On 19 July 2025, the 18th Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia was elected. The Right Reverend Dr Mark Short, Bishop of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn, will serve as Primate alongside his current role. He takes up his new duties on 1 November 2025. Bishop Short graciously took some time to answer questions put to him by the WADR team to help people gain some insight into the new Primate. These answers are printed as given. Links have been added by us as explanatory aids for those outside the Australian Anglican church.
- How did you come to faith in Jesus?
I came to faith as a teenager, through a combination of members of my local Anglican church and Christian teachers at the Anglican High School I attended. In both instances it was not so much my peers who made an impact, as those who’d been faithfully following Jesus for many more years than I’d been alive.
- What drew you into Christian vocational ministry?
Monica and I settled in Canberra when we were first married. It was there that we were encouraged into vocational ministry, both through our experience of a healthy local church and a growing awareness of the needs and opportunities for service in the city and the bush.
- Who have been your role models in ministry and life?
When I first became a Christian my role model and mentor was a man in his 70’s. Alvin came of age in the Great Depression and never had the opportunity for formal education beyond primary school, but he was widely read, deeply thoughtful and faithfully prayerful. Friends who’d been in his bedroom said you could see two parallel grooves in the wooden floor by his bedside, worn away over years by his knees. Perhaps that’s what it means to really leave a mark in ministry ….
- What have been the most significant highlights of your ministry so far?
I look back with back particular gratitude to time spent pastoring a congregation in the rural village of Springdale (near Temora), the privilege of spending three years studying in Durham amongst Christians from across the world and the opportunity to see the diversity of God’s church during service with The Bush Church Aid Society.
- What particular concerns, goals and vision have characterised your ministry so far?
I’ve sought to encourage all God’s people to find their confidence in Christ, and engage God’s world with hope through truthful speech and loving action.
- What do you think you in particular bring to your new role as Primate?
I hope to draw on my experience of ministering in rural, regional and city contexts and with God’s help honour the example of those who’ve inspired me.
- What will most shape your term as Primate?
As always the future is in God’s hands not ours. I do expect the next few years to be a time of opportunity for sharing the good news of Jesus with a somewhat weary and fractured world. The recent Hope25 initiative shows what we can be accomplished when we do this together. We will also need to find new and creative ways to sustain and grow ministry in rural and regional areas, and ensure the voices of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sisters and brothers are rightfully and clearly heard within the life of our church.
- How can brothers and sisters in Christ best pray for you?
Pray that I might proclaim the gospel clearly as I have opportunity and be faithful to Jesus publicly and privately.
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