Tenant in the Cathedral: The Lord Bishop and the Count

Description

In organisational drama orthodox leadership can be rendered ineffectual by persistent eccentric opposition. This is what happened in the latter decades of the 19^th century in Australia’s first inland city, Goulburn. For twenty years Mesac Thomas, first Anglican Bishop of Goulburn, experienced uninterrupted success including construction of the beautiful St Saviour’s Cathedral. A dispute over the management of the edifice divided the community for a decade and saw rebellious acts led by a local landowner and scheming cleric that included lengthy occupations of the Cathedral, the posting of guards and the exclusion of the bishop and the Primate of the Anglican Church.