Australian Catholic Historical Society Inc. Program for 2021
This information is correct as at 22 November 2020, but changes can occur.
Sydney Program
Location, time and contact: Sunday afternoons at 2.00pm (unless otherwise stated) in the Crypt of St Patrick’s at Church Hill [Grosvenor Street], The Rocks. Members and non-members are welcome to join us in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Attendance is free but a gold coin donation for afternoon tea is welcome. Booking: While COVID restrictions continue, please email to register you will be attending. Enquiries to: Dr John Carmody, President ACHS:
| DATE | TOPIC | SPEAKER |
|---|---|---|
| 21 February | Les Murray’s sacramental poetics: Les A. Murray (1938-2019) | Dr Stephen McInerney Poet and Executive Officer, The Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation |
| 21 March *1:30 pm start | *1:30pm Annual General Meeting 2:00pm Presentation: The intimate frontier: Aboriginal and settler interactions in the colonial Hunter Valley | Dr Mark Dunn Freelance historian and author of The Convict Valley: The bloody struggle on Australia’s early frontier (2020) |
| 18 April | “Answering the call”: Sydney’s Irish Catholic doctors in the Great War | Honorary Assoc. Professor Paul Lancaster Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of Sydney |
| 16 May | The Catholic clergy – prisoners of history | Fr John Crothers Formerly PP Penshurst and Peakhurst and author of The Clergy Club |
| 20 June | Biblical history in the novels of Dickens | Dr Jennifer Gribble Hon Associate Professor, Dept of English, Sydney University |
| 18 July | Historical perspectives from the newly formed collection of rare books and manuscripts at the ACU | Dr Hugh Myers Special Collections Adviser, Australian Catholic University (Sydney) |
| 15 August | Cathedral follies: the 1950s project to build a vast “Brutalist” cathedral at New Norcia and similar failures in Brisbane and Liverpool. What is the future of cathedrals? | Dr John Challis Former Dominican theologian, Head of the ABC Science Unit and International Relations Executive, ABC |
| 19 September | The story of St Mary’s spires – the completion of Polding’s dream | Mgr Tony Doherty Former Parish Priest of Rose Bay and former Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral (Sydney); author of The Attachment |
| 17 October | Catholic New Testament research and the significance of the encyclical Divino afflante spiritu, and Vatican II | Dr Bruce Kaye Adjunct Research Professor, Centre for Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt U; formerly Master, New College, UNSW |
| 21 November | Writing Australian Catholic history: a case study – “Riverview” | Mr Gerard Windsor Novelist, book reviewer and essayist; author of The Tempest-Tossed Church and Heaven Where the Bachelors Sit |
| 11 December | Annual Mass and Christmas Lunch | Details to be advised |
Melbourne Program
Melbourne Meetings resume in 2021
Dates: 1 Mar, 7 Jun, 6 Sept, 8 Nov.
1 Mar: Matthew Beckmann on the Patarine reformers of 11th-century Milan
Location: Yarra Theological Union Study Centre, Classroom 1. 29 Albion Street Box Hill. Time: 2pm. Contact: Matthew Beckmann, OFM. Email:
See also the program of the Brisbane Catholic Historical Society.
Previous Programs
