With the farewell of Rob Gillion the 10th bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Riverina and a permanent resident of Narrandera, the diocese’s 11th bishop will be elected from a synod held in March.

The permanent residence of the new bishop will be moved to Griffith next year and they will be joined by Michelle Catanzariti registrar and general manager for St. Albans Cathedral who will be moving from Narrandera also.

“It has been received very well throughout the diocese, nobody has been negative about it and I have heard people say that we should have done it years ago,” Dean of St. Albans Rob Harris said. 

“Historically the bishop started in the 1880s in Hay and then in the 1960s because of the movement of population and the economy to the seaboard, the bishop was placed in the Narrandera because there was a home given and that is where the Diocese has been based since 1960,” Minister Harris said. 

“The bishop is very much part of the province, the Anglican Church of Australia’s provincial standing committee is based in Sydney, with three flights a day it would be easier for them to fly to Sydney, time and money would be saved (on travel).

“I think the bishop has a better opportunity to engage with the community and have a higher profile being based in Griffith, there are many events that go on, local government and civic events, he would be far more well know in Griffith,” Minister Harris said.

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Minister Harris said he believes the new bishop being based in Griffith will mean they will engage in the worshipping life of the cathedral more often.

“(However) they will spend many weekends on the road going to Broken Hill and Narrandera,” Minister Harris said.

“Their role as an episcopal shepherd is to minister to all the diocese, much of their time will be on the road visiting all the 22 parishes. Our last bishop did 100,000 kilometers in 18 months.”

Diocese of Riverina communicant members now are being invited to nominate local clergy members as candidates to run for selection in next year’s synod election.

“What happens is that we have a bishop's nominations committee, we will bring two to three names like a short list and the House of Clergy and the House of Laity (in Sydney) will vote on who they want to have be bishop of the Riverina,” Minister Harris said.

“It’s based on the Westminster System, we need to get two thirds support in the House of Laity and two thirds in the House of Clergy to have the bishop elected.” 

Nomination information packs are available at St. Albans.

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