John Wright (archbishop of Sydney)


John Wright
Archbishop of Sydney
ChurchChurch of England
ProvinceNew South Wales
DioceseSydney
In office1910–1933
PredecessorSaumarez Smith
SuccessorHoward Mowll
Other posts
Previous posts
Orders
Ordination31 May 1885 (as deacon)
20 June 1886 (as priest)
Consecration24 August 1909
Personal details
BornJohn Charles Wright
(1861-08-19)19 August 1861
Died24 February 1933(1933-02-24) (aged 71)
Christchurch, New Zealand
BuriedSouth Head cemetery, Sydney
DenominationAnglican
Parents
Spouse
Dorothy Margaret Isabella Fiennes
(m. 1903)
Children4
EducationManchester Grammar School
Alma materMerton College, Oxford
Coat of arms

John Charles Wright (19 August 1861 – 24 February 1933) was a British-born Anglican bishop in Australia. He was an Archbishop of Sydney and was seen by some as responsible for reducing the influence of Anglo-Catholicism in the Diocese of Sydney.

Wright was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, the son of the Reverend Joseph Farrall Wright (1827–1883), vicar of Christ Church, Bolton, and co-founder of Bolton Wanderers Football Club, and his wife Harriet, née Swallow.[1] He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Merton College, Oxford, where he graduated with honours in 1884.

Wright was ordained deacon on 31 May 1885 and priest on 20 June 1886.[1][2]

Immediately before he came to Sydney he was "permanent chairman" of the Anglican Evangelical Group Movement - at that time an important liberal Evangelical society of clergy formed in 1906. Stephen Judd notes that he "believed in a much wider spectrum of opinion in the Anglican Church" and it is significant that he quickly appointed moderate Evangelicals Albert Talbot as Dean of Sydney and David Davies as principal of Moore College.[1][2]

It was Wright who banned the eucharistic vestments from use in churches in Sydney.[1] He was criticised for this by Anglo-Catholics, but he conscientiously believed that the wearing of these was contrary to the law of the Church of England.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Judd, Stephen E. (1990). "Wright, John Charles (1861–1933)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943.
  2. ^ a b Serle, Percival (1949). "Wright, John Charles". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 12 October 2008.