THE chairman of the recently formed Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Australia) (FCA), the Ven. Dr Richard Condie, has been elected Bishop of Tasmania. Dr Condie is currently Archdeacon of Melbourne and Vicar of a large Melbourne Evangelical parish.

His election, after the retirement earlier this year of Bishop John Harrower, will be welcomed by conservative Evangelicals in Australia. A conservative blogger, the Revd David Ould, who is a rector in Sydney, has noted that Dr Condie’s election represents “a further strengthening of the conservative orthodox position in the House of Bishops”.

He quotes from Dr Condie’s speech at the inauguration of the FCA in Australia: “We need to be ready to stand with brothers and sisters who want to stand for truth in the face of error.”

Dr Condie is expected to be consecrated and installed in the first half of next year.

First Indonesian Anglican priest in Australia A FORMER Muslim, born in East Java, has become what is believed to be the first Indonesian Anglican priest in Australia.

The Revd Kuncoro Rusman, who became a Christian while studying at university in Melbourne, was ordained priest in Melbourne last weekend. Before becoming an Anglican, he was an ordained minister with Jemaat Kristen Indonesia, one of the three Mennonite Church synods in Indonesia.

Mr Rusman has been ministering to an Indonesian Anglican congregation — possibly the only one in Australia — that is part of a parish in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.