Gary Neville Nelson (born 15 May 1952) is an Australian Anglican bishop who served as Bishop of North West Australia (the largest diocese in geographical size in the Anglican Church of Australia, covering approximately a quarter of the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

) from 26 May 2012 to 15 May 2022.

Early life

He grew up in

Western Sydney Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that ...

and trained as a teacher at

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. He spent two years with his wife in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

as missionary teachers.

Ministry

He was

assistant 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 ass ...

Dapto Dapto is a suburb of Wollongong in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the western side of Lake Illawarra and covering . As at the , the suburb had a population of 10,954. History The name Dapto is said to be an Abor ...

and later rector of

Panania Panania (), a suburb of local government area City of Canterbury-Bankstown, is located 23 kilometres inner south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the South-western Sydney ...

. Nelson served as Director of External Studies at

Moore Theological College Moore Theological College, otherwise known simply as Moore College, is the theological training seminary of the Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia. The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney holds ''ex officio'' the presidency of t ...

from 2006 until his appointment as Bishop of North West Australia in 2012. Nelson stated that in the event that

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

was legalised in Australia, if he believes that

religious freedom Freedom of religion or religious liberty, also known as freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice ...

is not adequately protected, he will refuse to register any marriages. Nelson retired from the role of bishop on 15 May 2022, on reaching the retirement age of 70 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Gary 1952 births 21st-century Anglican bishops in Australia Moore Theological College alumni Clergy from Sydney University of Sydney alumni Anglican bishops of North West Australia Living people Evangelical Anglican bishops