The Home Mission Society of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, also known as the Church of England Home Mission Society, was established in Sydney in 1856. It was originally called the Church Society before its name was changed to the Home Mission Society in 1911. It ran several children’s Homes through its Homes and Hostels Committee, and also provided chaplaincy at the children’s courts. Both Care Force and Charlton Youth Services developed from the Home Mission Society. In 1997 the Home Mission Society changed its name to Anglicare.
The society’s main objective was to help needy parishes by building new churches, rectories and schools, paying clergy, and evangelising and bringing more people to the church. The Society began to increase its social welfare work in the early 20th century, partly as a response to social pressures due to the 1890s depression and the First World War, and partly as a way of bringing more people into contact with the church.
The first children’s Home established by the Home Mission Society was the Havilah Little Children’s Home, which opened at Normanhurst in 1918. This was followed by the Quipolli Home for Girls, which opened at Leura in 1925. Both of these Homes were run by the Homes and Hostels Committee of the Society (which had been established for that purpose in 1918) until 1930, when that Committee was merged with the Church of England Homes Committee, which took over operations of both of the Homes. This merge enabled both committees to combine their funds and fundraising efforts, and centralised the care for children within the management structure of the Diocese.
Following the merge of the two committees the Home Mission Society continued child welfare work by providing full-time chaplains to the children’s courts in Sydney. This work, which began in 1920, brought the church into contact with families requiring social support. Some children were placed in Church of England children’s Homes due to this contact with the court chaplains. In its 1944 annual report the society explained:
… many of the cases which come before the Court can only be helped by taking them out of the homes in which they have become a social problem.
In 1942 the Home Mission Society returned to residential care for children when its re-established Homes and Hostels Committee opened the Charlton Memorial Home at Glebe. This was shortly followed by the establishment of the Arleston Young Mens’ Hostel in 1943, the Lawson Rural Centre (also for boys) in 1944, and the Avona Boy’s Hostel (located next to the Charlton Home) in 1947. These Homes took boys who had appeared before the children’s courts, and were a direct result of the church’s chaplaincy program at the courts.
The Home Mission Society continued its work with boys through the 1960s, establishing two more Charlton Boys’ Homes at Castle Hill and Bowral in 1960 and 1961. During this period the Home Mission Society also expanded into a new line of work, establishing Carramar Maternity Home for unmarried mothers. It also made repeated attempts to establish a hostel for girls who had appeared before the children’s courts, on similar lines to the Charlton Homes. This hostel was eventually established at Hurstville in 1976 and named Carinya, however it only remained open for a year before this line of work was abandoned.
In 1984 the Home Mission Society, via it’s welfare branch, Care Force, took over management of the assets of the Church of England Homes, which included several Family Group Homes and Hostels for children. The Home Mission Society also became responsible for the management of the records of Church of England Homes at this time. In 1997 the name of the Home Mission Society was changed to Anglicare.