The Delbridge Years

Contents Preface........................................................................................... 8 In the beginning............................................................................ 9 Getting started..............................................................................11 New initiatives............................................................................. 14 Properties acquired...................................................................... 17 World Conference of Christian Youth...........................................21 The establishment of the CENEF centre..................................... 23 The work expands........................................................................ 26 A new staff worker with new ideas............................................. 38 Consolidation................................................................................41 Memories of the Delbridge years................................................ 43 Addendum.....................................................................................61

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Preface Over the last 60 years God has used the Youth Department of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney to call thousands of men and women, boys and girls, to surrender their lives to him and to follow in the footsteps of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The list of activities run by the Department is almost endless: leadership training, Port Hacking, Camp Howard, the film library, This Dynamic Faith conference, parish houseparties, the Southern Cross Ski Chalet, Bible studies, children’s missions, the Challenge Programme and youth-to-youth missions, just to name a few.

However, the most important thing is that lives were changed through the tireless work of so many people—both those who worked full-time for the department and those who worked beside them, giving time and effort to seek and to save the lost, as volunteers. This, then, is a story of the Youth Department of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney from its beginning in 1942 up to 1952.

All that follows came about because of the vision of one man: the Archbishop of Sydney at the time, Howard West Kilvinton Mowll.

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In the beginning Howard Mowll was Bishop of Western China when he was called to be Archbishop of Sydney in 1934. He was born in Devon, England, and was blessed by being part of a Christian family. His family home was at Dover in Kent and his strong Christian faith remained with him throughout his many years of ministry. The way God used him within the Sydney Diocese was remarkable.

Australia had been at war for three years when, in 1942, Archbishop Mowll turned his attention to the youth of Sydney.

The war had moved very close to our shores. The Japanese were in New Guinea, many of the Pacific Islands were occupied and Darwin had been bombed. Japanese submarines entered Sydney Harbour, and many ships were attacked, and some sunk, off our shores. Sydney had become a centre for servicemen and women on leave, including American forces.

Archbishop Mowll and his wife, Dorothy, decided to establish the Church of England National Emergency Fund (CENEF) to bring some comfort to the soldiers, sailors and airmen on leave in Sydney.

Large huts were erected around St Andrew’s Cathedral to supply food and recreation. The lower floor of the Chapter House, next

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door to the Cathedral, was converted into accommodation for men and women in transit to war zones. Many of these men and women were also linked with Christian families in Sydney and were entertained in their homes. The Archbishop was determined that these young men and women would have access to a facility that could offer them Christian love during what was often a very lonely stay in Sydney. The centre was staffed by volunteers from Sydney churches.

The Rev Bob Fillingham was given the task of acting as CENEF chaplain at the huts in the Cathedral grounds. This was the start of his lifelong connection with the work that stemmed from CENEF. He was to serve as the honorary financial secretary of CENEF from 1946–56. In 1946 he also became assistant secretary of the Home Mission Society (today called Anglicare) under the Rev RB Robinson. He remained a member of the CENEF Board of Management and was later intimately involved with developments such as the CENEF Memorial Centre in 1947.

Archbishop Mowll had also experienced service in the 1914–18 war when he was posted as chaplain to the troops at Abbeville, France, and he foresaw the problems that members of the forces would face at the end of the war. He wanted the church to be ready to support them when they returned, often broken and lonely, from active service, some having been prisoners of war in terrible circumstances.

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