My Experience of being Anglican (a personal note) I occupy a privileged position in the Anglican Church of Australia as National Aboriginal Bishop. It is a position that I have held for 7 years. It is a great honour and blessing to be able to serve my people in that capacity. I have been a bishop for 8 years, a priest for 32, and a deacon for 33. I am also Dean of St Peter’s Cathedral, Tartanya (Red Kangaroo Place – Adelaide). I grew up in the Anglican Church but left the church and the faith in my early teenage years. I found my way back into the Christian faith through my wife Susan, then my girlfriend, when I was 17 years of age. It was quite a dramatic conversion and one that was transformational. Very few who knew me in my teenage years would have thought that I would become a bishop in the Anglican Church! Susan and her family were Baptist, and it was in that church that I spend my first years as a Christian. It was nurturing and formative. I never really felt at home in that setting, but I still regard the Baptist Church with deep affection. After marriage, Susan and I attended the local Anglican Church and it felt like a homecoming to me. What I loved then, and love now, was the ability of the Anglican Church to embrace diversity. I think that is the greatest gift we can offer as Anglicans. I also embrace the 18
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