Peter Frederick Carnley (born 17 October 1937) is a retired Australian Anglican bishop and author. He was the
Archbishop of Perth from 1981 to 2005 and
Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia from 2000 until May 2005. He ordained the first women priests in Australia. In the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours list, he was appointed a
Companion of the Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...
. He is married to Ann Carnley.He also founded the school Peter Carnley Anglican Community School.
Education and teaching
Carnley was born in
New Lambton,
New South Wales
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, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
. He trained for ordination at
St John's College, Morpeth
St John's College, Morpeth, known colloquially as the "Poor Man's College, Armidale", was opened in Armidale in 1898 as a theological college to train clergy to serve in the Church of England in Australia. It moved to Morpeth in 1926 and closed ...
, and was ordained deacon in 1962 and priest in 1964. He studied in Australia at
Trinity College, Melbourne
Trinity College is the oldest residential college of the University of Melbourne, the first university in the colony of Victoria, Australia. The college was opened in 1872 on a site granted to the Church of England by the government of Victori ...
, and in England at
Emmanuel College and
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
, and became warden of
St John's College at the
University of Queensland
, mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work
, established =
, endowment = A$224.3 million
, budget = A$2.1 billion
, type = Public research university
, chancellor = Peter Varghese
, vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry
, city = B ...
, as well as lecturer in theology at the
University of Queensland
, mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work
, established =
, endowment = A$224.3 million
, budget = A$2.1 billion
, type = Public research university
, chancellor = Peter Varghese
, vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry
, city = B ...
, before becoming a bishop. As a lecturer in the 1970s he experimented with
Process Theology
Process theology is a type of theology developed from Alfred North Whitehead's (1861–1947) process philosophy, most notably by Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000), John B. Cobb (b. 1925) and Eugene H. Peters (1929-1983). Process theology and pr ...
. He holds many honorary doctorates and a Lambeth DD (2012) and is an honorary fellow of Trinity College (Melbourne), Emmanuel College (Cambridge) and St John's College (Cambridge).
Ordination of women
Carnley was consecrated a bishop on 26 May 1981 at
St George's Cathedral, Perth and installed there as
Archbishop of Perth and
Metropolitan of Western Australia in the same service. In the 1980s he supported the
ordination of women
The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordina ...
and, on 7 March 1992, he ordained the first women priests in the Anglican Church of Australia at
St George's Cathedral, Perth. His sermon on the occasion took as its reference an autobiographical piece by
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (; née Perkins; July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935), also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was an American humanist, novelist, writer, lecturer, advocate for social reform, and eugenicist. She w ...
entitled ''
The Yellow Wallpaper
"The Yellow Wallpaper" (original title: "The Yellow Wall-paper. A Story") is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in '' The New England Magazine''. It is regarded as an important early work ...
''. Carnley used Gilman's account of the self-destruction consequent on a "benignly prescribed, submissive, middle-class role" demanded of women in the 19th century to consider the "implications of the philosophy that women should "stay in their place, maintaining silence, concealing problems and repressing creativity". The yellow wallpaper of the title is what the imprisoned protagonist in Gilman's story peels off the walls as she goes mad. Carnley used it as a metaphor for the situation of the women who had been waiting to be allowed to become priests, saying: "Today, we are peeling away the sickly yellow, faded, silverfish-ridden wallpaper with which the church has surrounded itself and imprisoned women for centuries past in its benign and perhaps well-meaning determination to confine them by role."
Ecumenism
From 2004 he served as co-chair of the
Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
(ARCIC II) seeking greater unity between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. He served as distinguished visiting professor in systematic theology at the
General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City from 2010 to 2013.
In 2001, amid questions about the possibility of the church celebrating
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...
s, Carnley suggested that the church might be able to bless gay "friendships". Later, Carnley acknowledged that the consecration of American Bishop
Gene Robinson
Vicky Gene Robinson (born May 29, 1947) is a former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson was elected bishop coadjutor in 2003 and succeeded as bishop diocesan in March 2004. Before becoming bishop, he served as Canon to th ...
created controversy in the church, but predicted that the church would not be irreparably split over the issue.
Controversy
In ''The structure of resurrection belief'' Carnley outlines several different ways Christians frame their belief in the resurrection of Christ and the way the resurrection frames their faith. He explores notions of the resurrection as an historical event, as an eschatological event and as a non-event. He also explores the role of memory, presence and faith in believing in the resurrection.
When Carnley became the Australian primate, his views caused controversy with some, especially in the conservative Diocese of Sydney where Archbishop Harry Goodhew accused Carnley of breaching church doctrine and betraying the church's belief in the significance of the resurrection and of Jesus Christ himself. Others, including Phillip Jensen, Rector of St Matthias, Centennial Park in Sydney, objected to comments about how the Christian belief in the uniqueness of Christ had been misused to persecute people of other faiths. Some church leaders, especially within the Diocese of Sydney, called for a boycott of Carnley's installation as primate, but Archbishop Goodhew rejected such calls, which he said would be tantamount to severing relations with the rest of the church.
Carnley says he believes in the uniqueness of Christ: "I think Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, but that doesn't mean that other religions don't have any truth at all."
[Controversy over new Anglican primates views](_blank)
26 April 2000, 7.30 Report, abc.net.au. Retrieved on 1 August 2009.
He also says he has an Easter (or resurrection) faith in the real presence of the living Jesus:
"The Christian story, which pre-eminently transmits and celebrates the memory of Jesus and God’s revelatory deed in and through his life and death, should lead us beyond itself to a living encounter with the real presence of all that it celebrates and rehearses: him, whom by story we recall, we actually know as the living Spirit of the fellowship of faith." He also asserted that the resurrection is "the miracle of the Christian tradition".
Books
* ''The structure of resurrection belief'' (1993, c1987) Oxford,
xfordshire Clarendon Press
* ''The yellow wallpaper and other sermons'' (2001) Sydney, NSW: HarperCollins
* ''Reflections in glass: trends and tensions in the contemporary Anglican Church'' (2004) Pymble, NSW: HarperCollins
and a contributor to:
* ''Lost in translation? Anglicans, controversy and the Bible: perspectives from the Doctrine Commission of the Anglican Church of Australia'' (2004) edited by Scott Cowdell & Muriel Porter, Thornbury,
ictoria Desbooks
* ''A Kind of Retirement, More Sermons from Archbishop Peter Carnley'', Morning Star Publishing, Melbourne, 2016.
* Resurrection in Retrospect: A Critical Examination of the Theology of N. T. Wright, Cascade Books, Wipf and Stock, Eugene OR, 2019
* The Reconstruction of Resurrection Belief, Cascade Books, Wipf and Stock, Eugene OR, 2019
References
External links
Diocese of Perth website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carnley, Peter
1937 births
Living people
People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne)
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Primates of the Anglican Church of Australia
Anglican archbishops of Perth
20th-century Anglican archbishops
21st-century Anglican archbishops
Companions of the Order of Australia
Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge
General Theological Seminary faculty