Brian Wibberley

Brian Wibberley (7 November 1866 – 3 June 1944) was a Methodist minister who served for over 50 years in Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia.

History
caricature by J. H. Chinner

Wibberley was born in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, youngest son of farmer Brian Wibberley and his wife Ann, née Riley. He was educated in the grammar school of that town.[1] His mother died when he was 11 years of age, and having been "born again", began teaching at the Sunday school at age 12.[2] He was ordained in 1885 and in 1886 preached at Middlesbrough in Yorkshire. That same year he was sent to Victoria, Australia as a Primitive Methodist missionary.

Victoria

Wibberley preached his first sermon in the newly completed Primitive Methodist Church in Paisley Street, Footscray on 3 October 1886.[3] He was given charge of the Ballarat church in 1887, then Brighton, Victoria, and founded a new church in North Brighton, at the corner of Byron and Male streets in 1892, where the annual assembly of he Methodist connexion of Victoria and Tasmania was held the following year.[4]

Methodist churches have a policy of moving their ministers around — four years being the usual maximum, five under extenuating circumstances.

His next charge was Maryborough, Victoria in 1895, followed by Melbourne, where he conducted a mission on Lygon Street, Carlton.

South Australia

In 1898 he succeeded the highly respected Revs. Hugh Gilmore and J. Day Thompson at the church on Wellington Square, North Adelaide.[5]

In 1902 he took over the Moonta church, and in 1906 Kent Town Methodist Church. During this time he mentored J. Leslie Glasson (1889–1923), an outstanding student from Kadina who did original work in Cambridge and Launceston, then died in a boating accident.[6]

Western Australia

In 1910 he was transferred to the Wesley Church, Perth.[7] In 1913 he was appointed first Principal of the Theological College, Perth, coinciding with the union of Methodist churches in that State.

Back to Victoria

After nine years in Perth, Wibberley was assigned to Malvern, Victoria,[8] where he was appointed superintendent of the Malvern Methodist Circuit.

In May 1922, while still stationed in Malvern, he visited his son, a medical doctor in Tumby Bay, South Australia and while passing through Adelaide took the opportunity to revisit his old parishioners in Kent Town.[9]

SA again

In 1924 he returned to Kent Town, in time for the church's Diamond Jubilee for which his contributions were greatly appreciated.[10]

He retired in April 1929, having served the Kent Town Methodist Church for a total of 11 years.[11]

Other interests

In 1895 he enrolled in the faculty of Music at Melbourne University[12] which he carried through to the University of Adelaide, where on 13 December 1911 he was admitted to the Bachelor of Music degree in absentia, being then in Perth. The Chancellor, Sir Samuel Way, remarked on the fact that his son Brian William Wibberley received his B.Sc. on the same day.[13]

He was a music critic for The West Australian in 1911.

From March 1901 to March 1911 he was editor of the Australian Christian Commonwealth, a magazine devoted to literature and music.[14]

He was author of several books on religion and music:

  • Brian Wibberley (1905). Marks of Methodism, and other studies. Whillas & Ormiston. p. 192.
  • Brian Wibberley (1916). History of Western Australian Methodism.[15]
  • Brian Wibberley (1934). Music and Religion: A Historical and Philosophical Survey. Epworth. p. 317. Summary: "Includes reference to Aboriginal music from a cultural evolutionary perspective; references the work of Spencer and Gillen, Basedow and E. Harold Davies; Aboriginal music as primitive but not degraded, dehumanised or perverse." (National Library of Australia)

An assessment

Wibberley was praised by the Adelaide satirical magazine Quiz and The Lantern for his plain outspokenness. He had recently given a sermon against British imperialism as it applied to the Boer War, and its support by the Christian churches.

The high priests of Greed and War, of Mammon and Moloch, have joined affinity with the Church. Priests dare babble of a God of Peace, even while their hands are red with guiltless blood . . . I believe in Greed Almighty, maker of every thing worth having in heaven and earth, and in "Force" its only begotten Son, born of Jingo-patriotism, suffered under Righteousness, was never dead or buried, but, recently rose under the cant of Imperialism and descended to Parliament, Press and Pulpit, whence it sits to judge the world.[lower-alpha 1]

Quiz concluded

"Quiz expected this sort of thing to come from a parson—after it had come from everybody else. It is not like the clerical profession to preach the truth—on the questions of the day they may assert abstract truths, or what they conceive to be such, but seldom do they grapple with the real issues which daily effect the destiny of the world. There are now two parsons in this community who have dared to expose the injustice of this unholy struggle—Joe Berry and Brian Wibberley. Quiz would like to have a drink with them on the strength of it, but he fears they are sad teetotalers."[16]

Family

Wibberley married Maria Ann Hunt ( – 15 December 1935)[17] of Ballarat on 2 April 1890.

Their children were:

  • William Brian Wibberley, MD, of Tumby Bay married Rebecca Margery Godlee in 1920
  • Annie W. Wibberley married Victor T. Mankey of Sydney in Melbourne on 6 April 1916

They had a home at First avenue, St. Peters.

He died after a few weeks' illness. His remains were buried in Payneham Cemetery with those of his wife.

Notes and references
  1. "John Bull's creed, Based on the Athanasian Creed
  1. "Personal". The Advertiser (Adelaide). LII (16, 105). South Australia. 30 May 1910. p. 10. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. Sally O'Wheel. "My Primitive Methodists". Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  3. "Opening of the Primitive Methodist Church". The Independent (Footscray) (185). Victoria, Australia. 9 October 1886. p. 2. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "Primitive Methodist Connexion". Oakleigh Leader (320). Victoria, Australia. 18 February 1893. p. 5. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "Wellington Square Church". The Express and Telegraph. XXXV (10, 343). South Australia. 19 April 1898. p. 2. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "In Memoriam". Australian Christian Commonwealth. XXXV (1791). South Australia. 16 February 1923. p. 15. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ""The Heart of Methodism"". The West Australian. XXVI (7, 574). Western Australia. 7 July 1910. p. 2. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. "For Wesley Church". The Daily News (Perth). XXXVIII (13, 918). Western Australia. 11 October 1919. p. 8. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. "Concerning People". The Journal (Adelaide). LVII (15836). South Australia. 25 May 1922. p. 1. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. "Copy of Letter to Rev. B. Wibberley, Mus.Bac". Australian Christian Commonwealth. XXXVIII (1933). South Australia. 20 November 1925. p. 7. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. "Rev. Brian Wibberley". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 16 April 1929. p. 19. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. "Melbourne University". The Herald (Melbourne) (4589). Victoria, Australia. 16 March 1895. p. 4. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. "Personal". The West Australian. XXVII (8, 028). Western Australia. 23 December 1911. p. 13. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. "The Rev. Brian Wibberley". The Advertiser (Adelaide). XLIV (13, 564). South Australia. 9 April 1902. p. 9. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. "In the Public Eye". The Mail (Adelaide). 14 (718). South Australia. 27 February 1926. p. 2. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. "Babble". Quiz And The Lantern. XI (525). South Australia. 12 October 1899. p. 7. Retrieved 10 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. "In Memoriam". Australian Christian Commonwealth. 48 (2467). South Australia. 10 January 1936. p. 6. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
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