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History
The Church in Western Australia was first served by an ordained priest in December 1829.
As early as 1841, an assembly of English bishops had recommended the establishment of an Anglican See in Perth, but attempts to secure endowment had faltered throughout the 1840’s and the colony found itself within the newly created Diocese of Adelaide from 1847.
Renewed impetus towards creating a new diocese came both from residents of the colony and from Bishop Augustus Short who, following his second Episcopal visit to the West in 1852, wrote to the Colonial Secretary arguing for a new diocese in Perth on the basis of the poor resources of the colonists, the money being poured in by the Roman Catholics and changes resulting from the advent of convicts.
In 1854 the Colonial Bishoprics Council appointed a committee to raise endowment and petitioned the Queen for Letters Patent to crate a new See. Bishop Short nominated as bishop his Archdeacon, Mathew Blagden Hale, who had accompanied the bishop on his first visit to the West in 1848, and had wide experience within the colony of South Australia, including work with Aborigines and whose possession of private means made him an attractive choice.
On 11 January 1856, Queen Victoria issued Letters Patent, creating the Diocese of Perth and simultaneously granting Perth the status of a city. In July, Hale visited Perth en route to England for his consecration. He was consecrated in Lambeth Palace Chapel on 25 July 1857 and returned to Perth to take up his duties on 1 January 1858, designating Old St George’s Church as his Cathedral.
His arrival was heralded as “a matter of congratulation to all who have the religious and moral welfare of the colony at heart.”
It was not until 21 August 1872 that the first Synod was held at which the Constitution of the Diocese of Perth was passed and adopted.
In 1903 a New Diocese Statute was passed forming the Diocese of Bunbury and at the same time a statute was passed giving power to that Diocese to administer what is now the North West Diocese.
In 1907 the Northern Diocesan Statute was passed, but it was not until December 1961 that this Diocese, by Act of Parliament, was able to call its first Synod.
The Kalgoorlie Diocese Statute was passed in 1910.
In the month of September 1914, the First Session of Provincial Synod was called, at which the proposals previously passed by the Synods of the four dioceses for the Constitution of the Province were agreed upon. This Session was adjourned until August 1915 when Canon No 1 of 1915 Constituting the Province of WA was passed. The first Archbishop and Metropolitan was elected in 1914.
In 1973, following the passing of appropriate statutes by the Synods of the Diocese of Kalgoorlie and the Diocese of Perth, General Synod adopted a Canon ratifying the return of the territory of the Diocese of Kalgoorlie to the Diocese of Perth.
On 24 August 1981 the change of name to “The Anglican Church of Australia” became effective having been passed by legislation in all states.
Over the past 150 years in this part of Australia, in remote rural settlements, in pre-occupied suburbia through sophisticated city to isolated townships the Good News is proclaimed, in Worship, Word and Witness. The Gospel is acted out in hospitals, prisons, schools, universities, aged care, in responding to the homeless and the poor in prophetic engagement, in healthy debate, and in servant leadership.