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Church Standard

{{Short description|Former Anglican newspaper in Australia}}

{{Portal|Christianity}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}

{{Use Australian English|date=September 2021}}

{{italic title}}

The Church Standard was a national Anglican newspaper based in Sydney, Australia, 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 was then called.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article218833876 |title=The Church Standard |newspaper=Voice |volume=7 |issue=36 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=8 September 1934 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}} It was founded in 1912 by Montagu Stone-Wigg, who had resigned as Bishop of New Guinea in 1908,{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stonewigg-montagu-john-8682|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: Montagu Stone-Wigg|chapter=Stone-Wigg, Montagu John (1861–1918) |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |access-date=30 September 2021}} with the assistance of another Anglo-Catholic clergyman, the Rev William Hey Sharp, the former warden of St Paul's College.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/sharp-william-hey-8402|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Hey Sharp|chapter=Sharp, William Hey (1845–1928) |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |access-date=30 September 2021}} Stone-Wigg became the first editor.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stonewigg-montagu-john-8682|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: Montagu Stone-Wigg|chapter=Stone-Wigg, Montagu John (1861–1918) |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |access-date=30 September 2021}} The paper was published by the Church Publishing Company.{{efn|There had been an earlier, unrelated, publication called the Church Standard. That publication was previously called the Australian Record. From 1896 to 1901 it was called the Church Standard. Thereafter it was published as the Australian Churchman. Its editorial line was Evangelical.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144444760 |title=Publications Received. |newspaper=The Cumberland Free Press |volume=II |issue=72 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=31 October 1896 |accessdate=2 October 2021 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197316424 |title=Interdiocesan. |newspaper=The Church Of England Messenger For Victoria And Ecclesiastical Gazette For The Diocese Of Melbourne |volume=XXXIII |issue=391 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=13 May 1901 |accessdate=2 October 2021 |page=65 |via=National Library of Australia}} }}

The editorial line of the Church Standard was strongly Anglo-Catholic.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article178551201 |title="Church Standard" |newspaper=Glen Innes Examiner |volume=16 |issue=2082 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=7 March 1940 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155296750 |title=NOTES OF THE WEEK |newspaper=The Methodist |volume=41 |issue=8 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=20 February 1932 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} An Evangelical view was that the paper should be called the "Roman Church Standard".{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146491107 |title=Anglican Opposition |newspaper=Catholic Weekly |volume=II |issue=93 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=9 December 1943 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Its political line was more liberal: it was an early opponent of the White Australia policy.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_1932_04_01_403|title=Church Times: "Summary", 1 April 1932, p 403|access-date=30 September 2021}} The paper was strongly critical of the censorship of a speech to have been broadcast on the ABC by Judge Foster in 1938.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article94591129 |title=CENSORING OF Judge's Speech: "Church STANDARD'S" CRITICISM |newspaper=Northern Star |volume=62 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=14 May 1938 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}}

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 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.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247237997 |title=Talk Of Heresy |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |volume=II |issue=152 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=15 September 1937 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} Nothing came of that, but the editorial line became unacceptable to the Bishops, and, in 1940, Watts was summarily dismissed.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article255121051 |title="CHURCH STANDARD" EDITOR DISMISSED |newspaper=Border Morning Mail |volume=XXXVI |issue=10825 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=8 March 1940 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article178551201 |title="Church Standard" |newspaper=Glen Innes Examiner |volume=16 |issue=2082 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=7 March 1940 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The final editor was W. Basil Oliver, JP,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18253416 |title=LETTERS TO EDITOR |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=35,649 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=25 March 1952 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} who had previously been the Secretary of the publishing company; Oliver was acting editor after Watts was dismissed, and permanently appointed in 1942.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103661095 |title=PERSONAL |newspaper=Goulburn Evening Penny Post |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=3 May 1934 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=2 (DAILY and EVENING) |via=National Library of Australia}} An early editorial by Oliver proposed that St Mark be adopted as the patron saint of Australia, his feast day being 25 April, Anzac Day.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article185712445 |title=PATRON SAINT |newspaper=The West Wyalong Advocate |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=21 November 1940 |accessdate=2 October 2021 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} (Oliver was the Australian correspondent for the American Episcopalian newspaper, The Living Church).Who's Who in Australia, 1921-1950, p 549.

''[[The Anglican (newspaper)|The Anglican]]''

{{Main|The Anglican (newspaper)}}

By 1952 the Church Standard was "ailing", and, in an attempt to revive it, was re-named The Anglican.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_1970_08_28_004|title=Church Times: "Inside of the Week", 28 August 1970, p 4|access-date=30 September 2021}} Its masthead stated that it incorporated the Church Standard; a number of diocesan newspapers were closed to support its viability.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_1952_09_26_686|title=Church Times: "New Church Paper", 26 September 1952, p 686|access-date=30 September 2021}}

Editors

  • The Rt Rev Montagu Stone-Wigg, 1912-1915.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stonewigg-montagu-john-8682|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: Montagu John Stone-Wigg|chapter=Stone-Wigg, Montagu John (1861–1918) |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |access-date=1 October 2021}}
  • The Rev Charles Edward Curtis, 1915-1918.{{Cite web|url=https://www.anglicanhistory.org/aus/cci/index.pdf|title=Anglican History: Cable Clergy Index|access-date=1 October 2021}}
  • The Rev Dr William Charles Pritchard, 1918–1930.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_1931_10_23_458|title=Church Times: "The Late Dr WC Pritchard", 23 October 1931, p 458|access-date=30 September 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_1930_11_21_626|title=Church Times: "The Church in Australia", 21 November 1930, p 626|access-date=30 September 2021}}
  • The Rev Frank Sturge Harty, 1930-1933.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155292262 |title=Day by Day |newspaper=The Methodist |volume=42 |issue=19 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=13 May 1933 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1932, p 575.
  • The Rev George Stuart Watts, 1933-1940.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/watts-george-stuart-15846|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: George Stuart Watts|chapter=Watts, George Stuart (1899–1988) |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |access-date=1 October 2021}}
  • Walter Basil Oliver, 1942-1952.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229010183 |title=SUN Readers Say |newspaper=The Sun |issue=12,017 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=2 August 1948 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=9 (LAST RACE ALL DETAILS) |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48895199 |title=Tolique Runs Second At Elwick |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |volume=LXXXV |issue=26275 |location=South Australia |date=21 December 1942 |accessdate=1 October 2021 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Notes

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References

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Category:Newspapers established in 1912

Category:Defunct newspapers published in Sydney

Category:Publications disestablished in 1952

Category:Anglican newspapers and magazines