University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 1990 The bishop's society, 1856 to 1958: a history of the Sydney Anglican Home Mission Society Donald George Anderson University of Wollongong Recommended Citation Anderson, Donald George, The bishop's society, 1856 to 1958: a history of the Sydney Anglican Home Mission Society, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Department of History and Politics, University of Wollongong, 1990. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/1440 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] THE BISHOP'S SOCIETY, 1856 TO 1958: \ History of the Sydney Anglican Home Mission Society, \ Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG av DONALD GEORGE ANDERSON, M.A.(HONS),TH.SCHOL., DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND POLITICS. DECEMBER, 1990. Department of History and Politics, University of Wollongong, New South Waies. 1 UEK'ilJKiCAliON . i certity tnat this thesis entitled 'ine Bisnop's Society' nas not previously been presented tor any degree at any other university or institution. Donald G. Anderson, December, iyyu. ABSTRACT. The thesis of this history of the Sydney Anglican Home Mission Society (originally named the Sydney Church Society), spanning the years 1856 to 1958, demonstrates the central argument of this study that the development and prosperity of the Society was dependent on the ability or its episcopal leadership to win the support of the largely conservative Evangelical clergy and laity of the Diocese of Sydney. The establishment and growth of the Society will be explored by examining five recurrent topics, namely, episcopal leadership, ecclesiastical party loyalties, church extension, church-state relations and welfare services. Under the leadership of Bishop Frederic Barker, the tounder of the Society, the organisation prospered as a parochial support organisation. Following Barker's death in 1882, for 50 years the Society was plagued by debilitating division and social upheavals which curtailed the Society's flexibility and usefulness. Bishop Alfred Barry was thwarted in his attempts in the 1880s to redirect some of the financial resources of the Society into the ailing Anglican school system and to overseas mission work. Barry's Evangelical successor, W.S. Smith, deficient in leadership skills and energy presided over the situation where the Society suffered a protracted period of malaise in the 1890s and the early 1900s. By his death in 1909, the Society was in deep financial difficulties and was 2 troubled by fundamental divisions within the ranks of the Society's supporters. Some Evangelicals wanted the Society to establish parochial welfare services while others believed the Society should only fund the establishment and the maintenance of parishes. J.C.Wright, the fourth Bishop of Sydney, was chosen to administer the Church because some Synod members felt he would be able to shepherd the diocese trom its societal insularity into the main stream of Sydney life. Wright addressed this task in the difficult days of the War World One and in the Depression, but largely failed because he was not able to unify or win support for his policies from many Sydney Anglican Evangelicals. The Society's name changed during his episcopate, but otherwise remained as Barker had fashioned it. Wright's successor, H.W.K. Mowil, a conservative Evangelical, unified Sydney conservative Evangelicals and received enthusiastic support from them. He re-structured much of the work of the Diocese and of the Society, and by so doing facilitated the establishment of meaningful contacts between the Church and the general community. He transformed the Society into a centralised ecclesiastical bureaucracy, under his control, which became a major welfare provider with some residual responsibilities for parish ministry. Under Barker and Mowll the Society was the 'Bishop's Society', for they were able to deploy the Society as their 3 principal instrument for the establishment and the maintenance of their initiatives. Intervening bishops often failed to win support from the numerous and influential Sydney Evangelicals because either their major policies or their theology or both differed from those of Sydney fcvangelicals. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. There are many people who gave of their time and skill to help me in the writing of this history of the Sydney Anglican Home Mission Society. The Revd Bernard Judd read and commented helpfully on a number of chapters. Dr Brian Dickey, Professors R. Linder and Jim Hagan also read and offered constructive comments on the research. The willing co-operation of the staff of many libraries greatly assisted my research efforts: amongst them are the Library of Chester City, the Library of Liverpool, the Lambeth Palace Library, the Mitchell Library , the Moore College Library. The Archivist of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney also gave me constant help with the study. The Revd Canon Alan Whitham, sometime General Secretary of the Home Mission Society, gave me encouragement and made the records of the Society freely available to me. Once again I gladly record my gratitude for the encouragement and insightful supervision that Dr Stuart Piggin offered me throughout the writing of this history. Miss Julia Kable and Mr John Blackwell spent time reading the final draft and offered me many very helpful ideas. Finally, I offer my sincere thanks to my wife Carol for all her many hours of help and for her patience throughout the many years of labour. My children, Michael, Jennifer and Peter have almost learnt how to live with a part-time research addict. 5 iABLJi Ut LUNlEiMi'S Fage title page. i ADstract. 2 ACKnowiedgements o ust or contents 0 introduction. 1 Chapters 1. Uerore tne bydney Ctiurch Society. JV 2. fne Sydney Church Society is Born, 1056. 59 J. ihe bishop's society: tar ly Years, ittob-lttbb . 108 f. ine End ut ihe Society's Beginnings, 1867-1882 158 o. A Dirterent Approach: The Leadership or Airred barry, 1884-1889 2U2 t>. Leadership vacuum: William saumarez Smith. itsyu-i9U9. 261 /. ine Home mission society trom 1909 to 19JJ. 2tm b. iranstormation under the Leadership ot H.W.k.Mowll, 193J-1955. Conclusion. 4-Ott Appendix. Bibllography. 422 t) INTRODUCTION. The Sydney Anglican Home Mission Society (formerly the Sydney Church Society) was for over one hundred years the biggest institution of Australia's oldest and most populous Anglican Diocese, the Diocese of Sydney.i In the early part of its history the Society had been the chief instrument of the various bishops and archbishops of Sydney for the funding of church extension. Essentially this meant the provision of financial resources for the erection of church buildings and the payment of clergy and other church workers in parishes lacking the necessary monetary resources. Later in its history, the Society developed and maintained much of the Diocese's considerable investment in social welfare services located in Sydney and its environs. This research was largely prompted by an awareness that in the 1980s some Sydney Anglicans were dissatisfied with the performance and policies of the Home Mission Society. It was openly said that the Society had forsaken its appointed role as the provider of finance and expertise for the establishment of new parishes within the bounds of the Diocese of Sydney. Shortly after the Revd Canon A.V.Whitham became the General Secretary of the Society in 1982 he expressed some of his concerns about the Society. i The Sydney Anglican Home Mission Society was known as the Sydney Church Society from 1856 to 1911 and will be so named until the time of the change. 7 He wanted the Society to go back, at least in part, to its original responsibility of providing for the establishment of parishes, and he called for a renewed emphasis on the Home Mission Society's original role. Its first task back in 1856 was to give money for the building of churches and the payment of clergy stipends in new areas of the Colony following the discovery of gold.2 This clear articulation of dissatisfaction by Whitham and others prompted me to begin to probe into the history of the Society. in view of its alleged original exclusive charter to support and extend the denomination's parish system, had the Society substantially lost its way?3 What, then, was the original role of the Society in 1856, and what had happened in the intervening years to effect such a radical transformation in its work?4 Preliminary research into the affairs of the Society convincingly demonstrated that the policies and responsibilities assigned to the Society had undergone a radical transformation in the chosen period of research, namely 1856 to 1958. In addition such research indicated that support given to the Society by Sydney Anglicans 2 Pulse, 27 July 1982,(Magazine of the Home Mission Society) p.l. 3 Interview with the Revd Canon A.V.Whitham, 6 November 1989. * Home Mission Society Annual Report. 1982. Out of a total expenditure of $9,250,000, the Society spent $8,245,506 on welfare( Careforce, Opportunity shops, girls' homes and aged services and accommodation). 8 varied from period to period. These discoveries prompted further questions. Could any one factor or combination of factors be isolated to account for the uneven support given to the organisation? Is it possible to account for the radical transformation in the policies of the Society? Subsequent research suggested answers to these and other questions. It will be argued in this history, spanning the period 1856 to 1958, that the Home Mission Society was a productive institution only when its various episcopal presidents and other leaders of the Society were able to win support for the Society's policies and programmes from clerical and lay Sydney Evangelicals.