Long-serving Tasmanian Anglican Bishop John Harrower Retires
ABC News
The 11th Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, John Harrower, has announced his retirement after 15 years in the job. Bishop Harrower will formally leave the position on September 12. He said it was time for him to bring his leadership of the church to a close. "It seemed like 15 years was a good innings and we've absolutely enjoyed the time here," Bishop Harrower said. "There have been exciting times and there have been challenging times too. "The issue of sexual abuse in the church and seeking to understand and being taught and helped by survivors of abuse to understand what really happened, and then to seek to respond in love and to walk with them in some way." Bishop Harrower said he took the issue of sexual abuse at the hands of priests very seriously from the moment he took office. "[I made] an apology, in my very first media conference as Bishop of Tasmania, to survivors, victims of sexual abuse," he said. "And then way back in 2002, 13 years ago, I called for a Royal Commission." In his blog the Bishop has outlined a rough itinerary of his final services around the state. "In the week prior to the laying up of the Bishop's pastoral staff, [my wife] Gayelene and I will attend farewell functions in the North West and Launceston. "The southern farewell will be at the Cathedral Service with the laying up the pastoral staff, followed by tea and buns (and possibly curried egg sandwiches)." Bishop Harrower was born in Melbourne and studied chemical engineering and economic policy at university. He lived in Argentina for nine years with his two sons and wife Gayelene where he was ordained a deacon in 1984 and a priest in 1986. In the early 1990s he worked as a Vicar in Melbourne and became Archdeacon of the Melbourne Diocese in 1994. He was ordained Bishop of Tasmania in July 2000.
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