Bill Ray (bishop)

Last updated

William James Ray is an Australian retired bishop. He was the tenth Anglican bishop of North Queensland in Australia. [1] He was consecrated a bishop in March 2007 and installed as the 10th bishop of North Queensland on 24 March 2007. He retired as Bishop of North Queensland on 21 September 2018.

Born in country Victoria on 19 October 1950, Ray went to teachers college and began life as a primary school teacher, soon becoming head teacher of a rural school. In his young adult years he led a scout troop, contributed to diocesan committees such as the Camp and Conference committee, lead several camps, represented the Diocese of Gippsland on the General Board of Religious Education (GBRE) and studied theology by distance education. During this time he held a lay reader's license, often taking services of Morning and Evening Prayer in the Parish of Yarram.

From 1978 to 1981, Ray worked full-time with the young people of the Diocese of Brisbane, offering Bible studies, camps for various ages and assistance with youth groups, as well as providing training for Sunday school and religious education teachers and youth leaders. He also continued his involvement with GBRE. His ministry as youth and children's worker in the parish of St Luke's Toowoomba from late 1981 to 1986, was punctuated by two years at Duke University in North Carolina, where he studied for his Master of Religious Education. He moved back to Victoria at the beginning of 1987 to be the education officer for the Diocese of Gippsland and the regional officer for the Council for Christian Education in Schools.

Ray was ordained a deacon in Rockhampton in 1992 during the first few weeks of his five-year ministry as diocesan ministry training officer. He was ordained a priest later that year. He served as a parish priest in the parishes of Wandal (Rockhampton), East Ivanhoe and Croydon (Melbourne) and as Archdeacon of Maroondah (outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne).

Over the life of his full-time ministry, Ray has had an active role in the Education for Ministry (EFM) programs at various levels from national trainer, to regional co-ordinator as well as a group mentor. He is also a proponent of the catechumenate program and has led this at both the parish and diocesan levels. He became the director of GBRE in 2000, being equipped for this position over the years through his membership of the board, the executive and positions on various editorial committees. He has written a number of religious education programs and in recent years authored three Lenten study booklets.

Ray holds a Diploma of Teaching from Frankston Teachers’ College; a Bachelor of Education from the Western Australian College of Education; a Licentiate of Theology from the Australian College of Theology and a Master of Religious Education from Duke University in the United States.

Ray is married to Robin and they have two children and three grandchildren.

Related Research Articles

Peter Hollingworth Australian retired Anglican bishop

Peter John Hollingworth is an Australian retired Anglican bishop. Engaged in social work for several decades, he served as the archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane in Queensland for 11 years from 1989 and was the 1991 Australian of the Year. He served as the 23rd Governor-General of Australia from 2001 until 2003. He is also an author and recipient of various civil and ecclesiastical honours. In May 2003 Hollingworth became the third Australian governor-general to resign, after criticisms were aired over his conduct as Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane in the 1990s.

Anglican Diocese of Sydney Diocese in the Anglican Church of Australia

The Diocese of Sydney is a diocese in Sydney, within the Province of New South Wales of the Anglican Church of Australia. The majority of the diocese is evangelical and low church in tradition.

Anglican Church of Australia Church of the Anglican Communion

The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the Roman Catholic Church. According to the 2016 census, 3.1 million Australians identify as Anglicans. As of 2016, the Anglican Church of Australia had more than 3 million nominal members and 437,880 active baptised members. For much of Australian history the church was the largest religious denomination. It remains today one of the largest providers of social welfare services in Australia.

The Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, also known as the Hong Kong Anglican Church (Episcopal), is the Anglican church in Hong Kong and Macao. It is the 38th Province of the Anglican Communion. It is also one of the major denominations in Hong Kong and the first in the Anglican Communion to ordain a female priest.

Phillip Aspinall Australian Anglican bishop

Phillip John Aspinall is an Australian Anglican bishop. He has been the archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane since February 2002 and was also the Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia from July 2005 until he stood down on 4 July 2014.

David Chillingworth is an Anglican bishop. He was Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane between 2004 and 2017, until his retirement. He was also the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church from 2009 to 2016.

Douglas Robert Stevens is an Australian bishop. He was the Bishop of Riverina in the Anglican Church of Australia from 2005 to 2012. He is currently in parish ministry in Brisbane.

Anglican Diocese of North Queensland Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia

The Diocese of North Queensland is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, founded in 1879. It is situated in the northern part of the state of Queensland, Australia. As part of the Province of Queensland, it covers the Torres Strait Islands in the north, the entire Cape York Peninsula and the cities of Mount Isa, Cairns, Townsville and Mackay. The diocesan cathedral is St James' Cathedral, Townsville. The Bishop of North Queensland is Keith Ronald Joseph, who was consecrated and installed on 31 March 2019.

Church of the Province of Myanmar

The Church of the Province of Myanmar in Asia is a member church of the Anglican Communion. The province comprises the entire country of Myanmar. The current archbishop of Myanmar and bishop of Yangon is Stephen Than Myint Oo.

David Gray Mulready is an Australian Anglican bishop and the immediate past incumbent of the diocesan see of North West Australia, the largest diocese in geographical size in the Anglican Church of Australia, covering approximately a quarter of the Australian continent.

Kay Goldsworthy Anglican Archbishop of Perth

Kay Maree Goldsworthy is an Australian bishop of the Anglican Church of Australia. She is the current archbishop of Perth in the Province of Western Australia. Upon her installation as archbishop, on 10 February 2018, she became the first female archbishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. Previously, she served as diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Gippsland in the south-eastern Australian state of Victoria.

Declan Lang

Declan Ronan Lang is an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the ninth bishop of Clifton.

Jeffrey William Driver is a retired Australian Anglican bishop. He is the former Archbishop of Adelaide and Metropolitan of South Australia in the Anglican Church of Australia.

Keith Lynn Ackerman SSC is an American Anglican bishop. Consecrated as a bishop for the Diocese of Quincy in the Episcopal Church, he is currently the bishop vicar of the Diocese of Quincy of the Anglican Church in North America and Assisting Bishop of Fort Worth. On July 1, 2020, he was appointed as Interim Bishop of the Diocese of the Southwest, by the Most Rev. Foley Beach, Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church in North America, concluding that ministry with the consecration of the new Bishop.

Carl Christopher Epting is a bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He served the Diocese of Iowa as coadjutor bishop and diocesan bishop from 1988 to 2001, and as the Deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations for the Episcopal Church from 2001 to 2009. He then served as the Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Chicago from November 2011 through December 2015 before retiring. Since 2021 Bishop Epting and wife Susanne have resided in Englewood, Colorado.

Barry Valentine was bishop of the Diocese of Rupert's Land in the Anglican Church of Canada from 1970 to 1982. Valentine's episcopacy was "transformational and visionary."

David Edwards is the tenth Anglican Bishop of Fredericton, Canada. He was elected coadjudor bishop at a synod in Fredericton on 10 May 2014 and, subsequently, installed as diocesan bishop on September 20, 2014. He succeeded the ninth Bishop, the Most Reverend Claude Miller, who retired on 23 June 2014. He was elected Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada and assumed that position on 1 August 2020.

Anglican Youthworks is an Australian Christian not-for-profit organisation based in Sydney. Youthworks oversees three divisions, each of which contributes to the organisation's mission: to support the teaching of the gospel in schools and churches, particularly to families. It was formed in 1998, to avoid duplication of resources, by merging the Diocese of Sydney's Anglican Youth Department with the Anglican Education Commission.

David Robinson is an Australian bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. He served as the 12th Bishop of Rockhampton from 3 September 2014 to 22 February 2020.

Peter John Grice is an Australian Anglican bishop and former lawyer who has served as the 13th Bishop of Rockhampton since 27 February 2021. He previously served as Dean of Geraldton in the Diocese of North West Australia between 2015 and 2020.

References

  1. ↑ The Right Reverend Bill Ray. Archived February 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine The Anglican Diocese of North Queensland, 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.