Robert William Stanley Mercer CR (born 10 January 1935) is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest in England. Formerly an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

, he was the fourth Bishop of Matabeleland in

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

, a diocese of the

Church of the Province of Central Africa The Church of the Province of Central Africa is part of the Anglican Communion, and includes 15 dioceses in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Primate of the Church is the Archbishop of Central Africa. Albert Chama is the current archbi ...

, a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...

. Since 2012 he has been a priest in the

Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales is a personal ordinariate in the Latin Church of the Catholic Church immediately exempt, being directly subject to the Holy See. It is within the territory of the Catholic ...

, a

personal ordinariate A personal ordinariate for former Anglicans, shortened as personal ordinariate or Anglican ordinariate,"Bishop Stephen Lopes of the Anglican Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter..." is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church establis ...

for former Anglicans within the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in the United Kingdom.

Early life and education

Mercer was educated at

Grey High School Grey High School is a State school, semi-private English-medium high school (grades 8 to 12) for boys situated in the suburb of Mill Park in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the top sporting schools in the coun ...

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

and St Paul’s Theological College, Grahamstown.

Ordained ministry

Anglican

Ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

as a

deacon 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 Cathol ...

in 1959 and as a

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 ...

a year later, 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 ...

at Hillside,

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; ) is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council claimed it to be about ...

. After time at St Teilo’s

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, ; , 'Merlin's fort' or possibly 'Sea-town fort') is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community (Wales), community in Wales, lying on the River Towy north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. At the 2021 United Kingdom cen ...

, he returned to his homeland. In 1970, he was deported from South Africa because of his stand against

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

, specifically for running, with other Anglican clerics, a multi-racial parish at

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University (SU) (, ) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Sahara ...

. He was then

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

of St Augustine's School, Penhalonga and then rector of

Borrowdale, Harare Borrowdale is a residential suburb in the north of Harare, Zimbabwe, which ranks among the most affluent and prestigious residential areas in the country. It forms part of the Northeast suburbs of the city of Harare, with a population of 28,929 ...

. Mercer was ordained as a

Matabeleland Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi ...

in 1977 and served in the midst of a civil war. From 1988 until his retirement in 2005 he was the

metropolitan bishop In Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), is held by the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a Metropolis (reli ...

of the

Anglican Catholic Church of Canada The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) () is a Continuing Anglican church that was founded in 1979 by traditional Anglicans who had separated from the Anglican Church of Canada. The ACCC has fifteen parishes and missions; with two bishops a ...

. Though retired to England, he remained a member of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada's house of bishops until January 2012.

Roman Catholic

On 7 January 2012, Mercer was received into the

as a member of the

at St Agatha's Church, Landport. On 27 March 2012, he was ordained a Catholic priest by Bishop

Alan Hopes Alan Stephen Hopes (born 17 March 1944) is a British Roman Catholic prelate and former Anglican priest. From 2013 to 2022 he served as the Bishop of East Anglia. He was previously appointed as an auxiliary bishop of Westminster in 2003. Early ...

in the

Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Portsmouth The Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist (also known as St John's Cathedral) is a Catholic Church, Roman Catholic cathedral in Portsmouth, England. It is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth, Portsmouth diocese and ...

. On 21 June 2012 it was announced that he had been elevated to the rank of

Chaplain of His Holiness Chaplain of His Holiness is a title of distinction given by the Pope in recognition of a priest's service to the Church. They are addressed with the honorific of "Monsignor" and have certain privileges with respect to ecclesiastical dress and ve ...

, entitling him to the title of

monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

. Despite becoming an ordained member of the Roman Catholic Church, Mercer continues to be a member of the Anglican

Community of the Resurrection The Community of the Resurrection (CR) is an Anglican religious community for men in England. It is based in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, and has 14 members as of April 2023. The community reflects Anglicanism in its broad nature and is strongl ...

and to live in accommodation in Worthing purchased for him by that community.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mercer, Robert William Stanley 1935 births Anglican bishops of Matabeleland 20th-century Anglican bishops in Africa Bishops of Continuing Anglicanism Anglican monks Living people Anglo-Catholic bishops Anglican bishop converts to Roman Catholicism 21st-century British Roman Catholic priests English Anglo-Catholics People of the personal ordinariates Alumni of Grey High School