There is a certain mystique about newspapers—the piles of identical bulletins stacked in the newsagent, the solemn blackness of the headlines, the ink on your fingers, the wrinkly familiarity of spreading it out in front of you on the table. I’m not sure how the combination works, but whatever the reason, I still find it hard not to believe what I read there. There is a gravitas, a kind of aura of trust, that seems to emanate from the pages. Surely if it’s there in black and white, then it must have happened like that?
I think this stubbornly irrational trust in newspapers (that I seem to revert to every time I open one) must be a kind of wish-fulfilment. I keep hoping that the newspaper will live up to my trust, that it will simply tell the truth, without fear or favour. Instead of course, what I more frequently find is half-truths, agenda-pushing, distortions, manipulations, deceptions, one-sided reportage, prejudicial presentations of the facts, outright lies and falsehoods.
At least, that’s what I find when I know enough about the story from other sources to know that the newspaper’s version of it is false. Which ought to lead to me to a profound distrust in everything that’s reported—but somehow I forget, I suspend my disbelief, I buy another copy, and I once again happily accept the bulk of what I read without thinking. A great many other people must do the same, because so many of us keep buying the paper.
As an exercise in mutual encouragement, in learning not to trust the papers, let’s look at a recent example of the kind of distortion that is routinely printed in our papers, without (it should be noted) any subsequent correction or acknowledgement of fault. The report in question concerned recent events at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, and the decision by the Dean, Phillip Jensen, to make some changes to the way the evening service was to be run. Hardly riveting news, one would think. The Sydney Morning Herald thought otherwise, and ran a story with photo, as follows:
Song sung blue as choir’s 130 years of tradition die
By Kelly Burke
May 10, 2004
The boys of St Andrew’s Cathedral School choir knew their glory days were probably numbered when they filed into Chapter House for practice last Thursday morning.
The ornate pews, part of the cathedral since its foundations were laid in 1868, had been removed, probably sold. Office chairs stood in their place.
Last night, the fears of the choirboys and parents were confirmed. Senior minister the Reverend Chris Moroney, acting on advice of the cathedral’s Dean, Reverend Phillip Jensen, told the congregation that there would be no more song at Evensong.
Come the end of the school term, the choir’s services would no longer be required on Sunday evening.
The parents of the choirboys were furious, levelling accusations, insults and shouting at Mr Moroney. Some rushed out in tears, protesting that a 130-year tradition at the cathedral had been vanquished and was representative of the Dean’s antipathy towards mainstream Anglicanism.
“It’s not like we can appeal to a higher authority,” one mother said, referring to the Dean’s brother, Archbishop Peter Jensen. “We’re completely powerless. I guess this is what the Reformation felt like.”
In the cathedral, long-time congregation member Robyn Verne told the meeting that Mr Moroney had met her during the week and said he had a bombshell. He suggested she would probably be better off finding another congregation. She burst into tears.
A group of young Bible scholars being groomed by Dean Jensen would take over the cathedral on Sunday nights in the coming months, Mr Moroney said. The group would be bringing in its own ministry and contemporary music. The Bible study group had outgrown its Sunday night venue at Sydney Boys High School and the cathedral was eager to make “a change of direction in style”.
The timing was suspicious. St Andrew’s school principal, Phillip Heath—a strong supporter of his school’s commitment to remaining a choir school—has been overseas on school business since Easter.
“Does the headmaster know about this? Have you told him?” the principal’s wife, Alison Heath, demanded. Mr Moroney said he had no knowledge of whether the headmaster or chairman of the school council had been informed.
At the end of the meeting, an apparently seething Mrs Heath started frantically text-messaging her husband, who is in London.
Mr Moroney suggested the meeting close with a prayer. But about 100 tearful parents and parishioners had the last word, singing Abide With Me in protest.1
The puritanical, Bible-thumping Dean is at it again. He is trampling upon the aesthetically beautiful traditions of the church by ‘vanquishing’ the choir, abolishing a 130-year-old tradition, selling off the ancient ornate pews in favour of office chairs, and bussing in a troop of ‘young Bible scholars’ who have been ‘groomed’ for the purpose. Obadiah Slope rides again. And not only so, but he’s doing it all sneakily and suspiciously, ‘dropping bombshells’ and waiting till the Principal is overseas, when there’s nothing that his ‘apparently seething’ wife can do about it.
A line-by-line analysis of all the falsehoods, half-truths and unfairly prejudicial language in this piece of supposed ‘reportage’ would be tedious in the extreme. Perhaps the simplest method is to reproduce some statements issued subsequently by key players in the events that give some indication of what an inaccurate and distorted picture the Herald article painted.
What follows is a statement from Chris Moroney, a letter to the Herald by Phillip Jensen, and a short article from the Cathedral newsletter. Read these three, and then go back and re-read Kelly Burke’s piece carefully.
And then never forget what your father always told you: Son, don’t believe what you read in the papers!
Statement from the Rev Chris Moroney
(Chris Moroney is the Senior Assistant Minister at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney.)
In recent days there have been a number of media enquiries concerning the story on last Sunday night’s meeting about the 6.30pm service and the St Andrew’s Cathedral Choir that appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on 10th May. A number of letters were also published. There are certain matters that require clarification.
1. The SMH story refers to ‘ornate pews, part of the cathedral since its foundations were laid in 1868’.
The eight pews in question are not ornately carved 19th century furniture.
They date from the 1940s. They were stored in the Lower Chapter House because they were surplus to the needs of the Cathedral since the major restoration work of this heritage building. They were then designated miscellaneous furniture for disposal.
A decision to sell these surplus pews was taken in November 2003.
The pews were publicly advertised for sale in the Trading Post over a period of two months.
It is a coincidence that purchasers were found so close to the recent Cathedral meeting.
In place of the pews, some excess Cathedral chairs have been provided in the Lower Chapter House. These chairs will enable more flexibility for the use of the Choir and other groups.
The Cathedral Choir Master/Organist was consulted about the disposal and sale of the pews and their replacement by chairs, and his specific requests were met in full.
2. Future change to the 6.30pm Sunday service at the Cathedral.
Extensive consultation about proposed changes has been undertaken over a period of time.
The Cathedral organist and the lay clerks in the choir were consulted before Easter.
The Cathedral Chapter was consulted and agreed to the proposed change in service at the meetings held in both April and May.
The headmaster of the Cathedral School was fully consulted before Easter.
In the process of these consultations, no indication was given of any possible problems with the proposed change.
The Choir Master indicated he did not foresee any problems for the Choir parents and had no opposition from the lay clerks in the Choir.
Most regular members of the evening congregation were contacted personally and discussion enabled about issues they saw arising from the proposed change in the evening service.
3. The St Andrew’s Cathedral Choir is under threat and may be disbanded.
While the choir participated on Sunday evenings and therefore the closure of this service affected their attendance, this did not place the choir under threat, and did not commence any process of disbanding it.
The Choir Master was consulted throughout the process and every effort made to maintain membership of the Independent Choir Schools Association (ICSA).
Discussions were also underway concerning introducing the choir into the present 8.30am service on Sunday mornings.
The present choir singing on Wednesday mornings and Thursday evenings continues.
4. Introduction of The Bible Talks at 6.30pm Sunday evenings.
This proposal introduces an exciting new ministry gathering into the Cathedral and indeed into the city of Sydney on Sunday evenings.
While attendance at traditional style services on Sunday evenings has declined Australia wide, there has been a remarkable growth in attendance of younger professional people at contemporary style evening groups. This is the case with The Bible Talks ministry, but it parallels a similar development throughout Australia, and not just in the Anglican Church.
The Cathedral staff anticipates an exciting impact upon younger professionals in the city of Sydney from the introduction of this ministry at St Andrew’s Cathedral, and they also foresee the valuable benefits of this ministry to tourists and visitors to the city.
Phillip Jensen’s letter to the Sydney Morning Herald in response to their report on the 10th of May, appearing in the Herald on the 18th of May
Apparently some of your readers are under some misunderstanding about developments in St Andrew’s Cathedral.
No heritage furnishings have been sold. No choir stalls have been sold. The eight pews that have recently been sold were from the 1940s and were designated surplus to requirements when the renovations to the Cathedral were undertaken some years before my appointment as dean. The cathedral has never had a marble altar or a marble communion table.
The changes on Sunday evening were not aimed at reducing the choir’s role in the cathedral, but to address the decline in attendance in this congregation. Sadly, the evening service has been in decline since the late 1980s so that it has now reached an unviable position. Our aim is to revitalize the ministry on Sunday nights. Inevitably, this must mean some changes.
Far from disbanding the choir we are considering increasing its workload to include singing at the 8.30am service and to contribute to that service’s revitalization. The choir also continues to sing at both the Wednesday morning and Thursday evening services.
Phillip Jensen, Dean of Sydney, Sydney, May 17
The Changes to Sunday Night in the Cathedral
Over the last few months there has been a series of consultations about the future of the Cathedral’s ministry on Sunday nights.
The problem of declining attendance is not new or unique to our Cathedral. The steady decline in attendance can be seen from the following graph.
Sunday evening average attendances in May over the 16 years 1987-2002
The top line is the average attendances including special services, the bottom line is excluding special services.
From 1987 when Lance Shilton was still the Dean through the period of Ken Short and Boak Jobbins, there was a downward trend in attendance. Two of our Lay Canons, Dr John Bishop and Mr James Davis, carefully analysed for the Chapter the decline in attendance and concluded that from 1990-2002 there was a 73% decline in the evening congregation compared to 27% decline in the two morning services.
This decline is matched by similar statistics for evening services around the world, and across Australia. It is not connected to any particular Dean. It is simply that the society’s pattern of church going has changed.
Churches, especially in the centre of cities where older members of our community do not feel safe at night, have seen a dramatic loss in attendance. In Sydney, the people who do come into the city on a Sunday night seem to be much younger than the average Cathedral attendee. Because of our proximity to China town there is also a greater ethnic diversity around the city than is in our Cathedral congregation.
However against the national trend for the Anglican church of Australia many of the parishes of the diocese of Sydney have retained and even grown their evening congregations. This has been achieved by changing the format of the service to better cater for the age group that is still likely to come at night. Even close to the city centre, parishes such as at St Barnabas Broadway and St Thomas’ North Sydney have had to commence a second evening service to cater for the increasing numbers of mainly young adults attending.
The difference between these growing and expanding congregations and the declining and closed congregations of other churches is their relevance to the population who will come to church at night.
In 2002 the Cathedral’s evening congregation in the month of May averaged 62 people (I have chosen the month of May because it has no special public or school holidays in this period). The choir accounted for 30 of those attending. Amongst the rest of the congregation there were a number of choir families plus tourists and visitors. The actual size of the regular congregation had been reduced to about a dozen active members.
While every individual matters, the way in which we care for his or her spiritual wellbeing must reflect reality. There are many different alternatives for the Cathedral community and for this small group to explore in order to make sure that Christian ministry is provided for each of them. We need to pray for the godly wisdom from above that we may find the best way forward for each of these members.
However there must come a point at which one admits that the opening of the Cathedral with a choir of thirty, a professional choirmaster, a professional organist, two clergymen and a full time lay stipendiary worker to minister to such a small number of people cannot be justified. That point was passed several years ago.
The closure of the Sunday Evening meeting was therefore a matter that we have to face sooner or later. I discussed this with the staff and with the Chapter over the last few months. Having taken the decision that it would have to be done some time in the next few months, the pastoral clergy responsible for the service have spent the last month trying to talk to each member of the congregation about how they personally could be provided for without the Sunday night service.
Last Sunday night we had a congregational meeting in order to have a general discussion about this matter. We are continuing to explore the best ways forward and value the calm prayerful support of all the Cathedral members.
Associated with this closure were two other independent yet related issues: the choir and The Bible Talks.
At the staff planning days in September last year, our choirmaster Michael Deasey very helpfully led us in some thoughtful consideration of expanding the diversity of music in the Cathedral especially through the increase in number and variety of services.
In this and ongoing discussions with Michael the advantages of the Choir singing at two morning services rather than one morning and one evening service became apparent. For example it was considered that this would make it easier on choir families on Sundays, significantly reducing their travelling.
Every consideration was given to make sure that adequate opportunity was given to the choir to allow for the education of the choristers and the maintenance of the very high standards of the choir. The continuation of the Wednesday morning and Thursday evening services will provide sufficient choral work necessary to maintain the choir’s membership of its international association.
No conclusion has yet been reached about the choir’s involvement in the two morning services. To introduce the choir at 8:30am may mean many changes not the least to the time at which this service is held. It was considered that closure of the Sunday night service was the first matter to address, as that was needed independently of any other change.
The other associated and yet independent decision under consideration at the moment is the arrival of ‘The Bible Talks’. Over the last year and a half ‘The Bible Talks’ has continued meeting in Sydney Boys High School auditorium. There is no need for this congregation to move. It is a good venue and they are well established there with a good relationship with the school.
However in their concern to reach more people with the gospel and as they have become by a resolution of Chapter a ministry of the Cathedral, they have offered to change location and develop their gospel work through the city.
As this will cost the Cathedral nothing and may bring about a great outreach to a generation almost wholly missing from the Cathedral, this opens up an exciting possibility for us. It may also tie in well with our increasing outreach amongst the many young Asians living near the Cathedral.
Endnotes
1 The article was still online at the time of writing: on the SMH website here, and in Google’s cache here.
