HE

WAS EVERYBODY'S "FATHER AUSTIN"

PATRICK AUSTIN DAY (1926 2001)

On 5th November, 2001, the death occurred of Father Austin Day. The following is a tribute to
Father Austin presented by Father David Chislett at High Mass, at All Saints' Wickham Terrace,
Brisbane, Australia, on the following Sunday, 11th November.

"God's in his heaven, Austin Day's at Christ Church, and all's right in the world."

So it was said for many years by Australian Anglo-Catholics, indicating the crucial role of both
Christ Church St Laurence (set right in the midst of the Diocese of Sydney) and Father Austin
Day whose ministry of spiritual direction and encouragement sustained the lives of countless
priests and lay people right across Australia and beyond our shores. Father Austin, Rector of
Christ Church from 1964 to 1996, died last Monday, following a difficult struggle with motor
neuron disease.

HE LOVED THE LORD JESUS

I first met Father Austin when I was an impressionable teenager from Sydney's working class
western suburbs. It was 1968. He had been at Christ Church less than four years, but was
already making his own mark on the parish. The thing that struck me was how very cultured he
was, how wide were his interests and reading, and at the same time how much he loved the
Lord Jesus in a genuine and unfussy way. This was recognised by the evangelical clergy of his
acquaintance and it contributed as much to the growing relationship between Christ Church and
the Diocese of Sydney as any deliberate attempt at rapprochement.

He was always trying to bring people to Jesus. Just listen to this passage from a sermon he
preached in July 1983 about John Henry Newman:

Newman knew God had called him . . . As he was personally
chosen by God, raised up to present catholic truth as it is in
Jesus and as it is believed by Anglicans, so are we called
today to do just that, as individuals and as the people of
Christ Church St Laurence, just as the Jews were specially
called of old as a peculiar people for Gods own possession
You are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your
earth to be his special possession (Deuteronomy 7:6).

Likewise Jesus said to His disciples in His final discourses at
the Last Supper, You did not choose me, no, I chose you: and
I commissioned you (John 16:16.)

The idea of being chosen by God seems odd and frightening -
odd because it smacks of favouritism; frightening because it
presents a God who intervenes in our lives and in His world.

Despite that, the Catholic belief is that we are called and set
This photograph of Father Austin apart for Gods service in our Baptism, as Newman was; and
was taken at St John's Horsham right on through the whole of our lives, God continues to call us
(Diocese of Ballarat) in 1989 by the to Himself, not for any merit we possess but because in His
photographer of the Wimmera Mail-
providence we are the appropriate persons for particular tasks.
Times.

God said It was not because you were more numerous than any other nation that the Lord
chose you, for you were the smallest of all nations: it was because the Lord loved you.

Furthermore, as Gods call comes to us as particular persons, inevitably it must be a very
intimate association that He has with us . . . So Jesus says, I call you friends, because I have
made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father (John 15:15).

With a pious Evangelical family upbringing it is no wonder that Newman had a dramatic sense
of being chosen by God for a particular work as priest and prophet. We too as Anglican Catholics
today are to follow that close and intimate call of the Saviour; to be the Sons and daughters of
God, the friends of Jesus, the child of God . . . AND that is a call to personal holiness (as Newmans
was), to sacrifice and service too, to private prayer, and public worship.

Father Austins deep and personal response to the love of the Lord Jesus sustained him in the
wide range of responsibilities that were his as Rector of Christ Church. It was apparent in the
healing ministry. He took over his predecessors motto, Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today
and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and in turn helped countless individuals come to know the
forgiveness, love and healing of Jesus in their lives.

HEALING MINISTRY

Christ Churchs healing ministry had been established by Father John Hope many years before.
It was continued and developed by Father Austin, week in and week out. Privately in homes and
hospitals, and publicly in the weekly healing services, the prayer of faith, the laying on of hands
and the sacrament of anointing were all commonplace. As in the Gospels, the healing ministry
was the means by which multitudes found the Saviours love to be real. So many without any
church background whatsoever discovered the community of faith and love by being brought
along to a Christ Church healing service. Ill never forget the visits to Christ Church of the great
Church of England healing lady, Mary Rodgers! On her first Sunday, the healing service began
with High Mass at 10.30am and went right through the afternoon. It included Evensong and
Benediction, lasting until midnight, with large numbers of parishioners showing faith, love and
hospitality to the needy whose coming and going made Christ Church look like a railway station!
Father Austin was in his element! Prayer for the sick always played a key role in the evangelistic
missions he himself conducted in many parts of the country.

But he also wove that ministry into the normal fabric of parish life. Some years before the
Mary Rogers visit, the best master of ceremonies in the parish had come down with a very bad
virus, and looked as if he would be in bed for all of Holy Week. Father Austin couldnt bear the
thought of the elaborate Holy Week liturgies becoming muddled, so he took the Blessed
Sacrament and the healing oil to the M.C.s house where in response to the prayer of faith and
the power of the risen Lord in the Sacraments, the M.C. was marvelously restored to health so as
to fulfil his unique ministry in the parish community. Holy Week that year went with even more
pizazz than usual!

NO LIGHTWEIGHT

Father Austin preached simple sermons, generously laced with poetry, and peppered with
geographical and artistic allusions. This led some people to imagine that he was a theological
lightweight. How wrong they were! In 1977, John Hick, Don Cupit and their friends produced a

book of essays entitled, The Myth of God Incarnate. These were Church of England clergymen
denying the real divinity of Christ. Of course, most of the non-evangelical Australian theological
schools had been adapting themselves to reductionist Christologies for some time, with the
result that today - to all intents and purposes - their Jesus seems not much more than an
intensely good and inspired man. This was certainly not a development of which Father Austin
approved. I was at High Mass on that memorable morning shortly after the publication of The
Myth of God Incarnate when he presented what was really a spirited and tightly argued lecture
defending the true Biblical and patristic understanding of Jesus with such depth, scholarship
and relevance as to be congratulated the very next day by the evangelical diocesan leaders to
whom it had been enthusiastically reported!

REAL PRAYER

It was Father Austins intense devotion to Jesus as his Saviour and Lord that was apparent at
High Mass during which he prayed earnestly, reaching out to the Father - as he so often said - in
union with the perfect self offering of Jesus. He celebrated (as once used to be said of holy
priests) with great recollection. The same was true of the Daily Office, weekday Masses,
healing prayers and periods of quiet and meditation. For him, all prayer was mystical and
deeply personal. He was perfectly relaxed with extempore prayer when ministering to the sick
as well as to those who came for spiritual direction. Gently and in a most natural way he would
speak to our Father God about the problems experienced or the direction sought, sometimes
with the laying on of hands, sometimes just holding hands, or with his hand on the other
persons shoulder; even back in the time when Australian Anglo-Catholics tended to be
uncomfortable with anything less formal than collects from a prayer book.

INCARNATION

The marriage of the formal and the informal, the concern to integrate spirituality with the rest of
life, and the conviction that the Mass and the other sacraments really do bring us Gods grace, all
flowed from Father Austins incarnational theology. The Incarnation was not just an historical
event for him: it was the ongoing mystery of Gods way with us now. It lay at the heart of Christ
Churchs worship; it remained the inner principle of the parishs life; it motivated the welfare
ministry of the parish.

But the Mass WAS central, and to make this point, I give you another piece of that same sermon:

As Anglican Catholics today we perceive God as transcendent and beyond us in majesty ever to
be worshipped and adored; and we see Him as coming down from Heaven in the person of
Christ, a man among men, but also a tiny helpless Baby to be loved and caressed by the Blessed
Virgin Mary and S. Joseph those many years ago; and we know him today, in His world, in the
persons of our neighbours and friends, in the poor and needy, in the sick and the imprisoned.
But above all we perceive Him by faith in these Holy Mysteries, in the Breaking of the Bread . . .
intimately and lovingly.

Father Austin proceeded to one of his favourite quotes, this time from Bishop Mervyn
Stockwood:

I think of the Mass as a golden cord that begins at Bethlehem, proceeds to Calvary and the
Easter Garden, continues through the joys and sufferings of mankind till it reaches the kingdom

of God. As it passes over the table I know that I am pegged on to it and that, as I take the broken
bread and drink from the Cup, the Lord is in the midst, just as years ago he walked on Easter
evening with two disciples along the road to Emmaus, before making himself known in the
breaking of the bread.

To know the risen Jesus was everything to Father Austin. To proclaim the Gospel of Gods love
was his passion, and to care for those who came his way was his sacred calling.

HUMAN NATURE

Father Austin held a high view of human nature as being in the image of God while at the same
time he taught and lived the gospel of redemption in Christ. Sin was a reality to be dealt with. He
never compromised on that. His understanding of human sinfulness was far more realistic and
gritty than is often found these days in Anglican circles. Yes, the image of God is marred
(sometimes, he would say, twisted and almost hopelessly deformed), but, the Creator God and
the Redeemer God are one and the same, and through faith and the Sacraments, and the caring
ministry of the spirit-filled community gathered at the altar, we enter into the mystery of
redeeming love, divine forgiveness, and transformation. There is always forgiveness, he would
say.

His own daily life was extraordinarily disciplined. At one level he was always on his guard
against those weaknesses of his that might get in the way of what God was doing through him.
That very much accounted for an old fashioned austerity - even severity - which balanced the
other side of his temperament - his infectious love of art, beauty, humour, fine wines, witty
company and sumptuous celebration. There is always forgiveness. Some people hurt him very
deeply, causing him immense pain. He always struggled to overcome that . . . but those same
people found him amazingly ready to forgive, even if the re-establishment of trust took longer.
He once said about the priesthood that its our job to absorb the pain and take it to the Lord
who gives us the grace to deal with it.

In an uncanny way, Father Austin had many of the qualities which the English saw in Cardinal
Hume. He was everybodys Father Austin - my priest to so many people, inside and outside
the Church, and in every walk of life. He was gentle - and indulgent, even - towards the entire
range of those who wandered their spiritual and emotional wastelands. Yet he was thoroughly
orthodox, and without exception tried to point those whose lives he touched to the Saviour. A
phrase from the eulogy at Cardinal Humes funeral so marvelously applied to Father Austin . . .
the Christ-like instinct was to count the lost sheep IN, and never OUT.

I think back to my time as a Deacon in 1979 when I innocently walked into an argument Father
Austin was having with some of the heavies who thought that Christ Church was built on great
liturgy and fine music. He became more and more agitated and eventually declared with
magisterial finality: We certainly have great liturgy and fine music, but Christ Church is actually
built on two things: the preaching of the Gospel, and catholic pastoral care. That is what he
really believed.

It is not surprising that a vast number of young men were influenced by Father Austin to offer
themselves for the priesthood. He nurtured us, inspired us, persevered with us, and was always
there when we needed him, even decades later.

THE PRIEST AS ARTIST

Much is written in our time about the priest as a professional or a manager. For Father
Austin, being a priest was much more like being an artist. He waited on inspiration; he followed
his spiritual hunches. He expected to be able to see just where God is already working in the
lives of those who came to him. He believed in the immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He
painted on the broadest of canvasses. Or, in a different image, his parish was an orchestra to be
conducted in such a way that all and sundry could use their gifts for the glory of God.

Was he dictatorial? Not really. To be sure, he expected from his assistant clergy and lay leaders
the kind of deference that is normally shown by members of an orchestra to their conductor
(and we all know what happens to the music when for whatever reason it isnt!). So I was not
surprised by the pep talk he gave to me about leadership just weeks before I was inducted into
my first parish. He actually said that my time had come to conduct an orchestra. I had to realise
that no parish priest can do anything unless the other clergy and lay leaders are prepared to
defer to him; and they will only defer to him if they know three things: first, that he really loves
them; second, that he wants them to discover and use their gifts; and third, that he is able to lead
them further into God.

I cannot say how grateful I am to have been influenced so strongly by Father Austin; to have
been on the receiving end of both his patience and his rebuke as a teenager (and, indeed, until
quite recently!); to have had his guidance in discerning Gods will for my life, to have been
supported by him in times of failure and personal turmoil, to have had him preach at my
ordination to the Diaconate in Ballarat and to serve him as a Deacon at Christ Church; to have
conducted missions with him three times in the bush, to have preached at his 20th anniversary
Mass at Christ Church in 1984, to have been launched by him here at All Saints Wickham
Terrace in 1995 when he preached at my Induction, and to have had him come and stay at
length three times since then. I cherish every one of those memories. Each of those different
contexts revealed aspects of the character of this multi-dimensional man.

FAITHFUL TO THE END

It was sad to see Father Austin decline in health during his brief retirement. It frustrated and
annoyed him. But when he realised that he really was dying he determined to use every ounce of
his spiritual energy to make the last bit of his life really count for God. Although debilitated, bent
over and handicapped with that terrible illness, he continued to preach and to give pastoral and
spiritual encouragement to others. He participated regularly in the healing services at St Marys
Waverley, and loved to go there for Evensong and Benediction. He preached his last sermon at
St Lukes Enmore just one week before his death.

One of Father Austins favourite quotes was the expression of St Augustine of Hippo, that God is
the country of the soul. He applied that to our experience of God now; and he saw our
departure from this life as a deepening of that reality rather than an abrupt change. Life here
and in the hereafter was the same thing, the boundary having been blurred by our experience of
God. So many times at funerals and in the pastoral care of the dying, I heard him share this, and
then go on speak in the most natural and reassuring way of the Lords victory over death, the
deliverance of his people from hell and destruction, and the unity we share at the altar of God
with those whom we love but no longer see.

In his own poetic way, he would often explain that the Mass is when the Eucharistic veil is

parted and we are able

to gaze out on the world of God, the angels, the saints, and our departed brothers and sisters -
that great company which no man can number - and join with them in the heavenly worship,
centred on the Lord Jesus.

Father Austin loved the music of Sir Edward Elgar, and he loved the writings of John Henry
Newman. Both came together - "almost miraculously" he would say - in Elgars setting of the
Dream of Gerontius, from which the words to Praise to the Holiest in the height and Firmly I
believe and truly are taken.

I want to conclude this morning with some verses from the last section of Newmans poem to
nourish us as we journey through the Month of the Holy Souls, and as we give thanks to God for
Father Austin. They are gentle words, encouraging and comforting words; words that Father
Austin used very often at funerals, for they represent a deep belief that the love of God that has
touched us in this life will continue its healing and sanctifying work in us even after we have
died.

The angel says to the soul being made ready to experience the fullness of the glory of God in the
beatific vision:

Softly and gently, dearly-ransomd soul,
In my most loving arms I now enfold thee,
And, oer the penal waters, as they roll,
I poise thee, and I lower thee, and hold thee.

And carefully I dip thee in the lake,
And thou, without a sob or a resistance,
Dost through the flood thy rapid passage take,
Sinking deep, deeper, into the dim distance.

Angels, to whom the willing task is given,
Shall tend, and nurse, and lull thee, as thou liest;
And masses on the earth, and prayers in heaven,
Shall aid thee at the Throne of the Most Highest.

Father Austin was one of the great priests of God. May he rest in peace.


* * * * * * * * * *


Father David Chislett SSC is Rector of All Saints, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane

Published in the All Saints Gazette, Christmas 2001