Australian Dictionary of Biography

Rev. Colin Williams, c.1967

University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-08766

Colin Wilbur Williams (1921–2000), Methodist minister and theologian, was born on 17 August 1921 at Ballarat, Victoria, fifth of six children of the Reverend William James Williams, clergyman, and his wife Helen Sarah, née Baud, both Victorian born. His father, of Cornish ancestry, was elected president of the Victorian Methodist Conference in 1949, while his brother, the economist (Sir) Bruce Rodda Williams, was later vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney (1967–81). Educated at Wesley College, Melbourne (1935–39), from 1940 Colin studied history at the University of Melbourne (BA Hons, 1946) and biblical and theological studies at Queen’s College. In October 1941 he enlisted in the Citizen Military Forces (Australian Imperial Force from February 1943) for service in World War II. He was posted to the Central Provision Office at Army Headquarters, promoted to staff sergeant (1943), and trained in ordnance stores with a view to being commissioned, but was discharged in February 1944 to resume his studies. After completing his degree, he tutored in history at the university in 1946.

Williams was granted a scholarship in 1947 to study theology at the Methodist-affiliated Drew University (BD, 1951) in New Jersey, United States of America, the first to benefit from a scheme to enhance theological education in Australia. On 10 September 1949 at Chatham, New Jersey, he married American-born Phyllis Miller. The couple returned to Melbourne in 1951 and he was ordained on 7 March at Wesley Church. His ordination testimony was a statement of intent: he expressed ‘a sense of great urgency’ to proclaim that the Church alone ‘can dissolve the divisive forces of hatred and fear’ that were produced by ‘worldly values of power, wealth, and respectability’ (Spectator and Methodist Chronicle 1951, 179). His first appointment was to the important suburban Punt Road Methodist Church, South Yarra, and he was invited by the Reverend (Sir) Alan Walker to join Methodism’s evangelical crusade ‘Mission to the Nation.’

In 1954 Williams returned to Drew University (PhD, 1958), writing a doctoral thesis on ‘Methodism and the Ecumenical Movement.’ This formed the basis of John Wesley’s Theology Today (1960), which became a standard text. He taught theology at Drew and from 1955 at the Garrett Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois. Back in Melbourne in 1959, he was appointed chaplain and professor of systematic theology at Queen’s College. An effective teacher, with an imposing physical presence and commanding voice, he did much to improve the standard of theological education. Six feet two inches (188 cm) tall, he also coached the college football team, introducing rigorous training that was uncommon at the time.

A prolific columnist for the Methodist Church’s Spectator newspaper, Williams was much in demand as a preacher and speaker throughout Australia. His growing influence within the church caused some jealousies and tensions including among his theological colleagues at Queen’s. Ecumenism was an important focus of his work, and he was involved in the early planning for the union of the Congregational, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches in Australia. With the Presbyterian theologian George Yule, he authored a report for the Joint Commission on Church Union titled The Church, Its Nature, Function and Ordering (1963). He was also the Australian Methodist delegate to World Council of Churches (WCC) meetings at Evanston, United States (1954); New Delhi (1961); and Uppsala, Sweden (1969).

Williams returned to the United States in 1962 and joined the National Council of Churches as executive director of its department of parish and community life. Closely involved in a WCC study on the ‘missionary structure of the congregation,’ he wrote a series of influential study books for lay audiences—Where in the World? (1963), What in the World? (1964), and For the World? (1965)—that called for a church more actively engaged with society more broadly. A reviewer in Britain’s Methodist Recorder described them as ‘dynamite for the introverted Church’ (Spectator 1965, 4). His subsequent publications included Faith in a Secular Age (1966), The Church (1969), and Black and White Together: The Race Struggle in the U.S.A. (1973).

In 1967 Williams was invited to the University of Chicago as the director of its doctor of ministry program. Two years later he was appointed dean of the Divinity School at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It was a controversial appointment given his thin academic track-record, but in a time of social unrest, particularly the civil rights movement, it was thought Williams was the right person to manage change. A strong and persuasive leader, he believed that a grounding in theology was essential, but that it was necessary to combine an academic approach with the needs of students likely to be ministers in the community. During his ten years as dean, he developed an ecumenical cooperation between the Yale Divinity School (of Congregationalist origin) and the Episcopalian Berkeley Divinity School, also at New Haven. In 1972 he broadened the scope of the academic offering by incorporating the Institute of Sacred Music from the Union Theological Seminary, New York. He also proved remarkably adept in the role of fundraiser.

Retiring as dean in 1979, Williams remained a professor until 1983, when he was appointed executive vice-president of the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies (president 1986–88), an international educational and policy research institute. In the late 1980s Drew University awarded him a Distinguished Alumni achievement award, acknowledging his range of accomplishments in Australia and the worldwide church. Diagnosed with cancer and Parkinson’s disease, he died on 4 January 2000 at Orleans, Massachusetts. His wife and their three daughters, Gladys, Beth, and Katherine, survived him. His papers, including teaching materials, sermons, correspondence, and publications, are held by the United Methodist Church Archives, Madison, New Jersey.