The other side of the Anglican breakaways: a tale of two Calders

Michael Calder

An evangelical minister has replaced the rector (senior minister) of a Brisbane Anglican church who left for the breakaway Diocese of the Southern Cross, d formed by the conservative Gafcon network.

In September last year Peter Judge-Mears left his post at St John’s Wishart, in southern Brisbane, becoming the second Anglican priest to join the Southern Cross group.

This week his replacement has been announced: Michael Calder, who has been assistant minister at the evangelical church St Bart’s Toowoomba. Michael Calder is an evangelical trained at the Presbyterian Queensland Theological College. He will become “Priest-in-charge” of St John’s.

Michael Calder is the son of Mark Calder, the evangelical Bishop of Bathurst. Calder senior’s office is funded by a grant from the conservative Sydney Diocese, and he has been actively rebuilding his financially stricken diocese. He recently announced that he had passed the halfway mark in having clergy in the regional diocese’s parishes, with a minority – 12 out of 28 – remaining vacant. This has been a significant achievement, running against the tide of the decline of rural churches in Australia. He is a hero to many evangelical Anglicans.

Mark Calder recently posted on Facebook, “please stop leaving the ACA” (The Anglican Church of Australia). When evangelical breakaways have occurred in the Anglican world, many evangelicals have typically remained within the “mother church.” An example is the Anglican Church of North America, which, while a growing church, experienced many, perhaps the majority of evangelicals staying within The Episcopal Church, the liberal-dominated mainline official Anglicans in the US.

Bishop Calder has served with distinction in lively evangelical parishes in Sydney  (Roseville) and Southern Queensland (Noosa). He has experienced life in an evangelical diocese and as part of an evangelical minority.

 This appointment maintains St John’s as an evangelical parish in the generally progressive Southern Queensland Diocese (region) of the Anglican Church of Australia. 

Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, a leader of the progressives in the Anglican Church whose actions formed part of what Peter Judge-Mears protested against, has stood down. Judge-Mears also protested against the progressive nature of the diocese. Aspinall, on the other hand, maintained he supported “comprehensive Anglicanism,” with room for those who disagreed with his progressive views. This appointment will be seen as evidence of that position.

So Michael Calder’s appointment was announced by the “commissary” a technical Anglican term for the person who steps in while a new archbishop is sought. Bishop Cam Venables is the commissary, and as the Bishop of the western region would have  known of  Calder junior’s work in Toowoomba.