Being Anglican, Being Excellent, Being Very Careful With the Truth

Before it was renamed St John’s Chapel, the chapel at The Southport School was known as St Alban’s Chape

There’s a particular tone institutions use when they’re selling virtue.

Soft. Reassuring. Full of abstract nouns. The kind of language that sounds like it smells faintly of beeswax and good intentions.

If you’ve spent any time on the Anglican Church Southern Queensland (ACSQ) website, especially the “Being Anglican” page, you’ll know the one. Scripture. Inclusion. Reason.

Community. Justice. Care for the vulnerable.

All true, presumably. Or at least sincerely aspired to.

Then you click across to The Southport School (TSS) and suddenly you’re not in a church anymore. You’re in a corporate showroom.

Excellence. Leadership. Pathways. Opportunity. Tradition. Performance.

Same ecclesiastical family. Entirely different accents. And somewhere between the incense and the enrolment funnel is where my lived experience sits, quietly contradicting the brochure.

What they preach

The cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane, often referred to as the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Evangelis

ACSQ tells us Anglicanism is a balanced faith. Scripture, tradition and reason walking hand in hand like well behaved dinner guests.

It’s inclusive. It’s thoughtful.

It’s compassionate. It listens. It cares.

The theology is gentle. The tone pastoral. Nothing sharp enough to cut yourself on. Certainly nothing you could subpoena.

This is belief as atmosphere.

Faith as ambient background music.

What they sell

TSS, meanwhile, is selling outcomes.

Not souls.

Not formation.

Outcomes.

Sporting excellence. Boarding life. Character. Leadership pipelines. A very curated version of boyhood where adversity builds resilience and tradition builds men.

God is present, of course. There’s a chapel photo. A values paragraph. Jesus gets a brief cameo. Then it’s back to facilities, performance and future pathways.

Faith is part of the brand. But not the headline.

What I experienced - Here’s where the contrast stops being theoretical.

Because my experience of Anglican institutions was not shaped by inclusion, compassion or care for the vulnerable. It was shaped by power. Silence. Delay. Process. And a legal architecture so intricate it would impress a mining company.

When harm occurred, faith didn’t rush forward to meet it. Lawyers did.

The Church spoke of pastoral concern while simultaneously funding defence strategies.

The school spoke of character while outsourcing accountability. And somewhere in the middle, my body kept the score long after the statements were finalised.

The magic trick of institutional distance

One of the most impressive feats Anglican governance has pulled off is theological outsourcing.

ACSQ holds the values.

The school holds the revenue. When abuse surfaces, responsibility evaporates sideways into insurers, historic governance arrangements and phrases like “past practices.”

Faith floats above the mess like a benevolent fog.

Jesus, notably, does not appear in settlement agreements.

Inclusion, with conditions

Both websites speak warmly about inclusion.

TSS did of course block me - 'Classic TSS!' I’m not attaching drama or motive to it. I’m simply noting it.

Because patterns only look coincidental if you stop writing them down.

#AccessDeniedVibes #DigitalSideEye

What they don’t explain is how inclusive an institution feels when you become a liability rather than a member. When your presence introduces risk. When your truth complicates brand management.

Inclusion is easy when you’re compliant.

Compassion is easy when it’s theoretical.Care is easy when it doesn’t cost anything measurable.

Try invoking those values while sitting opposite a legal team whose job is to minimise exposure, and see how quickly theology learns to whisper.

Transparency, but make it vague

Neither homepage mentions the Royal Commission. Neither acknowledges survivors directly. Neither names harm.

Not because it didn’t happen. But because it doesn’t convert.

This is not denial. It’s omission. A far more sophisticated strategy.

If transparency is a virtue, why does it always need to be dragged into the room?

Tradition as selective memory

Tradition is celebrated enthusiastically.

Especially the photogenic parts.

• Founding dates.

• Old boys.

• Continuity.

• Honour boards.

The less marketable traditions:

• tolerated abuse,

• silence,

• institutional self protection,

tend to fall through the cracks of history like they were never structural at all.

Apparently tradition is sacred right up until it becomes inconvenient.

The gap that won’t close - What ACSQ preaches and what TSS sells exist in parallel, rarely intersecting in practice.

Doctrine says care for the vulnerable.Operations say manage risk.

Faith says truth telling.Process says without prejudice.

Compassion says listen.Governance says delay.

I don’t doubt there are good people within both institutions. I’ve met some. That’s not the point.

The point is that systems speak louder than statements. And systems have taught me far more about Anglicanism than any webpage ever could.

In the end

They’re not lying.

They’re just telling the story that suits the audience standing in front of them.

Belief when it reassures.

Excellence when it sells.

Silence when it protects.

And if you’ve lived on the wrong side of that equation, you know exactly how wide the gap is between what is preached and what is practised.

The after photo, as always, never quite materialises.