FOR the first time, the bishop of a non-metropolitan diocese has been elected Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia.

The Bishop of Canberra & Goulburn, Dr Mark Short, was elected last Saturday to succeed the current Primate, the Archbishop of Adelaide, the Most Revd Geoffrey Smith, (News, 16 May). Archbishop Smith’s resignation will take effect on 31 October. Dr Short will assume his duties on 1 November, while remaining Bishop of his diocese. After an initial term of six years, he could be re-elected for a further three.

All former Primates since the inception of the office in 1872 have been bishops or archbishops of the five metropolitan dioceses: Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth.

Bishop Short is also the first Evangelical Primate since Archbishop Marcus Loane retired in 1982. Bishop Short trained at Moore Theological College, Sydney, before ordination in Canberra & Goulburn. After serving in parishes, he became the national director of the Bush Church Aid Society of Australia, an Evangelical mission to the remote and isolated people of Australia, and held that post from 2011 until his present appointment in 2019. His doctorate (2004) is from the University of Durham.

A Sydney Evangelical blogger, John Sandeman, reports that Dr Short was one of two candidates before the Board of Electors, the other being the Bishop of Bendigo, in regional Victoria, Dr Matt Brain, who is also an Evangelical.

The current Australian metropolitans — Archbishops Kay Goldsworthy of Perth, Jeremy Greaves of Brisbane, and Kanishka Raffel of Sydney — were not candidates beyond the first ballot of all current diocesan bishops.

The Board of Electors has 12 clergy and 12 lay members. This includes current members of the House of Bishops.