I was born Roy aka "Rocco" SCARCELLA (second
son out of three plus a daughter) in Sydney Australia,
to an Italian-born father and a German-born mother, who had both met on the ship coming to
Australia as World War II refugees. They married and settled in a flat in Bondi, a popular
tourist destination in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney.
In my formative years, I grew up
speaking Italian and German at home and eventually English as local public schooling
began. I enjoyed growing up there by the seaside literally across the road. However, by
the time my youngest brother was born our small flat was already overcrowded. My maternal
grandmother had also emigrated and was now living with us. So in 1965 just before
Christmas, we bought and moved into a house in Earlwood, an inner western suburb of Sydney
that was already populated with others who had come to Australia from various parts of the
globe, but especially from Italy and Greece.
During my childhood my older brother
and I were interested and encouraged to take up tap dancing and acrobatics and had
the privilege of enjoying some professional work on Children’s TV programs and
entertainment programs (such as the Bob Crosby Tonight Show) as well as 2 thoroughly
enjoyable seasons as part of the cast of Lionel Bart’s Musical
“Oliver!”. I have always treasured these experiences that I was so blessed to be
a part of. During my years at Canterbury Boys’ High School I soon found that a number
of my friends had “got religion”. I look back and see how they worked hard to
evangelise me but I was resistant.
It wasn’t
until my second year at Sydney University, studying a Bachelor of Arts (having been
awarded a Teacher’s Scholarship), that I was touched by God. One of my tutors
(Luciano Ricci) had recently become a Christian. He persevered for several months,
inviting me to church outreach events with him and his wife Geraldine. Finally, just
before Christmas in 1976, I had run out of reasons for not accepting Jesus Christ as my
personal Lord and Saviour . And so, one night after church with a cup of coffee in one
hand, I kneeled in the lounge room of Luciano and Geraldine’s flat, prayed a simple
prayer of repentance and gave my life over to Christ.
I completed my first degree attending St Matthias
Centennial Park along with the Riccis and then went to Teachers’ College to complete
a graduate Diploma in Education in 1979. This was where I met Sue (my wife) again and we
soon fell in love and married in the following year. During our early years of
marriage we lived in Cabramatta, a very multicultural suburb of Sydney. Sue and I became
increasing involved in supporting Luciano’s new ministry of reaching out to those of
an Italian background as well as involvement in other cross-cultural gospel ventures.
In 1984 we felt called to overseas ministry with the Christian Literature
Crusade and so we trained with a view to going to Italy. Sue fell pregnant (with Livia our
first daughter) and the CLC leaders’ decided that we should continue to work in
Australia. But in February, 1985 I was offered the position of lay pastor to the Italian
speaking congregation that Luciano had been serving. (He was called to another Church). I
accepted and enjoyed pastoring that small but faithful congregation for the next 10 years
(even part-time during my 3 year Theological College studies from 1989 - the year
after Cristina, our second daughter, came into this world).
Upon
graduation and subsequent ordination I was appointed as Assistant Minister to Fairfield
Anglican Church with the brief to develop an international style service and Bible study
groups for those from different cultural backgrounds. (I continued to pastor the Italian
congregation, holding services at Fairfield). It was a difficult but rewarding experience
that I see laid down necessary foundations for others subsequently to build upon. In 1994,
I accepted the position to pastor the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd at Bossley
Park (as it was known then), an outer suburb of Fairfield City, where, for
about seven and a half years, I sought under God to establish a welcoming,
international-flavoured church - passionate about growing mature
followers of Jesus Christ. There, we all experienced some challenging times but thankfully more times of immense blessing, joy and growth.
Then, in January 2002, our family moved down to Melbourne to study at the CMS
Institute for Inter-Cultural Studies (St Andrew's Hall) with a view to preparing
for missionary service in Indonesia. God richly blessed us through the Spirit-filled worship and fellowship of the Melbourne Praise Centre, an international congregation with many Indonesian members. During this time, it became clear to us firstly, that our daughters needed to finish their high school studies in Sydney and secondly, some family health issues needed immediate addressing and so we had to re-assess our call to full-time ministry in Bali.
At the completion of the CMS course in June
2002, we moved from Melbourne to the south-eastern suburbs of Sydney - where I served as
Senior Assistant Minister with Sylvania Anglican Church. This was a good time of restoration for our family, varied ministry opportunities and making new friends.
At the end of my contract in July
2004, I began a new ministry with Anglicare NSW as General Hospital Chaplain based at Royal Prince Alfred [RPA] Hospital Camperdown, an inner city-suburb of Sydney. Another challenging but rewarding ministry to patients, their families and the staff. When we moved house to Liverpool in 2005, I also served briefly in an honorary capacity
as preacher at George's Hall Anglican Church in South-West Sydney while engaged in Chaplaincy. I
particularly loved the music and the preaching at Georges Hall. Sue enjoyed helping out with
School Scripture classes on occasions and opportunities for doing some face-painting and puppetry.
In February 2006, I started in a new role as a Pastor with Wesley
International Congregation (WIC) - joining the team of (what is now 6 full-time) pastors
serving a vibrant, 800+ member, multicultural church. WIC is
a part of Wesley Mission, based in the heart of the city of Sydney with a global vision and outreach. We
now count ourselves as very privileged to be a part of what God is doing at WIC!
Of course, since the mid-90s, our various WEBPASTOR DOT COM Ministries have continued
to slowly expand through this website, the internet and
our ministry partners in nations around the globe! And for this too, we praise God!
