President’s Christmas message to VAT members
Dear members and friends
Victorian Anglicans Together join in extending to Archbishop Ric Thorpe and his wife Louie a warm welcome and best wishes for his episcopal ministry in the diocese.
At the service of Installation on 30 November 2025, he summarised the priorities for the diocese: prayer, mission, church planting, developing leaders, and schools.
It is, as the Archbishop has said, a new season for the diocese. Victorian Anglicans Together seeks to proclaim the Good News in word and deed, in a way that engages all people in their diversity.
We look forward to working constructively in this ministry:
Offering support where we can to parishes and their representatives facing the challenges that will arise
Bringing relevant news and developments to the attention of members and friends
Encouraging fellowship and discussion among our members and friends on issues of importance, including parish revitalisation
Preparing for next year’s synod, offering support and guidance to parishes and their representatives.
Members of Victorian Anglicans Together participated in a lively conversation about ministry in the year about to close and in the future at VAT’s end-of-year gathering at St George’s Malvern on 4 December. You can read a full report here.
We also commend to you the accompanying Christmas reflection from our Vice-President, Archdeacon Colleen O’Reilly, which you can read here.
We offer our special thanks to the Rt Rev’d Genieve Blackwell (Administrator), the Rt Rev’d Dr Alison Taylor (Assistant Bishop) and Dr Leanne Beagley (Interim CEO) for their ministry in the Diocese during the vacancy in the See. We also wish the new Interim CEO, Matthew Crichton, well in his new role.
We offer Bishop Brad Billings congratulations and best wishes on his election as Archbishop of Adelaide.
The VAT Committee sends you their greetings and blessings for a joyous, holy and wonder-filled Christmas and Epiphany season.
Yours in Christ
Michael
Michael Shand AM KC
President - Victorian Anglicans Together
Michael Shand AM KC is a distinguished Australian barrister and church leader with deep experience in commercial, equity and church law and governance. He has served as Chancellor of the Anglican Dioceses of Melbourne and Ballarat, lectured in church law, and been recognised for his service to both the Anglican Church and the legal profession, including being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. As President of Victorian Anglicans Together, Michael brings thoughtful leadership grounded in justice, integrity and faithful engagement with contemporary church life.
A Christmas Reflection from Archdeacon Colleen O’Reilly
At the dawn of time you wrought from nothing a universe of beauty and splendour. [Then] in the fullness of time you sent your Son to be born of Mary, bright image of your glory.
APBA Thanksgiving 2.
Members and friends of Victorian Anglicans Together will recognise these words from Thanksgiving 2 in The Holy Communion service, Second Order in A Prayer Book for Australia, 1995. The prayer makes explicit the relationship of God’s creation of all that is, and God’s incarnation in the coming of Jesus, the Word made flesh.
Christmas invites us to celebrate so much more than simply the birth of Jesus. It is an opportunity each year to focus on the unfolding story of God’s unwearied love for God’s creation, of which we are a part, but which is far older than even humanity ourselves, and far larger than even the edges of the universe we have so far detected.
When we look upon the infant Jesus in the manger scenes or on the Christmas cards we gaze into the mystery of the intertwining of God’s divinity and our humanity, into the wedding of heaven and earth, into the Word, the very being of God, made the same fragile, vulnerable flesh of which you and I are made.
If that does not take your breath away, or evoke your wonder, I am not sure how else God might lift your eyes. God’s hope is that you will see even the stars and angels rejoicing to accompany such a remaking of creation that begins with the birth of a child in the most ordinary of circumstances.
Of course, we love our familiar ways of keeping Christmas in our parishes and our homes, the well-known carols and readings, the special meals, and the family gatherings. Enjoy it all but with a larger heart and mind; with a looking beyond to the coming of the Holy One beyond defining, beyond containing, who embraces us with a steadfast and irrevocable commitment of love beyond our full imagining.
The love made known through the Christmas story is the same love and remaking of creation we celebrate in Easter and embrace for ourselves as, over the years of faithful attention, we are formed by the gift of Holy Spirit into the likeness of Christ, once the baby we so gladly welcomed.
The Ven. Colleen O’Reilly AM SCP
Vice-President - Victorian Anglicans Together
Archdeacon Colleen O’Reilly is a respected Australian Anglican priest and advocate for inclusive leadership, currently serving as Acting Vicar of the Parish of St Paul’s Kew East and Archdeacon of Stonnington in the Diocese of Melbourne. She has been a passionate champion for women’s ordination and leadership in the Church since the 1970s and was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to the Anglican Church and religious education.
End-of-year gathering - Reflecting on the passing year and looking ahead
Members of Victorian Anglicans Together participated in a lively conversation about ministry in the year about to close and in the future at VAT’s end-of-year gathering at St George’s Malvern last Thursday.
Leading the conversation, the Revd Dr Alex Ross, vicar of St John’s East Malvern and St Agnes’ Glen Huntly, responding to questions from Archdeacon Colleen O’Reilly, spoke warmly of some pleasing aspects of 2025 in his parishes. With a gradual growth in numbers in both churches, some new services had been introduced, reflecting a deepening sense of devotion. Alluding to the teaching that the prime Christian duty is to worship God, he said that worship was always the highlight for him: “We need to take worship very seriously”. He added that we need to remember that the Gospel and pastoral care change people’s lives. “We can take it for granted, but we can see profound changes in people’s lives”.
The conversation widened into a general discussion about the changing pattern of those seeking ordination, and the role of examining chaplains. Those offering in recent times were older than in previous years, were coming much later in their studies, and had often had a previous career. Some, coming at the end of their theological studies, simply expected they’d be ordained. It was the examining chaplains’ role to discern whether they really had a call to the ordained ministry.
Some potential ordinands were already lay ministers in their parishes, and stayed on in the same parish once ordained, and so missed the opportunity to experience the fullness of Melbourne Anglicanism. Concern was also expressed that some recently ordained clergy lacked a clear understanding of Anglican polity. This was a formation issue, Archdeacon O’Reilly said.
With increasing numbers of ordinands coming from Ridley College and City on a Hill churches, there was a clear need for more ordinands from the catholic wing of the church through Trinity College Theological School. This needed to turn around to fully reflect the diversity of Melbourne Diocese, but there was no “magic wand”.
Given we no longer have General Synod or diocesan lay education programs as were provided in the past, a program offering intentional education for parishioners is needed. It would not just deepen parishioners’ theological understanding and spirituality but would also foster vocations. If modest funding can be identified, perhaps such a program might become a component of diocesan plans for parish revitalisation.
Dr Muriel Porter OAM
Muriel Porter is a Melbourne-based Anglican journalist, author, historian and commentator who has written widely on the life and challenges of the Australian Church and society. A long-serving lay member of the Anglican Church of Australia’s General Synod, she has been a key advocate for the full equality of women and LGBTQ+ people in all aspects of church life. Her many books and articles bring informed, courageous insight to conversations about faith, justice and the future of Anglicanism.