The Reverend Dr Mark Short has been elected as the eleventh Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn.
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The announcement came sooner than expected following the gathering of some 300 clergy and laity at an Electoral Synod in Goulburn on Friday and Saturday at the Workers Club.
Bishop-elect Short will replace Bishop Stuart Robinson, who left the role in April. Bishop Administrator Trevor Edwards has assumed the position in the interim.
The synod comprised 124 clergy and 175 lay representatives from across the diocese, voting according to a set of church rules for electing a bishop.
Sub Dean of Goulburn’s Saint Saviour’s Cathedral, Canon Anne Wentzel told The Goulburn Post this week that a majority was required among the lay and clergy ‘houses’ to elect the Bishop. There were five candidates for the position.
The Reverend Dr Short is currently National Director, The Bush Church Aid Society, and was formerly Rector of Turvey Park and Archdeacon of Wagga Wagga in this Diocese.
Educated at Moore Theological College and the University of Durham, UK, he became an Anglican priest in 1997. Formerly he worked as a graduate economist for the Commonwealth Department of Industrial Relations and was a journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald.
He is married to Monica and they have two children. The Reverend Dr Short’s other interests include bushwalking, train travel and reading.
He will be consecrated and installed in a service at the Diocesan cathedral of St Saviour’s in Goulburn early in the New Year.
“Mark brings to the position a wealth of experience in national ministry with oversight and pastoral care of gospel workers across the country, as well as in parish ministry to regional and rural areas, where he has worked to develop sustainable and engaging ministry models,” Synod chairman, Bishop Trevor Edwards sad.
“It is the role of the Bishop to provide leadership, care and vision for Anglicans within the Diocese and to represent the church to the wider community.”
The diocese covers 78,500 square kilometres of south-eastern NSW from Batemans Bay to the Victorian border and west to Wagga, Junee and Young, as well as all of the Australian Capital Territory.
The new bishop assumes the oversight of some 62 parishes and mission districts, eight schools and significant community agencies such as Anglicare and St Mark’s National Theological Centre.
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