UPDATE Tuesday 2pm: Few people would say getting arrested is a professional highlight, but that is one of the more meaningful moments the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral remembers from his time in Bendigo.
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After six years in the city, the Very Reverend John Roundhill will leave Bendigo next year to become Bishop of the Southern Region in the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane.
Mr Roundhill recalls his 2014 arrest in Senator Bridget McKenzie’s office, during a protest with the Love Makes A Way movement advocating for refugees, was a significant event.
Charges of trespassing were brought against Mr Roundhill and other protesters, but were dismissed in court.
“For me that was a really important moment, when I realised my beliefs have to be translated into action,” he said. “I can’t just say I believe something, I’ve got to do what I believe.”
Mr Roundhill has been a vocal advocate on various social justice issues during his tenure.
He said his involvement in the Believe in Bendigo movement, a group promoting diversity in the city that was born from tensions surrounding the proposed mosque, had been another highlight.
With the Anglican congregation at the time having no church in which to worship, Mr Roundhill said it seemed natural they would support another group of faithful people seeking a place of their own to worship
The swell of people who joined the movement to say Bendigo was an open, tolerant community, had been an “amazing” thing to be part of, he said.
Perhaps the most tangible and visible legacy Mr Roundhill will leave behind when he departs Bendigo is the restored St Paul’s Cathedral.
When he became the dean of the cathedral in April 2012, the congregation worshipped in an adjacent hall; the cathedral reopened last June after seven years.
“That was a day of unadulterated joy,” Mr Roundhill said.
Of his move to Queensland, Mr Roundhill said he already knew the diocese well.
“The region I’m moving to has got a good number of churches to work with, and schools and other agencies, and that really interests me, this idea of actually not just being, in a sense, working inside church buildings, but actually working in communities,” he said.
But Mr Roundhill said he would miss living in Bendigo, including One Tree Hill, where he liked to run.
“But more than that it’s the people I go running with, a great running community, and in a sense beyond that, you might just say the community of Bendigo,” he said.
“I think we’ve got amazing possibilities here, amazing opportunities, there’s some great, great people in Bendigo.
“Just interacting with them is something I’ll really miss.”
EARLIER Tuesday: The Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in Bendigo, the Very Reverend John Roundhill, will be leaving Bendigo next year to take up a position as a bishop in Queensland.
In an announcement made to clergy last week, the Archbishop of Brisbane, the Most Reverend Phillip Aspinall, revealed Mr Roundhill had accepted a role as a bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane.
Mr Roundhill will become one of three bishops assisting Archbishop Aspinall.
He will fill the position left by the imminent departure of Bishop of the Southern Region, the Right Reverend Alison Taylor, and will be consecrated in St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane next April.
His new role will mean he will oversee the southern area of Queensland, which stretches from Brisbane to the New South Wales border.
Mr Roundhill became Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in April 2012, having relocated from Queensland.
He is well-known in Bendigo for his strong and vocal stance on several social issues, ranging from the treatment of refugees to marriage equality.
Anglican Bishop of Bendigo Andrew Curnow said Mr Roundhill had achieved “a great deal” in his time in Bendigo, and would be remembered and respected for his work under the Believe in Bendigo banner, strong community ties, and his overseeing of the restoration and reopening of St Paul’s Cathedral.
“He will be a great loss to both the cathedral and the city,” he said.
Mr Roundhill’s move to Queensland will mark a return to an old stomping ground: he has previously served as a rector, an area dean, and an archdeacon in Brisbane.
The Brisbane diocese covers 500,000 square kilometres, from Bundaberg in the north to Coolangatta in the south, and from the ocean to the borders of South Australia and the Northern Territory in the west.
With Bishop Curnow retiring this week, the task of finding a new dean for the cathedral will fall to the new bishop.
Natalie Croxon
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
