Considering the "best efforts" of those who have gone before him, Dr Freier noted that not much had changed.

"But even these best efforts have arguably left the suffering of the powerless in the world in much the same misery that they have known," he said.

There is an inescapable irony here. St Paul's Cathedral, historically a citadel to serving others, would appear to ignore the poor clustered around its steps each day.

The homeless, the deranged, the drunken and the bereft congregate with the city's indigenous drifters around the steps of St Paul's.

They are not looking for charity, where none is given, but they go there because St Paul's is central.

They are a daily reminder of the church's failure to fulfil its essential mission.

Symbolically, the church's denial of the very people it is charged to help is a bitter statement on the ineffectiveness and arrogance of the church.

Melbourne's Anglican Church literally steps over the needy on its own doorstep. This is just one example of the insensitivity of the hierarchy of the Anglican Church.

Another concerns Dr Freier's enthronement.

Just before Christmas, Anglican parishes were invited to contribute towards gifts for the new archbishop. I find it hard to think of a more offensive request.

The Registry Update from the church for November and December, which is sent to all Anglican parish churches in the diocese of Melbourne, had this message from Registrar John McKenzie.

"A gift is being organised for Dr Freier in the form of an episcopal ring with the diocesan crest and a cope and mitre.

"Parishes, Anglican schools and agencies are invited to make a contribution to this gift. A special account has been organised with the Anglican Development Fund and a deposit form is attached for your use."

Besides such an invitation being in poor taste, it reveals the priorities of the administration of Melbourne's Anglican Church.

Parish churches are closing down, not just because of a decline in numbers but because they cannot raise sufficient funds to meet their operating and maintenance costs.

Many parishes share clergy as a means to defray expenditure.

Meanwhile, when a parish closes, the Anglican Church realises on the estate value and diverts funds where it determines needs.

Increasingly, this is towards the church's central administration.

But there is another aspect to the ring and cope issue.

Dr Freier could have set the tone of his tenure by rejecting the offer of gifts and ensuring that any money go where it is most needed. Moreover, the gifts of a ring and cope, a form of ceremonial cloak, are utterly selfish.

They benefit no one but the wearer, who looks resplendent.

The blindness of the Anglican Church to the bitter irony in the request for gifts for the new archbishop sums up an institution that has become inwardly preoccupied with its own preservation.

The church's profligacy in spending money on trinkets of office underscores its ineffectiveness in reaching out to the unwanted who cluster about its doors.

The cost of a ring, cope and mitre would buy a lot of soup for the hungry. At Christmas, the birth of Jesus is celebrated.

Christ had a simple message: it was essentially to reach out to the poor. Where would you find Christ today? He'd be on the steps of St Paul's, talking and helping those in need.

He would be wearing no ring and dressed in no cope and mitre.

--CHRISTOPHER BANTICK is a Melbourne writer and a member of the parochial council of a Melbourne Anglican parish church