Bishop Trevor Edwards

Biographical note from the Order of Service for the Service of Consecration

Trevor grew up in the southern Sydney seaside peninsula of Sans Souci in the 1950s. He lived three doors from St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, and belonging to a “church-sending” family attended Sunday School from childhood. He made his first profession of faith in 1959 in the front pew of the church and this was consolidated in Confirmation in 1964. He grew in his faith under the warm leadership of the rector, The Reverend Harry Ctercteko, and several curates who encouraged him in leadership in the children’s and youth programs.

He exercised these roles through senior years at James Cook Boys’ High, and his B.A. studies at the University of Sydney, where he majored in History and Government. Upon graduation in 1972 he was offered a position in the National Archives, then situated on the site now occupied by the National Gallery. The next two years were spent establishing his career while commuting regularly up the winding Hume Highway to Sydney to court his girlfriend, Ruth, soon to become his fiancée.

Although Trevor could have easily progressed up the public service ladder, he had already decided before finishing university that God wanted him in ordained ministry. Some part-time courses at Moore College in his final year of university were supplemented by study of Greek and Hebrew at St Mark’s Library during his time at Canberra. In 1974 he entered Moore College to study theology full-time. His reputation for studiousness was enhanced during this first year because of the time spent alone in his study. Few people realised that a large proportion of this time was occupied with writing long letters, in his characteristically minute and neat ‘Trevor’ script, to Ruth who was at this time travelling overseas!

They were married in January 1975 at the beginning of Trevor’s second year of theological study. He gained a Th.L with First Class Honours, winning the Hey Sharpe Prize for first in Australia in 1976. He went on to achieve a Bachelor of Divinity with Second Class Honours through London University. His Moore College Diploma of Arts exit thesis written in 1977 was an exploration of classic Anglicanism, focusing on the relation of revelation and reason in the writings of Richard Hooker.

His first curacy from 1978-1979 was at St Philip’s Caringbah in the predominately Anglo-Australian Sutherland Shire. This work provided a traditional all-round ministry experience. ‘Trev the Rev’ had oversight of the youth program, did regular hospital visiting, taught Scripture in schools, and developed an outreach to young marrieds, as well as preaching and general pastoral care. He was on the ground and a sounding board when the innovative Christianity Explained course was developed in this parish.

A second curacy was served at St Barnabas’ Broadway, close to the campus of Sydney University. Here the work focused on student ministry, giving lectures on campus, running Bible studies in his home and at St Paul’s College. In 1981 he chaired the committee that organised a whole campus mission that bore considerable spiritual fruit. In addition for six months while the rector was on long-service leave, Trevor had expanded responsibilities. It was during this time that a first son was born to Trevor and Ruth.

In 1982 Trevor was appointed to his first incumbency at St Aidan’s, Hurstville Grove. At this stage St Aidan’s was reasonably well established with predominately young families. Trevor’s focus was to develop small group Bible studies, and with others he developed an innovative pre-evangelistic newspaper that was distributed door to door. In 1984 Trevor secured the cooperation of over 30 churches in a combined outreach to Hurstville. In a one-clergy parish, he was required to preach two new sermons most Sundays, thus consolidating his expertise as a preacher with passion, able to relate the Biblical text to the contemporary world. Two further sons were added to the family in these years.

From St Aidan’s, Trevor moved to the multi-church parish of St John’s Camden in 1989. As a magnificent Gothic Revival building with spire and clock tower, St John’s had long been the focal point of community life in a traditional semi-rural parish. However the growth of the area as a dormitory suburb was bringing an influx of different types of people, and Trevor developed a welcoming spirit in the congregations with an extensive network of small groups. He was also able to provide a sensitive ministry through the occasional services of marriages and funerals, which, far from being “occasional” occurred in a steady stream. In this setting Trevor also worked with a staff team, encouraging each to exercise diverse gifts and ministry interests, and releasing one to have a special focus on evangelism. In Camden God filled the Edwards’ quiver with a fourth son!

Increasingly his gifts of leadership were recognised and Trevor was called upon to be involved beyond his parish, especially in the Wollongong Anglican Regional Council, as Area Dean and as an active member of the Macarthur Anglican School Council. He was a member, and then chair of the Council of the Diocesan College of Preachers, and in 1993 became an Ordination Chaplain. During this period he also completed his Master of Theology degree with a special research focus on Anglican ecclesiology.

It was therefore a natural progression to accept the Archbishop’s invitation to become Archdeacon of South Sydney in 1996 and to work with Bishop Peter Watson. This entailed a move to the inner west of Sydney, with four sons, William, Gareth, Robin and Owen, ranging in age from fifteen to six. Trevor shared oversight of 52 parishes, offering pastoral care and support to the clergy and key lay leaders. He earned a reputation for fairness and understanding as he worked with a huge range of ecclesiastical traditions, placing new clergy in parishes, forwarding property and other ordinances through the Standing Committee of the diocese and dealing with sensitive personnel issues within the parishes. In particular Trevor concentrated effort in encouraging and resourcing the small parishes in the ethnically diverse area where he lived and where the traditional Anglican clientele was now a minority of the population. By strategic decisions and appointments, he encouraged the revitalisation of parishes and harmonious restructuring where this was needed. In addition he was the administrative lynch pin of the inaugural South Sydney Regional Council developing its operating systems from scratch.

From 1999 Trevor also had the major responsibility of being Archdeacon for Ordination, managing the selection process for those exploring ordained vocation. This role required multiple interviews of candidates, organization of selection conferences and of ordination preparation and retreats.

Connected with his diocesan role in Sydney, he was involved with a range of panels and committees, including being secretary of the Archbishop’s Liturgical Panel and Chair of the Committee on Clerical Tenure. For the National Church, Trevor has been a member of the General Synod since 1998, has served on the General Synod Standing Committee and its Executive, the Ministry Panel and the Ordained Ministry Working Group. He has been a member of the Constitutional Review Task Force since 1996.

With this background it was not surprising that those who had worked with him nominated him as a candidate in the Archbishop of Sydney election synod in 2001. A deficit of only seven votes in the House of Laity excluded him from the final list, so Trevor continued his multi-faceted roles under the new diocesan management. For several months he had the added responsibility of Acting Dean of the St Andrew’s Cathedral. However for various reasons he was also actively exploring new opportunities for ministry, and was nominated for a further two Episcopal elections having declined to stand for yet another two.

Towards the end of 2002, Trevor and Ruth were delighted to be approached by the parish of Wanniassa in Canberra to take up that ministry. The leaving of two adult sons in Sydney to complete university studies and bringing two secondary school age sons to the National Capital was accomplished in April 2003. All the family was pleased to welcome Jennifer when she married William in July 2003. Trevor felt almost immediately at home in Canberra. He could take up again the interest in the area started almost thirty years before, and delight in the freshness of the environment and a congregation keen to take up a fresh vision.

For Trevor it was both a new challenge in developing a vigorous congregation and also a renewal of his primary vocation in pastoral and preaching ministry. Bishop George’s decision to make him Archdeacon of South Canberra was a bonus, providing a continuing context to exercise a wider diocesan vision, which he had practised in Sydney. The warmth of the inclusive welcome by both St Matthew’s Wanniassa and the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn through its leaders, priests and laypeople has enabled Trevor to take up very strategic roles. He convenes an enthusiastic Evangelism Task Force focused on creating confidence in Christ across the whole diocese, and has been part of a focus group to develop strategies for growing new communities of faith within existing parishes and in new growth areas.

It is this work which will be focus of his energy as Assistant Bishop in the diocese, a role in which he is conscious that he needs not only the down-pouring of God’s Spirit, but also the prayers, enthusiasm and gifts of all Christ’s people in this Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn.