Changes & Chances
Chapter 23 Bishop Harry
During those early, difficult years of the young nation All Saints was very fortunate to be under the oversight of H W (Harry) Baines, who stood out as a bishop, not just by his imposing stature but by his gracious manner, good voice and prayerfulness. Appointed to Singapore in 1949 at age forty-four, he gave the diocese eleven of his best years. Most importantly to clergy and church councils, he was a good listener. His main focus was on Malaya where there was a major communist insurgency, which the British government sought to deal with by resettling the Chinese and Indian communities into new towns and villages. This created a challenge to which the diocese responded with an extensive and costly church planting initiative.
Having missed out on any visits from a Bishop of Singapore to Java since before the war, Council resolved at its December 1950 meeting “that copies of all meetings of the Church Council should be forwarded to the Bishop.” Baines soon responded to the challenge, making annual visits with his wife to Java and using his position to promote the church, on one occasion being introduced to President Sukarno by the British Ambassador. Even when he was in England in 1956 he ensured that the Archdeacon of Singapore gave special attention to All Saints, making a commitment to arrange for clergy to visit during interregnums and putting on record that he was “fully aware of what a tragedy it would be for the work already done to slip back due to a lack of ministry.” At his first visit in July 1951 Baines gave an undertaking to Council to make inquiries in the UK and the USA for a chaplain. He honoured the undertaking, it ultimately being Council's reluctance to invite a chaplain that curtailed his efforts.
About 1949 synodical government was adopted by the diocese, with the practical implication that the chaplain received the title of “Vicar” and that Java and Sumatra was accorded the status of a parish within the diocese. Nevertheless, it retained a special status and autonomy which the bishop respected as he explained to the July 1952 Council meeting:
…that though for the past 100 years there had been a tradition of Anglican chaplains in Java, the Church Council, as an autonomous body, could appoint a Protestant Chaplain other than an Anglican. So long as the Chaplain was an Anglican, the Bishop was entitled to approve or disapprove his appointment, and the Church Council was entitled to representation on the Diocesan Synod. The Bishop stressed, however, that should at any time a non-Anglican chaplain be appointed, an organised Anglican body in Java would still be entitled to representation on the Diocesan Synod, and the Bishop would continue to give such a body his guidance and advice.
Baines had a practical and ecumenical concern for ministry to expatriates scattered across Indonesia, best exemplified by his 1959 tour when he surveyed the Christian ministry to foreigners, meeting church representatives in the towns of Rumbai and Sungeigerong in Sumatra, Jakarta and Surabaya in Java, and Balikpapan in Kalimantan. He reported to Council that weekly Protestant interdenominational services were operating in all these places with the exception of Balikpapan and commented that the positive reception wherever he went was due to the good-will built up by the vicar. Aware that the work was too much for one man, he encouraged the oil companies to lobby the US Episcopal Church for a minister and also succeeded in negotiating with Shell to pay for a clergyman for one year as a pump-priming effort to establish a chaplaincy in the Sumatra oilfields, with Palembang as the likely base. He also suggested that a committee be formed in Sumatra to work out arrangements with Council. Council supported his request to recruit an assistant on condition that the bishop gave a true picture of the difficulties of living and working in Indonesia. Unfortunately, the whole scheme was postponed when two months later Council rejected his proposed assistant because of the deteriorating political situation, the government freeze on finances and the difficulties of providing for a married man with a family.
Baines exemplified a good bishop, who could help a Church Council see the wood for the trees, who worked tirelessly at finding suitable clergy for the most difficult parishes, then encouraged and supported them. In 1960 he left Singapore for New Zealand to take up the position of Bishop of Wellington. There he gained public attention for taking up the struggle against South African apartheid, calling for rugby boycotts. It was a courageous act to tamper with New Zealand’s other religion – rugby.
During those early, difficult years of the young nation All Saints was very fortunate to be under the oversight of H W (Harry) Baines, who stood out as a bishop, not just by his imposing stature but by his gracious manner, good voice and prayerfulness. Appointed to Singapore in 1949 at age forty-four, he gave the diocese eleven of his best years. Most importantly to clergy and church councils, he was a good listener. His main focus was on Malaya where there was a major communist insurgency, which the British government sought to deal with by resettling the Chinese and Indian communities into new towns and villages. This created a challenge to which the diocese responded with an extensive and costly church planting initiative.
Having missed out on any visits from a Bishop of Singapore to Java since before the war, Council resolved at its December 1950 meeting “that copies of all meetings of the Church Council should be forwarded to the Bishop.” Baines soon responded to the challenge, making annual visits with his wife to Java and using his position to promote the church, on one occasion being introduced to President Sukarno by the British Ambassador. Even when he was in England in 1956 he ensured that the Archdeacon of Singapore gave special attention to All Saints, making a commitment to arrange for clergy to visit during interregnums and putting on record that he was “fully aware of what a tragedy it would be for the work already done to slip back due to a lack of ministry.” At his first visit in July 1951 Baines gave an undertaking to Council to make inquiries in the UK and the USA for a chaplain. He honoured the undertaking, it ultimately being Council's reluctance to invite a chaplain that curtailed his efforts.
About 1949 synodical government was adopted by the diocese, with the practical implication that the chaplain received the title of “Vicar” and that Java and Sumatra was accorded the status of a parish within the diocese. Nevertheless, it retained a special status and autonomy which the bishop respected as he explained to the July 1952 Council meeting:
…that though for the past 100 years there had been a tradition of Anglican chaplains in Java, the Church Council, as an autonomous body, could appoint a Protestant Chaplain other than an Anglican. So long as the Chaplain was an Anglican, the Bishop was entitled to approve or disapprove his appointment, and the Church Council was entitled to representation on the Diocesan Synod. The Bishop stressed, however, that should at any time a non-Anglican chaplain be appointed, an organised Anglican body in Java would still be entitled to representation on the Diocesan Synod, and the Bishop would continue to give such a body his guidance and advice.
Baines had a practical and ecumenical concern for ministry to expatriates scattered across Indonesia, best exemplified by his 1959 tour when he surveyed the Christian ministry to foreigners, meeting church representatives in the towns of Rumbai and Sungeigerong in Sumatra, Jakarta and Surabaya in Java, and Balikpapan in Kalimantan. He reported to Council that weekly Protestant interdenominational services were operating in all these places with the exception of Balikpapan and commented that the positive reception wherever he went was due to the good-will built up by the vicar. Aware that the work was too much for one man, he encouraged the oil companies to lobby the US Episcopal Church for a minister and also succeeded in negotiating with Shell to pay for a clergyman for one year as a pump-priming effort to establish a chaplaincy in the Sumatra oilfields, with Palembang as the likely base. He also suggested that a committee be formed in Sumatra to work out arrangements with Council. Council supported his request to recruit an assistant on condition that the bishop gave a true picture of the difficulties of living and working in Indonesia. Unfortunately, the whole scheme was postponed when two months later Council rejected his proposed assistant because of the deteriorating political situation, the government freeze on finances and the difficulties of providing for a married man with a family.
Baines exemplified a good bishop, who could help a Church Council see the wood for the trees, who worked tirelessly at finding suitable clergy for the most difficult parishes, then encouraged and supported them. In 1960 he left Singapore for New Zealand to take up the position of Bishop of Wellington. There he gained public attention for taking up the struggle against South African apartheid, calling for rugby boycotts. It was a courageous act to tamper with New Zealand’s other religion – rugby.