All four candidates at this week’s Melbourne Anglican election synod (church parliament) is an evangelical.
The candidates:
• Bishop Ric Thorpe, from the Diocese of London.
• Wei-Han Kuan, Executive Director of CMS Victoria.
• Rev Dr Tim Johnson – Vicar St John’s Diamond Creek
• Rev Megan Curlis-Gibson – Vicar at Deep Creek Anglican
By Anonymous – Observations* on the local candidates by a former Melbourne Anglican priest and synod member, on the three Melburnian candidates for election as Archbishop of Melbourne.
(Offered here only on the premise that current Melbourne synod members won’t be commenting because they shouldn’t (and I trust won’t) under the terms of the election Act.) [Editor note: this piece will reveal little to those Synod members – it is presented as a service to readers further afileld.]
The field is extraordinarily homogeneous for such a prominent appointment in the national church and a diocese of Melbourne’s long-standing breadth. All three are of the same generation of Melbourne clergy and unambiguously evangelical (the latter applying also to the fourth candidate, who isn’t local). All three are graduates of Ridley College. (For those who may not know, Melbourne distinguishes itself by having two Anglican theological colleges, both training ordinands for Melbourne diocese in particular, as well as other dioceses. Of the two, Ridley is unequivocally “the evangelical one”).
All three candidates have served in unambiguously evangelical Melbourne parishes, and none have served in parishes of other traditions. For two of the three, Tim Johnson and Megan Curlis-Gibson, St Hilary’s Kew features in the CV, both having served there as clergy members of the ministry team, and at the same time. (Again for those who may not know, St Hilary’s is one of Melbourne’s largest Anglican churches and has a strong and influential history of ministry formation, training and mentoring of women and men, clerical and lay, in a vibrant evangelical tradition, with a large ministry team. St Hilary’s would generally be associated with unequivocal support for the full ministry of women, placing it in the mainstream of Melbourne Anglicanism, across traditions).
Megan Curlis-Gibson and Tim Johnson also have in common significant pastoral experience, including as parish Incumbents ( = Vicar / Senior Minister). Both are current archdeacons.
Common evangelical tradition notwithstanding, Wei Han’s formation and ministry journey differ from those of his fellow local candidates in a few respects of relevance and note. He is Chinese-Malaysian ethnicity, not insignificant in Melbourne’s multicultural character, including Christian ministries, and so far not reflected in Melbourne’s Anglican episcopal appointments. Notable in contrast with Sydney, for instance, which currently has three bishops with Asian backgrounds, Archbishop Kanishka Raffel, and Bishops Gary Koo and Peter Lin.
Of the three candidates, Wei-Han Kuan is likely also the best known in the national church, having served for some years now as Executive Director for the Victorian branch of the Church Missionary Society (CMS). And through his academic work he’s noted as a church historian, Melbourne Anglican history among his published interests. A good field of candidates in the opinion of this observer, covering a range of markers a metropolitan diocese might seek in her archbishop. Though the evangelical weighting is interesting.
*neither positive nor negative; just seeking to be objective
The Other Cheek adds: the non-local candidate, Bishop Ric Thorpe, has been Bishop of Islington in the Diocese of London since 2015, and from 1990 to 1992, Thorpe was a lay worship leader at Holy Trinity Brompton and then trained at the evangelical Wycliffe Hall college in Oxford. Before being appointed to Islington, Bishop Ric was the Bishop of London’s Adviser for Church Planting and Rector of St Paul’s Shadwell.
Image: St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne. Image Credit: Anh Dinh / Flickr