Frederick Henry Barnier DILLON

DILLON, FREDERICK HENRY BARNIER (b. Picton, NSW, 2 Nov 1901; d. Wentworth Falls, NSW, 2 Dec 1959). Anglican clergyman.

Fred Dillon, born of Irish parents known for their fiery protestantism, was trained for the ministry at Moore Theological College, Sydney, and ordained in 1924. After serving his curacy at Summer Hill under S E Langford Smith (q.v.), he worked for two years in the outback with BCA based in Ceduna, SA, where he m. Doris Percival (q.v. Dillon, Doris), the sister in charge of the BCA hospital. 1928 saw him as the BCA deputationist in Tas. Returning to Sydney, he served successively at Prospect, Kurrajong, Lawson, Croydon, and Chatswood, staying no more than four or five years at each parish. In each, he threw himself into the life of the parish, in a ministry marked by vigorous expansion of buildings and congregational life. He arrived at Lawson in 1933, at the height of the depression, where with careful planning he harnessed scarce resources to good effect: before the end of the year he had built a new rectory. St Paul's, Chatswood (1941-6) was his first appointment to a large suburban church. These were war years, and a large part of the congregation were women whose husbands were in the armed forces. Dillon held regular services of intercession for servicemen each Wednesday evening, attended by up to 200 people. Dillon, who had no children of his own, was a friendly and caring surrogate father to many families whose father was on active service. Through their ministry, the Dillons, both outstanding pastors, 'adopted' young Christians as their spiritual children.

The last twelve years or so of Dillon's life were those of his most fruitful ministry. From Chatswood he was called to Holy Trinity, Adelaide, a city church with a long-standing evangelical and Low Church tradition. Reports to the trustees of Trinity from sources in Sydney, where they sought a new rector, described Dillon thus: 'definite in his evangelicalism, strong CMS, has a firm character and some balance of judgement, plenty of energy and ability. His wife is one of the best parson's wives over here and a first-rate help-meet'. He made Trinity a centre of evangelical ministry in the diocese of Adelaide, and became a significant leader of South Australian evangelicals. Several men trained for the ministry, chiefly at Moore College, as a result of his work there. Dillon stressed contact with church members. At Lawson, he doubled the size of the parish magazine, and at Trinity, Adelaide, established a parish paper for the first time. He became noted for a vigorous preaching style which emphasised Christ's Second Coming and earned him, from his initials, the jocular sobriquet 'Fire, Hell and Brimstone' Dillon, but one that respected his longing for Christ's coming. The recurrent themes of his preaching were that the times were short, the opportunity now, and that rejection of the way of salvation meant destruction. His strong and commanding delivery, the product of a robust personality, attracted rather than deterred a growing congregation.

He and his wife gave of themselves utterly to building up the life of the congregation. Dillon, who had already worn out a car on the rough roads of the Blue Mountains while he was at Lawson, would rush around the suburbs of Adelaide collecting parishioners to bring them to the morning service. There had been no parish council; Dillon saw to it that one was set up. Mrs Dillon set up a branch of the Mothers' Union and used it for doctrinal and pastoral teaching as well as for fellowship. Missionary giving, to preach the gospel to every creature before Christ's imminent return, was naturally encouraged, and grew to a third of the parish's income. Giving increased as the congregation grew in numbers and in maturity.

Dillon gave Trinity six years, more than he had done any previous parish, and in 1952, he moved back to Sydney, to the large evangelical parish of St Clement's, Mosman, for a final seven years of mature and fruitful work, in which outreach remained the key. Several of his young people were called to missionary work or the ordained ministry. In this pre-television era, the showing of a film after evening service with supper to follow, was an attractive innovation. A cricketers' service was commenced, and links were forged with the neighbouring RAN submarine base. There was no let-up in the pace that Dillon had always set. However, his health was suffering. He had a coronary occlusion in the mid-1950s, and retired during 1959 to Wentworth Falls, the haven of many retired Sydney Anglican clergy but another heart attack proved fatal before the year was out. Mrs Dillon remained active in her support of church work, especially BCA, for many years.

Fred Dillon was the archetypal Anglican parish minister of the second quarter of the twentieth century: forthright in his proclamation of the gospel and vigorous in his leadership, willing, indeed intent on doing almost everything himself He and his wife gave of themselves unstintingly to the building up of the visible and the invisible church in two states and half a dozen parishes. Wherever they went, they left a legacy of Christian people who had grown in grace and discipleship, and whose spiritual parents they were.

Year Book of the Diocese of Sydney 1936-60; H Caterer, Australians Outback (Sydney, 1981); B Dickey, Holy Trinity, Adelaide, 1836-1988 (Adelaide, 1988); E A Eldridge and R J Bomford, The First Eighty Years of St Clement's, Mosman (Mosman, 1967); L Hicks, A City on a Hill: A History of St Paul's Anglican Church, Chatswood (Chatswood, 1991); L T Lambert, A History of the Parish of Lawson, 1842-1971 (Sydney, 1972)

STUART BRAGA