Anglican Diocese of Tasmania

Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia

For the Catholic church in Tasmania, see Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hobart.

42°49′59″S 147°19′37″E﻿ / ﻿42.833°S 147.327°E﻿ / -42.833; 147.327

Diocese of Tasmania

Coat of arms

Location
Country| Australia
Territory| Tasmania
Ecclesiastical province| Extra-provincial
Headquarters|

* Level 1
* 125 Macquarie Street
* Hobart TAS 7000

Statistics
Population
- Total|
103,839[1]
Parishes| 51
Churches| 156
Information
Denomination| Anglican
Rite|

* Book of Common Prayer
* An Australian Prayer Book
* A Prayer Book for Australia

Established| 21 August 1842 (1842-08-21)
Cathedral| St David's Cathedral, Hobart
Current leadership
Parent church| Anglican Church of Australia
Bishop|

* Richard Condie
* (since 2016)

Assistant bishop|

* Christopher Jones
* (since 2008)

Dean|

* Richard Humphrey
* (since 2009)

Website
anglicantas.org.au

Logo of the Diocese

The Anglican Diocese of Tasmania includes the entire Tasmanian state of Australia and is an extraprovincial diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia.[2]

The cathedral church of the diocese is St David's Cathedral in Hobart. The twelfth Bishop of Tasmania, ordained as bishop and installed on 19 March 2016, is Richard Condie.

## Churchmanship

[edit]

Tasmania is a low church/evangelical diocese. In contrast to the Diocese of Sydney's long heritage of evangelicalism or Brisbane or Ballarat's unwavering liberal Anglo-Catholicism, Tasmania's churchmanship has varied over time but it has now returned to its evangelical roots.[3]

In its earliest days, the diocese had a decidedly low church outlook, with priests such as Richard Deodatus Poulett Harris condemning "popery".[4]

During the 1940s, high churchmen had the "experience of being a ‘Lone Scout type Catholic’ in conservative evangelical Tasmania. One of those who attended the occasional meetings of the Tasmanian state branch of the Australian Church Union in the 1940s recalled the conspiratorial atmosphere: 'they were quite delicious really, because everyone was called Father, and we could say the Hail Mary without anyone getting into trouble’".[5]

Since the 1980s, the Diocese has reverted to a strongly evangelical orientation. The last two bishops, John Harrower and Richard Condie, have both supported this stance. Most of the current clergy in the Diocese are trained at the evangelical Ridley College.[6]

Bishop Condie is also the Chairman of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and a member of GAFCON.[7]

## History

[edit]

Robert Knopwood, a member of the original settlement in 1803, was responsible for the initial establishment of Anglicanism in the colony.[8] Also important for the development of Anglicanism in the colony was the arrival of the Bible Society in 1819.[9] Although most of the mainline denominations were well represented in Tasmania, Anglicanism was well established by the 1830s.[10]

Church control of the educational system was a contested issue of the 1840s, with a division between Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics.[11] On 21 August 1842, Tasmania became the first independent Anglican diocese in Australia by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Queen Victoria and Francis Nixon was appointed first Bishop of Tasmania.[12][13] In 1842 (shortly after her erections), her jurisdiction was described as "Van Diemen's Land" (but not "Norfolk Island").[14] Nixon initiated the creation of a synodical structure in 1858, combining clergy and laity governance of the diocese, mirroring similar measures in the dioceses of Adelaide and Melbourne.[15] In 1866, there were two archdeaconries: Rowland Robert Davies was Archdeacon of Hobart Town and Thomas Reibey of Launceston.[16]

In 1977, the diocese held a youth synod "to encourage informed discussion on religious and social issues", which eventually became the National Anglican Youth Gathering.[17]

## Schools

[edit]

There are three schools associated with the diocese: Hutchins School, Launceston Church Grammar School and St Michael's Collegiate School.[18]

## Welfare and social justice

[edit]

The diocese has various charitable organisations such as the welfare provider Anglicare and the Mission to Seafarers.[19]

There is a strong Christian pacifist subculture in the diocese. In 2012, a priest of the diocese, the Reverend Nathanael Reuss, was elected global chairman of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship.[20][21]

## Issues

[edit]

Although General Synod passed legislation to authorise the ordination of women to the priesthood in 1992, Tasmania had already given a deaconess, Marie Kingston, individual responsibility for the parish of King Island during the 1960s.[22]

From 1997 to 1998, a public inquiry was held which unearthed a number of cases of clerical child abuse, involving nine priests, which had occurred from 25 to 30 years previously.[23] As a result of these findings, the diocese provided compensation. More recently the diocese has focused on providing safe ministry with the bishop, John Harrower, saying during his episcopate that "the church is committed to stamping out child sexual abuse within its ranks".[24] He also lobbied the federal government about this issue.[25]

The diocese was called before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in November 2014,[26] and again in January/February 2016, when the Commission held public hearings into the Church of England Boys' Society (CEBS), a children's group run by the church.[27]

In February 2024, Justice Michael Brett of the Supreme Court of Tasmania ordered the diocese to pay almost A$2.4 million in damages to a 53 year old man, who had been abused by paedophile priest Louis Victor Daniels on multiple occasions. The abuse had taken place in the 1980s, while Daniels was holding a leadership position with the CEBS in Tasmania. In delivering the Court's judgment, Justice Brett also said that he was "... satisfied that the impact on [the victim had] also been compounded to a significant extent by the response of [the then] Bishop Newell and the Church generally to [the victim's] disclosures of abuse, both at the time of the disclosures and over the years since."[28]

Responding to the Court's judgment, the current Bishop, Richard Condie, said, "We're so sad that people who have sat in my position before me have not been able to follow through in the appropriate way with people who came forward with abuse. Things are very different now."[28]

## Demography

[edit]

A report from the General Synod, using National Church Life Survey and Australian Bureau of Statistics data, found that average weekly attendance across the state in 2001 was 4,800.[29] This is from the high-water mark in 1961, when 45.42% of the population declared themselves affiliated with the Anglican Church in Tasmania, the highest percentage of all the Australian states.[30]

In the diocese there are 107 active clergy and 51 parishes.[31]

## Bishops of Tasmania

[edit]

This section is an excerpt from Anglican Bishop of Tasmania.[edit]

Bishops of Tasmania

No  | From  | Until  | Incumbent  | Notes
1 | 1842  | 1863  | Francis Nixon | Consecrated 24 August 1842.
2 | 1864  | 1882  | Charles Bromby | Later Assistant Bishop of Lichfield and Assistant Bishop of Bath and Wells.
3 | 1883  | 1889  | Daniel Sandford FRSE | Later coadjutor bishop to two successive Bishops of Durham.
4 | 1889  | 1901  | Henry Montgomery KCMG | Father of Field-Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
5 | 1902  | 1914  | Edward Mercer | Later Archdeacon of Macclesfield.
6 | 1914  | 1919  | Reginald Stephen | Previously Dean of Melbourne; translated to Newcastle.
7 | 1919  | 1943  | Robert Hay | Previously Dean of Hobart; died in office.
8 | 1944  | 1963  | Geoffrey Cranswick |
9 | 1963  | 1981  | Robert Davies CBE | Previously Assistant Bishop of Newcastle.
10 | 1982  | 2000  | Philip Newell | Previously Archdeacon of Lilley.
11 | 2000  | 2015  | John Harrower | Later Assistant Bishop assisting the Primate of Australia.
12 | 2016  | present  | Richard Condie | Previously an archdeacon in the Diocese of Melbourne; consecrated 19 March 2016.
John Vernon Kestell Cornish (13 October 1931 - 26 January 1982)[32] was consecrated 19 May 1979 at St George's Cathedral, Perth, to serve as Assistant Bishop of Perth. He was elected Bishop of Tasmania (to succeed Davies) in 1981, but died suddenly, after moving to Hobart but before his scheduled enthronement;[33][34] Newell was elected in his stead the same year.[35]

## Assistant bishops

[edit]

These men have served as assistant bishops (some of whom were styled "missioner bishops"[36]) in the diocese:[37]

* William Rothwell Barrett (previously Warden of St Wilfrid's Theological College, Cressy 1924-29 and then Warden of Christ College (University of Tasmania) thereafter), consecrated 21 December 1955
* Henry Allingham Jerrim, consecrated 21 December 1974
* Mervyn Richard Stanton, consecrated 21 December 1985[38]
* Christopher Randall Jones, Assistant Bishop (Vicar-General)[39] (2008–present)
* Ross John Nicholson, Assistant Bishop (Mission)[40] (2008–2017)

## See also

[edit]

* Anglican Diocese of Sydney
* Anglican Diocese of North West Australia
* Anglican Diocese of Armidale
* Anglican Pacifist Fellowship
* Church Missionary Society
* The Mission to Seafarers
* Anglicare
* Ridley Theological College
* Evangelical Anglicanism
* Low church
* Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans
* GAFCON

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Wayne Brighton,Attendance Statistics For the Anglican Church of Australia(NCLS:2004): 18.
2. ^ Angela Grutzner, The Australian Anglican Directory (Melbourne: Publishing Solutions, 2009): 7.
3. ^ Frame, Anglicans in Australia, p. 132.
4. ^ Poulett Harris, Intercession for Rulers, a Christian Duty: Being the Queen's Birthday, and the First Sunday After the Public Holiday Appointed in Honour of the Marriage of the Prince of Wales with the Princess Alexandra, 3, Examiner Steam Press, Hobart, 1863.
5. ^ The Anglo-Catholic Tradition in Australian Anglicanism
6. ^ "Anglican Church Of Australia Missionary Diocese Of Tasmania Diocesan Directory 2017-2018" (PDF). 31 August 2017.
7. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 29 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
8. ^ Lloyd Robson, A History of Tasmania: Van Diemen's Land from the Earliest Times to 1855 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1983)
9. ^ Bruce Kaye, Anglicanism in Australia (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002): 13
10. ^ Ian Breward, A History of the Australian Churches (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1993): 223
11. ^ Breward, A History of the Australian Churches., 40.
12. ^ "History of St David's Cathedral". Retrieved 24 December 2012.
13. ^ Frame, Anglicans in Australia (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2007): 58.
14. ^ The Colonial Church Atlas, Arranged in Dioceses: with Geographical and Statistical Tables (second ed.). London: SPG. May 1842. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
15. ^ Frame, Anglicans in Australia, 74.
16. ^ The Clergy List for 1866 (London: George Cox, 1866) p. 466
17. ^ Kaye, Anglicanism in Australia, 131.
18. ^ 'Anglican Organisations and Societies' Diocesan Directory 2008–2009 (Hobart: Anglican Church of Tasmania, 2008): 5–6.
19. ^ 'Anglican Organisations and Societies' Diocesan Directory 2008–2009 (Hobart: Anglican Church of Tasmania, 2008): 5–6.
20. ^ "APF 80th Anniversary Day & our new Chair". 3 November 2017.
21. ^ "A Drowned-Out Truth". 6 September 2024.
22. ^ Kaye, Anglicanism in Australia, pp,. 33–135.
23. ^ "Stateline transcript". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
24. ^ "Church welcomes sexual abuse report", ABC News (18 June 2009), [1]. Retrieved 27 June 2009.
25. ^ "Anglican Church in Tasmania - Bishop urges PM to change abuse payouts law". Archived from the original on 19 February 2011. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
26. ^ "Special notice from the Headmaster regarding the Royal Commission hearing | Latest news | The Hutchins School, Hobart Tasmania". www.hutchins.tas.edu.au. 6 October 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
27. ^ Gramenz, Emilie (26 January 2016). "Sexual abuse inquiry to focus on Hobart's Church of England Boys' Society". ABC News. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
28. ^ a b Lohberger, Loretta (17 February 2024). "Tasmania's Anglican Church ordered to pay $2.4 million for abuse in landmark case". ABC News. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
29. ^ Wayne Brighton, Attendance Statistics for the Anglican Church of Australia (NCLS:2004): 18.
30. ^ Frame, Anglicans in Australia, 127.
31. ^ Grutzner, The Australian Anglican Directory, 15 & 109–111.
32. ^ "Cornish, Rt. Rev (John) Vernon (Kestell)". Who's Who. A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U163156. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
33. ^ "Briefly ..." The Living Church. 28 February 1982. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
34. ^ Holland, Right Rev'd Dr Jonathan (8 March 2021). "Who Is This Vernon Cornish?". Anglican Focus. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
35. ^ All Saints Anglican Network Tasmania — Biographies § Henry Jerrim
36. ^ cavdom (19 December 2007), Missioner Bishops for Diocese of Tasmania, archived from the original on 17 May 2021, retrieved 27 September 2016
37. ^ "Anglican Church in Tasmania – People directory". Archived from the original on 21 September 2011. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
38. ^ "Archived copy". www.anglicanarchives.org.au. Archived from the original on 25 May 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2022.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
39. ^ "People directory | Anglican Church in Tasmania". www.anglicantas.org.au. Archived from the original on 26 September 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
40. ^ "People directory | Anglican Church in Tasmania". www.anglicantas.org.au. Archived from the original on 26 September 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2016.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Boyce, James (2001). God's Own Country?: The Anglican Church and Tasmanian Aborigines (PDF). Hobart: Anglicare Tasmania. ISBN 1864590696.

## External links

[edit]

* Diocese of Tasmania website

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