his degree in 2018, completing it in 2022.
During his studies at Pilgrim, Peter was lucky enough to be taught by influential lecturers, including Robyn Whitaker, Sally Douglas, and John Flett.
“I became aware that Sally was the Minister at Richmond Uniting Church and during Covid-19 I started attending online services there. After Covid-19, I began attending in person, and decided to do something which I had been putting off for some time, which was my confirmation,” he says.
“Shortly after, I became an elder at Richmond, a position I only stepped down from recently.”
While his long legal career was useful in his theological degree studies, Peter admits it took him some time to feel confident enough to offer an opinion around what he was learning.
“I knew how to get my thoughts together and put them down on paper, but it probably took me a while to work out how to free myself up a bit to actually express my opinion,” he says.
“Something I needed was that skill set around how to think about theology, which had probably previously been lacking in me.
“Pilgrim’s academic staff certainly equipped me really well, in that sense, to pursue my studies.
“More than anything else, my time at Pilgrim gave me the equipment to really grapple with my faith and the divine mystery, and to put some real meat on the bones around those concepts.
“Two of the really big influences on me in that regard were John Martis, with whom I studied many Pilgrim philosophy subjects, and John Flett, including through his introductory subject on mission.
“All the teachers at Pilgrim helped me to not only understand ideas, but to put them into my own words.”
As Pilgrim celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, Peter and his Bachelor of Theology demonstrate how persistence, and the right encouragement, can build a pathway to success.
