At its Synod of October 1983, the Perth Diocese through its Council resolved to establish a Social Responsibilities Commission (SRC), consisting of 12 members with appropriate expertise chosen from the laity and the clergy, a third to be appointed by the Archbishop.

It was to have the following responsibilities:

• Investigate and prepare position papers on matters referred to it by the Archbishop, Synod or Council;
• Prepare, promote and communicate effectively throughout the Diocese information papers emerging from above when requested to do so by an appropriate authority;
• Release public statements on issues but only in its own name;
• To cooperate actively with similar bodies within the Anglican Church and other Churches;
• To report both to the Council as it determines, and also to each session of Synod.

The Commission had these terms modified by Synod in 1984, whereby it could:

• Choose the issues to address which it considered pertinent at the time.

Both the Archbishop and the Council made their appointments, with the Commission choosing Bishop Challen as the first chairperson. It was clearly a creature of the Perth Diocese.

The Provincial Partnership in Mission (PIM) consultation held in October 1987 recommended that seven Perth diocesan agencies which had an impact beyond the Diocese should be ‘provincialised’. Interestingly, the Diocese applied this recommendation to Anglican Media, the Institute of Theology, Anglican Department of Education, Anglican Marriage and Family Counselling, and Anglicare WA, but not to the SRC. This position was later confirmed by the Archbishop, when he reported which agencies had been provincialised to the Provincial Council in September 1989, but made no mention of the SRC.

Following the PIM consultation, the SRC of its own accord invited each of the other Dioceses to have two representatives at its meetings. The SRC quickly developed more than a full program of issues to research and promote, even though the Diocese as such was slow to provide an agenda. There was much for the Church to consider, such as capital punishment, human rights, justice for Aborigines, abortion, bio-ethics, prostitution, tax reform, unemployment, and the arms race.

The SRC in its first year had papers published on capital punishment and abortion.

Like similar commissions in the Australian church, its members found they did not have the time to research the issues in detail. It therefore appointed a professional research officer on a parlous stipend, who 12 months later was being referred to as an Executive Officer (EO). After some years, the Diocese of Perth included the cost of this appointment in its budget, giving the EO and the Commission greater security and status.

The SRC from the very beginning accepted that public advocacy was a natural and essential part of its work. Research and discussion leading to a conclusion by the SRC on a particular issue was of little worth unless that understanding was made public, both to Anglicans and the community at large.

It was the issuing of press releases which raised the issue of the relationship of the SRC first to Synod, and then to the Dioceses of Bunbury and the NorthWest. Problems such as a statement concerning land-rights for Aborigines within a metropolitan context would not necessarily be valid for situations in rural parts of the State. Furthermore, media practices would frequently not permit time for consultation with designated people in the other Dioceses. It was acknowledged by all parties that the issue of effective provincial participation was made difficult because of the cost in terms of time and travel. The SRC decided that copies of minutes, progress reports and press releases would be sent to the Diocesan representatives and also the Bishops.

In March 1989, in considering a request from the SRC for a grant of $1200, the Provincial Council said the SRC was ‘now regarded as a Provincial body’ and in September 1990 encouraged the SRC to develop a constitution. However, the Council reversed this suggestion in September 1991, opining ‘it is inappropriate for the SRC to have a Provincial constitution.’

The Commission’s position on homosexuality following the Report to Perth Synod from the Archbishop’s Commission on The Theology of the Human Person (October 1994), and the proposed State Government legislation on the age of consent for sexual activity between males, was not acceptable to one of the Provincial Bishops. This raised the questions of how the Commission is related to other bodies in the Province, when it is by foundation a committee of the Diocese of Perth, and to what or whom it is accountable. The Provincial Council considered various accountability options without formal discussion with the SRC.

Finally in September 2003, Provincial Council appointed the Bishop of Bunbury as Chair of the SRC. It declared the Commission now to be a Provincial body, and required it to report to the Provincial Council regularly, while the EO is to attend Council meetings upon request. At its meeting of 11 September 2003, the Archbishop informed the Diocesan Council of these new arrangements, which it accepted forthwith.

The SRC is now officially a Commission of the Provincial Council, which was confirmed by the Perth Diocesan Council on 11 December 2003. Public statements currently are made by either the Chair or the Executive Officer, in consultation with each other.

Chairs and Executive Officers of the Social Responsibilities Commission, 1984 to the present.

Chair

Executive Officer