St Michael's House was an Australian educational institution in

Crafers The town of Crafers is in the Adelaide Hills to the south-east of Adelaide, South Australia, considered to be an outer suburb of Adelaide. History Crafers was named after David Crafer, who arrived in Adelaide in 1838 and moved to the area. W ...

outside

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, 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 Bushfires in Australia, series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia in 1983 on 16 February. Within twelve hours, more than 180 bushfires, fires f ...

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

Anglican Church of Australia The Anglican Church of Australia, originally known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. In 2016, responding to a peer-reviewed study ...

Origins

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

William Bakewell William Robertson Bakewell (May 2, 1908 – April 15, 1993) was an American actor. He 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, w ...

), built a home in Mount Lofty (now known as

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

(SSM) to come to Adelaide from

Kelham Kelham is a small village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. It is about northwest of Newark on a bend in the A617 road near its crossing of the River Trent. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 207, f ...

to establish a theological college in order to boost clergy numbers. SSM had been established in London in 1893 by Fr Herbert Kelly 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 an 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 Christ Church St Laurence is an Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican church (building), church located at 814 George Street, Sydney, George Street, near Central railway station, Sydney, Central railway station and Haymarket, in City of Sydney, ...

, 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 (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

) 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 a ...

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

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, 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 marks the first day of Lent: the seven weeks of Christian prayer, prayer, Religious fasting#Christianity, fasting and ...

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 Bushfires in Australia, series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia in 1983 on 16 February. Within twelve hours, more than 180 bushfires, fires f ...

. 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 David Howard Nicholas Allenby SSM, (28 January 1909 – 28 February 1995) was an English clergyman in the Anglican Church and a member of the religious order the Society of the Sacred Mission. He held the position of Bishop of Kuching from 19 ...

SSM, 1957–62, subsequently

Bishop of Kuching The Bishop of Kuching is the ordinary of the Anglican Diocese of Kuching in the Church of the Province of South East Asia. The bishop exercises episcopal authority over Anglican churches in the Malaysian state of Sarawak and in the independent ...

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

and then

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, 1962-68. *Fr Austin Day *Fr

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

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

*Douglas Brown SSM, director of the

Anglican Centre in Rome Anglican Centre in Rome is an ecumenical organisation that is dedicated to improving relations between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church. It was founded in 1966 with the encouragement of Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, ...

, 1991-1995. *John Forsyth, warden of Wollaston College, 1979-82 * Hilary Greenwood, teacher at SMH (1961-66) and warden of Kelham Hall (1970-73) * Hamish Jamieson, Bishop of Carpentaria (1974–84) and Bunbury (1984–2000) *

Michael Lapsley Alan Michael Lapsley, SSM (born 2 June 1949) is a South African Anglican priest and social justice activist. Personal life Alan Michael Lapsley was born on 2 June 1949 in New Zealand. He was ordained to the priesthood in Australia where he ...

, 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:Saint 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 Universities and colleges established in 1947 1983 disestablishments in Australia Universities and colleges disestablished in the 20th century Destroyed libraries