BISHOP Keith Rayner, who was archbishop of two metropolitan Australian dioceses, and Primate, has died in Adelaide, aged 95.

Dr Rayner, a theologian who strongly supported the ordination of women, led the Church through the debate on women’s ordination in the 1980s and early 1990s, presiding over the 1992 General Synod that finally permitted the ordination of women priests.

In 1995, he again presided at a difficult General Synod meeting, at which the second modern Australian Prayer Book, A Prayer Book for Australia, was approved. Despite the efforts of that Synod under his leadership, however, including the acceptance of a range of amendments to the book to make it acceptable to the diocese of Sydney, the book is not approved for use in the diocese.

Ordained in Brisbane diocese in 1953, Dr Rayner served in chaplaincy and parish ministry before his consecration as Bishop of Wangaratta, in rural Victoria, in 1969. From there, he became Archbishop of Adelaide in 1975, before his election as Archbishop of Melbourne in 1990, following the early death of the previous Archbishop, Dr David Penman. He was also Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia from 1991 until his retirement on his 70th birthday, as required by diocesan legislation, in November 1999.

In the wider Anglican Communion, Dr Rayner chaired the new Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission established by the Anglican Consultative Council in 1980, and, after his retirement, served on the committee reviewing the See of Canterbury in 2000-01.

The current Primate and Archbishop of Adelaide, the Most Revd Geoffrey Smith, said that Dr Rayner’s life “was one of service to God’s Church, marked by wisdom and grace, and fuelled with prayer”.

Obituary to follow