Vale: David Chislett

Posted on December 19, 2023 
Filed under People

Anglican.ink relays the news of the death, in the UK, of David Chislett, sometime Rector of the Parish of All Saints’ Wickham Place, Brisbane. At the time of his death, he was Vicar of All Saints’, Benhilton, in the Diocese of Southwark.

A convinced Anglo-Catholic, David differed sharply with the theologically liberal direction of the Diocese of Brisbane and the then Archbishop Dr Phillip Aspinall – especially over the latter’s support for the ordination of women to the priesthood.

In 2005, he was consecrated in Philadelphia as a Bishop in the Traditional Anglican Communion and served for some time as a ‘flying bishop’ to support TAC and Forward in Faith parishes across Australia. (Further background here.)

His consecration led to his removal from his position in Brisbane Diocese that year. (Link to the old section of our website – apologies for the horrible formatting.)

Despite his non-trivial theological differences with the Diocese of Sydney, David spoke gratefully of the stand taken by Sydney on the authority of Scripture, and was happy to be identified with the Anglican Church League (!).

In 1998 we published this article by David (also in the old section of our website).

“The strongest and, many would say, the most spiritually vital body within Australian Anglicanism, is the Diocese of Sydney.

Overwhelmingly and uniquely Calvinist and Reformed, mainstream Sydney Anglicanism is passionately evangelical, though not, as some suppose, fundamentalist. It is inherently suspicious of those who seem less biblical in their priorities.

In past decades, Sydney Anglicans tended to see anglo-catholicism as the great enemy. Today, however, Sydney and the anglo-catholics (the Dioceses of Ballarat, Wangaratta, The Murray, and a small sprinkling of priests and lay people from other places) join forces on an increasing number of issues. It is becoming clear that despite their very real differences, the so-called extremes of Anglicanism have a lot more in common than either has with the liberals in the middle. Most importantly, they contrast their adherence to a revealed religion with the modernist idea of contemporary culture as the ultimate authority in matters of faith.”

The article is worth reading in full.

Fr. David Chislett was ordained in the Diocese of Ballarat, and served in a number of Ballarat parishes before moving to All Saints’ Wickham Terrace, the well known anglo-catholic parish in the heart of Brisbane in 1995. He was Rector there until his removal in 2005, and has, most recently, been serving in the United Kingdom.

Many will remember David Chislett with thanksgiving to God.

See also his 2007 article, “How many CHURCHGOING Anglicans does Lambeth represent?”

Photo: Bishop David Chislett’s consecration in the USA in 2005.