Information about the Liberal Catholic Church

The official Australian LCC site

Celebrating the 90th anniversary of the
Liberal Catholic Church in Melbourne
Sunday 11th May 2008 (Whitsunday)

The Church of the Holy Spirit, Punt Road, Richmond, consecrated in 1918, was the first parish church of the Liberal Catholic Church. The current parish church, St. John The Beloved, its successor, was
consecrated on Whitsunday, 1975.

25th Anniversary of priesthood October 2006

Rededication of church, 2003

Click here for more pictures of the church rededication, 6/7/2003

Fred Shade's spiritual journey has taken him through many experiences and several churches and organisations. He was brought up in Preston in a protestant family, his father coming from a Salvation Army/Congregational background, his mother from the Methodist Church. His first Sunday school was the Baptist Church in Preston and later the Methodist in the same suburb. When the family moved to Ivanhoe in his teen years they attended the Ivanhoe Methodist Church. It had a strong musical tradition, and was in fact the church his mother attended as a child.

Fred met Libby who was brought up Anglican and attended Holy Trinity, Kew. They were married in that church (19.2.1966), and later that year Fred was confirmed at St.Paul's Cathedral.

The new family of Shades attended St.Peter's, East Melbourne during the first years of their marriage (they lived in flats in the area) and their first two children, Michael and Katharine, were christened there. Fred was drawn to the liturgical tradition of the Anglo-Catholic heritage and this tradition at St.Peter's has had a lasting influence on him. During the 1960s and 1970s the family had no particular church to which they belonged when they made their home in Rosanna. However, they were introduced to the Liberal Catholic Church (via the Theosophical Society, of which they were members) and their third child, Janet, was christened at St.John the Beloved, Gardiner.

As a result of this event, Libby and Fred decided to make the LCC their spiritual home and were admitted members in 1978. Fred and his son Michael were admitted together as servers in the same year, and Fred has had the wonderful experience of having his son with him in the sanctuary for eight years. During this period Fred commenced his theological studies (Dip. Religious Studies, LCIS) and was Admitted to Minor Orders. He was Ordained Subdeacon, Deacon, and finally Ordained to the Priesthood on the Feast of St.Michael and All Angels (4.10.1981), with all members of his family present. He was appointed Vicar in 1982, a position he held until 1988. The Melbourne parish hosted the national church congress in 1985. During this time the church grew and was an active and vibrant parish. Fred has continued as a priest at St.John the Beloved and has participated in national and international church activities. In 2003 he was again appointed Vicar.

The Order of St.Alban, an Order for members of the LCC in the province of Australia, was founded on Christmas Day 1990. Fred was its founding Prior. The order is currently inactive. He has also been a member of the Liturgical Development Commission (currently Chairman) and other working parties of the church, and continues to provide articles and reports to national and international journals.

His work over the decades in promoting the LCC and in using parish facilities for other organisations has raised the profile of the Melbourne church in the wider community. Its liberality of thought and non-judgemental approach has enabled the church to offer its sacramental and spiritual services to the community as a whole. During his vicarship, he has had a Hindu priest, a Baha'i leader, a Muslim teacher (Imam) and Rabbi preach during services or give a talk at the church. He was also associated for a short time with the Victorian Inter-Faith Council until its demise.

One of his greatest pleasures has been to marry off his flute students and music colleagues, and also christen their children, sometimes on the same occasion! He has also been the marriage celebrant at the wedding of his two older children, Michael and Katharine. And on occasions when he has been short of servers during the Christmas period, he has had the added pleasure of having Katharine or Janet acting as server, and also on one occasion having his father as server.

A church or faith-community should provide a safe and powerful spiritual environment for the individual, one in which the pilgrim can grow at his/her own pace, without fear, coercion or judgement from others and without the imposition of dogma. He believes that his particular faith-community provides this. Fred sees the LCC as having an important part to play in the future of the Christian Church, bringing to it certain spiritual insights, personal and communal experience of the Divine, and powerful and uplifting liturgical practices. He also believes that the LCC's liberality of thought, its deep mystical insights and its liturgical and sacramental foundations are some of the essential ingredients which the Christian Church needs to use if it is to be effective in the new Millennium.

Janet, Beattie, Fred

Fred, Katharine