The ''Church Standard'' was a national

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

newspaper based in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, published from 1912 to 1952.

History

The paper was the official newspaper of the Church of England in Australia, as the

Anglican Church of Australia The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the R ...

was then called. It was founded in 1912 by Montagu Stone-Wigg, who had resigned as

Bishop of New Guinea The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea is a province of the Anglican Communion. It was created in 1977 when the Province of Papua New Guinea became independent from the Province of Queensland in the Church of England in Australia (officially ren ...

in 1908, with the assistance of another Anglo-Catholic clergyman, the Rev William Hey Sharp, the former warden of St Paul's College. Stone-Wigg became the first editor. The paper was published by the Church Publishing Company. The editorial line of the ''Church Standard'' was strongly Anglo-Catholic. An Evangelical view was that the paper should be called the "Roman Church Standard". Its political line was more liberal: it was an early opponent of the

White Australia policy The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...

. The paper was strongly critical of the censorship of a speech to have been broadcast on the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

by Judge Foster in 1938. Under the editorship of the Rev G Stuart Watts (1934-1940), the paper took an ever more liberal line. Watts published articles by the radical Presbyterian theologian

Samuel Angus Samuel Angus (27 August 1881 – 17 November 1943) was professor of New Testament and Church History at St Andrew's College in the University of Sydney from 1915-43. Early life Angus was born near Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, the eldest ...

and he himself wrote articles pleading for a more liberal interpretation of the Virgin Birth and the bodily Resurrection; these led to suggestions from churchmen in the Diocese of Sydney in 1937 that Watts should be charged with heresy. Nothing came of that, but the editorial line became unacceptable to the Bishops, and, in 1940, Watts was summarily dismissed. The final editor was W. Basil Oliver, JP, who had previously been the Secretary of the publishing company; Oliver was acting editor after Watts was dismissed, and permanently appointed in 1942. An early editorial by Oliver proposed that

St Mark Mark the Evangelist ( la, Marcus; grc-gre, Μᾶρκος, Mârkos; arc, ܡܪܩܘܣ, translit=Marqōs; Ge'ez: ማርቆስ; ), also known as Saint Mark, is the person who is traditionally ascribed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. Accor ...

be adopted as the patron saint of Australia, his feast day being 25 April,

Anzac Day , image = Dawn service gnangarra 03.jpg , caption = Anzac Day Dawn Service at Kings Park, Western Australia, 25 April 2009, 94th anniversary. , observedby = Australia Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Cook Islands New ...

. (Oliver was the Australian correspondent for the American Episcopalian newspaper, ''

The Living Church ''The Living Church'' is a magazine based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, providing commentary and news on the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion. In continuous publication since 1878, it has generally been identified with the Anglo-Catho ...

'').

'' The Anglican''

By 1952 the ''Church Standard'' was "ailing", and, in an attempt to revive it, was re-named '' The Anglican''. Its masthead stated that it incorporated the ''Church Standard''; a number of diocesan newspapers were closed to support its viability.

Editors

*The Rt Rev Montagu Stone-Wigg, 1912-1915. *The Rev Charles Edward Curtis, 1915-1918. *The Rev Dr William Charles Pritchard, 1918–1930. *The Rev Frank Sturge Harty, 1930-1933. *The Rev George Stuart Watts, 1933-1940. *Walter Basil Oliver, 1942-1952.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Newspapers established in 1912 Defunct newspapers published in Sydney Publications disestablished in 1952 Anglican newspapers and magazines