Brian Fletcher is emeritus professor of history at the University of Sydney and the author of several books on colonial Australia. His new book explores the role the Anglican church has played in shaping Australia as a nation. Anglicanism arrived in Australia with the First Fleet. The natural preserve of influential landholders, politicians, businessmen and the middle classes, the church had close links with the Establishment throughout the colonial era. Yet Fletcher finds Anglican beliefs far more diverse than those of the established Church in England, showing that church leaders preached the Christian basis of the ‘Australian’ belief in democratic values. There is even the tantalising suggestion that the Anglican church offered itself as a model for federated Australia. Post-Federation, the role of the Church was largely reactive--hand-wringing and deploring from the pulpit--although Fletcher is at pains to show that after 1962 (when the Church legally separated itself from the Church of England) Anglicanism once more strove to identify itself as Australian. Fletcher’s academic objectivity left this reader craving colour, opinion and observation. As his publisher acknowledges, this work will appeal to historians, Anglican parishioners, theologians and to readers with a sociological bent.

Michael Kitson is a bookseller at The Sun Bookshop, Yarraville

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