From Strength to Strength – A Life of Marcus Loane

Sir Marcus Loane was Primate (Principal Bishop) of the Anglican Church of Australia from 1966 to 1981. Allan Blanch has written an excellent comprehensive life story of Marcus L Loane, well researched and with personal knowledge. Blanch was a student of Loane’s at Moore College.

‘All knowledge is history’ are the provocative opening words of the Foreword to this book, written by Professor Edwin A Judge of Macquarie University, who was also a friend of Marcus Loane. Our author, Allan Blanch, was ordained in 1966 by Marcus Loane, who loomed large in Blanch’s life and ministry, and indeed in the history of the Church of England in Australia (more recently renamed the Anglican Church in Australia, Loane’s opposition to the new name notwithstanding. – Bob Thomas.)

This is a big book, giving Loane’s family history from Scotland via Tasmania to Sydney. The book continues with chapters such as Schools, Ordination And Marriage, War, Early Writings, College Principal, Archbishop, Honoured Twice, Last Year In Office and Nearing The Goal – Loane’s last days.

Marcus Loane was born in 1911 in Tasmania and moved with his Christian parents to Sydney in 1914. His final two years of schooling was at The King’s School, Parramatta. Writing of those times, he said that as a boy of 18 years he was ill and then turned to reading J.C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts On John. ‘It was the first commentary I had ever read and I could not put it down. I now know that those three volumes were for my reading when a great hunger for truth had gripped my heart.’ ‘Loane, in later years at Moore College, was possibly the first prominent evangelical since J.C. Ryle, to teach history with the primary aim of demonstrating the impact of biblical truth’, writes Iain Murray.

Topics from this Life Of Loane include: The Age‐Old Problem Of Evil: ‘If there be a God in Heaven why does He not right all the wrongs of the world? Why are evil‐doers (such as Hitler) continued on in almost every age? To which Loane continued, ‘We can only say that there are certain principles revealed in Scripture in which we should rest satisfied. Perhaps no words in the Bible are so awful, or so restrained, as the words of God, “To me belongeth vengeance and recompense – their foot shall slide in due time” (Deuteronomy 32:35)’

Loane was a decided Evangelical, with Reformed theology, and everybody knew it. Marcus was courteous both in discussion and debate. Said he, ‘We must not be afraid to expose our doctrine to the test of controversy, if the ultimate arbiter is God’s Word written.’

In the 1976 New Year Honours List, notice was given that Marcus L Loane had been knighted by the Queen with the Order KBE even though he was not yet Primate of Australia. Around about 2001, after Loane’s long and distinguished ministry had long since concluded, some would begin to ask ‘Marcus who?’ or ‘Marcus Loane. Who was he?’ Sic transit mundi – so fades all worldly fame – but Marcus did not care. He was content to be like King David who, ‘after he had served his generation, by the will of God, fell on sleep’ (Acts 13:36). His confidence had always rested upon his Master from earliest years (he was born in 1911 and passed on in 2009 at the age of 98 years.)

Four books by Marcus Loan remain in print and are available from the Trust: