Early life and education
Raffel was born on 6 November 1964 [2] in London, England, to Sri Lankan parents. His father, Lorenz Raffel, was a tea plantation supervisor, and his mother, Lilamani, was a doctor. [8] They moved to Canada for a brief period but found it too cold and emigrated to Australia in 1972. [5] [8]
Raised as a Buddhist, [9] Raffel was given by a friend, Andrew Shead, a copy of the Gospel of John when in the third year of his degree course. [8] At the age of 21, he was convinced by the words of Jesus in John's Gospel: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day" (John 6:44). [6]
Raffel graduated from the University of Sydney with honours in English literature in 1986 [1] and in Law in 1989. [10] For two and a half years after graduating, Raffel practised law at Blake Dawson Waldron, which became Ashurst LLP. [11] [12] He then trained at Moore Theological College, graduating in 1996 as a Bachelor of Divinity with a Diploma of Ministry. [1]
Ordained ministry
Raffel was ordained deacon in 1996 in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, and priest in 1996 in the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn. [1] He served at St Matthew's Church, Wanniassa from 1996 to 1999, [1] and then moved to the Anglican Diocese of Perth where he served for 16 years (1999-2016) as rector of St Matthew's Church, Shenton Park. [6] He obtained a Master of Arts degree in Theology from Moore Theological College in 2010. [1]
Dean of Sydney
Raffel was appointed Dean of St Andrew's Cathedral and was installed there on 4 February 2016. He was the first person from a non-European background to hold the position. [6]
As Dean, Raffel was an active spokesman for Christianity, appearing on ABC radio [13] [14] and on ABC TV's The Drum . [15] In 2021 he led the Sydney diocese's service commemorating the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. [5]
Archbishop of Sydney
As early as 2019, the Sydney Morning Herald had described Raffel as one of the "leading contenders" for the position of Anglican Archbishop of Sydney. [16] In 2021, he was announced as one of four nominees to replace Glenn Davies, alongside three bishops: the Bishop of North Sydney Chris Edwards, the Bishop of Wollongong Peter Hayward, and the Bishop of South Sydney Michael Stead. [17] On 6 May 2021, Raffel was elected to the position, at a special election synod. [3] [4] [18]
On 28 May 2021, Raffel was consecrated a bishop by Geoffrey Smith, and installed as archbishop in Sydney's St Andrew's Cathedral. [19] [20] He is the first person from a non-European background to hold the diocesan bishop's position. [4] [5] [21]
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