In this faith community we seek to reflect the all-inclusive hospitality of God and welcome the Spirit of Jesus Christ present in all peoples, experiences and places.
 

 LOCUM-TENENS

BISHOP IAN GEORGE AO

  The bishop was born in Adelaide.  Educated at St Peters College University of Adel where he graduated with a law degree in 1956 after 5 years in practice as barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of SA he was accepted as a candidate for ordination in the diocese of Adelaide and was the first Australian sent to the General Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated M.Div in 1964.  His thesis was entitled “The relationship between the Spiritual Experience and the Aesthetic Experience”.  His DD was conferred in 1989. He was ordained Deacon and Priest by the Bishop of New York and served for 18 months in a parish in the Diocese before returning to Adelaide late in 1965.  He served an assistant curacy in Adelaide and then became Priest in Charge and Australian Regular Army chaplain in Woomera.  During those years he was also art critic for the original Murdoch paper  “The News” in Adelaide.  In 1969 he became Sub-Warden and Chaplain of St George’s College University of WA and part-time lecturer and tutor in history.  In 1973 he became Dean of Brisbane where he became Actors’ Church Union chaplain, Senior Chaplain for the First Military District, a Trustee of the Queensland Art Gallery, and deputy president of the Queensland Festival of the Arts.  He was founding president of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Foundation of Queensland.  He lectured at the University of Queensland on the arts and spirituality.  During that time he was elected to General Synod and its Standing Committee, began 16 years on the Liturgical Commission, and served on various school boards and university councils.  In 1981 he moved to Canberra as Arch-Deacon of Canberra and Rector of St John’s Church, Reid.  He acted as secretary of the Anglican National Centre Project, chaired the Council of St. Mark’s library and theological college, taught liturgy at the College, and chaired the Bishop’s Appeal for Anglicare.  In 1989 he became Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn and in 1991 was elected Archbishop of Adelaide.  During that time he chaired the General Synod International Affairs Commission, the Refugee Working Group.  In 1997 he was appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury as chairman of the Anglican Communion Migrant and Refugee Network and continued in the role until 2006.  He retired in 2004 and has since been a visiting lecturer at the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria where he recently lectured on William Blake’s illustrations for Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. 

He is married to Barbara, who was a New Yorker, and has a daughter Sarah living in Melbourne and four grand-children.