Australian Anglican priest
Peta Sherlock (born Peta Robin Sproule) (1946-) is an Australian Anglican priest who was formerly Dean of the Anglican Diocese of Bendigo at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, Bendigo. She was one of the first women ordained as an Anglican deacon in 1986 then as an Anglican priest in 1992 and the first woman Dean of an Anglican diocese in Australia.
Personal life.
Peta Sproule married Charles Henry Sherlock in 1970. Charles calls her his "co-theologian". They have two sons, one of whom is Peter Sherlock.
Ministry and career.
Sherlock began her career as a school teacher, after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts at the Australian National University in 1968 and a Diploma of Education from the University of New South Wales in 1969. She began studying theology at Ridley College, Melbourne in the 1970s and graduated with a Bachelor of Theology in 1980. She began speaking publicly about the ordination of women in the Anglican church while at Ridley. In 1976, she was interviewed for a newspaper with fellow student Narelle Mitchell and tutor Barbara Darling. In 1977, the Doctrine Commission of the Anglican Church of Australia submitted a report to be debated at the General Synod which, among other recommendations, stated that "There are no theological objections to the admission of women to the diaconate and to the priesthood, or the consecration of women to the episcopate." There were letters for and against the report in church media including "Australian Church Record". Sherlock wrote two letters, one responding to a letter from Fred Nile and one responding to an editorial column, saying that both had misrepresented the majority report and the arguments of people who called for the ordination of women, and in the case of the editorial, pointed out it had argued against the historic creeds of the church.
Sherlock met Patricia Brennan, future President/Co Convenor of Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW), at the National Evangelical Anglican Congress in 1981. The ordination of women was discussed in workshops at that conference and a suggestion was put to the Congress to debate the motion "Anglican Evangelicals believe that there are no fundamental theological objections to the ordination of women to the priesthood." Sherlock became National Secretary of MOW 1992–1994.
Ordination.
Sherlock was ordained deacon on Ascension Day, 30 May 1986 in the first group of women ordained deacons Australia-wide, and the second group of women to be ordained deacons in Melbourne. She served as a school chaplain at Firbank Grammar School 1986–88, Assistant Curate at Ridley 1988-89 and Chaplain at Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School 1990–91.
In 1992, Sherlock was ordained as a priest by Keith Rayner (then Anglican Primate of Australia) in St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne and granted permission to officiate 1991–92. Sherlock was one of the ninety-three women ordained or licensed as priests for the first time in the Anglican Church in Australia.
Later career.
Subsequently, Sherlock was appointed Priest-in-Charge, St Andrew's, Clifton Hill with St Luke's, North Fitzroy 1992-01 during which time she was also Area Dean Melbourne City 2000–01. She published three commentaries on the lectionary, "Inside The Sunday Gospels" (1994–96) to accompany the new "A Prayer Book for Australia". She had written papers for the General Synod Liturgical Commission which revised the prayer book for the Australian Anglican Church in 1994 (adopted by General Synod and published in 1995).
From 2001 to 2003, Sherlock was Incumbent of St John's, Heidelberg and Incumbent Banyule parish 2003. In this period, she was also Archdeacon of La Trobe 2001–05. She was awarded a Doctor of Ministry Studies by the Melbourne College of Divinity (now the University of Divinity) in 2004.
In 2005, Sherlock said this about the Bible and women: "If we truly believe 2 Timothy 3:16, 'All Scripture is useful', then we will not make prejudgments about which parts of Scripture are more useful than others. We will read the lot. I have read the lot at least once in my life and can testify that reading everything the Bible had to say about women set me free."
In 2003, and again in 2006, there was media discussion about the possibility of Sherlock (along with other women) being appointed the first woman bishop in the Anglican Church in Australia. None of the women were made bishop at that time. Subsequently, in 2008 Kay Goldsworthy became the first female bishop (Assistant Bishop consecrated in Perth on 22 May) then Barbara Darling, Bishop for Diocesan Ministries in Melbourne on 31 May.
Sherlock became Dean of the Anglican Diocese of Bendigo and Incumbent of St Paul's Cathedral in 2006 until her retirement in 2011. From 2009, because of potential for the roof to collapse and the stained glass windows to break, she had to supervise the closure of the cathedral and reconstruction of the roof and hold services in the church hall. Sherlock said that the outcome of meeting in the hall was that the clergy were closer to the people in the congregation and people in the congregation also became closer to each other.
Retirement.
After retirement, Sherlock moved to Trentham, Victoria where she became a local historian. Having received permission to officiate again in the Diocese of Bendigo, in 2012 and 2013 she was locum rector for Kyneton Anglican church and St Mary's Anglican church, Woodend.
In 2012, Sherlock published an essay about her time as a deacon, priest and dean, "Twenty years a priest: To desire God". She said that when women were first ordained some chose to stay outside church structures but she decided to remain inside and be an agent of change. In that essay she summed up her leadership in ministry, "...the ministry of a congregation is not determined by its clergy but can be gathered by its constituents...I try to look at who is there and what gifts are available, and that will tell me what our main focus should be...If I had to summarise my ministry, it is to enable others (and whole churches) to get about the ministry God has for them...I am not afraid to take up the authority of being a priest, but there is more to leadership than telling people what to think and what to do. My main task is to do theology...And I teach others to do theology too, to seek God in all things."
References.
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