New Anglican Bishop of Western Sydney to be consecrated at St Andrew’s Cathedral

The Rev Ivan Yin Lee will be consecrated as the Anglican Bishop of Western Sydney in a service at St Andrew’s Cathedral on Friday, December 20, commencing at 7.30pm.

Mr Lee, 46, is currently rector of St Aidan’s, Hurstville Grove in the Diocese of Sydney. He will become the only serving Anglican Bishop of Chinese ethnicity in Australia.

His parents migrated to Australia from Guangzhou province in mainland China 50 years ago. He grew up with no connection to the church whatsoever and simply assumed an atheist position.

“When I was seventeen I was invited on a camp for school students run by Christians. I didn’t know anything about Christianity. I had grown up in Australia without ever hearing that Jesus had died for me. When I heard that claim on the camp, I thought it was an extraordinary thing for God to do, so I spent many months investigating it.

“Considering the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus was the first step. But what really convinced me to become a Christian in the end, was the analysis of evil and the fallen human nature in the Bible, and the wonderful offer of forgiveness through Jesus’ death,” Mr Lee said.

Archbishop Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of NSW, will preach at the service. The presenting bishops will be the Rt Rev Glenn Davies (Bishop of the Northern Region) and the Rt Rev Ray Smith (former Bishop of the Georges River Region).

Other bishops in attendance will include the Bishop to the Australian Defence Force, Tom Frame, George Browning from Canberra-Goulburn, Stephen Hale from Melbourne, Graeme Rutherford from Newcastle, Phillip Freier from the Northern Territory, Richard Appleby from Brisbane and Richard Hurford from Bathurst. Sydney’s three other regional bishops - Reg Piper, Robert Forsyth and Peter Tasker - will also be in attendance.

Mr Lee said that he hopes to be a ‘relational and approachable’ leader, and aims to help the church to become more accessible to a multicultural society.

“Visitors may not accept what they first hear, but they need to understand what we are doing and saying; church needs to ‘make sense’ to them. And then they can consider the claims of Christ. We also need to make church a really positive experience, because knowing God is a positive experience.”

Ivan Lee will officially succeed Bishop Brian King on February 1, 2003.

Mr Lee is married to Virginia and they have three daughters, twins aged 18 and a third child aged 11.