Many of the controversies of one hundred years ago are still with us in the Australian Church. Colin Holden’s new book on F.W. Goldsmith, Dean of Perth, and subsequently Bishop of Bunbury, illustrates these ecclesiastical tensions in a readable yet scholarly exploration of ritualism in Western Australia.

Indeed, Dr Holden describes the first of these tensions in his Introduction. He reproaches us Western Australian clergy with accepting uncritically the myth that this Diocese has always been a harmonious place eschewing extremes and avoiding differences.

Dean Goldsmith explodes that myth. His time at St George’s Cathedral was marked by public attack by worthies such as Sir John Winthrop Hackett, the editor and part-owner of the West Australian newspaper, and by private criticism and political manoeuvring of his Bishop, C.O.L. Riley. They accused the Anglo-Catholic Goldsmith of being un-Anglican, un-Reformed, and most powerfully, un-British.

Yet Holden shows clearly that Goldsmith was a ritualist fundamentally not for the sake of ritual, (though he clearly enjoyed vestments and processions and incense) but for the sake of spirituality. Ritual, symbol and ceremony have the power to touch human beings and to re-call them to their relationship with God.

Fr Colin shows that from this ritualist basis, Goldsmith was energetic in promoting the mission of the Church. Goldsmith argued in General Synod that the name “Church of England” was not appropriate, and that the Church should - in name and style - reflect Australian values and aspirations. As an Anglo-Catholic, he was clearly uncomfortable with any suggestion that the Church should enjoy the privileges of establishment. The Gospel must be independent of the state.

As the first Bishop of Bunbury, Goldsmith laboured to find appropriate ways to minister to a growing but scattered population pioneering in agriculture and mining. He established the Brotherhood of St Boniface, a religious community of men headquartered at the House of Grace in Williams. Colin Holden reveals how these men, who included well-loved future bishops like Edward Elsey and John Frewer, lived the religious life in the style of monks and built churches throughout the Great Southern in a style to accommodate simplified Anglo-Catholic ritual. All this hard work was motivated by strong evangelistic and pastoral impulses.

Ritualist on a Tricycle is a beautifully designed and produced book, a pleasure to hold and read. Fr Holden’s prose rides confidently on a vast sea of intricate detail and meticulous argument, but remains very readable and accessible to a wide audience.

At the recent launch of the book, Professor Tom Stannage of the Department of History at UWA, alluded to previous histories of the Church in WA, including Peter Boyce’s contribution “The First Archbishop” to Fred Alexander’s 1957 Four Bishops and their See, and Merle Bignell’s recent telling of the story of the work in Bunbury Diocese of the Sisters of St Elisabeth of Hungary. Professor Stannage described Ritualist on a Tricycle as “the most sophisticated Western Australia history writing so far”.

It is not always comfortable to read about ourselves. Colin Holden’s strength is his willingness to tackle sensitive issues and clarify their importance for us now. He calls the last chapter “Resonances”, and assesses the real impact of Goldsmith’s Anglo-Catholicism on current clergy and laity. He also touches on the tensions built into the statutory relationship between Dean and Archbishop in the Diocese of Perth, especially when Dean and Bishop disagree.

I believe that Dr Holden’s historical work actually lets us hear deeper resonances than those to which he alludes in his summary: In current controversies over women as bishops and lay presidency at the Eucharist, the echoes of the bitter debates between Anglo-Catholics and other Anglicans are still heard loudly.

In the current calls to make Anglicanism more accessible to contemporary Australian culture, echoes are still resounding from the clashes between last century’s imperialists and churchmen like Goldsmith who foresaw the crucial importance of changing the Church of England into the Anglican Church of Australia.

It is disappointing that Colin’s book does not let us hear echoes about the topics surrounding women’s ministries in the Church in the 1890s and the 1990s. A strange feature of Ritualist on a Tricycle is the almost total absence of Mrs Goldsmith. The reader knows the lady exists: She arrives with Goldsmith in Perth in 1888 (page 19), is pictured with Goldsmith in England in 1912 (p. 267) and evidently accompanies him into retirement. After reading the book, I am curious to know the extent to which their long marriage supported, informed or complemented the ministry of Frederick Goldsmith. I want to know “where is Edith Emma?”

I recommend highly Ritualist on a Tricycle to church people in W.A. who are keen to understand more of our past in order to invigorate our mission in the present and future. It’s interesting, informative and important. I also recommend it to keen Anglicans around Australia, because Dr Holden shows not only the uniqueness of Western Australian history, but also the extent to which it is a case study of the development of Anglicanism in every part of the Australian Church.

© Ted Witham 1997
First published in Anglican Messenger 1997