TRIBUTE TO BISHOP ALBERT HALEY
Rector of All Saints' Wickham Terrace 1975 - 1986,
Consecrated Bishop in the Church of God 1988

by Bishop David Chislett SSC

C/- S. Luke's Vicarage,
Kingston Upon Thames, London, U.K.
Thursday 8th June, 2000

I learned of Bishop Albert Haley's death this morning, and write to pay tribute to him, firstly as someone whose friendship has been most supportive in the personal difficulties and pressures we have faced in maintaining the Faith once delivered to the Saints. He visited a number of times when I was at Horsham in western Victoria. He and I developed a deep respect for each other, a respect that survived the occasional disagreement on how we should confront certain issues.

It is also important to put on record the value of Bishop Albert's encouragement as a spiritual counsellor and guide to a whole range of people, including Bishop John and Shirley Hazlewood.

Secondly, I pay tribute to Bishop Haley as a predecessor of mine in the Parish of All Saints' Wickham Terrace. It is no secret that when he arrived, the future of All Saints' was by no means a foregone conclusion. Bishop Albert's gifts of evangelism and pastoral care came into their own as he rebuilt this parish into a strong centre of Catholic life and witness, as well as a base from which to care for countless of the poor and needy who discovered here a haven of Christlike love.

Thirdly, I pay tribute to Bishop Albert as the first Continuing Anglican bishop in Australia. In the years surrounding 1992 and the introduction of priestesses in the Anglican Church of Australia, the treatment given by the so-called liberals to people whose only sin was their determination to stick with the religion of Jesus, the Apostles, and the Catholic Church down through the ages, was nothing less than a disgrace. For many faithful Anglicans the only way of surviving was to form 'continuing' parishes. In contrast to what we often hear from leaders of the Anglican Church of Australia, I want to make it clear that the Continuers are REAL Anglicans; indeed in some parts of Australia, Anglicans who believe the Catholic Faith have had no alternative than to join them. For this reason Bishop Hazlewood made no secret of his support for Bishop Albert and the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, and neither have I. We have always believed that faithful Anglicans, whether in the 'official' church or in the 'continuing' churches must work together for the sake of the Gospel and the Catholic Faith. Much of the inspiration and momentum amongst the Continuers came from Bishop Albert, and his people will miss him greatly.

I will never forget the Torres Strait Consecrations on Badu Island. Bishop Albert had served there as a missionary forty years before. He knew so many of the older people, and loved them dearly. Their love for him as a kind of grandfather in the Faith was obvious. Archbishop Louis Falk was stranded at an American airport because of a snow storm. And so it was that Bishop Albert had to step in as chief consecrator. The experience totally exhausted him. But it was a fitting climax to a wonderful ministry as a faithful and loving priest and bishop in the Church of God.

To Grace and your family, I assure you of my love and prayers at this difficult time. I will be saying a Requiem Mass for Bishop Albert tomorrow (Friday 9th June), using the only rite of which he would have approved!

Yours sincerely in Jesus and his Holy Mother,

David

Father Graeme Mitchell,
Registrar of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia,
and Parish Priest of St Mary the Virgin, Melbourne, writes:

"Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men . . . Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Ye are our Epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men" (2 Corinthians 3:1).

Instead of the Corinthian Church, Blessed Paul might well have been referring to Albert Haley. Actually, I prefer the last bit of chapter 12 of I Corinthians, where he, S Paul, also says: Ye are the Body of Christ and members in particular. And God hath set some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, third teachers and he goes on to say but covet earnestly the best gifts."

Albert Haley, Apostle, Prophet, Teacher, had no need to covet any of the above - the Holy Ghost bestowed those gifts and many more on him - some sooner, some later in his life but his sufficiency was of God.

I first met him in 1982 - he was saying Mass at 7.30 in All Saints' Lady Chapel. I was in Brisbane on business (which I had contrived so that it co-incided with the visit of Bishop Robert Terwilliger of Dallas). Neither of us, in hindsight, had had the slightest idea that we would meet again, nor that either of us would have been parted from the Church of our youth before it became the Church of our old age.

It was a young mechanical engineer who, in 1943 at the age of 21, abandoned his training for the Baptist ministry, was confirmed and accepted as a candidate for Holy Orders for the Diocese of Melbourne and the rest, as they say, is history, to be remembered and re-told by people from Heidelberg, Essendon, Warburton, Darwin, Cooma, Crookwell, Rabaul, Warwick and Brisbane, with the Torres Strait taking its turn as we witnessed at the Requiem Mass offered on June 14th in All Saints' Wickham Terrace when Bishop Gayai Hankin lovingly recalled being one of Father Albert's altar boys all those years ago in the islands.

Most of us here relate to him as a Father-in-God, first as the priest who was righteously angry about the state of the Church he loved being betrayed at the hands of sinful and misguided men. Here the prophet and teacher stood out - the prophet pronouncing God's will and proclaiming His judgement - the teacher - passing on the kerygma, the core of Holy Tradition from Scripture, the Fathers, and the Councils of the Church.

Here was a man of the Resurrection faith, a man of the Incarnation, the Ascension and the Transfiguration (it was his birthday - August 6th). No one would ever suggest that Father Albert was out of touch with humanity - the physicality of his faith was there at every turn. You saw his faith (as St James says in 2:18) by his works and his actions - whether in his pastoral care of drunks, addicts, the homeless and the handicapped - or in his ceremonial acts as he celebrated the Holy Mysteries. It was all done with ATTENTION and DEVOTION - decently and in order, never impatient for novelty and innovation.

He was the Teacher, showing BY EXAMPLE, the heart and soul of REAL Christian worship. He was in every politically incorrect nuance of the term 'A man's man'. He had worked on the land - 42 hours straight on a harvester as unseasonal storms were forecast for the Wimmera around 1940. He worked at sea - he had a 'Master's Ticket' which entitled him to captain the coastal vessels around New Guinea. (He actually thought it immoral that, just because he was white, he was the captain, when his crew came from families which had charted the coasts for centuries).

He brought his engineering training to bear in Rabaul when he formed a company which produced pre-fabricated welded frames. The frames were not remarkable. But in 1966 it was unheard of for a white missionary to enter into a legal partnership with Tolai tribesmen. It was 6 years before self-government made such action even worthy of contemplating.

Albert Haley was also a family man. His gentle wife, Grace and five of his six children (one died as a result of an accident), a gaggle of grandchildren and two or three great-grandchildren survive him.

He had interests of which some of his closest friends knew nothing - a magnificent collection of orchids when he lived on Bribie Island was gradually dispersed as his energy was re-directed and as his health deteriorated. He was an extremely sensitive and competent photographer, a hobby which he was never able to pursue in 'retirement' - there was no retirement for a priest - no 'rostered day off', free time or holiday - he took very seriously the fact that he was a catholic priest 'after the order of Melchizedek' and not simply a 'minister' with a 'job'. He would shake his head at tales of priests who retired and simply 'went fishing'.

1987 was the first year of action in Albert Haley's 'retirement' from All Saints' Wickham Terrace. In September of that year he convened a meeting of ten people at S Matthew's, Wendouree to discuss how in the face of the growing liberalism of the Anglican Church in Australia we might remain as Anglicans with the support of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada.

Of course it worried Father Albert that there were those who agreed with him to his face but ignored his advice and suggestions of what to do about it. His practical approach and Christian nature was torn between disdain and pity for those who were 'butterflies', 'prima donnas', 'frauds', 'charlatans',' 'users' or just plain lazy. Archbishop Falk's observation that 'when you shake the trees, the nuts fall out first' held just as true in Australia as in the USA or Canada.

By December 1987 there was a collection of about eight parishes around Australia working under the licence of the Metropolitan of Canada, Bishop Alfred Woolcock. In June 1988, the Diocese of Australia was proclaimed and an election for a candidate for its Bishop was held. The result surprised only the two 'runner-up' candidates who each received one vote

Consecrated on October 18 (St Luke's Day) Albert Haley remained Diocesan Bishop of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia for nearly nine years. He survived 'takeover bids', threats of legal action, slander, criticism, mockery, disdain, ridicule and just simply being ignored. His sufficiency was of God. His conviction of the absolute truth of the Catholic Faith in its Anglican expression is legendary He never wavered, hesitated or altered his course. He withstood journalists and Bishops who tried to dissuade him.

He challenged the belief and practise of those who tentatively joined the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia. Commitment was what he practised and what he expected - commitment to worship, commitment of time, commitment of abilities and commitment of money. Why was it that Protestants built churches? They tithed and worked! What was the greatest attribute of a Christian? His ability to forgive! Many of the erstwhile fellow-travellers went off into dreary isolation because they could not come to forgive some misdemeanor in another's murky past.

The Yank Bishops came to tremble when he spoke - they nick-named him 'Crocodile Halee'; his sufficiency was of God.

His 'Evangelism by Example' was nowhere more evident than in his help and guidance of the embryonic Church of Torres Strait. Here he showed the character of a modern-day Saint Paul - the Apostle, Prophet and Teacher who, receiving the call from 'Torres Strait Macedonians' 'went over to help them' but not as 'Big Brother'. He was their partner - his sufficiency was of God.

He was, in fact, their Epistle, written in their hearts, known and read of all men. I don't believe that it was the incompetence of United Airlines that stranded Archbishop Falk in San Francisco when he should have been in Cairns so that Father Albert had to be the Chief Consecrator of Bishops Hankin and Passi. I think that the hand of God was in it, approving the bestowal of Episcopal ordination by a loving Father-in-God and re-inforcing the fact that his sufficiency was of God.

Requiescat in Pace dear Father Albert. Pray for us in the Communion of Saints that we, too, may come to know that our sufficiency is of God.