In 1997 a significant section of the Anglican
Church in the Torres Strait broke away and
formed The Torres Strait Church, consecrating
its own bishops in 1998.
An exhaustive account of how this schism
occurred was published in May as part of a
doctoral thesis by the last bishop of the Diocese
of Carpentaria.
The ninety-six year history of that missionary
diocese is covered in the work, which investigates
fiduciary relationships in church leadership – an
ancient concept which was accommodated by the
parochial format of the church in England, but
needed considerable development for the vast rural
dioceses of Australia.
Unlike other dioceses, Carpentaria had
no commercial centre after the decline of
Cooktown. The Thursday Island-based diocesan
office remained financially dependent upon the
missionary agencies of the national church.
Church and politics were
intertwined in Torres Strait
Islander culture
Former bishop, Dr Tony Hall-Matthews,
defended the economic status of the now defunct
Diocese of Carpentaria as a national mission
outreach to Aboriginal people in the Top End, and
to the Torres Strait which fell within its auspices.
In August 1994 ABC Radio National reported a
coup d’etat in the diocese following a motion of no
confidence in the bishop. An attempt to subsume
Carpentaria into a sister diocese had been hijacked
by dissident elements within the bishop’s own
pastorate.
Because of the peculiar governance of the
Anglican Church, only the bishop himself was
party to all factions at work during this crisis
– much of the corroborating evidence for his
fantastic story only surfaced long after the event.
Added to this, Dr Hall-Matthews comes from
a missionary family and his rather idealistic
expectations of pastoral support from the
church hierarchy failed to materialise during the
Dr. Tony Hall-Matthews
process leading up to his
resignation.
The model of management
favoured during Archbishop
Peter Hollingworth’s
tenure as Metropolitan in
Queensland was focussed
on the bigger picture of
economic viability and did
not take into consideration
local problems and cultural
diversity.
Dr Hall-Matthews’ account of the plot and
the subsequent demise of the diocese reads like a
thriller. At times, his justifiable sense of grievance
comes through in his account of the battle to
rescue his own reputation and the integrity of the
diocese.
He places the responsibility for the schism in the
Torres Strait Church squarely with the fractured
brotherhood of bishops, and the breakdown of
trust in him as the custodian of local knowledge
in the region.
It becomes clear in his research interview with
the former Primate, Dr Keith Rayner, that his
expectations of colleageality were unrealistic in
the Australian Church, where diocesanism had
promoted a fierce independence amongst bishops.
At the time, no-one in the national church
leadership appreciated the impact of the Mabo
Native Title legislation on the Torres Strait, or
the fact that church and politics were inextricably
intertwined in Torres Strait Islander culture.
The passion of islanders for their independence
and autonomy is described by Gayai Hankin, bishop
of The Torres Strait Church, in an illuminating
research interview published as an appendix
Dr Hall-Matthews describes the schism of the
Torres Strait Church as the first significant postcolonial
action in the region.
This work is of immense value to the growing
body of literature dealing with the nexus of colonial
and indigenous culture in church mission. It is also
a poignant account of how misunderstanding can
lead to large historical consequences.
tonyh-m@bigpond.net.au