John Michael Austin (14 March 193917 August 2007) was the

Bishop of Aston The Bishop of Aston is an Episcopal polity, episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Birmingham, Diocese of Birmingham, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after Aston, an ...

from 1992 to 2005, filling a post which had been vacant since the previous incumbent Colin Buchanan resigned in 1989. After Austin the post again remained vacant for three years until the

Diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

announced the appointment of Andrew Watson to fill the post In retirement, he served the

Diocese of Leicester The Diocese of Leicester is a Church of England diocese based in Leicester and including the current county of Leicestershire. The cathedral is Leicester Cathedral, where the Bishop of Leicester has his episcopal chair. The diocese is divided int ...

as stipendiary assistant bishop — called

Assistant Bishop of Leicester The Bishop of Leicester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Leicester in the Province of Canterbury. Through reorganisation within the Church of England, the Diocese of Leicester was refounded in 1927, and St Martin's Church ...

— from 2005 until 2007.GS 2052 — Creation of suffragan see for the Diocese of Leicester
p. 8, paragraphs 3 and 4 (Accessed 28 January 2017) Austin was educated at

Worksop College Worksop College (formerly St Cuthbert's College) is a British co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils aged 13 to 18, in Worksop. It sits at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire, England. Founded ...

and

St Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university ...

(proceeding Oxford Master of Arts ). He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

in 1965 and began his ordained ministry with a

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

at St John the Evangelist's

East Dulwich East Dulwich is an area of South East London, England in the London Borough of Southwark. It forms the eastern part of Dulwich, with Peckham to the east and Camberwell to the north. This South London suburb was first developed in the nineteen ...

. He then held positions in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Walworth Walworth () is a district of south London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. It adjoins Camberwell to the south and Elephant and Castle to the north, and is south-east of Charing Cross. Major streets in Walworth include the Old ...

before becoming the ''Social Responsibility Adviser'' to the

Diocese of St Albans The Diocese of St Albans forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England and is part of the wider Church of England, in turn part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese is home to more than 1.6 million people and comprises the hi ...

. Appointed the Director of the London Diocesan Board for Social Responsibility in 1984, he was a committed campaigner for social justice.Birmingham Mail
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References

Sources

Guardian obituaryBirmingham diocese obituary
, - 1939 births People educated at Worksop College Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford 20th-century Church of England bishops 21st-century Church of England bishops Bishops of Aston Assistant bishops of Leicester (1987–2017) Officers of the Order of the British Empire 2007 deaths {{ChurchofEngland-bishop-stub