Dr Peter Jensen Biography

Dr Peter Jensen MA (Hons) (Syd); BD (London); ThL (ACT); D. Phil (Oxford) was elected the 11th Archbishop of Sydney on June 5, 2001 and consecrated on June 29 of that year.

Dr Jensen is recognised as a key leader in the worldwide Anglican Church and was one of the organisers of the Anglican Future conference in Jerusalem in 2008.

He is a warm and engaging speaker, but is also an outspoken figure on the Australian religious scene. His advice to the then Prime Minister Howard to ‘read his bible’ was front page news in 2001 and sparked off a national discussion about religion and politics. He has supported asylum seekers and prison reform and in 1998 he lead a debate in the church synod, on concern for victims of child abuse.

Born in Sydney in 1943, he was educated at Bellevue Hill Public School and The Scots College. After what being what he describes as "a failure in the law', he entered Moore Theological College in 1966. He was later to be a lecturer then Principal of that college. He earned a D.Phil from Oxford for his research on Elizabethan Protestantism. In the sixteen years of his principalship the College grew conspicuously.

He has published a number of books and articles and his “At the Heart of the Universe” is used worldwide as an introductory text on Christian Doctrine. In 2005, he was invited by the ABC to deliver the Boyer Lecture Series. The lectures have now been published as a book "The Future of Jesus". He has lectured and addressed conferences in England, Ireland, Eastern Europe, South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, United States and Canada.

He retired as Archbishop of Sydney in July, 2013.

Peter Jensen is married to Christine. They have five adult children and 20 grandchildren.