‘News From The Pews’ A voice from the pews of St Stephen's Cathedral, Issue 18, 10 September 1999

For some 18 months now, News From The Pews has sought to have an occult shrine removed from St Stephen's Cathedral.  The shrine, The Human Search for God, is ostensibly a tribute to the Aboriginal people who once owned the land on which the Cathedral is built.  However, previous issues of News From The Pews have shown that the shrine breaches and mocks traditional Aboriginal law and spirituality.  In addition, the artwork in the shrine has been exposed for the hidden occult and offensive messages it contains

Ample evidence to support all of these claims has been presented.  Yet, Archbishop Bathersby has not been willing to take action nor even to conduct an independent enquiry into the claims. The matter needs to be resolved urgently.  Allowing a shrine which mocks Aborigines and venerates Lucifer, to remain in a Catholic Cathedral is clearly intolerable.

1. Artist's Use Of Crowley's Codes

The shrine, which was installed in 1989, contains 7 paintings by Aboriginal artist, Fiona Foley.  Ms Foley is not a traditional Aboriginal artist, but a 'New Age' abstract artist.  News From The Pews has detailed how the artwork employs the standard artistic technique of bricolage in coding a series of layers of hidden messages into the artwork in the shrine.  The messages in the artwork can only be understood by those familiar with Ms Foley's secret, personal artistic coding system.  This system uses codes taken from the book, 777 And Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley.  Crowley was perhaps the 20'th century's best known occult writer and was the author of the anthem Hymn To Lucifer.

2. Meaning of Shrine

By reference to Ms Foley's art works from elsewhere and to Crowley's works, News From The Pews has shown in considerable detail how Ms Foley's hidden messages work and what they say.  That the shrine employs distinctive Crowleyan occult codes and numerology is a demonstrated fact.

We have seen that the artwork in the shrine has been coded with a number of layers of meaning.  The simplest level of meaning contains crude and offensive notions based on events in colonial Australian folklore involving Eliza Fraser.  In a further more hidden level, four of the shrine's panels are presented as a 'function of four' (a Crowleyan concept) to spell a four-letter word, perhaps the crudest word in the English language.  We have also seen how on yet another hidden level, the 7 panels read so as to spell: "L_u_c_i_f_e_r".

3. Calls For Enquiry Unheeded

A copy of each issue of News From The Pews is delivered to the archbishop's office prior to its issue to others.  News From The Pews has sent a number of letters seeking an audience with His Grace.  To date, only an interview with his secretary has been granted.  For some time now, the archbishop has not acknowledged receipt of correspondence from News From The Pews.  Instead, the Cathedral Administrator sent News From The Pews a letter threatening to refer the matter to the diocesan solicitors.  Despite this, News From The Pews continues to be published.

News From The Pews has on a number of occasions asked His Grace to establish an enquiry into the shrine.  The archbishop has not been willing to institute an enquiry, nor to give any reason for not doing so.

4. Archbishop's Evasive Statement

In the archbishop's one brief response to News From The Pews' claims, given in response to questions put to him in July 1998 by the national religious affairs magazine AD 2000, Archbishop Bathersby failed to address any of the substantive claims made to that time by News From The Pews.  There was no attempt to explain the imagery in the artwork.

5. Aborigines Fail To Support Archbishop's Claim

Despite being publicly challenged to do so, the archbishop has not produced even one Aboriginal person to support the claim that the shrine is a tribute to the Aboriginal people who originally owned the land on which the Cathedral is built.

News From The Pews has detailed how the shrine breaches Aboriginal law and makes a mockery of traditional Aboriginal spirituality.  No traditional owner will come forward to support a 'tribute' which itself breaches Aboriginal law.  Further, no traditional owner can support the mockery of another traditional owner's law or spirituality.

For a 'tribute' to be acceptable to traditional Australian Aboriginal owners, their permission would have been essential. They would have had to be involved in the tribute from the outset.  Considerable discussion, consultation and negotiation would have been necessary, both between the church and the traditional owners and within the traditional owning community.  The Brisbane archdiocese has a wealth of knowledge about Aborigines and Aboriginal culture.  It is simply not credible that the church somehow naively overlooked Aboriginal protocol when it installed the shrine in 1989.

6. Refusal of Responsibility

News From The Pews has demonstrated:
1. the occult meanings and origins of the symbols, numerology and word plays in the shrine;
2. that this occult connection is from the published codes and correspondences unique to the Aleister Crowley system;
3. that Crowley's occult system is explicitly demonic;
4. that the shrine mocks traditional Aboriginal law and spirituality; and
5. that the shrine breaches Church law,
(Canon 1210).

With all of the evidence that has been presented, the archbishop should realize that that the shrine must be removed and the Cathedral restored to devotional status.

Yet, Archbishop Bathersby continues to maintain the air of secrecy surrounding the meaning of the imagery in the shrine. It has become clear that he lacks either the will or the capacity to address this issue, which is now a matter of increasing public scandal.

His refusal of responsibility in the matter mirrors the approach he took in the recent local clerical paedophilia scandals.

The archbishop is known as a frequent commentator on Aboriginal issues.  Had there been no substance to News From The Pews' claims, there can be little doubt that the archbishop would have issued indignant and detailed rebuttals.

A number of solicitors have offered advice that at the very least, the evidence provided by News From The Pews satisfies the legal standard for establishing that there is a case to be answered. No doubt, the archdiocesan solicitors would provide similar advice.

How can the archbishop be acting responsibly in taking no action and in avoiding an enquiry? The claims are serious. The need for an enquiry is clear.

Tim Pemble-Smith
3 – 111 Central Avenue
Indooroopilly Q 4068
after hours: (07) 3871 2047