I am told that the former Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen was quite clear what entity needed to be at the heart of a flourishing diocese. ‘What is most important’, he once said, ‘is a good theological college.’ ‘And’, he added, ‘the most important thing within a good theological college is a good library.’ Perhaps on this site, we do not have to agree with everything else Peter Jensen has also said to concur positively. The role of good Christian education was, is, and always will be, vital to a healthy Church in any generation. So, as we remember Frederick Barker, the second bishop of Sydney, today, it is good to reflect on this and hold all aspects of Christian education in our prayers. For, alongside his sterling contributions to the missionary and organisational development of the Australian Church, far beyond the bounds of Sydney diocese itself, Bishop Barker is rightly to be honoured for the commitment and support he gave to the expansion of Australian Christian education in the crucial years between 1855 and 1880. For good and, in some respects, depending on your viewpoint, for ill, he was a huge formative influence in the shaping of Australian church history. So let me briefly highlight three aspects of his work and legacy…
Firstly, Frederick Barker helped grow the Christian Faith in Australia and challenges us to do so also. In his case, this flowed from his deep evangelical faith and strong particular biblical teaching. Both of these were of course to be lasting features of the diocese of Sydney, and during the period of his episcopate, it is reckoned that the number of churches and clergy in his immediate care doubled. This did not quite meet the overall growth of the population, which, in Australia as a whole, rose from about 700 000 in 1855 to 2 250 000 by the time of his death in 1881. Yet it was a huge achievement in the face of so many shifting social, cultural and political changes, and it represents the fruit of a powerful missional dynamic. Perhaps there were some features of Barker’s Christian identity which we may question. Indeed, due, to his great height (he was 6 feet 5 and a half inches tall) and his abstinence from alcohol, the nickname ‘Bishop Barker’ came to be given to the tallest beer glasses available in 19th century Sydney hotels: a typical roguish Australian response perhaps to the narrower characteristics of his brand of Anglicanism. His earlier English ministries in Liverpool, together with his involvement with the Irish Home Mission, also further consolidated the Irish Protestant influenced distancing from Anglo-Catholic, as well as Roman Catholic, theology and practice which has been so significant in Sydney Anglicanism. Yet the strength of such evangelicalism has been the kind of energy, scriptural attention and love of God which Barker learned from other Evangelical giants like Charles Simeon, a strong influence upon him and so many more young men of his generation from university days in Cambridge.
Such evangelicalism also contributed to the flexibility and efficiency of Barker in his organisational achievements, a second key feature of his life we honour today. Perhaps this is another gift of Anglican Evangelicalism which more staid Anglo-Catholic and Broad Church Anglicans must always be prepared to learn. Somewhat laughably as it may seem to us now, Barker was originally appointed to Sydney in order to give him a bit of a rest from his demanding exertions in Liverpool. As it happened, Barker was needed to use all his energy to help establish new institutional arrangements for the expanding Australian Church. This included subdividing his own diocese to create Goulburn diocese in 1863, and Bathurst in 1869. During his time, working with other, more Tractarian, bishops like Tyrrell of Newcastle, as metropolitan of Australia he also oversaw the establishment of what would become major dioceses such as Perth in 1856 and Brisbane in 1859, as well as Grafton and Armidale in 1866, Ballarat in 1875, and North Queensland in 1878. Literally, as well as metaphorically, Barker thus mapped out Anglican pathways in this country. Indeed, it was Barker who presided over the institution of the diocesan synod of Synod, which met for the first time in 1866, and the General Synod in 1872. Like the 19th century diocesan boundaries, we may today wonder whether all those administrative features were ever quite perfect, and they may certainly require fresh flexibility and formation today. Yet these were outstanding achievements which were built to last and prosper.
To return to where I began, the question of how we might we take up Barker’s creative spirit today is one we may also apply to the third major area of his life’s achievements, namely the development of Christian education. Not for nothing was Sydney North Shore boys school named Barker College in his honour when it was founded in 1890. For Barker was a prodigious proponent and builder of Christian education, as an essential core element of a living faith and flourishing Church. Indeed, alongside the completion of St Andrews Cathedral in Sydney, a lasting base for Sydney Anglicanism was established under him with the opening of Moore Theological College in 1856.
So, for all of these things, we can remember Frederick Barker today on the 135th anniversary of his death, with thanksgiving. Yet none of them, of course, would be what he himself would truly want us to recall and celebrate at any length. For if Barker were here he would turn us at once towards the scriptures we have heard today, and not least the person and work of Jesus Christ. All of his achievements were pathways and pointers to that eternal reality. It is not through missional energy, or fine and creative organisation, or Christian education, nor even the finest theological college we could dream up, that we are saved. It is to Christ Jesus we must turn. For as Jesus says in our Gospel today, ‘whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ It is this deepest, eternal, truth, we share with Frederick Barker and all those who continue to derive inspiration from him and his work. In this may we live and give glory to God. Amen.
by Jo Inkpin, for St Francis College mid-day eucharist, Thursday 6 April 2017
Such evangelicalism also contributed to the flexibility and efficiency of Barker in his organisational achievements, a second key feature of his life we honour today. Perhaps this is another gift of Anglican Evangelicalism which more staid Anglo-Catholic and Broad Church Anglicans must always be prepared to learn. Somewhat laughably as it may seem to us now, Barker was originally appointed to Sydney in order to give him a bit of a rest from his demanding exertions in Liverpool. As it happened, Barker was needed to use all his energy to help establish new institutional arrangements for the expanding Australian Church. This included subdividing his own diocese to create Goulburn diocese in 1863, and Bathurst in 1869. During his time, working with other, more Tractarian, bishops like Tyrrell of Newcastle, as metropolitan of Australia he also oversaw the establishment of what would become major dioceses such as Perth in 1856 and Brisbane in 1859, as well as Grafton and Armidale in 1866, Ballarat in 1875, and North Queensland in 1878. Literally, as well as metaphorically, Barker thus mapped out Anglican pathways in this country. Indeed, it was Barker who presided over the institution of the diocesan synod of Synod, which met for the first time in 1866, and the General Synod in 1872. Like the 19th century diocesan boundaries, we may today wonder whether all those administrative features were ever quite perfect, and they may certainly require fresh flexibility and formation today. Yet these were outstanding achievements which were built to last and prosper.
To return to where I began, the question of how we might we take up Barker’s creative spirit today is one we may also apply to the third major area of his life’s achievements, namely the development of Christian education. Not for nothing was Sydney North Shore boys school named Barker College in his honour when it was founded in 1890. For Barker was a prodigious proponent and builder of Christian education, as an essential core element of a living faith and flourishing Church. Indeed, alongside the completion of St Andrews Cathedral in Sydney, a lasting base for Sydney Anglicanism was established under him with the opening of Moore Theological College in 1856.
So, for all of these things, we can remember Frederick Barker today on the 135th anniversary of his death, with thanksgiving. Yet none of them, of course, would be what he himself would truly want us to recall and celebrate at any length. For if Barker were here he would turn us at once towards the scriptures we have heard today, and not least the person and work of Jesus Christ. All of his achievements were pathways and pointers to that eternal reality. It is not through missional energy, or fine and creative organisation, or Christian education, nor even the finest theological college we could dream up, that we are saved. It is to Christ Jesus we must turn. For as Jesus says in our Gospel today, ‘whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ It is this deepest, eternal, truth, we share with Frederick Barker and all those who continue to derive inspiration from him and his work. In this may we live and give glory to God. Amen.
by Jo Inkpin, for St Francis College mid-day eucharist, Thursday 6 April 2017
RSS Feed