To The Fore With Placard And Thermos, Pushing For Justice In Several Causes

The Age

Monday October 20, 2008

David Cox - David Cox is Reverend Helen Cox's son.

HELEN ELIZABETH COX

NURSE, MINISTER, SOCIAL ADVOCATE

18-3-1937 - 15-7-2008

REVEREND Helen Cox, whose lifelong commitment to social justice and pastoral care led her to become a prominent activist, died after a long battle with the muscle degenerative disease polymyositis. She was 71.

In recent years she became a well-known face and voice at public demonstrations against the war in Iraq and for the Palestinian cause in the Middle East.

Born in Melbourne to a prominent accountant, Alan Bodgshun, whose clients included the retailer Georges as well as leading public schools, she was educated at Deepdene State School and MLC.

Helen trained as a nurse at the Alfred and in 1964 her passion to help the disenfranchised took her to work with remote Aboriginal communities in north-western Australia.

There she met the like-minded John Cox, a pilot who worked with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and they were married in 1966. Also in the '60s she travelled to Britain and worked as a nurse for the underprivileged in London's East End.

Along the way her Christian faith grew stronger and in 1982 she was ordained a minister in the Uniting Church. Her first placement was to minister to the congregations at Mulgrave and Wheeler's Hill, but major illness intervened and in later years she ministered part-time across many parishes.

Helen travelled widely, backpacking and hitch-hiking with her children, but her concern for the oppressed could never be ignored for personal pursuits. So when casinos were planned for Victoria, she was quickly on the steps of Parliament House with her placards; years later came peace rallies against the war in Iraq.

In 2002, Helen took up the struggle of the Palestinian people and sought a just solution to the issue of access to their homeland and the right to self-determination. She squatted in Melbourne's City Square on a chair, with a thermos, easel and her home-made poster declaring "ONE HUGE STEP FOR PEACE - ISRAEL WITHDRAW FROM THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES". She was accused of being anti-Semitic, received hate mail, and sometimes was spat on or sworn at while holding her posters. But she was never intimidated.

She educated others and raised funds, particularly in support of Olive Kids (the Australian Foundation for Palestinian Children) and for Australians for Palestine. She said their peaceful advocacy for Palestine mirrored her own stance.

Besides her constant writing, Helen marched in demonstrations, held film presentations, addressed public meetings and took part in educational seminars at universities and other venues across Melbourne.

She believed that the Christian church had lost its prophetic voice; she was openly critical of the failure of most church leaders to publicly condemn the injustices in Palestine-Israel.

She sought a more publicly assertive leadership. She did not hesitate to contact Archbishop Desmond Tutu and ex-president Jimmy Carter, hoping that some constructive influence might assist in her advocacy plans.

She is survived by her children David, Hugh and Chris, and brothers Graham and Brian. Her husband, John, died in 1999.

David Cox is Reverend Helen Cox's son.

© 2008 The Age

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