Roger Herft

Last updated

Roger Herft

AM
Archbishop of Perth
Church Anglican Church of Australia
Diocese Perth
In office2005–2017
Predecessor Peter Carnley
Successor Kay Goldsworthy
Other post(s) Metropolitan of Western Australia (ex officio)
Orders
Consecration28 October 1986
Laicized 1 February 2022 [1]
Personal details
Born (1948-07-11) 11 July 1948 (age 74)
Wattegama, Sri Lanka
Previous post(s)

Roger Adrian Herft AM (born 11 July 1948) is a former bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. He was the Archbishop of Perth from 2005 to 2017. [2] He was previously the Bishop of Newcastle from 1993 to 2005 and the Bishop of Waikato in New Zealand from 1986.

Contents

Herft was removed from Holy Orders in February 2022, [1] after the Episcopal Standards Board of the Anglican Church of Australia determined in December 2021 that Herft had failed to address child sex abuse claims made against priests under his control during his time as Bishop of Newcastle. [3]

Early life and education

Herft was born in Wattegama in Sri Lanka. He studied at the Royal College in Colombo, later training for the ministry at the Theological College of Lanka in Pilimatalawa. He received Bachelor of Theology and Bachelor of Divinity degrees from the University of Serampore. [2] [4]

Clerical career

After working in parish ministry and prison chaplaincy, he was invited by the Diocese of Waikato in New Zealand to become a parish consultant in 1983. In 1986, Herft was elected Bishop of Waikato, becoming one of the youngest bishops in the Anglican Communion; [2] [4] [5] he was consecrated bishop on 28 October 1986. [6]

Herft was elected Bishop of Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1992 and enthroned at Christ Church Cathedral in May 1993. [2] [7] He was chaplain of the 13th Lambeth Conference in 1998. [2] [8] [9]

In 2004, Herft was elected as the seventh Archbishop of Perth and Metropolitan of the Province of Western Australia and was installed on 11 June 2005, succeeding Peter Carnley. [2] [10]

Herft nominated Kay Goldsworthy as Australia's first female Anglican bishop and consecrated her at St George's Cathedral in Perth on 22 May 2008. [11]

Herft was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2013 for service to the church, particularly interfaith relations and social justice. [12]

On 11 May 2016, it was announced that he would succeed Jack Nicholls as the next prelate of the Venerable Order of St John. [13] Prior to this he was sub prelate of the order in Western Australia. [14] On 1 September 2016, however, it was announced that Tim Stevens, formerly the Anglican Bishop of Leicester, had been appointed as the prelate. [15]

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

On 21 July 2016, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), published an article which stated that "One of the nation's most senior Anglicans, the Archbishop of Perth, Roger Herft, received complaints about a priest involved in a paedophile ring but allegedly failed to formally report him to police." The article also says that "Archbishop Herft wrote that the complaint "left me in an unenviable position" because "Father Peter had my licence [to be a priest] and if he reoffended I would be held liable as I now had prior knowledge of his alleged behaviour". There is no record of Herft reporting the priest to police. [16]

On 12 August 2016, Herft appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and was questioned about his policy in regard to the reporting and responses to allegations of abuse during his time as Bishop of Newcastle. Herft admitted that there had been no framework for dealing with accusations of child sexual assault during the first half of his tenure in Newcastle. He had written a policy called "Principles and Procedures for Dealing with Accusations of Sexual Harassment" in 1993, but this had not been prepared with child sexual abuse allegations in mind. [17]

A record of a 1998 meeting between Herft and other church officials showed there had been concern about following up abuse allegations. Herft said that allegations would not have been followed up unless there was a formal written complaint. He agreed with the commission that this was "Totally unacceptable" as it left children at risk. [17]

The commission heard evidence that Herft had been informed of allegations against Graeme Lawrence who had been dean of Newcastle Cathedral. Herft reported that he had no recollection of specific allegations against Lawrence, who was later defrocked after having group sex with a teenage boy. [18]

Retirement

On 10 October 2016, Herft wrote a pastoral letter stating that he was standing down as archbishop to "focus my attention on the royal commission's ongoing inquiry into the Diocese of Newcastle". Herft said in the Royal Commission that he had "let down the people of Newcastle" and "let down the survivors in a way that remorse itself is a very poor emotion to express". [12] Former Premier Richard Court, chair of the Perth Diocesan Trustees, said that Herft "enjoyed the full support and respect of the Trustees of the Diocese of Perth". It was also reported that "there was a belief among some of the laity and clergy that [Herft] should have resigned." [19]

On 15 December 2016, the Diocese of Perth announced that Herft would retire on 7 July 2017 and remain on accrued leave until that date. This would be a year earlier than previously anticipated. [20] Herft thanked the royal commission for holding him "personally accountable" during the hearing. He stated that he had developed a "much more realistic view" of the priesthood and hoped first-hand accounts from survivors would lead to widespread change within the Anglican Church. [21]

On 10 January 2017 an article in The Australian stated that in 1996 the Bishop of Ballarat at the time, David Silk, had employed a priest who had transferred from Newcastle where Herft was bishop at the time. Allegations against the priest were reported to the Newcastle diocese in 1996 a few months after he had moved to Ballarat, and again in 1999. Silk said that Herft had not advised him of the allegations. [22]

Removal from Holy Orders

In September 2021, the Episcopal Standards Board of the Anglican Church of Australia conducted a hearing about Herft's fitness to remain in Holy Orders. The Board examined how Herft responded to sex abuse claims made by priests in the Newcastle diocese during his time as bishop (including a priest who was found by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to be a prolific child sex abuser, another priest who had been charged with 24 child sex offences in 2017, and the former Dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, who had been convicted of assaulting a 15 year old boy in 1991). Heft did not attend the Board's hearing.

The Board found that “[t]here were relevant protocols to guide, indeed impel, [Herft] to act in material respects, and additionally he had the capacity to call on the organs of the Church for resources, advice and support”, and "there was always the straightforward medium of reporting allegations of serious criminal conduct to the police", but that “[Herft] did not do so when the position of authority he held demanded that of him". The Board determined that Herft had failed to properly address claims made against these priests, that he was unfit to remain in Holy Orders and should be defrocked. [3] Herft was removed from Holy Orders by Philip Freier on 1 February 2022. [1]

Family

Herft is married to Cheryl and they have two adult sons.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Hollingworth</span> 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.

Since the 1990s, the Anglican Communion has struggled with controversy regarding homosexuality in the church. In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture". However, this is not legally binding. "Like all Lambeth Conference resolutions, it is not legally binding on all provinces of the Communion, including the Church of England, though it commends an essential and persuasive view of the attitude of the Communion." "Anglican national churches in Brazil, South Africa, South India, New Zealand and Canada have taken steps toward approving and celebrating same-sex relationships amid strong resistance among other national churches within the 80 million-member global body. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has allowed same-sex marriage since 2015, and the Scottish Episcopal Church has allowed same-sex marriage since 2017." "Church of England clergy have appeared to signal support for gay marriage after they rejected a bishops' report which said that only a man and woman could marry in church." At General Synod in 2019, the Church of England announced that same-gender couples may remain recognised as married after one spouse experiences a gender transition. In 2023, the Church of England announced that it would authorise "prayers of thanksgiving, dedication and for God's blessing for same-sex couples."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Church of Australia</span> Church of the Anglican Communion

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki</span>

The Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki is one of the thirteen dioceses and hui amorangi of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The diocese covers the area from the Waikato to the area surrounding Mount Taranaki in the North Island of New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Diocese of Perth</span> Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia

The Anglican Diocese of Perth is one of the 23 dioceses of the Anglican Church of Australia. The constitution of the Diocese of Perth was passed and adopted in 1872 at the first synod held in Western Australia. In 1914, the Province of Western Australia was created and the diocesan bishop of Perth became ex officio metropolitan bishop of the new province and therefore also an archbishop.

Leo Morris Clarke was an Australian bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maitland in New South Wales from 1976 to 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Diocese of Brisbane</span> Anglican Diocese of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

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 Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle is a suffragan Latin Church diocese of the Archdiocese of Sydney, established in 1847 initially as the Diocese of Maitland and changed to the current name in 1995. The diocese covers the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales in Australia. The bishop of the diocese is Michael Kennedy

This page documents Catholic Church sexual abuse cases by country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Butler (bishop)</span> Bishop of Durham (born 1955)

Paul Roger Butler is a British Anglican bishop and a Lord Spiritual of the House of Lords. He is the Bishop of Durham, the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Durham: his election was confirmed on 20 January 2014 and he was installed and enthroned in Durham Cathedral on 22 February 2014. On 12 September 2013 it was announced that he had been appointed as bishop-designate of Durham He was previously bishop of Southwell and Nottingham. He was installed at Southwell Minster on 27 February 2010. He served as the suffragan bishop of Southampton in the Diocese of Winchester from 2004 until 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kay Goldsworthy</span> 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Wilson (bishop)</span> Australian Roman Catholic archbishop (1950–2021)

Philip Edward Wilson was an Australian Roman Catholic prelate who was the eighth Archbishop of Adelaide from 2001 to 2018. He was President of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference from 2006 to 2010. From 1996 to 2001 Wilson was bishop of the Diocese of Wollongong, where he gained a reputation as a "healing bishop" for handling child-abuse scandals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Thornton (bishop)</span> British Anglican bishop (born 1957)

Timothy Martin Thornton is a retired British Anglican bishop. His final post was as Bishop at Lambeth, Bishop to the Forces, and Bishop for the Falkland Islands (2017–2021). He was previously the area Bishop of Sherborne from 2001 to 2008, the diocesan Bishop of Truro (2009–2017), and a Member of the House of Lords (2013–2017).

Alfred Charles Holland was an Australian Anglican bishop. He was consecrated as a bishop on 6 August 1972 and was an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Perth before becoming the diocesan Bishop of Newcastle in New South Wales from 1978 to 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Croft (bishop)</span> Anglican bishop of Oxford

Steven John Lindsey Croft is a Church of England bishop and theologian specialising in mission. He has been Bishop of Oxford since the confirmation of his election on 6 July 2016. He was the Bishop of Sheffield from 2008 until 2016; previously he was Archbishops’ Missioner and Team Leader of Fresh Expressions, a joint Church of England and Methodist initiative. He falls within the open evangelical tradition of Anglicanism.

Catholic sexual abuse cases in Australia, like Catholic Church sexual abuse cases elsewhere, have involved convictions, trials and ongoing investigations into allegations of sex crimes committed by Catholic priests, members of religious orders and other personnel which have come to light in recent decades, along with the growing awareness of sexual abuse within other religious and secular institutions.

Donald Norman Shearman was an Australian Anglican bishop who served as Bishop of Rockhampton from 1963 to 1971 and Bishop of Grafton from 1973 to 1985. In 2004, a church tribunal found Shearman guilty of misconduct for sexually abusing a schoolgirl while serving as a boarding master at an Anglican hostel in Forbes, New South Wales, in the 1950s. On 25 August 2004, Shearman became the first member of the clergy in the Anglican Church of Australia to be removed from holy orders as a result of that finding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian George</span> Australian Anglican bishop (1934–2019)

Ian Gordon Combe George was an Australian Anglican bishop. He was the third Archbishop of Adelaide and Metropolitan of South Australia from 1991 to 2004.

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.

The Anglican Communion sexual abuse cases are a series of allegations, investigations, trials, and convictions of child sexual abuse crimes committed by clergy, members of religious orders and lay members of the Anglican Communion.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Licensed Clergy". Anglican Church of Australia. Anglican Church of Australia. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Archbishops Biography". Website of the Diocese of Perth. Diocese of Perth. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  3. 1 2 de Kruijff, Peter (13 December 2021). "Former Perth Archbishop defrocked for failing to deal with child sex abuse allegations in NSW". Sydney Morning Herald. Nine Entertainment Co. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Archbishop Roger Herft's migration odyssey". The University of Western Australia. Archived from the original on 22 July 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  5. ↑ "History of the Diocese". Website of the Diocese of Waikato. The Diocese of Waikato. Archived from the original on 15 May 2005. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  6. ↑ ACANZP Lectionary, 2019 (p. 146)
  7. ↑ "A Brief History of Christ Church Cathedral". Website of Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle. The Diocese of Newcastle, Australia. Archived from the original on 7 May 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  8. ↑ "Chaplains at the ready in Eliot" (PDF). The Lambeth Daily. The 1998 Lambeth Conference. 18 July 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  9. ↑ Cynthia McFarland; Brian Reid & Simon Sarmiento (1998). "The Lambeth Conference". Society of Archbishop Justus. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  10. ↑ "Previous Bishops and Archbishop". Website of the Diocese of Perth. Diocese of Perth. Archived from the original on 31 August 2007. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  11. ↑ Morris, Linda (23 May 2008). "Blessing of History, as first woman bishop consecrated". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
  12. 1 2 "Roger Herft stands aside as Anglican Archbishop of Perth to 'focus' on sex abuse royal commission". ABC News . Australian Broadcasting Commission. 10 October 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  13. ↑ Archbishop of Perth website. Archived 17 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ Government House, Western Australia Archived 29 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ "Appointment of Great Officers". stjohninternational.org. n.d. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  16. ↑ Connolly, Anne (21 July 2016). "Archbishop allegedly failed to report paedophile ring 'kingpin'". ABC News. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  17. 1 2 Cox, Dan (12 August 2016). "Archbishop would not report abuse claims if victim's name not known, inquiry hears". ABC News. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  18. ↑ "Anglican Archbishop Roger Herft 'told of abuse priest'" . The Australian . 24 August 2016.
  19. ↑ Spagnolo, Joe (16 October 2016). "Former WA premier Richard Court backs Anglican Archbishop of Perth Roger Herft". PerthNow. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  20. ↑ Susan Harvey (15 December 2016). "Statement by the Anglican Diocese of Perth". Anglican Diocese of Perth . Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  21. ↑ "Perth Archbishop Roger Herft resigns after admitting to let down sex abuse survivors". ABC News . 16 December 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  22. ↑ Box, Dan (10 January 2017). "Accused priest 'had his bishop's blessing'". The Weekend Australian. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
Anglican Communion titles
Preceded by Bishop of Waikato
1986–1993		Succeeded by
Preceded by Bishop of Newcastle
1993–2005		Succeeded by
Preceded by Archbishop of Perth
2005-2017		Succeeded by
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.