{"id":23672,"date":"2016-06-24T16:08:31","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T15:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/\/uk\/?p=23672"},"modified":"2016-06-24T16:18:42","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T15:18:42","slug":"strength-strength-life-marcus-loane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.banneroftruth.org\/uk\/resources\/articles\/2016\/strength-strength-life-marcus-loane\/","title":{"rendered":"From Strength to Strength – A Life of Marcus Loane"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s at Moore College.<\/p>\n

\u2018All knowledge is history\u2019 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\u2019s life and ministry, and indeed in the history of the Church of England in Australia (more recently renamed the Anglican Church in Australia, Loane\u2019s opposition to the new name notwithstanding. \u2013 Bob Thomas.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

This is a big book, giving Loane\u2019s 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 <\/em>and Nearing The Goal <\/em>\u2013 Loane\u2019s last days.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s Expository Thoughts On John<\/em>. \u2018It 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.\u2019 \u2018Loane, 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\u2019, writes Iain Murray.<\/p>\n

Topics from this Life Of Loane <\/em>include: The Age\u2010Old Problem Of Evil: \u2018If there be a God in Heaven why does He not right all the wrongs of the world? Why are evil\u2010doers (such as Hitler) continued on in almost every age? To which Loane continued, \u2018We 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, \u201cTo me belongeth vengeance and recompense \u2013 their foot shall slide in due time\u201d (Deuteronomy 32:35)\u2019<\/p>\n

Loane was a decided Evangelical, with Reformed theology, and everybody knew it. Marcus was courteous both in discussion and debate. Said he, \u2018We must not be afraid to expose our doctrine to the test of controversy, if the ultimate arbiter is God\u2019s Word written.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u2019s long and distinguished ministry had long since concluded, some would begin to ask \u2018Marcus who?\u2019 or \u2018Marcus Loane. Who was he?\u2019 Sic transit mundi \u2013 so fades all worldly fame \u2013 but Marcus did not care. He was content to be like King David who, \u2018after he had served his generation, by the will of God, fell on sleep\u2019 (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.)<\/p>\n

Four books by Marcus Loan remain in print and are available from the Trust:<\/p>\n

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