David Penman

David John Penman (8 August 1936 – 1 October 1989) was the 10th Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne.

Early life and career[edit]

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 8 August 1936, Penman received his secondary education at Hutt Valley High School, and studied Physical Education as part of teacher training at Wellington Teachers' College^[1] (now a part of the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Education). He was accepted as a candidate for ordination by Archbishop Reginald Herbert Owen, and entered theological training at College House (University of Canterbury),^[2] and the University of New Zealand.

He was ordained deacon in 1961 and priest in 1962.^[3] His first post was as a curate at Wanganui from 1961 to 1964, followed by a decade of missionary work in Pakistan and the Middle East. In 1972, he completed a PhD in Sociology at the University of Karachi.^[4]

In 1975 he was appointed Principal of St Andrew's Hall a Church Mission Society missionary training college in Melbourne. He returned to New Zealand in 1979, where he was Vicar of All Saints' Church in Palmerston North.

Archbishop of Melbourne[edit]

In 1982 he became a bishop coadjutor in the Diocese of Melbourne before becoming the archbishop two years later.^[5] Though remaining strongly Evangelical, he was passionately committed to dialogue between religious traditions. He ordained the first women to the diaconate in Melbourne in 1986^[6] and was also a supporter of women's ordination to the priesthood in the Anglican church, proposing canons on this issue at three successive General Synods.^[4][7]

He was a member of the first Australian Palliative Care Council, President of the Australian Council of Churches, Patron of the National AIDS Trust and a member of the Australian National Council on AIDS. On his way to Britain for the 1988 Lambeth Conference he undertook a highly secretive detour to Iran in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to secure the release of Terry Waite, the personal envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and several other western hostages.^{[citation needed]}

Death and legacy[edit]

On 24 July 1989, after returning home from the Tokyo World Conference on Religion and Peace and the Lausanne Evangelical Congress in Manila, where he delivered a series of Bible studies, he suffered a severe heart attack. He was kept on life-support in Melbourne's St Vincent's hospital, but although he regained consciousness, he died on 1 October 1989. He was 53. His state funeral service was held at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne on 6 October 1989.^[8]

References[edit]

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