FOR the first time, the bishop of a non-metropolitan diocese has been elected Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia.
Dr Mark Short, Bishop of Canberra & Goulburn, was, on Saturday, elected to fill the vacancy, after the resignation of the current Primate, the Most Revd Geoffrey Smith, Archbishop of Adelaide (News, 16 May). Archbishop Smith’s resignation will take effect on 31 October; Dr Short will assume his duties on 1 November, while continuing to be the Bishop of Canberra & Goulburn. After an initial term of six years, he could be re-elected for a further three years.
All former Primates of the Australian Church since the inception of the office in 1872 have been bishops or archbishops of the five metropolitan dioceses: Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth.
Dr Short is also the first Evangelical Primate since the retirement of Sir Marcus Loane, Archbishop of Sydney, in 1982. Dr Short trained at Moore Theological College, Sydney, before ordination in Canberra & Goulburn. After serving in a number of parishes in the diocese, he became the national director of the Bush Church Aid Society of Australia, an Evangelical mission to the remote and isolated people of Australia, a post he held from 2011 until his election as bishop in 2019. He gained his doctorate from the University of Durham in 2004.
A Sydney Evangelical blogger, John Sandeman, reports that Dr Short was one of two candidates before the Board of Electors, the other being Dr Matt Brain, Bishop of Bendigo, in regional Victoria. Bishop Brain is also an Evangelical.
The current Australian metropolitan archbishops — Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy of Perth, Archbishop Jeremy Greaves of Brisbane, and Archbishop Kanishka Raffel of Sydney — were not candidates beyond the first ballot, which includes all current diocesan bishops.
The Board of Electors is made up of 12 clergy and 12 lay members.
