The Anglican Archbishop of Perth, Roger Herft, has announced he intends to retire a year earlier than planned.
The moves comes after the archbishop annouced in October he was stepping aside so he could “focus my attention” on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s “ongoing inquiry into the Diocese of Newcastle”. In August, appearing before the Royal Commission, he apologised to the people of Newcastle where he had served as a bishop between 1993 and 2005.
“I let them down badly,” the ABC reported him telling the commission. “Let down the survivors in a way that remorse itself is a very poor emotion to express.”
Archbishop Herft notified the Perth Diocesan Council on Thursday night that he intended to retire on 7th July, 2017, a year earlier than intended, and would take accrued leave until then.
In a statement the council thanked him for “his significant contribution to the Anglican Church of Australia and the wider Anglican Communion over 43 years of faithful ministry, and particularly as Archbishop of Perth since 2005”. They said a committee would meet in early 2017 to appoint a successor.
The Anglican Primate of Australia, Melbourne Archbishop Philip Freier also thanked the archbishop for his decades of service the significant contribution he had made in the dioceses and ministries in which he served.
“Just as I respected his decision in October this year to step aside as Archbishop of Perth so he could focus fully on the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse inquiry into the Newcastle diocese and his time as Bishop of Newcastle, so now I respect his decision to retire early,” Dr Freier said. “I wish Archbishop Herft and his wife Cheryl every blessing for the future.”