Melbourne College of Divinity

Dean’s Introduction

Dear friends of the MCD. I write this missive on the cusp of Spring, evident all around us in the colourful displays of new life spreading across nature’s palette. At this advanced stage of our Centenary year, it is appropriate to reflect on the three significant events that have already taken place, and to prepare for the final and fourth event. It is also time to cast our thoughts on the future of the College, as it too stands on the cusp of one of the most significant changes in its 100 year history.

Centenary Events and Celebrations

Looking back on the year so far, I think that we can be justifiably proud of celebrating the Centenary of the College in fitting and appropriate ways. Three significant events have been successfully planned and completed.

• The Centenary Reception at Government House on February 17, attended appropriately by one hundred guests, and hosted very graciously by the Governor of Victoria, Professor David de Kretser and Mrs. de Kretser.
• The Centenary Dinner held at the Park Hyatt hotel on the evening of July 4. The dinner was attended by 122 people and was a very pleasant and convivial occasion. The Park Hyatt proved to be the right choice for the venue with excellent food and service, and a warm and welcoming atmosphere which enhanced exchanges of conversation between people who had been involved with the MCD for over 50 years with recent graduates of the College, and all those in between.
• A very successful MCD Centenary Conference, under the theme The Future of Religion in Australian Society, was held at Trinity College from July 5-7. The Conference was attended by 220 academics from all Australian States and abroad. The presentations during the Conference were outstanding. Six Plenary speakers-- three from Australia and three from abroad--and twenty four topic keynote speakers set the tone for the Conference. An additional forty-eight papers were presented by academics from a wide variety of institutions underlined the quality and the diversity of the event.  A special ancillary event, a Centenary Recital for Organ and Voice, was held on the evening of the 6 July in the Trinity College Chapel, and Choral Evensong, led by the splendid Christ Church, South Yarra choir, held in the same location, brought the Conference to a close at 5 pm on 7 July. The MCD Centenary Conference was followed immediately by the annual ANZATS Conference, under the theme The Future of God: Eschatology and the Challenges of the Future. Every theological Higher Education Provider in Australia and New Zealand was represented during the week of the two Conferences. There was unanimous agreement that Trinity College was the ideal place to hold the Conference as all the presentation venues were in close proximity, the service and support for by the Trinity College Conference Manager Mark Gordon and his team were superb, and the ‘electric buzz’ (a description by one of the participants) that spread from the dining room throughout the grounds to the lecture halls evidenced a collective commitment by a wide variety of people to contribute to, and draw from the Conferences as much as was humanly possible. From all accounts, this commitment bore fruit.
• A Centenary edition of Pacifica, with articles showcasing the academy of the MCD written by five academics who are leaders in their particular fields, was published to coincide with the Centenary Conference. Pacifica is also publishing in its next edition presentations by the six Plenary speakers at the Conference.
• Worthy also of mention in relation to the Centenary is the 2010 MCD Conferral Ceremony at which the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Professor Glyn Davis, eloquently addressed the historical links and current relationship between the MCD and the University; and the preparatory Centenary Colloquium featuring presentations by two leading academics in the fields of Theology, Scripture and Ethics, Andrew McGowan and Rufus Black, held in the Buzzard Lecture Theatre on 11 June, 2009.

The final Centenary event, a Centenary Liturgical Service, will be held at St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, December 17, at 2pm.  St Paul’s Cathedral was chosen as the location for this event because it was at this site, in fact in the Archbishop’s Vestry of the Cathedral, on 29 December 1909, that a Committee of eight individuals met for the first time to discuss the establishment of a Faculty of Theology at the University of Melbourne, on the instigation of the Church of England scholar and Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Henry Lowther Clarke. The concept of the Melbourne College of Divinity was born out of this initial meeting. The date of the Liturgical Service is significant, as it was on the 17 December, 1910 that the MCD Act passed into legislation, and the College was formally constituted. I ask you to please put this date in your diaries, and join in the final celebration of what has been a stellar Centenary year.

Due recognition and heartfelt thanks should be given to the MCD Centenary Organizing Committee, consisting of the Chair, Christiaan Mostert, Peter Sherlock, Claire Renkin, Sue Gillard representing Conference Links and Event Management (CLEMS), with Charles Sherlock in attendance representing ANZATS, and myself, and to the previous longstanding Chair, Merrill Kitchen, for the enormous amount of work that went into planning all the events of the Conference. The Committee began planning for the Centenary in 2006, and one may safely state that the work the Committee has done over these years paid off handsomely, and that the College can take pride in both the quality and the extent of its Centenary celebrations.   

The future of the MCD

Following years of discussion, beginning formally with the MCD Summit held on November 18, 2006, and culminating in a decision by the MCD Council on August 26, 2009, an Application  is about to be lodged with the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority for the Melbourne College of Divinity to become a Specialised University. The Application, made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Victorian Minister of Education, the Hon Browyn Pike on the occasion of the Centenary Reception at Government House, consists of a letter of Application, an Executive Summary of the Application, a text of 70 pages which addresses the requirements for Specialised University status outlined in the National Protocols and National Guidelines for Establishing Australian Universities, accompanied by 108 attachments, totalling just under 1000 pages of text. A CD accompanies the hard copy Application.

On 28 July a deputation from the MCD consisting of the President, Terry Curtin, the Director of Research, Mark Lindsay, the Application Processor, Gregg Andrews, and myself met with five senior VRQA officials, including the Deputy Director Robyn Timmins, the Chair of VRQA, Stuart Hamilton and the Manager, Higher Education, Greg Deakin. This meeting clarified a number of points for both sides, and prepared VRQA for the imminent submission of the Application. Although it is difficult to predict the duration of the process of examining the Application, appointing a Panel to oversee it and to conduct a site visit of the MCD and its RTIs, and to write up the official report with a recommendation, the VRQA officials surmised that it could take from six months to a year, particularly in view of the fact that the MCD’s Application for Specialised University status may very well be the first one of its kind in Australia. For this reason, all due care is being taken by VRQA to ensure that the appropriate protocols and processers are followed.

If the application is successful, the Melbourne College of Divinity will operate under a new name, The Australian University of Divinity.

Given all that has been written above, it is indeed an appropriate time for us to reflect on the past with gratitude and to prepare for the future with confidence.

Very best wishes

Paul

MCD 2010 Centenary Dinner and Conference Photo Gallery 

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