Biographical
note from the Order of Service for the
Service of Consecration
(From 2 February 2008 Bishop
Allan as Vicar-General has been
Administrator of the Diocese pending the
election of a new Diocesan Bishop)
Allan and Tricia were born just three days apart in late 1951, they were friends at school, they were friends who met whilst working in London and having become more than friends they married in 1972. As Allan explains, “The first time we met was at the age of 13, so 2004 will mark the fortieth anniversary of our first encounter! We know so much of each other’s life – but never everything – and have been blessed with a great marriage now moving into 32 years together.”
Having left school a little early Allan trained as an Accountant, whilst Tricia worked in local government and in a local government union. The arrival of two sons, Robert and James in 1976 and 1978 brought about many changes, not least of which was the decision in 1980 to seek a new life in a place never visited before, Australia.
Allan found a job with BHP and worked for seven months in Melbourne before spending four years in Tasmania. Whilst in Melbourne Allan made a reconnection with the Church, having had no in-depth contact since the end of Sunday School 17 years earlier. A brief but very positive experience in an Anglican church in Melbourne set the family for extensive involvement in a small Tasmanian parish.
The Tasmanian years were a great experience and challenge, with Tricia commencing her scientific study and Allan succeeding as an Accountant and searching for something more. In 1985 Tricia, Allan, Robert and James arrived in Canberra; Tricia to study medical laboratory science and Allan theology.
Allan completed his studies in 1987, achieving the highest marks for that year in the Australian College of Theology (at that time the ACT covered all of the major Anglican theological colleges, including Moore College in Sydney and Ridley College in Melbourne.) He was ordained Deacon at St Saviour’s Cathedral in Goulburn at the end of 1987, and Priest twelve months later.
After nearly two years as Assistant in the Parish of Holy Covenant in Canberra the family moved to the town of Holbrook, where Allan was Rector. Tricia worked in the almost nearby Albury Base Hospital. Allan comments again, “Holbrook was a very special time for us, after all of the turmoil of the previous ten years we began to feel at home; it was in Holbrook that we became Australian citizens, welcomed into the community at a beautiful ceremony by the creek early in the morning on Australia Day 1993.”
Batemans Bay presented a new kind of challenge, with Robert and James living at school in Canberra, and Tricia and Allan experienced a premature ‘empty nest.’ This coastal parish brought together Anglicans from various traditions. It was an opportunity to value the insights that each tradition brought and the complexity of community that resulted.
In 1996 Allan was invited to become the Rector of St John’s in Canberra and Archdeacon of North Canberra. The ministry of St John’s is multi-faceted, with a large number of different congregations and community expectations. St John’s is a place of rich ministry within diverse relationship. It is also a parish where the next visitor may be a tourist, a homeless person looking for food, a member of the Canberra community seeking a place of prayer and hope, or someone seeking to organize a service for the Queen, or the Governor-General or for some other formal event.
The eight years at St John’s have been significant for the family, with milestones of anniversaries, birthdays, a son marrying and the birth of a grandson. Allan reflects, “For the first time in more than thirty years we lived in a house for more than four years, we saw our sons become young adults and begin their own deep relationships and careers, and we are enjoying the changing relationships that are being forged with them.”
On a diocesan level Allan has been part of Bishop-in-Council since 1991, a member of the Property Trust since 1996, and more recently a board member at St Peter’s Anglican College on the coast. Whilst in Holbrook he was Convenor of the Rural Church Division for some years. As Allan explains, “What I have valued most in my diocesan ministry has been the opportunity to offer insights on the whole life of the Church. My energy is really people focused and I gain great blessing from preaching and talking to individuals about what they believe.”
During the last few years Allan has been a student within the Doctor of Ministry program offered by the San Francisco theological Seminary. His concluding thesis, now ‘on hold’, is on the relationship between experience and faith in the Australian context.
Another aspect of Allan’s ministry has been his understanding of financial matters. As he explains, “The financial thing is like an ability to speak a particular language - once you can speak you can interpret for others.”
Allan’s consecration as Bishop in St Saviour’s Cathedral makes him the first person to be ordained Deacon, Priest and Bishop in Goulburn. His appointment as Regional Bishop of the Wagga Wagga region takes him to a region he knows well, and is in many ways the place where he discovered he was irretrievably a person of this land.
A final comment from Allan, “I have been greatly blessed by the many people who have been part of the forming that has brought me to this place and time; I have been profoundly changed by Christ and it is this grace that makes me believe that the future will be blessing.” |
