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

Early life and career

Born in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, New Zealand, on 8 August 1936, Penman received his secondary education at

Hutt Valley High School Hutt Valley High School is a State school, state coeducational secondary school located in central Lower Hutt, New Zealand. A total of students from Years 9 to 13 (ages 12 to 18) attend the school as of making the school one of the largest ...

, and studied Physical Education as part of teacher training at Wellington Teachers' College (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 Reginald Herbert Owen (25 May 1887 – 24 February 1961) was an Oxford don, public school headmaster and Anglican bishop. Life and career Born on 25 May 1887 he was educated at Dulwich College and Wadham College, Oxford. Alternating between s ...

, and entered theological training at

College House (University of Canterbury) College House is a hall of residence at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Founded originally in 1850 as a collegiate for young men alongside Christ's College, it became a residential college for the then Canterbury Co ...

, and the

University of New Zealand A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. He was ordained deacon in 1961 and

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

in 1962. His first post was as a

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

Wanganui Whanganui, also spelt Wanganui, is a list of cities in New Zealand, city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest nav ...

from 1961 to 1964, followed by a decade of

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

work in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. In 1972, he completed a PhD in Sociology at the

University of Karachi The University of Karachi (; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (which is ...

. In 1975 he was appointed

Principal Principal may refer to: Title or rank * Principal (academia), the chief executive of a university ** Principal (education), the head of a school * Principal (civil service) or principal officer, the senior management level in the UK Civil Ser ...

of St Andrew's Hall a

Church Mission Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...

missionary training college in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. He returned to New Zealand in 1979, where he was Vicar of All Saints' Church in Palmerston North.

Archbishop of Melbourne

In 1982 he became a

bishop coadjutor A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

in the Diocese of Melbourne before becoming the archbishop two years later. Though remaining strongly Evangelical, he was passionately committed to dialogue between religious traditions. He ordained the first women to the

diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

in Melbourne in 1986 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. 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 Sir Terence Hardy Waite (born 31 May 1939) is a British human rights activist and author. Waite was the Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in the 1980s. As an envoy for the Church of ...

, the personal envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and several other western hostages.

Death and legacy

On 24 July 1989, after returning home from the Tokyo

World Conference on Religion and Peace The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

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 St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Melbourne, Australia. It is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Melbourne and the seat of the Archbishop of Melbourne, who is also the metropolitan archbishop of the Province of Victoria. ...

on 6 October 1989.Funeral details

References

1936 births 20th-century Anglican archbishops Anglican archbishops of Melbourne Assistant bishops in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne 1989 deaths People educated at Hutt Valley High School {{Australia-anglican-bishop-stub