Good works v Mission: a 200 year story

An analysis by Jeremy Halcrow

: From the earliest days of the Sydney colony, Anglicans have been involved in "good works'. Anglican Chaplain Samuel Marsden established schools for orphans and training institutions for convict mums. These became the forerunners of the Church of England Homes. For nearly 200 years such "Homes' were the main model of "community care' adopted by Sydney Anglicans, providing care for orphans and women escaping abusive and alcoholic husbands. The grand Victorian mansions given to the Church at Glebe provided a genuine refuge for women and kids from Sydney's slums (eg the Rocks) as plague and flu epidemics hit the city from the 1890s to 1920. In contrast, Anglicare was founded as "The Church Society' in 1856. Church planting was virtually its sole purpose. So for 75 years up until the 1930s, C of E Homes looked after "good works' and The Church Society looked after "mission'.

: The Great Depression destabilised the comfortable organisational balance between "mission' and "good works' just as it destabilised society as a whole. Jobless, homeless families began forming shanty communities on the outskirts of Sydney. It was clear to the Church Society that its traditional church building models were not going to reach these people, and they began to employ chaplains to this new "home mission field'. In one short decade the rebranded Home Mission Society (HMS) adopted a range of new ministries to reach people on society's fringe with the gospel, such as Juvenile Court Chaplains (now Anglicare's Youth Services)  and nursing care to the impoverished frail aged (now Anglicare's Chesalon Nursing homes). These worthy initiatives diverted the organisation's attention from the original purpose of the "Church Society', so much so that when the need for a church planting drive arose in the 1960s, this was undertaken quite apart from HMS, and a new organisation called the New Areas Committee was established.

HMS was moving more into "good works' " once the sole domain of C of E homes. By the 1970s community expectations had moved away from institutionalised care. This saw HMS jump into newly available Government partnerships to form its Careforce family support initiative. As society turned against institutional care, resources for the C of E homes dwindled and they were finally merged into HMS in the 1980s.

: The merger did not resolve the tension between "good works' and "home mission'. It merely internalised tension into the structure of the organisation. When the New Areas Committee asked then Archbishop of Sydney, Donald Robinson to launch a fundraising appeal for more churches, Archbishop Robinson took it up, but he also requested Anglicare (then HMS) establish a Parish Support and Development Department to assume responsibility for supporting new churches when the initial fundraising program ran its course.

The decisive shift came on two fronts in 1997-98. Sydney Diocese's decision to regionalise decision-making took the strategic "parish support and development' function away from Anglicare and gave it to the new Regional Councils. At the same time HMS was "rebranded' Anglicare. Both developments tipped the balance firmly in the direction of "good works'.

As Bishop Robinson now reflects, "It is disturbing to note that the Parish Support and Development Department of HMS and its "critical function' have apparently been "lost'. The Diocesan Services Division of Anglicare does not sound like a replacement either of the Parish Support and Development or of the original purpose and function of the Church Society/HMS."