29 August 2022
AD CLERUM
Dear sisters and brothers
God willing, on 2 February 2023 I will mark 21 years as Archbishop of Brisbane. I think that will be an appropriate time for the Diocese to begin seeking a new archbishop.
Therefore, pursuant to the Archbishop Election Canon s.2 I have today tendered to the Registrar my resignation as Archbishop of Brisbane to take effect from 5pm Thursday 2 February 2023.
I think a convenient time for me to lay up the pastoral staff will be when the diocesan family gathers in the Cathedral for the diocesan ordinations on Saturday 3 December 2022. I then plan to take a period of accrued long service leave and annual leave leading up to 2 February 2023, during which period the Diocese will be overseen by my Commissary.
It has been a unique privilege to serve as Archbishop of Brisbane. Thank you for your support, prayers and collegiality in the many tasks we have tackled together to take forward Christ’s mission in the Diocese and beyond. Some of this ministry has been difficult, painful and demanding. At other times we have been filled with peace and joy in Christ’s service. In it all there has been a pervading sense of God’s grace.
I am extremely proud of and filled with gratitude for the team of clergy and lay leaders who give so unstintingly of themselves in parishes, schools, Anglicare and other mission agencies. A great deal has been achieved over the last 20 years. Much more remains to be done in a new chapter.
This Diocese has a very important place in the Anglican Church of Australia. The vision we have embraced to foster, articulate, embody and promote a comprehensive Anglicanism has never been more important in the life of the national church and in the international Anglican Communion. May you all go from strength to strength in that mission.
I assure you all of my prayers for the future and in the search for my successor.
In Christ
The Most Reverend Dr Phillip Aspinall AC
Archbishop of Brisbane
