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The other (spiritual) life of a rural doctor - Fiona Wagner |
 Fiona Wagner with her four children at the wombat enclosure in Pioneer Plantation, Pottsville, just before Christmas. (L-r): Daniel (5), Sophie (9), Adam (8) and Louise (11).
One of seven children, Fiona Wagner was reared on five acres on the outskirts of Brisbane, so it didn’t seem such a big step to find herself living on a 170 acre farm near Woodburn after her marriage.
Fiona had met her husband, Stephen, through her church, the Summerland Christian Life Centre, a locally run organisation loosely affiliated to Christian Life Churches International.
They practise a bible based Christianity, which evolved from the sweep of the charismatic movement. Fiona describes it as a step further on from other religions in that it removes religious man’s input. There is no confession or communion.
“The bible is so rich in a lot of teaching and the idea is not to err too far from that and believe in God’s truth. I’ve always liked Christianity; you meet all sorts of people from all walks of life.”
Fiona was brought up a Protestant so comes from a Christian background. “I love it. I’ve never had reason to doubt, query or go further.”
She enjoys the country life. The farm also suits her because it is a place where she and Stephen can protect and watch their four children, who range in ages from 11 to five. Like most parents, they believe in teaching their children right from wrong, but she admits they are probably stricter than average.
A Queensland University graduate, Fiona moved to Lismore in 1981 where she spent a year at Lismore Base Hospital, before joining her sister, Suzanne Dymock, in practice. She now works three days a week in Goonellabah, does nursing home visits and has hospital VMO rights.
“I love general practice. In the hospital it is promoted as boring, but it is the opposite. It is never boring for one second. It’s a different ball game. I’ve always found it extremely interesting dealing with people.”
To her, general practice is an art and she finds the broad spectrum and variety stimulating. Doctors now treat the body and the mind, she says, but are still reluctant to deal with the spiritual side of health, an area that greatly interests her.
“All science is evidence based and that’s good, but no-one talks about the spiritual thing, just the physical body. I believe in the soul, mind and body. In medicine we take no notice of the spirit, but eastern societies do. In western medicine we push it down. I want to pull it up.”
Just as her religion informs the way she lives her life, it also informs her general practice. “In a consultation, I can’t talk about Jesus Christ, but I can talk about correct principles. I talk about the step of being kind. If you are lacking friends, you’ve got to reach out to be a friend first. It’s about being content where you are. Why keep striving for what you haven’t got?”
And laughter is important too, she says. “I probe them for what they think and believe. When I get the opportunity, I talk to them about their parenting and husband and wife relationships. I do talk about females and their boundaries, especially with older women, as a lot comes up around the time of menopause.”
As no one can be everything to everyone, Fiona believes in sowing seeds: “In due course the seeds will reap their own fruit. We can do it in medicine. We can do it personally in our medical practice and in life in general. To be able to sow good seeds, you need to know the source; you need to know God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
“I also believe in families. I could have stopped at two children, it would have been so easy.”
For someone who has no physical family, she says the principle is the same; join something that is like a family. This is what the church has done: “It acts as a surrogate family and brings together people with similar interests.”
Passionate about the well being of individuals, she wants people “to be as fulfilled as they can be no matter what the circumstances. I’m against corporations that make more profit for shareholders, but put off people at the bottom end. I would rather go back to smaller communities running themselves.”
The huge salaries the top players in the corporate world command are against how she thinks the world should work, although she believes in law and order, government and structure.
“I’m against one world anything. The IMF ties up countries in debt. A one world government would lose sight of the individual. It looks to me that lots of people are going backwards.”
As an adult, Fiona started to question the theory of evolution. She has since changed her view from someone who had been taught and absorbed the lessons of evolution, to someone who could not reconcile them with her own reading on the subject.
“I believe in creation as opposed to evolution. I don’t see the evidence for evolution. Nothing good comes from nothing. I think people want to face evolution and then they don’t have to believe in God and what he stands for.
“Evolution makes no sense. There is a lot of evidence against evolution. Again it is one of the things people don’t talk about much. I believe it was created and there will be a time and season when God will finish it all and people will have to give an account.”
She holds no truck with the big bang theory either: “If you have a watch factory and it blows up, you don’t get a lot of watches, you get a big mess.”
In everyday life, she would like to see conversation go beyond what the children are doing at school and for people get to know each other on a deeper level.
“I believe with all my heart in the deeper issues in life, but no-one talks about them much. I’m amazed people don’t ask more questions – I’d want to know!”
This article was first published in the February 2001 edition of GPSpeak.
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