AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
Joanne McCarthy
16 Mar 2017
BISHOP Greg Thompson was the right man to lead Newcastle Anglican diocese after the Australian Government in November, 2012 established the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
When Bishop Thompson was endorsed as the Hunter’s new Anglican head in late 2013, those who voted for him could not have known how right the appointment was.
He was the former “son of the diocese”, who grew up in the area and returned home after a church career that included work in some of the toughest parts of Australia.
He returned to Newcastle and confronted the past – both his own, and the diocese’s. He gave evidence at the shocking Newcastle Anglican Royal Commission public hearings in August and September, about being sexually abused by the late Bishop Ian Shevill. Returning to Newcastle meant confronting ugly memories.
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