St Michael's House was an Australian educational institution in Crafers outside

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

, under the auspices of the

Society of the Sacred Mission The Society of the Sacred Mission (SSM), with the associated Company of the Sacred Mission, is an Anglican religious order founded in 1893 by Father Herbert Kelly, envisaged such that "members of the Society share a common life of prayer and fello ...

, established in 1947 and which was destroyed by fire in the

Ash Wednesday bushfires The Ash Wednesday bushfires, known in South Australia as Ash Wednesday II, were a series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia on 16 February 1983, which was Ash Wednesday. Within twelve hours, more than 180 fires fanned by ho ...

in 1983 shortly after its closure. It trained candidates for ordination in the

Anglican Church of Australia The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the ...

Origins

A colonial businessman, John Bakewell (who was the son of the South Australian MP

William Bakewell William Bakewell (May 2, 1908 – April 15, 1993) was an American actor who achieved his greatest fame as one of the leading juvenile performers of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Early years Bakewell was a native of Los Angeles, where he at ...

), built a home in Mount Lofty (now known as Crafers) which he named "Koralla". Bakewell's daughter, Audine, married an Irish doctor, Arthur Pryce Evelyn O'Leary. O'Leary died in 1929 and in 1943 his widow left "Koralla" to the

Anglican Diocese of Adelaide The Anglican Diocese of Adelaide is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia. It is centred in the city of Adelaide in the state of South Australia and extends along the eastern shore of the Gulf St Vincent from the town of Eudunda in the ...

Bryan Robin Bryan Percival Robin (12 January 188717 June 1969) was bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide, South Australia from 1941 to 1956. Early life Robin was educated at Rossall School and the University of Liverpool. Religious life Robin ...

, Bishop of Adelaide from 1941 to 1956, encouraged members of the

(SSM) to come to Adelaide from Kelham to establish a theological college in order to boost clergy numbers. SSM had been established in London in 1893 by Fr

Herbert Kelly Herbert Hamilton Kelly (18 July 1860 – 31 October 1950), a priest of the Church of England, was the founder of the Society of the Sacred Mission (SSM), an Anglican religious order. Early life and education Kelly was born at St James's Vica ...

and the following year began training working-class men for the priesthood. In 1903, SSM purchased Kelham Hall which then formed the origins of St Michael's House. St Michael's House was established in 1947 and offered a five-year training course. Along with the theological college, there was a SSM priory on the site. The first priest to graduate from St Michael's was Fr Austin Day, later the renowned rector of the leading Anglo-Catholic church in Sydney, Christ Church St Laurence, for 32 years from 1964 to 1996.

College years

It was the students at St Michael's House (along with those of

Ormond College Ormond College is the largest of the residential colleges of the University of Melbourne located in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is home to around 350 undergraduates, 90 graduates and 35 professorial and academic residents. H ...

at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb n ...

) who were the first in Australia to observe the

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an ecumenical Christian observance in the Christian calendar that is celebrated internationally. It is kept annually between Ascension Day and Pentecost in the Southern Hemisphere and between 18 January and ...

, in the 1950s. St Michael's students protested against the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, regarded as a controversial act at the time. Kelham, priding itself on its tradition of offering working class men a route to ordination, never issued hoods, but St Michael's House introduced a hood. With the passage of years, and increasing reticence of bishops to send candidates to St Michael's for training, the future of St Michael's had become uncertain. By 1983 most of the teaching was undertaken at the society's priory house in central Adelaide, St John's. St Michael's House had been reduced to just a retreat house.

Destruction

Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and falls on the first day of Lent (the six weeks of penitence before Easter). It is observed by Catholics in the ...

in 1983 parts of South Australia and Victoria experienced devastating bushfires, subsequently known as the

Ash Wednesday Bushfires The Ash Wednesday bushfires, known in South Australia as Ash Wednesday II, were a series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia on 16 February 1983, which was Ash Wednesday. Within twelve hours, more than 180 fires fanned by ho ...

. St Michael's House was destroyed, and not rebuilt. The few remaining members of SSM survived the fire by hiding in the basement. Those who escaped the fire included Fr Jonathan Ewer, the last prior. The only remaining ruins are the former gatehouse. The entire 40,000 volume library, which had been sold to Trinity College in Melbourne in anticipation of the closure of the college, perished. Kelham had closed in 1971, and the library had been dispersed, in part to St Michael's House. Those volumes were all lost. The theological college did not reopen; the priory house moved to Diggers Rest in Victoria.

Wardens

Most wardens were also priors of the SSM Priory, and often provincials of the Australian SSM. *Fr Basil Oddie SSM, 1947-56 *Fr Nicholas Allenby SSM, 1957–62, subsequently Bishop of Kuching in

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

and then

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, 1962-68. *Fr Austin Day *Fr

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashvill ...

SSM, 1962–68, subsequently Bishop of North Queensland, 1971-96. *Fr Dunstan McKee SSM, provincial and prior 1969 -? (not warden) *Fr Thomas Brown SSM, 1969- c. 1971 warden but not prior. *Br (later Fr) Gilbert Sinden SSM, c 1973 *Fr Jonathan Ewer SSM, 1976-83.

Notable alumni

*John Forsyth, warden of

Wollaston College Wollaston College (formerly John Wollaston Theological College ) is an Australian educational institution in Perth, Western Australia, established in 1957. It provides theological education for both lay and ordained people of the Anglican Dio ...

, 1979-82 * Hamish Jamieson, Bishop of Carpentaria (1974–84) and Bunbury (1984–2000) * Michael Lapsley, anti-apartheid and social justice activist *

, Bishop of North Queensland (1971–96)''Crockford's Clerical Director, 1973-74'', 85th Edition, p 575. * David McCall, Bishop of Willochra (1987–2000) and Bunbury (2000–10) * David Murray, assistant bishop in the Diocese of Perth (1991–2006)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:St Michael's House, Crafers Anglican seminaries and theological colleges Former theological colleges in Australia Education in Adelaide 1947 establishments in Australia Educational institutions disestablished in 1983