St James Ethics Centre: a brief history

This article was published in Living Ethics: issue 79 autumn 2010

The Centre began life in December 1988, when its founder, the Anglican Parish of St James in King Street, Sydney, formed a committee to explore the viability of establishing an ethics centre in the city.

A symposium addressing the topic Ethics Management in the 1990’s – Surviving in the Corporate Era was convened by this committee in October 1989. The success of this symposium, which publicly launched the Centre, encouraged further consultations culminating in the establishment of a Board of Management in November 1989.

A name was adopted for this initiative, ‘The St James Ethics Centre’ (later changed to ‘St James Ethics Centre’), to reflect the Centre’s origins at The Parish of St James in Sydney. The Board then focused on the task of clarifying basic principles and policy.

The Ethics Centre became incorporated in February 1990. In July 1991 the Centre appointed its inaugural Executive Director, Dr Simon Longstaff. The Centre was granted public benevolent institution status by the Australian Taxation Office later that year.

St James Ethics Centre’s original constitution nominated a formal link with the Parish of St James. However, at the 1996 Annual General Meeting, members of the Centre resolved to amend the constitution to reflect a less formal relationship with the Parish, thus re-enforcing the Ethics Centre’s commitment to independence and its openness to those of any or no religious faith.

The founders of St James Ethics Centre wished that it be an essentially practical organisation which would be accessible to all people of goodwill concerned with ethics. It would be independent, non-judgemental and form an integral part of the community – and these basic principles remain unchanged.

Initially the Centre’s work focused upon the promotion of business ethics in the central business district of Sydney.
In the ensuing years this focus broadened to include the Centre’s involvement in work at a state and national level, as well as occasionally extending its services internationally.

The scope of St James Ethics Centre’s work has now expanded beyond business ethics to include virtually every kind of ethical issue arising in society.

• The first issue of our quarterly newsletter was published in 1991. Originally called City Ethics, the newsletter continues to be published as Living Ethics.
• The inaugural Annual Lecture was in 1991.
• The Vincent Fairfax Ethics in Leadership Awards – later to become the Vincent Fairfax Fellowship – was launched in 1994.
• The inaugural Lawyers Lecture was in 1996.
• Formal training of volunteer ethics counsellors began in 1998.
• The National Business Leaders’ Forum on Sustainable Development began in 1998.
• Educating for a Good Society: a national conversation was conducted in 2000.
• The Shareholders’ Project was conducted in 2001.
• The first Corporate Responsibility Index was launched by the Centre in 2003.
• The Ethics of Caring in a Good Society: a national conversation began in 2007.
• The National Responsible Business Practice Project was granted Treasury Funding in November 2007.
• The first series of Intelligence Squared Australia live debates took place in Sydney in 2008 and in Melbourne in 2010.
• Global Reporting Initiative memorandum of understanding was signed in October 2008.
• United Nations Global Compact – Australian Network memorandum of understanding was signed in February 2009.
• The inaugural Festival of Dangerous Ideas was held at Sydney Opera House in 2009.
• The first pilot program towards an ethics complement to scripture in NSW schools is being trialled in 2010.

Learn more about St James Ethics Centre.