I guess that, to give you the most complete story of my life, we should go back to the beginning …
I was born in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, at the ripe old age of … that’s just a silly thing to write, isn’t it?! It was 1969. My mother was working with a travelling carnival, at the time, so we did not stay there long, thankfully.
While I was born with the name Ian Richard Forest-Jones, my mother’s surname, she soon married a man who was also travelling and working with that carnival and he adopted me as his son, thereby giving me the surname Doreen. That is why most of my Canadian friends know me as Ian Doreen.
My mother attempted suicide when I was around the age of three —which is not really surprising given the sorrow that she had endured in her family life for some years. It was at this time that I was taken to live with foster parents: the Rowlands of Glancaster, ON (a semi-rural suburb on the outskirts of Hamilton mountain). I lived with the Rowlands (June and Henry) for approximately one year. Despite being only temporary carers, they continued to be positive role models in my life by allowing me to visit once or twice a year until their deaths in the early 1990′s.
My mum recovered from her suicide attempt and worked hard to regain custody of my brother Owen and I. Unfortunately, she had taken up with a one-percenter biker and we lived in a house on James St, in the north-end of Hamilton. After an argument, he shot someone dead at our house and was arrested. A week later, the family of the dead man set our house on fire. I was age five. Due to the fire, my brother Owen died, as did our dog, Buddy. My mum was pregnant at the time with my second brother, Andrew. I was sent to live with the Rowlands for a couple of months.
My mum and I then went to live with friends at Niagara Falls. We spent only a few months there. Her boyfriend was released from jail just before Andrew was born.
We then all moved to a house near Dundurn Castle in Hamilton. On our first night there, I went to a local park to play; stayed too long and got lost. Some nice neighbours helped me to find my family again. I was attending grade 2 at school. We then moved to an apartment on Picton St. This was when I began attending Centennial Public School (a composite grade 2 & 3 class).
We then moved to a house on Macnab St, across from a housing commission estate. As I think back on this time I realise that, not having a biological father present in my life, I never really connected with any of my mum’s boyfriends. Plus, since most of them were violent, I must have come to fear them and the instability caused by their violence. I also learned to be distrustful of them, as many made promises to me/us which they didn’t keep. Clearly, these experiences have affected me greatly —I still struggle with male authority figures. I hope all this detail is not too boring to read, as it helps me to remember.
It was at Macnab St that our house was raided and guns were found. Sometime later, mum broke up with her biker boyfriend, which precipitated quite serious violence. We stayed with friends who lived at a house on Stratchan St.
We moved to a delapidated house on Hughson St. In an act of stupidity, I started a small, not too serious house fire while trying to read a book under my bed covers. At this time I started attending the Salvation Army youth camp at Selkirk, ON.
We moved next door to our friends on Stratchan St, the Dales, and became friends with the Martins and the Rizzos. It was then that I became particularly conscious of inequalities in social status. I finished my primary studies at Centennial, graduating with an academic award —a ‘runner-up’ Principal’s award. I then attended Bennetto Middle School for grade six. At Bennetto, I began learning instrumental music (the recorder) and took an academic aptitude test, scoring high enough to be invited to attend enrichment classes at Prince of Wales public school for grades seven and eight. At Prince of Wales, I started learning how to play the alto saxophone.
We next moved to Wood St, sharing a three-story house with another family. It was there that mum hooked up with another boyfriend, who later stabbed her following a quarrel. We were visiting friends living in a ‘God-awful’ shack on Shaw St.
We spent that summer camping/living at a conservation area near Binbrook. Following this, we ourselves moved into the shack on Shaw St and I began attending Scott Park Secondary School for grades nine and ten. During my grade nine year, New Wave and Punk music became popular, and I discovered the intricacies of being ‘cool’. During the summer, I began dressing like and associating with persons then called “Batcavers”, who would be known today as “Goths”.
During this time, my maternal grandfather and I started to become close. He and I shared a “Father and Son” day at a rifle range, sponsored by the Army Cadet Corps that I was attending, and he drove me to a week-long seminar on publishing a school yearbook. It was then I discovered that, besides myself, there was only one other male Forest-Jones in the world capable of continuing the family. I then, to honour my maternal grandfather, began to make plans to change my surname back to Forest-Jones, which I did in 1994 while preparing to move to Australia. Unfortunately, he died too soon to be a lasting mentor in my life and too soon to know of my name change, which I’m sure would have made him happy.
In advance of my grade eleven year, we moved to Stoney Creek, a semi-rural suburb on the eastern outskirts of Hamilton. I began attending Orchard Park Secondary School, from which I would eventually graduate. Joining the vocal and instrumental music programs, I eventually started learning percussion and played in various school bands. I joined the debating team, read a lot of philosophy and religious texts, and eventually became a committed Christian. I became a member of the Salvation Army, started a fellowship and prayer group at my school, and worked as a children’s camp counsellor at the SA’s Jackson’s Point Conference Centre and Camp.
In my final year at Orchard Park school, we moved to Kimberley Cres. My family eventually moved from Kimberley Cres, but I moved out on my own to a small apartment on Sanford St while finishing grade 13, my final year of high school.
That summer, I left high school early to begin working at Redeemer College University, the school where I would complete my first year of B.A. level study. I eventually began working at Christian Horizons group homes for the developmentally disabled.
Not being able to afford a private education, friends convinced me to transfer to Queen’s University and move to Kingston. I was studying Maths and Physics at this time, but soon changed to Psychology, then Philosophy. It was then I read the book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. That story inspired me to buy a motorcycle. I rode all over Eastern Canada and the North-Eastern United States, mostly to Christian music festivals. I worked as an installer of above-ground swimming pools with Aqua Mac Pools, but mostly at Christian Horizons. I did also work, for a year, as a chaplain in local prisons and as a youth pastor for a Korean Presbyterian Church.
As I approached my final year Queen’s, I began applying for work as a Youth Pastor. A friend put me onto a church in Australia that was hiring. The whole process just fell into place and I ended up moving to Sydney, to work with a Salvation Army church. I didn’t finish my B.A. as I was supposed to, though.
At Parramatta, I met and married my wife, Marcia. After two years, I took up a ministry with a Uniting church; although we had decided to move to Canada, when we saved enough money, so that I could finish my studies. We moved to Hamilton, Ontario, in 1994, where I accepted a job with the Salvation Army Ontario South Divisional Headquarters as a youth ministry consultant. We lasted one year in my hometown —you just never can go back home! I finished my B.A., but we then moved to Ottawa, Ontario.
Marcia easily found work as an Occupational Therapist, specialising in Brain Injury, while I struggled a little bit. I took up some work in group homes again, but I was really looking for work as a Youth Pastor. I eventually found a ministry with Parkwood Presbyterian Church. We were there, in Ottawa, for five years and loved every minute! During that time I completed a M.A. in Missiology (Mission Studies) at Saint Paul University in Ottawa. Our daughter, Joëlle Rachel, was born at that time. We decided to settle in Australia, to be close to Marcia’s parents, and moved back in 2004.
We eventually settled in Sydney. Although I had intended to stay in youth ministry, I was invited to become the Senior Pastor of a Churches of Christ church in Hurstville. Our son, Owen David, was born. I bought a motorcycle from a friend and became a member of a patched Christian motorcycle club in 2008. I took up running for health and fitness, completing my first marathon in 2011.
I served at Hurstville until 2009; was called to be the Senior Pastor at a church in Austral, but the ministry fit was not quite right. I took up instead a position as an Associate Pastor, focussing on youth and young adults, at St John’s Sutherland, an Anglican church under the direction of Rod Harding. This is only a part-time position, as I decided to begin research towards a PhD degree in the sociology of religious conversion at the University of Western Sydney. At the end of this course of study, I hope to continue as a church leader, in some capacity, as well as to teach and write.
