Anglican Communion News Service

The head of the Anglican Church in Australia, Archbishop Peter Carnley, has announced that he will step down as Archbishop of Perth and Primate of Australia in May 2005.

Dr Carnley was appointed Archbishop of Perth in 1981 and will retire on the 24th anniversary of his consecration and installation. Born in 1937, Archbishop Carnley will be retiring at the age of 67 and a half, two years before the compulsory retiring age for clergy in the Diocese of Perth. Dr Carnley's last official engagements will be in February 2005, after which he will take accumulated leave.

His announcement was made in a letter sent on 6 January to all members of the governing bodies of the Diocese of Perth, all Australian bishops and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Dr Carnley said that by announcing his retirement over a year before it takes effect, he was providing the opportunity for his successor to be appointed and to take up the position with little or no interruption.

Photo: Jim Rosenthal / Anglican World

Speaking of his time as Archbishop, Dr Carnley said that it had been 'an enormous privilege to have exercised the ministry of a bishop in the Diocese of Perth with its lively mix of richly diverse worshipping communities, and educational and welfare institutions of such self-evident calibre.'

"Ann and I have always felt greatly blessed to have been invited to come and live in this beautiful city: our family has flourished here," Dr Carnley said. "Naturally, there have been some ups and downs, but generally speaking the downs have been few, and overshadowed by far by the positively life-giving and good things that we have experienced.

"All the while I have had an overriding sense of the operation of the Grace of God, of the sheer human goodness of those who are baptised into Christ, and of the sustained goodwill and prayerful support of the faithful people of the Diocese."

Dr Carnley's position as head of the Anglican Church in Australia, and therefore as a member of the leadership group of the world-wide Anglican Communion, will be determined in 2005. All Australia's diocesan bishops and an equivalent number of Anglican lay and clergy representatives will meet to elect his successor.

Reflecting on his diocesan achievements, Dr Carnley spoke of the absence of factionalism in the Diocese as allowing him, with the people and clergy, to focus on more tangible expressions of the Gospel, such as the development of a 'new generation' of inclusive, low-fee Anglican community schools.

"We opened the first of five such schools in 1986 and they have become a model for similar Anglican schools in all Australian States and Territories."

"My fondest memories, however, will be those of the Church's Eucharistic worship, from the glimpse of heaven on earth at great Cathedral occasions to smaller but no less authentic anticipations of the messianic banquet in gatherings of parish communities, whether in the city or in remote sub-centres in the country. The scale of an Anglican worshipping community, where people can really know and support and care for one another, is one of our very great strengths."

Dr Carnley and his wife Ann will retire to their property in the south west of West Australia where they will enjoy some tranquil time and space together in the Western Australian bush, catch up on some reading, write a little, garden and - above all - enjoy their grandchildren.