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Peter Jensen
Archbishop of Sydney
See	Sydney
Enthroned	2001
Reign ended	incumbent
Predecessor	Richard Goodhew
Successor	incumbent
Consecration	29 June 2001
Personal details
Born	11 July 1943(1943-07-11) Sydney

Peter Jensen (born 11 July 1943), is the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, and Metropolitan of the Province of New South Wales.

[edit] Early life and ministry

Jensen was born in Sydney and educated at Bellevue Hill Public School and The Scots College. After completing his Leaving Certificate he studied law for two years and worked as an articled clerk before he moved into primary school teaching. He entered Moore Theological College in the late 1960s and won the Hey Sharp prize for coming first in the Licenciate of Theology, the standard course of study at that time. He also has a Master of Arts degree from Sydney University, a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the University of London, and a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree from the University of Oxford. His 1976 master's dissertation was entitled "Calvinism and the Persecution of the Witches in England (1563–1604)" and his 1979 doctoral dissertation was entitled "The Life of Faith in the Teaching of Elizabethan Protestantism".

Jensen was appointed Principal of Moore College in 1985 and lectured in systematic and biblical theology during that time. He gained a reputation as a gifted preacher^{[citation needed]} and was often seen at the annual Katoomba Christian Conventions.

On 5 June 2001, Jensen became the 11th Archbishop of Sydney. He was consecrated on St Peter's Day, 29 June 2001. He called upon all churches in the Sydney diocese to aim to reach 10% of their communities by 2012. He encouraged an unprecedented increase in church planting with more than 60 new congregations started between 2002 and 2005 and a 30% increase in candidates for Anglican ministry over the same period.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Views

Peter Jensen has a gained a reputation with the Australian media for being an outspoken advocate for evangelical Christianity. He has spoken out on issues as diverse as stem cell research and industrial relations from a conservative evangelical perspective.

One controversial area in which Jensen has been far from conservative has been his advocacy of 'lay administration', allowing lay people to lead Holy Communion services. This reflects his view that the ministry of word and sacrament belong together and, also, that as lay people have long been permitted to preach in the Sydney diocese it is thought they ought to be permitted to lead communion services. This view however, is not shared by most Anglicans[1].

In late 2007, Archbishop Jensen was one of the founding members of the Global Anglican Future Conference which was held in June 2008, one month prior to the Lambeth Conference.^[1]

Jensen was accused of nepotism after appointing his wife and his brother to official positions in the Sydney diocese.[2] Peter Jensen, however, did not take part in the final secret ballot to appoint his brother as dean.

[edit] Publications

Jensen has written a number of books on Christian doctrine including At the Heart of the Universe (1991) and The Revelation of God (2002). In November and December 2005 he also delivered the prestigious Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Boyer Lectures on the topic "The Future of Jesus". These lectures have subsequently been published as a book.

[edit] See also

• Sydney Anglicans
• Phillip Jensen (brother)

[edit] References