D.W.B. Robinson and the puzzle of Sydney Anglicanism

Posted on September 13, 2018 
Filed under People, Sydney Diocese

“Donald Willian Bradley Robinson, AO (1922-2018), Bishop in Parramatta (1973-1982), Anglican Archbishop of Sydney (1982-1993), could appear to observers as something of a puzzle.

Not that he was complex or difficult personally. On the contrary, Robinson was famously measured and straightforward in his dealings with people – able to play the ball and not the player to an almost superhuman degree. Rather, his life and work puzzled observers by holding together a suite of commitments and values often assumed to be at odds. This is true of Sydney Anglicanism itself, which is more complex and more interesting that either its distractors or its partisans tend to realise.

To crack this puzzle is to understand one of the most profound developers of religious thought in Australia. And it is, in turn, to understand something important about the diocese of Sydney. …”

– The ABC has published this piece by Rory Shiner, who also supplied the photo. Read it all here.