Growth of a student movement
[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 5, No. 7
12 October - 8 November 2009 ]
For many young people, the passions of their university years are a passing thing – fervour and activism giving way in later life to more moderate views of the world. Katherine Smith reports
The recently published history of the Australian Student Christian Movement (1996-1996) by Renate Howe tells the story of a movement which has clearly proved formative and leant enduring values to a number of Australians – many of them very high profile.
A Century of Influence documents the way liberal Christianity was the dominant socio-political as well as spiritual influence for a large number of young Australians, who met and engaged in fellowship in their student days through the Australian Student Christian Movement (ASCM).
Among the most well-known of its number are many alumni and former and current academics of the University of Melbourne, including the current Governor of Victoria Professor David de Kretser, former Vice-Chancellors of the University Professors David Penington and George Paton, and Davis McCaughey, Master of Ormond College and former Governor of Victoria,
A Century of Influence covers the foundations of the ASCM in the late 19th century, when charismatic leaders sought to inspire young students with missionary zeal and create an energetic youth base in the churches. Given the secular charter of the Australian universities at the time, it also became an important vehicle for the exploration of the Bible, church history and spiritual concerns.
From there it grew into a truly national organisation, and in fact became the basis of the first national student organisation, the National Union of Students, formed in the 1930s by Sir Zelman Cowen and Frank Coaldrake, a leading ASCM member. The NUS still advocates for students and student causes today.
Perhaps the SCM’s most enduring legacy is its emphasis on issues of social justice, which continue to motivate and impassion students today. The SCM was instrumental in the founding of the Uniting Church in Australia, with its strong reputation in social justice activities, and was a major player both intellectually and practically in the peace movement that took off during the 20th century. It was also instrumentall in forming the organisation thaty was the precursor to Australian Volunteers International.
The ASCM was not without its challenges, including the confrontation posed by communism to a new geneation of students in the early decades of the 20th century.
“When meetings on communism were banned at the University of Melbourne in 1931, the SCM protested and responded with a series of lectures on ‘The Clash of World Forces’, writes Associate Professor Howe, describing how the then SCM Chair Professor Kenneth Bailey addressed a large audience arguing that “‘To avoid revolution, the Christian church must be progressive, no longer bolstering up the unrighteous society of the past’.”
Associate Professor Howe acknowleges that SCM members were a somewhat elite group of privileged young people. But she cautions that it does not follow the group was necessarily elitist. While most members were white, middle-class, protestant and private school-educated, they were driven by the ties of friendship and a desire to serve. And she points out that through this period a university education was not available to everyone as it is today.
From this small elite arose many Australian leaders, including Robert Menzies, Brian Howe, Tony Staley, Winsome McCaughey and Andrew McCutcheon – people who are still an enduring influence on Australian society.
Renate Howe’s A Century of Influence: The Australian Student Christian Movement 1896 – 1996 is published by the UNSW Press, 2009.
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