Wollaston College (formerly John Wollaston Theological College ) is an Australian educational institution in
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
, established in 1957. It provides theological education for both lay and ordained people of the Anglican Diocese of Perth, as well as forms candidates for ordination in 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 ...
. Wollaston Theological College is a constituent college of the
University of Divinity
The University of Divinity is an Australian collegiate university of specialisation in divinity. It is constituted by eleven theological colleges from eight denominations. The University of Divinity is the direct successor of the second oldest ...
.
Origins
The first theological college for the Perth diocese was
St John's College, founded by
Charles Lefroy
Charles Edward Cottrell Lefroy was an Anglican priest, most notably Archdeacon of Perth, Western Australia, from 1907 until 1912
The son of an early settler to West Australia, Lefroy was educated at Bradfield College; Keble College, Oxford; and ...
in 1899 and which closed in 1929. From its closure in 1929 to the opening of Wollaston in 1957, 49 candidates were sent to the
Eastern States for theological training: 23 to
St Barnabas' College, Adelaide, 14 to
St John's College, Morpeth
St John's College, Morpeth, known colloquially as the "Poor Man's College, Armidale", was opened in Armidale in 1898 as a theological college to train clergy to serve in the Church of England in Australia. It moved to Morpeth in 1926 and closed ...
, six to
St Michael's House,
Crafers
The town of Crafers is in the Adelaide Hills to the south-east of Adelaide, South Australia, considered to be an outer suburb of Adelaide.
History
Crafers was named after David Crafer, who arrived in Adelaide in 1838 and moved to the area. ...
, three to
Ridley College
Ridley College (also known as RC, Ridley) is a private boarding and day university-preparatory school located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, 20 miles (32 km) from Niagara Falls. The school confers the Ontario Secondary School Diploma ...
,
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, two to
St Francis's College, Brisbane, and one to
Moore College, Sydney. It speaks for the
churchmanship
Churchmanship (or churchpersonship; or tradition in most official contexts) is a way of talking about and labelling different tendencies, parties, or schools of thought within the Church of England and the sister churches of the Anglican Commun ...
of Perth at the time that only four candidates attended the two Evangelical colleges (Ridley and Moore).
In 1950 the Perth Diocesan Synod resolved to establish a theological college. In 1956 the City of Perth agreed to sell five acres to the Diocese, and in the same year the Rev Tony Pierce was appointed first Warden.
Archbishop Moline's intention was to have a college that was neither 'high' nor 'low'. The college was located in the Perth suburb of
Mount Claremont. Its centrepiece was the Chapel designed by noted architect
Julius Elischer, influenced by Le Corbusier's Notre-Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France. The founding and only Warden of this period of full-time post-secondary residential theological education was C. A. Pierce, Chaplain of Magdalene College, Cambridge and a noted New Testament scholar.
Courses and programmes
From 1957 to 1970 ordinands from Perth and the other West Australian dioceses undertook a largely residential program based on Wollaston, typically studying for the Licentiate or Diploma in Theology of the Australian College of Theology. The course programme changed significantly over the years. Initially the intention was that students should complete the ThL (Licentiate in Theology) in the first two years of residence, followed by a third year of Honours.
In 1970 under new Archbishop Geoffrey Sambell the Diocese of Perth changed its policy, with the result that the first two years of training for ordination candidates were spent at a residential theological college elsewhere in Australia, followed by a third year of practical training based at Wollaston with ordination to the diaconate at the start of that year. This directly led to the resignation of Pierce as Warden. For more than a decade students from WA were thus again sent away to study, and the Wollaston campus became in large part a retreat and conference centre for the Diocese. While the name "John Wollaston Theological College" was retained, wardens of this period were administrators sometimes engaged in retreat conducting and spiritual direction, as well as working with the deacon-interns and in post-ordination training.
When local theological education recommenced in 1983 in conjunction with the Perth College of Divinity and Murdoch University at the initiative of Archbishop Peter Carnley, Wollaston again become a centre for local formation of degree-seeking students, but on a non-resident basis and not as the primary center for teaching. It has continued in this mode, with some changes in specific programmes; in 2020 Murdoch University announced its intention to cease theological teaching, and Wollaston announced a partnership with the Theological School of Trinity College, Melbourne, to teach for degrees of the University of Divinity.
From 2022, Wollaston Theological College became a full constituent college of the University of Divinity and offers a range of fully accredited undergraduate and postgraduate awards.
Chapel
The chapel, which has no dedication, is the dominant feature of the college site. It was designed by the Hungarian-born Perth architect, Julius Elischer. There is no set place for the altar or any furniture, to enable it to be configured in multiple ways. The design is based strongly on
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
's Chapel of
Notre-Dame du Haut
Notre-Dame du Haut ( en, Our Lady of the Heights; full name in french: Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut) is a Roman Catholic chapel in Ronchamp, France. Built in 1955, it is one of the finest examples of the architecture of Franco-Swiss architect Le C ...
in
Ronchamp
Ronchamp () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France.
It is located between the Vosges and the Jura mountains.
Mining Museum
Mining began in Ronchamp in the mid-18th century and h ...
, built ten years earlier. (Elischer had worked under Ferninand Streb, a pupil of Le Corbusier's.) Like Notre Dame du Haut, the stark white interior is punctuated by deep-set windows of different coloured glass. The architect's vision was of a 'tent of meeting'. It was consecrated in 1965 by
Michael Ramsey
Arthur Michael Ramsey, Baron Ramsey of Canterbury, (14 November 1904 – 23 April 1988) was an English Anglican bishop and life peer. He served as the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury. He was appointed on 31 May 1961 and held the office until 1 ...
, the then
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
.
Wardens
*Claude Anthony Pierce, 1956-70
*
Richard Franklin Appleby, 1972-75 Appleby was subsequently
Dean of Bathurst, 1980–83,
Assistant Bishop of Newcastle, 1983–92,
Bishop of the Northern Territory
The Bishop of the Northern Territory is the diocesan bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Northern Territory, Australia.
List of Bishops of the Northern Territory
References
External links
* – official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Northe ...
, 1992–99.
*David Oswald Robarts, 1976-79 Robarts was subsequently
Dean of Perth
St George's Cathedral is the principal Anglican church in the city of Perth, Western Australia, and the mother-church of the Anglican Diocese of Perth. It is located on St Georges Terrace in the centre of the city.
On 26 June 2001 the cat ...
, 1979–89.
*John Warren Forsyth, 1979-82
*Dennis John Reynolds, 1983-85
*George Edward Trippe, 1985-90
*Roger Thomas Sharr, 1992-2000
*Nigel Leaves, 2000-09
*?, 2009–15
*Gregory John Norman Search, 2015-20
*Ric Barrett-Lennard, 2021 (acting)
*Raewynne Whiteley, 2022
Current faculty
*Dr Christy Capper, Lecturer in Systematic Theology
*Dr Mark Jennings, Senior Lecturer in Religion
*Dr Robert Myles, Senior Lecturer in New Testament
*Professor Rowan Strong, Professor of Church History
*Dr Raewynnne Whiteley, Lecturer in Practical Theology
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wollaston College
Anglican seminaries and theological colleges
Education in Perth, Western Australia
1957 establishments in Australia
University of Divinity
Educational institutions established in 1957