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These women have been consecrated and installed as bishops in the Anglican Church of Australia. Each woman is notable as a bishop and her biographical article is linked from her name (apart from the bishops elect). [1]
Name | Date first consecrated bishop | Office, Diocese, Dates |
---|---|---|
Kay Goldsworthy | 22 May 2008 | Assistant Bishop, Perth (2008–2015); Bishop, Gippsland (2015–2017); Archbishop, Perth (2018-) |
Barbara Darling | 31 May 2008 | Bishop for Diocesan Ministries, Melbourne (2008–2009); Bishop of the Eastern Region, Melbourne (2009–2014) |
Genieve Blackwell | 31 March 2012 | Regional Assistant Bishop, Wagga Wagga, Canberra and Goulburn (2012–2015); Assistant Bishop Marmingatha Episcopate, Melbourne (2015-); Assistant Bishop, Melbourne (2015-) |
Alison Taylor | 6 April 2013 | Bishop, Southern Region, Brisbane (2013–2018) |
Sarah Macneil | 1 March 2014 | Bishop, Grafton (2014–2018) |
Kate Wilmot | 6 August 2015 | Assistant Bishop, South Area of Episcopal Oversight, Perth (2015-); Assistant Bishop, Perth (2015-) |
Sonia Roulston | 10 May 2018 | Assistant Bishop, Inland Episcopate, Newcastle (2018-) |
Kate Prowd | 6 October 2018 | Assistant Bishop, Melbourne (2018-) |
Denise Ferguson | 21 July 2019 | Assistant Bishop, Adelaide (2019-) |
Carol Wagner | 22 February 2020 | Assistant Bishop, Canberra and Goulburn (2020–2024) [2] |
Sarah Plowman [3] | 21 June 2024 [4] [5] | Assistant Bishop and Bishop for the Northern Region, Brisbane (2024-) |
Vanessa Bennett [6] (Bishop elect) | 24 August 2024 (tbc) [6] [7] | Assistant Bishop, Canberra and Goulburn (2024-) [6] |
Sophie Relf-Christopher [8] (Bishop elect) | 15 August 2024 (tbc) [8] | Assistant Bishop, Adelaide (2024-) |
The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the 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 since the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788, the church was the largest religious denomination. It remains today one of the largest providers of social welfare services in Australia.
The Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn is one of the 23 dioceses of the Anglican Church of Australia. The diocese has 60 parishes covering most of south-east New South Wales, the eastern Riverina and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It stretches from Marulan in the north, from Batemans Bay to Eden on the south coast across to Holbrook in the south-west, north to Wagga Wagga, Temora, Young and Goulburn.
George Victor Browning is a retired British-Australian Anglican bishop who served as the 9th Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn in the Anglican Church of Australia. He was elected on 31 January 1993 and installed on 30 May 1993. He retired in 2008.
The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. Ministry commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons. More accurately, Anglican ministry includes many laypeople who devote themselves to the ministry of the church, either individually or in lower/assisting offices such as lector, acolyte, sub-deacon, Eucharistic minister, cantor, musicians, parish secretary or assistant, warden, vestry member, etc. Ultimately, all baptized members of the church are considered to partake in the ministry of the Body of Christ.
The Anglican Diocese of Armidale is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia located in the state of New South Wales. As the Diocese of Grafton and Armidale, it was created by letters patent in 1863. When the Anglican Diocese of Grafton was split off in 1914, the remaining portion was renamed Armidale, retaining its legal continuity and its incumbent bishop.
The Anglican Diocese of Brisbane, also known as Anglican Church Southern Queensland, is based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The diocesan bishop's seat is at St John's Cathedral, Brisbane. The diocese stretches from the south-eastern coastline of Queensland, down to the New South Wales border and west to the Northern Territory and South Australian borders. The diocese currently markets itself as "Anglican Church Southern Queensland" (ACSQ). The "Anglicare Southern Queensland" brand is also heavily promoted by the diocese.
The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne is the metropolitan diocese of the Province of Victoria in the Anglican Church of Australia. The diocese was founded from the Diocese of Australia by letters patent of 25 June 1847 and includes the cities of Melbourne and Geelong and also some more rural areas. The cathedral church is St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne. The current Archbishop of Melbourne since 2006 is Philip Freier, who was translated from the Anglican Diocese of The Northern Territory, and who was the Anglican Primate of Australia from 2014 to 2020.
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.
John Frank Ford is a retired British Anglican bishop. From 2013 to 2019 he was the Bishop of The Murray in the Anglican Church of Australia. From 2005 to 2013, he was the Bishop of Plymouth, a suffragan see in the Diocese of Exeter, England.
The ordination of women in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney is restricted to the diaconate. The diocese rejects the ordination of women as priests and bishops.
The ordination of women in the Anglican Communion has been increasingly common in certain provinces since the 1970s. Several provinces, however, and certain dioceses within otherwise ordaining provinces, continue to ordain only men. Disputes over the ordination of women have contributed to the establishment and growth of progressive tendencies, such as the Anglican realignment and Continuing Anglican movements.
The Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW) was the name used by organisations in England and Australia that campaigned for the ordination of women as deacons, priests and bishops in the Anglican Communion.
Andrew John Proud is a retired British Anglican bishop. He was area Bishop of Reading in the Church of England and previously the area bishop for the Horn of Africa in the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.
Genieve Mary Blackwell is an Australian Anglican bishop who has served as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Melbourne since June 2015, and previously served as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn from 2012 to 2015. She was the first woman to be consecrated as a bishop in the state of New South Wales and the third in Australia.
Sarah Macneil is a retired Anglican bishop in Australia. She was the Bishop of Grafton in the Anglican Church of Australia. She was consecrated and installed as bishop on 1 March 2014, becoming the first woman in Australia to lead a diocese.
Carol Wagner is a South-African born Australian bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. She has served as an assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn since February 2020.
Colleen Anne O'Reilly is an Australian Anglican priest. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021 in recognition of her significant service to the Anglican Church of Australia, and to religious education. O'Reilly has been a strong advocate for women's leadership in the Anglican Church and women's ordination since the 1970s and described by Muriel Porter as "the ‘mother' of the movement that was a key factor in bringing about the ordination of women through many years of determined struggle".
Dianne Dialecti "Di" Nicolios is a retired Australian Anglican priest. She was the first woman appointed Archdeacon for Women's Ministries in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. She held that position from January 1994 to May 2002. She was also one of the first group of 14 women to be ordained a deacon in 1989 in the Sydney diocese.
Peta Sherlock (1946-) is an Australian Anglican priest who was formerly Dean of the Anglican Diocese of Bendigo at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, Bendigo. She was one of the first women ordained as an Anglican deacon in 1986 then as an Anglican priest in 1992 and the first woman Dean of an Anglican diocese in Australia.
Susanna Pain is an Australian Anglican priest, former Dean of St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, Sale in Victoria, Australia and spiritual director. She was one of the first women ordained as an Anglican priest in Australia in 1992, one of the five women ordained in Adelaide, and the first female dean of St Paul's, Diocese of Gippsland. The features of her ministry have been pastoral care, leading spiritual retreats and contemplative prayer, and encouraging use of the creative and performance arts for worship.