CAMPBELL, Wesley Neil

Family Name:

Campbell

Given Names:

Wesley Neil

Gender:

Male

Birth-Date

7 July 1948

Death-Date:

Marital Status:

Married 8 November 1975

Age Range:

30 to 75 years old

Location:

Germany 1980’s and Victoria 1983-2015

Occupation:

Minister of Religion

Primary Motivation:

Peacemaker, opposition to war, pacifism -religious

Further Information:

The Revd Dr Wesley Neil Campbell was born 7 July 1948, at Dwellingup, Western Australia (WA). He attended school at Wagin and Bunbury in WA. During the 1980s Wes lived in Germany whilst he completed his doctorate in Theology. Whilst in Germany he attended a peace protest and became involved with a German peace group called ‘peace without weapons. He also attended two peace conferences in Budapest during 1983 and 1986.Wes was a pacifist and promoted peace and was opposed to war based on his Christian beliefs.

He was ordained as a Methodist Minister during October 1975. He married Beverly on 8 November 1975. Together they have two children. He is a theologian and artist. He is now retired as a Minister of the Uniting Church of Australia (UCA). During 1974 to 1978 he worked as a parish minister in Perth, and during 1983 to 1990 in Melbourne as Director of Justice in the Commission for Mission of the UCAs Synod of Victoria and Tasmania .He was minister at North Melbourne during 1990 to 1999, Essendon during 2000 to 2007 and as Chaplain at the University of Melbourne from 2007 until 2013 when he retired from active ministry .He has worked tirelessly for peace, justice and social responsibility.

Wesley is a promoter of peace and opposes war and violence. He was active in his peace activism dating from the 1980s. These included:

Organizing of Palm Sunday Rallies, Rallies against the wars in Iraq
Demonstrations – port Melbourne against the berthing of US warships
Publication of Books on Peacemaking and a booklet let on guided studies on peacemaking
A founding member of ecumenical group called Clergy for peace,
A member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
A member of Pax Christi
A member of the synod of The Uniting Church Victorian and acted as its Social Justice Officer for many years
He was actively outspoken against wars, like the Iraq War and Afghanistan within the church and in through the publication of letters of protest, for example The Age
Organised special Anzac Day and Hiroshima Day peace services at Wesley Church in Melbourne over many years.
Spoke at numerous conferences for Peace and petitioned for peace through his life.

Wesley submitted a response to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament during February 2009. He argued that, The Christian theological view understands human beings to be given a position of great dignity on this planet, which is accompanied by responding for caring for and preserving the planet. That is the gift of the Creator. The development of the weapons, their use and threatened us, threatens to undo the structure of created life itself…The weapons which threaten such annihilation therefore threaten to return all crated life on the planet to the nihil (nothingness). He accordingly stated that nuclear weapons are incompatible with Christan pacifism and also fails the criteria of the Christian concept of a Just War. He concludes his submission to the inquiry by stressing the necessity of seeking urgent and universal abolition of all nuclear weapons.

It has been observed that with Wesley’s commitment to peace, justice and social responsibility, his art has always been integral to his activism. Wes’s work suggests an artist so thoroughly committed to the world that he does not shy away from bearing witness to the trauma of creaturely existence alongside the refusal to abandon the world to its violence, nihilism, and despair. Indeed, his work tells of, and elicits, hope — hope that does not bypass or disregard the lived realities of the world, hope born of one who refuses to leave the world to the monstrosities and burdens of its own judgements.

Confirmatory Sources:

Personal Interview, Gordon Banon, January, and April 2025

Jason Goroncy, Openness to the World: Wes Campbell, and his disturbing illusions of peace, 10 January 2023. https://www.abc.net.au/religion/jason-goroncy-art-of-wes-campbell-images-of-peace/101842110

Openness to the world: Wes Campbell, and his disturbing illusions of peace – ABC Religion & Ethics

Rev Dr Wes Campbell, ANZAC Day Lament and Reflection, Friday Forum, Crosslight, 21 April 2017. https://crosslight.org.au/2017/04/21/anzac-day-lament-reflection/

Rev Dr Wesley Campbell, Submission to the Inquiry on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Parliament of Australia, February 2009. https://www.aph.gov.au/~/media/wopapub/house/committee/jsct/nuclearnon_proliferation/subs/sub62_pdf.ashx accessed 11 April 2025

Petition from the Reverend Wes Campbell, Executive Secretary, the Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria, concerning the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, 1987, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/140480?ln=en&v=pdf

Rev Dr Wes Campbell, Christ our Present and Our Future, The Congregation of Mark the Evangelist Incorporating Uniting Care Hotham Mission, 23 April 2017, https://marktheevangelist.unitingchurch.org.au/23-april-christ-our-present-and-future/?doing_wp_cron=1745822911.6526899337768554687500