Memoirs of a Loose Canon

Acorn Press is providing a valuable service to Australian Anglicans with publications of memoirs of well known evangelical leaders. They include Bishop John Reid’s biography of Marcus Loane, Marjorie Stanway’s memoir of Alfred Stanway and Leon Morris’s Bush Parson.

Now we have Canon Stuart Barton Babbage’s charming chronicle Memoirs of a Loose Canon.

Each allows an insight for contemporary Anglicans into evangelical Anglican ministry of a previous generation. By their very nature these publications present one individual’s perceptions of people and events. They allow a selection of incidents and comments. This is both the strength, and the weakness of any biographical work. For what one person perceives as evident and obvious, another will entirely discount as unclear and biased. 

For Sydney Anglicans, Canon Babbage is a contemporary of Broughton Knox, Marcus Loane, and Donald Robinson. He presents fascinating vignettes concerning them. He was Registrar of the Australian College of Theology through which many of our clergy received their theological degrees. He was appointed to his first Sydney post as diocesan missioner by Archbishop Howard Mowll, and was soon a youthful Dean of Sydney. Later he became Principal of Ridley College and Dean of Melbourne. From Melbourne he took up a significant ministry in the US where he participated in the founding of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Returning to Australia he became Master of New College at the University of New South Wales. In Melbourne he was a leader in preparations for the 1959 Billy Graham Crusade and his account of it is a must read for Graham enthusiasts. 

What other clergyman in our Church’s history can claim to have been Dean in Australia’s two largest dioceses? To each post he filled Canon Babbage brought his remarkable energy and creativity; also his passion for gospel outreach as well as the social impact of the gospel. While not everyone agreed with his way of doing things, none could ever ignore his presence.

In the same way, some may question certain of Canon Babbage’s perceptions, yet they cannot overlook his contribution to evangelical ministry in this country and elsewhere. 

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