George Alexander CHAMBERS

CHAMBERS, GEORGE ALEXANDER (b. Sydney, NSW, 3 Nov 1877; d. Sydney, NSW, 5 Dec 1963). First bishop of the Anglican diocese of Central Tanganyika; founder of Trinity Grammar School, Summer Hill, NSW.

The sixth child of William and Mary Chambers, George Chambers was converted through the ministry of the Rev F B Boyce (q.v.), who was rector of St Paul's, Redfern, for 46 years. At the time of his confirmation Chambers decided that his vocation was in teaching. He was a pupil of Fort Street School and, aged 14, qualified for training as a pupil teacher. He taught for eight years, concurrently completing a BA (1900) and MA (1904) at the University of Sydney, and then entered MTC under Nathaniel Jones. He was deaconed in 1901, priested in 1902, and served as curate at Mosman 1901-03.

Chambers was vice-principal of MTC 190411 where his duties included teaching Latin and Greek to students in the Preliminary Year, many of whom had received little formal education. He was very popular with the students, who accepted him as a friend and adviser, and he was generous with the time he spent coaching them in their weak subjects, while he himself studied for his MA. It was during these years as vice-principal that he developed a remarkable ability to attract young men to the ministry.

Chambers then served as rector of Holy Trinity, Dulwich Hill, 1911-27. Under his energetic and enthusiastic leadership a fine new church was built as the congregation grew and was mobilised to support a variety of activities, including founding of a day and boarding school for boys. Trinity Grammar School began with 29 boys in the rectory, with Chambers as warden and his two curates on the teaching staff.

In addition to his work in parish and school, Chambers graduated BEc (1916 Sydney University) and involved himself in the wider life of the Anglican church. He was a member of the MTC Board of Reference, and served on seven diocesan committees and several school councils. He also took an active interest in missions. He was on the state committee of CMS and, on 26 May 1919, was one of the founders of BCA. He had spent 1918 in England, at the request of Abp Wright (q.v.), recruiting young men for work in Australia.

This involved visiting parishes in association with the Colonial and Continental Church Society to state the need for dedicated men to work in Australia's outback areas. The response was encouraging, and a number of young men offered themselves - and one young woman, who was soon to become his wife. In the closing months of the war, at the invitation of the YMCA, he visited rest camps in France and lectured to British and Australian servicemen.

On 6 December 1918 he married Winifred Marian Rice, daughter of Canon the Honourable W Talbot Rice, vicar of Swansea, Wales. With his wife, he returned to his parish in Sydney in February 1919. In the years 1921 and 1923 their sons Talbot and Roland were born.

In 1927, at the age of 50, Chambers was faced with a new challenge. The diocese of Mombasa, which included Kenya and a large part of Tanganyika Territory, was about to be divided to create the new diocese of Central Tanganyika. CMS Australia was to take financial responsibility for the Tanganyika Mission and for the supply of missionaries, and it had been proposed that the first bishop be an Australian. CMS Federal Council unanimously proposed Chambers.

Chambers was faced with a difficult decision. He was now a family man with very young children. But he accepted the offer and, with the archbishop of Canterbury's approval still uncertain, went to Kenya and Uganda and then England. There his future was confirmed: DD (Lambeth), and consecration 1 Nov 1927 followed. Chambers returned to Sydney and spent Christmas and the New Year with his family and parish. He then embarked on a tour of most of the Australian dioceses to recruit missionaries for Tanganyika.

On 2 Nov 1928, one year after his consecration, Bp Chambers was enthroned by the Rt Rev R S Heywood, Bp of Mombasa, at Mvumi. The service was in the local language, Cigogo. It was followed by a second enthronement, in English, in Dodoma.

Chambers faced his work as a diocesan bishop alone, with virtually no knowledge of the language and little experience of the needs of an African diocese. He was prone to boils and nervous about diet, dirt, and disease. Yet he was sure of his calling and for the next twenty years he gave himself unsparingly to the work. Economic depression in Australia sometimes threatened the financial support of the Tanganyika Mission and he found it necessary to make regular visits to Australia to encourage continued support. Significant support also came through the Central Tanganyika Diocesan Association in England to which he made regular visits.

The diocese grew rapidly in membership and material. A cathedral was built at Dodoma, and churches, schools, hospitals and maternity clinics in strategic places. The bishop travelled constantly throughout the diocese, confirming converts, preaching, encouraging missionaries and assessing needs. He kept in touch with his missionaries and with supporters of the diocese in Australia and England through the Central Tanganyika Diocesan Letter, whose circulation eventually rose to over 10 000. He was generally loved, although his fussiness about detail was sometimes irritating and his inadequate knowledge of the Swahili language occasionally caused amusement or embarrassment. Chambers made strenuous efforts to bring about the reconciliation of Church of England in South Africa with the Church of the Province and made several visits to South Africa to act as mediator. It caused him great sorrow that he failed.

In 1946, approaching his seventieth birthday, he retired from the diocese and, in 1947, accepted the chaplaincy of the Embassy Church in Paris, where he remained for eight years. It was an interesting and challenging time to be in post-war Paris, and Chambers' congregation included people of many nationalities, occupations and needs.

In November 1952 he obtained leave to go to Africa for the Silver Jubilee of the diocese of Central Tanganyika and then on to Australia for the Fortieth Speech Day of Trinity Grammar School in December. He returned to the Embassy Church in 1953. Two years later he resigned and he and his wife travelled to Australia via South India and Hong Kong. In Australia he took part in the centenary of the Home Mission Society and MTC and laid the foundation stone of the Memorial Chapel at Trinity Grammar School. But in 1957 he and his wife were again in England, where he served for 18 months as curate of Holy Trinity, Windsor. Then he moved on to Africa for two years as chaplain of Iringa in the diocese of Central Tanganyika.

In 1961 Bishop and Mrs Chambers returned to Australia in time to share in the golden jubilee of Trinity Grammar School in 1962. They moved into a small house in the Sydney suburb of Epping. Here, following several small strokes, he died on 5 Dec 1963.

Chambers' greatest personal gifts were his strong Christian commitment, his energy and infectious enthusiasm and his ability to persuade people. A large number of men, keen evangelicals, who became leaders of the church in Australia or worked as missionaries in Africa in the first half of the twentieth century, claimed to have found their vocation through contact with Chambers. He was also able to persuade people to commit themselves financially, and such commitment was usually lasting. Twenty years after he left Africa, Bp Alfred Stanway of Central Tanganyika wrote: 'We are still receiving gifts from scores of people whose first contact with the work of the Church in Tanganyika was through Bishop Chambers ... This suggests that his ministry produced not just the passing gift but a permanent interest.' He added that when Chambers sought financial support for a cause tit was not just a gathering of cash, but a ministry performed'.

Nancy de S P Sibtain (in collaboration with Winifred M Chambers), Dare to Look Up: A Memoir of Bishop George Alexander Chambers (Sydney, 1968) and for bibliography

NANCY DE S P SIBTAIN