New book on Anglican history stirs controversy among church community

'Darkness: The Conversion of Anglican Armidale 1960-2019' by University of New England professor, Thomas Fudge, investigates the development of the Australian Anglican diocese of Armidale, from its historic Middle Church orientation to its current evangelical identity.

A historian of Christianity, Mr Fudge examines how the election of the diocese's first evangelical bishop in 1964, eventually led to the eradication of traditional Anglican practice.

The 860-page book explores the history of the losers that eventually faded from sight.

The idea for the book stems from a public lecture Mr Fudge was asked to give at St Mary's Anglican Church in West Armidale several years ago.

In the lecture he was asked to consider saying something about what was unique about St Mary's.

"I didn't know. I have been in the country for 12 years, I came from North America, I knew absolutely nothing about the Anglican Church in Australia, or indeed, the Anglican Church here in the Diocese of Armidale," said Mr Fudge.

"So in preparation for that lecture, I thought I should read a little bit, and I did, and it occurred to me that the history was rather incomplete. There was quite a bit of attention paid to the dominant culture that now exists in the church.

"I decided in the interests of balance, and for this lecture, to simply have a look at the other side. I had no idea at that time, that this would lead both to a book and to a very large book."

Mr Fudge said the historian has a duty to tell his or her readers the how and why of an individual life, institution, community, state, culture, economy, society or a church.

He said former Bishop of the Anglican Church of Australia, Peter Chiswell, once said "We neglect our history to our detriment".

"As a historian, that's absolutely right. It's very important to hear the other side. It's very important to understand that history is complicated. It's complex. It is by nature, controversial," he said.

"Because it involves humanity. It involves different ideas, different commitments, and I have always believed that as a historian, I should try to acquaint myself with all perspectives or as many as possible."

For the book Mr Fudge interviewed 255 people and tracked down documents from multiple sources.

However some members of the Anglican Church have been fast to dismiss the book

Mr Fudge said the Bishop of Armidale Rod Chiswell condemned the book before reading it, that the Dean of St Peter's Cathedral in Armidale Chris Brennan called a proposed book launch at one of the town's Anglican churches an assault on the church, and the announcement of the book launch at St Mary's was denounced as inappropriate by Reverend John Cooper.

Both Mr Chiswell and Mr Brennan declined the opportunity to be interviewed for the book.

The book has also received positive responses from members of the church and the Anglican community, in Australia and abroad.

In response to the negative reactions, Mr Fudge said some evangelicals hold claims of exclusive truth.

"Some evangelicals believe that they understand the truth. They know precisely what scripture means, they understand the implications and any suggestion that challenges that is received very dimly," he said.

"They see themselves as zealots, to defend God and a book like mine ... purports and attempts to recognise and give a voice to these other Anglican traditions, they find and they feel is a threat.

"That it threatens their identity, it threatens their truth claims and so there's a culture of fear that drives this."

Mr Fudge said that culture of fear was manifested in the unwillingness to enter into dialogue.

"There's been some controversies here in Armidale over the years, wherein bishops and deans and other clergy simply will not countenance a discussion that deals with differences in the interpretation of scripture," he said.

"As an academic, I find that puzzling, I welcome challenges from students when they have a different point of view."

Mr Fudge said sometimes church people operate in a command and control philosophy.

"They want to control information," he said. "They say they want the church to be a centre of thought and intellectual activity, but what they mean is thinking that's consonant with their own, or they mean discussion that reaches a presupposed conclusion.

"Now, that's not intellectual activity. That's not education, that's something else.

"And they would see my book, I suspect, as offering a challenge to the dominant narrative, which it certainly does, but they also see it as problematic in that it might make people come to different conclusions."

The public launch of Mr Fudge's book will be held at the Oorala Centre on the UNE campus on Tuesday, April 9 at 4:30pm.