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IntroductionThe purpose of this section of the website is to offer carefully researched presentations on a variety of issues pertaining not only to St Peter's but also to the wider Australian Anglican experience. Australian Anglicanism is far from monochrome. A paper on the distinguishing
marks of Melbourne Anglicanism by Colin Holden includes some comparisons with
the different courses taken by Melbourne and Sydney, and the historical
reasons behind these differences. A related paper by John Davis was written in 2008 and published in The Encyclopedia of Religion in Australia, edited by James Jupp (Cambridge University Press, 2009). This article discusses the history of Anglicanism in Australia, and highlights some of the differences that led to difficulties for the Lambeth Conference in 2008. A paper by Graham Willett, a historian of gay liberation in Australia
whose major work on this subject is soon to be published by Allen and Unwin,
examines the responses of Anglican synods in different dioceses over the issue
of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, focussing particularly on the 1960s and 1970s.
The responses of several dioceses where synods voted in favour of
decriminalisation (eg Adelaide, Canberra-Goulburn, Melbourne) contrasts with
Sydney's rejection. This highlights in a particular way the contrasting and
different cultures of individual dioceses, and the responses of a number of
participants in this debate also shows that Anglicanism in Australia has not
simply been an agent of repression, but participated positively in the process
of justice and fair dealing for gay people. We are grateful to Dr Willett for
permission to include this paper, which will also be published in 2000 in a
monograph on Anglicanism in Melbourne to be published by the History Department
of Melbourne University. At a seemingly more parochial level, we also include a paper on
the relationship between the Melbourne Diocesan Grammar School, a school which
was located at St Peter's from 1849 to 1854, and the present Melbourne Grammar
School. If, as some would argue, the two schools have an organic relationship,
Melbourne Grammar School would then constitute Melbourne's oldest school that
continues to function. Private correspondence by Bishop Charles Perry and the
first head of the Diocesan Grammar School in 1852, that was unavailable to
earlier researchers, is quoted at length in support of the link between these
two schools.
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