Anglican Diocese of Grafton

The Anglican Diocese of Grafton is one of the 23 dioceses of the Anglican Church of Australia. The diocese is located in north-east New South Wales and covers the area from the Queensland border to Port Macquarie in the south and west to the Great Dividing Range.

Diocese of Grafton
Location
Ecclesiastical provinceNew South Wales
Coordinates30°S 153°E / 30°S 153°E / -30; 153
Statistics
Parishes22
Churches54
Schools5
Information
CathedralChrist Church Cathedral, Grafton
Current leadership
BishopMurray Harvey
Website
graftondiocese.org

Created in 1914 as a result of a division of the previous Diocese of Grafton and Armidale it has 22 parishes and 3 transitional ministry districts and an Anglicare organisation seeking to support community and social needs within the diocese. The cathedral church is the Cathedral Church of Christ the King in Grafton.

The Church of St Thomas at Port Macquarie was built by an early Governor of New South Wales, Thomas Brisbane. It is the fifth oldest church building in Australia.

The current Bishop of Grafton, Murray Harvey, is the 12th bishop of the diocese. He was installed at Christ Church Cathedral, Grafton, on 29 September 2018.

Sarah Macneil the 11th Bishop of Grafton become the first woman to lead an Australian diocese as bishop. Macneil announced her resignation on 17 November 2017, to be effective from 3 March 2018.[1]

The bishop is based in Grafton.

Bishops

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Bishops of Grafton
No From Until Incumbent Notes
1 1914 1921 Cecil Druitt Previously Coadjutor Bishop of Grafton and Armidale; died in office.
2 1921 1938 John Ashton
3 1938 1945 William Stevenson Previously Archdeacon of Brisbane; died in office.
4 1946 1955 Christopher Storrs Previously Archdeacon of Northam.
5 1956 1961 Kenneth Clements Previously bishop coadjutor in the Diocese of Goulburn; translated to Canberra and Goulburn.
6 1961 1973 Gordon Arthur Previously an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn.
7 1973 1985 Donald Shearman Previously Bishop of Rockhampton; later resigned his holy orders and was defrocked.
8 1985 1998 Bruce Schultz Previously Dean of Grafton.
9 1998 2003 Philip Huggins Previously an Assistant Bishop of Perth; later an Assistant Bishop of Melbourne.
10 2003 2013 Keith Slater [2]
11 2014 2018 Sarah Macneil Previously an archdeacon in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn and Dean of Adelaide.
12 2018 present Murray Harvey Consecrated and installed 29 September 2018.
Source(s):[3]

Cathedral

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The cathedral church is Christ Church Cathedral in Grafton which was designed by John Horbury Hunt and commenced in 1884 during the episcopacy of Bishop James Turner and completed to its present stage in 1937.[4] The building is of brick construction in a Gothic Revival style with towering arches and ornate stained glass windows. An organ was installed in 1884 by George Fincham of Melbourne which was replaced in 1992 by a 1903 instrument brought from London by Peter D.G. Jewkes Pty Ltd of Sydney.[5]

The cathedral is a National Trust listed building.[6]

Deans of Grafton

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The following individuals have served as Deans of Grafton:

Ordinal Name Term start Term end Notes
1 Arthur Edward Warr 1949 1965
2 Roderick William Bowie 1966 1968
3 Henry St John Edwards 1969 1978
4 Bruce Allan Schultz 1979 1983 Afterwards Bishop of Grafton, 1985
5 Richard Warwick Hurford 1983 1997 Later Bishop of Bathurst, 2001
6 Peter Charles Catt 1997 2007 Afterwards Dean of Brisbane, 2008
7 Donald Kingsley Kirk 2007 2017 Later Bishop of Riverina, 2019
8 Gregory Charles Jenks 2017 2022
9 Naomi Cooke 2023 Current Installed 12 August 2023

Church schools

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The diocese also has a number of church-based schools providing education across a range of age groups.

Founded School Enrollment Years Location
1981 Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School 1100 P-12 Tweed Heads
1993 Bishop Druitt College 1192 K-12 Coffs Harbour
1998 Emmanuel Anglican College 388 P-12 Ballina
1998 Clarence Valley Anglican School 297 P-12 Grafton
2002 St Columba Anglican School 680 P-12 Port Macquarie

References

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  1. ^ North Coast Anglican, December 2017
  2. ^ Diocese of Grafton – Bishop's statement (Accessed 26 June 2013)
  3. ^ "History". Anglican Diocese of Grafton. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  4. ^ "Livestream".
  5. ^ "Grafton Cathedral".
  6. ^ Visit NSW website.
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