Sydney diocese is voting in a new Archbishop next year. We imagine the Archbishopric as an old mans job, but this is a fairly recent phenomena. Here's the age that each of the Archbishops of Sydney (or equivalent*) were appointed to the role -
William Broughton 41
Frederic Barker 46
Alfred Barry 57
Saumarez Smith 54
John Wright 48
Howard Mowll 43
Hugh Gough 54
Marcus Loane 55
Donald Robinson 60
Harry Goodhew 62
Peter Jensen 58
As the years pass, there is definitely a trend towards older. The average age of the first 6 men was 48 - the average age of the last 5 was 58! Is this a good thing? Have we robbed ourselves of the peculiar virtues that a younger man might bring to the role? Worth thinking about as the election approaches.
* Smith was the first with the title "Archbishop of Sydney". Broughton was initially "Archdeacon of NSW", and Barker, Barry and Smith (at first) were "Bishop of Sydney". I'm treating all these as roughly equivalent roles.
Posted by
Craig Schwarze
10 comments:
That's really interesting. Although it would be interesting to see if retirement age has risen by 10 years or even life expectancy. Both have their advantages.
Hey Craig,
re-run your analysis for the other significant appointment next year: Principal of Moore College and the trend you have identified here is even more stark!
Andrew, I reckon that is probaby true. But the aging of the Archbishop is an unintended consequence, then. Maybe time to challenge that.
Geoff, I don't have figures for Moore College Principals - do you know where I could get them?
I don't have a Yearbook or SydAng history to hand: but off the top of my head:
i) Marcus Loane was early to mid-forties
ii) DBK might have been 38 or 39 , but lets say 40
iii) PFJ was 42
iV) JWW was 53 or 54?
Nathaniel Jones was only 34
Marcus was 42 when made Principal.. had been Vice principal for several years previous to that.
TC Hammond is the exception - brought out from Ireland in his 50s.
Whichever way you look at it, for more than a decade, the Principalship of Moore College has been 'no Country for Old Men" :)
should have read: "more than a century"
Theres a table here: http://www.australianchurchrecord.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/acr-1905-june-2012.pdf
Post a Comment