Australian Association of Mission Studies

Australian Association of Mission Studies

South Australian Mission Studies Network

First edition: an invitation to comment and feed back

Dean Eland July 6th 2011

Mission Legacy: Australian Urban Mission 1960-2010

A legacy is a bequest, a gift from one generation to another and the story of Australian urban mission over the past 50 years is central understanding contemporary mission theology and practice.Mission experience in the context of Australia’s most disadvantaged urban communities is a learning opportunity, one perspective indiscerningand articulating the challengesfacing the church in the post Christian era.

At the 2008 AAMS conference in Canberra a number of participants shared their mission histories. Speakers included members of Catholic orders, those involved with partner churches in the Pacific and indigenous communities in Australia. These and other histories are of great interest to those involved. Documenting these experiences is important for developing an appreciation of current challenges and in articulating some of the core issues for contemporary mission theology and practice.

The Sixties: A Turning Point

The sixties were a watershed decade for mission theory and practice in Australia andfor the western church generally. Some have expressed their regret and doubts about the social upheavals, the growing secular climate, the collapse of liberal synthesisand the challenges and questioning of traditional assumptions (Breward 2001. 429-432). Others have explored how Australian experience was influenced by the same missional trends and contextual realties asthe western church generally (Hilliard 97:213).While there is always resistance and doubt about changing or experimenting with traditional ministry patterns a number of younger Australian activists in the sixties began to explore new forms of mission engagement.These innovative practices and the new reformation ethos werebased on a rejection of conventional suburban patterns and the domestic preoccupations of the normal church life.

The first National Conference of Australian Churches,sponsored by the Australian Council of Churches, held in Melbournein February 1960,provided a solid foundation for developing a new mission agenda for the Australian church. (Other conferences followed. The 1970 conference at Wesley College Sydney was focusedon world development. In 1980 the WCC Conference, Your Kingdom Come, was again held in Melbourne and was organised by the Mission and Evangelism Unit of the WCC. One of the sub themes of this conference was urban mission. The Seventh Assembly of the WCC was held in Canberra in February 1991. This assembly included a challenging address by a Korean woman theologian and an angry and defensive speech by the Prime Minister of the day, Bob Hawke).

430 delegates from most main line churches attended the 1960 conference and the ideas and inspiration generated had a continuing influence over several decades. Leadership included overseas guests and an emerging Australian group which continued to influence an emerging generation of mission practitioners well into the 1980s. Speakers included Lesslie Newbigin, (IMC), Hans-Ruedi Weber (WCC), Masao Takenaka (Japan), M. M. Thomas (Syrian Orthodox) and a young Australian Methodist from Melbourne, Colin Williams. One of the recurring themes of the conference was expressed by Weber, Come and meet the church: go and be the church in the world (Taylor 60:89).

The conference divided into five working groups and included two strands that influenced urban mission practice.In the following three decades the term urban missionwas subject to different interpretations or models of practice. Generally it was understood as an alternative to the dominant middle class or conventional suburban church that was regarded as captive to aninward looking, domestic and confinedpattern of church life. The title of Gibson Winter’s 1962 influential book, The Suburban Captivity of the Churches expressed this sentiment. Those who accepted this analysis became involved in innovative and creative new forms of ministry and were generally drawn to Australian inner city slum areas, public housing estates and industrial cities. Others became leaders in alternate forms of ministry based on social sectors or industrial chaplaincy.

Existing City Mission Models

While there were long term existing inner city missions, a new breed influenced by the theological emphasis of Colin Williams questioned the appropriateness of the mission hall and the institutional approach to programs (Howe93:160). High profile established CentralMissions were mostly Methodist or non denominational and were founded in the late years of the 19th century in an attempt to evangelize the working class (Kaldor 83). The well known exponents of this form of mission were public figures and included Alan Walker and Ted Knoffs in Sydney, Erwin Vogt in Adelaide and Irving Benson in Melbourne. Each Australian city also hosted non denominational missions and these organisations eventually amalgamated and became Mission Australia.

For these mission leaders Sunday night services wasan evangelical opportunity, Pleasant Sunday Afternoons (PSAs) were platforms for discussion of public issues and week day programs and welfare services were understood as the practical expression of the gospel. Pulpits were platforms in the sense that they generated a regular commentary on political or welfare issues of the day and were not afraid to address social questions and go public regardless of the denominational policies.The Methodist conference in NSW for example was divided on the church’s attitude to the Vietnam War and Alan Walker was a strong voice for the peace movement. Long term Methodist superintendents were advocates of the view that word and deed went together and they resisted the inevitable trend to separate the welfare ministry from the public or prophetic Sunday ministry. Other implicit influences in shaping this mission modelincluded the Salvation Army and their tradition was more in keeping with the non denominational city missions and street corner or open air preaching.

The Iona Community of the Church of Scotland formed by George Macleod developed its own unique form of industrial mission and Macleod’s 1956 book, Only One Way Left could be found in many ministers’ book shelves along with E R Wickham’s1957 publication, Church and People in an Industrial City. Wickam was appointed by the Bishop as director of the Sheffield Industrial Mission in 1944. This book was one of the first sociological studies of an industrial city and a call for the church to engage with industry. Seminal publications from the USincluded Bruce Kenrick’s 1962 bookCome out the wilderness, the story of the East Harlem Protestant Parish sub titled discovering faith in a notorious slum.The most influential publication in the sixties was Harvey Cox’s The Secular City: Secularization & Urbanisation in Theological perspective. Other influential theological insights came from Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship and the Niebuhr brothers, Reinhold and Richard.

It is also possible to trace the response of the evangelical tradition that existed in each denomination. While this tradition was reinforced by the Australian Billy Graham crusades of the 50s many expressed their doubts about the effectiveness of mass open air rallies. The more moderate influential leaders in the UKincluded David Sheppard, the Bishop of Liverpool. In 1974 he explored some of the issues about the impact of urban life (revised in 1985) inBuilt as a City: God and the Urban World todayand in a 1983 sequel, Bias to the Poor.

In the US, The Cross and the Switchblade, written in 1963 by Pastor David Wilkerson, with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, is the story of Wilkerson's first five years in New York City, where he ministered to disillusioned youth, encouraging them to turn away from the drugs and gang violence. The book became a best seller, with more than 15 million copies distributed in over 30 languages. Later in the seventies this evangelical strand was impacted by the charismatic movement. Many urban issues were eventually incorporated into the Lausanne movement with leadership from some Australian Baptists.

Industrial chaplaincy and growing engagement by congregations

In Australiaone model of urban mission developed as industrial chaplaincy.Leadership for this ecumenical commitment was supported by the 1960 national conference and was led by Archbishop Woods of Melbournewho appointed Lawrie Styles formerly from the UKas director. Most states eventually developed Inter-Church Trade and Industry Mission committees (ITIM). In SA Methodists were very active under the leadership of Vern Harrison in Whyalla and Cec Watson (Baxter 85). The European background to this model included the ministry of Methodists and the Church of England in the UK.(William Gowland from the Luton Industrial Mission was missioner to the second NYCC convention held in Adelaide in 1957).

The short lived pre and post war French Catholic worker priest style experiment was based on a theology of incarnational presenceand priests lived and served as industrial workers. Because of their involvement withthe Union movement this form of ministry was proscribed by the Vatican and the movement disintegrated (Perrin 65).

By the late sixties the impetus which was generated by the 1960 National Conference provided strong directions for leaders of most main line denominations in Australia. In 1967 a nation wide church life study program organised by ACC involved lay leaders who became involved in local government and community organisations. Churches became active in establishing counseling centres and other forms of community based self help programs. This trend reinforced by two influential publications by Colin Williams, Where in theWorld and What in the World. Williams was then in the USA and chair of the WCC Department on Studies in Evangelism. The Australian Council of Churches assisted in establishing Australian Frontier and under the leadership of Peter Matthews this group sponsored a wide range of community consultations to address community needs. Matthews was initially inspired by the lay leader academies in Germany (Engel). In the next decade other forms of mission developed including the radical discipleship or Christian community movement involving Athol Gill and others.

Contextual trends, influencesand social change in the sixties

The main features of these social changes included…

The anti Vietnam War campaign.

Immigration, multi cultural policies and the end of the white Australia policy (Dunstan)

1967 referendum on the right to vote for Aboriginal Australians

The pill, women’s liberation and attitudes towards sexual freedom

Shift from rural based economy to industrialization, post war boomers and urban growth (little boxes).

Inner city slum clearance and eventual gentrification

Green bans and resident action movement

Dominant boomer generationis aspirational and upward mobility

Impetus of the Whitlam government in relation to urban policies: DURD under Tom Uren, AAP and Bannon in SA. Free higher education.

Affluence leads to post industrial society and end of class identification. Hawke and Keating.

Australia’s Inner City Geo-Social Context and Reform Movements

Missioninnovation in Australian inner city areas should be understood against its cultural and historical background.

Inner city areas and port communities were the pre war centres of Australia’s eventual industrial growth and epitomized the working class or labour movement (Connell 80). The perceptions and images of middle class Australians towards the inner city was negative and assumed that these were bad places to live, that slums were unhealthy and dens of vice and the home of criminal organisations. Popular perceptions were reinforced by stories and semi fictional accounts of inner city life. Frank Hardy in, Power without Glorywrote about Carringbush and the infamous John Wren of Collingwood. This novel was subject to a major court challenge. Ruth Park in Poor Mans Orange and her other novels were sympathetic towards family and community life in Sydney’s inner city.

Inner city areas were also characterised by their politicians and public personalities. The Labor member for East Sydney, Eddie Ward was the radical voice of the workers in federal parliament and he sat with the more moderate leaders including prime ministers Curtin and Chiefly and other former union leaders. Bill McKell former state premier of NSW and member for Redfern became governor general. Jim Cope, elected in 1955 and speaker of the house in the Whitlam government, was the MHR for Sydney and lived in William St Redfern for most of his working life. In SA the Waterside Workers Federation and the Vehicle Builders Union, based in the western suburbs, were influential in pre selection battles for the safe labor seats of Port Adelaide, Hindmarsh and Bonython.In Victoria and NSW the ALP held pres election ballots for local government candidates and this led to Tammany hall style politics. Many battles were fought to control the City of Sydney as the highly ratable CBD properties provided a financial base for local government welfare and social support organisations in the inner city residential areas.

Local identity was also generated by community based sporting clubs and two football clubs,the Magpies,Collingwood and Port Adelaide wore the black and white! Australian playwright, David Williamson wrote about some of the machinations of club life in his play, The Club.

Irish Catholic parishes represented the dominant religious tradition in Sydney and Melbourne in the pre war years and in some communities St Patrick’s Day was a public holiday! As the inner city often provided transitional or affordable rental housing many inner city suburbs became the first home of newly arrived migrants. Based on earlier 20th century immigration of a few families, South Sydney, for example, became the home of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese when they acquired the former St Paul’s Anglican Church in Cleveland St. Three branches of the eastern church from Lebanonand Syriawere represented by the Maronite and Melkite churches (Catholic) and the Antioch Orthodox church of St George in Walker St.(Eland 75:54).

Protestant churches in the inner city were established in the latter years of the 19th century and small congregations often inherited large and expansive properties. These sites were largely abandoned by families in the late years of the century as they took flight from the industrialization and crowed conditions and settled in the next ring of middle class suburban development. In the post World War 2 war years congregations were made up of a few families hanging on and hoping for revival! Leaders of the congregations did not generally did not live locally but commuted to the inner city on Sundays out of loyalty and for some a sense of vocation. The population increase that came with the slum clearance programs and new public housing estates in the 1950s and 60s did not generate growing congregations.

Early in the sixties the inner city became the focus of social research and sociologists developed various indices to compare the various rates of health, unemployment, welfare, education opportunities, and housing conditions. Almost all these studies confirmed that inner city areas were rated at the bottom end of the scale. In 1961 Tom Brennan, from the Department of Social Work produced a report, An Areal Analysis of Social Differentiation in Sydney. A study report by Tony Vinson covered the front page of The Sun on Dec 7th 1976. The official view of their lives draws on a picture of poverty, misery and hardship. Vinson (University of NSW) continued to undertake this type of study for the next forty years!

Driven by poor housing, health and working conditions the inner city attractedsocial reformers who developed various programmes and social policies for rehabilitation, slum clearance and community improvement. The history of the brotherhood of St Laurence, Melbourne is informative and illustrates the commitment of high church Anglicanism on this tradition (Carter 67). In the 1970s Peter Hollingworth was appointed to a leadership position within this organisation.

By the 1970s and with the election of the Whitlam government in 1972, social policies and urban reform proposals involved the respective responsibility of three levels of government plus the voluntary sector.

Australian locality based examples

It is helpful to trace the history and name the parishes and leaders who contributed to the story of Australia’s urban mission

In the suburbs immediately south of the city of Sydney,Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches formed a joint parish in 1968 and this amalgamation adopted the name the Inner City and later the South Sydney Parish. This ministry was based in the suburbs of Redfern, Waterloo, Alexandria and Surry Hills and for a time included Palmer St Darlinghurst. Ministers prior to the formation of the parish included Jim Downing (Congregational Metropolitan Mission). I was called to be minister of the Congregational Mission and served the parish from 1967 to 1978. In the first few years the team included Ron Denham, of the Presbyterian Inner city Charge.Presbyterian member churches at first included Newtown, Palmer St, and St Luke’s Redfern. The Methodist minister at Paddington, Harry Roberts, provided oversight of the Methodist congregation at Raglan StWaterloo and the property in Botany St. Redfern. Currently the SouthSydneyUnitingChurchpublishes the South Sydney Herald a monthly give away community paper. This congregation remains an active and involved presence in the South Sydney community and had retained many of its missional characteristics over forty years.