The Revd Kate Prowd is to become an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Melbourne
29 June 2018
The Revd Kate Prowd is to become an Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Melbourne.
Kate Prowd was ordained a deacon in the first ordination of women as deacons in the Diocese of Melbourne in 1986, shortly after completing her theological studies at Melbourne’s Trinity College Theological School. She was priested in 1992.
She is a clinical psychologist, and has served in a variety of parish and chaplaincy contexts in Australia and New Zealand. Her husband, the Revd Roger Prowd, is a retired priest in the Diocese of Melbourne, and her brother, Bishop Lindsay Urwin, is vicar of Christ Church Brunswick.
Archbishop Philip Freier said that Bishop-elect Prowd would bring “unique gifts” to her role as a bishop.
“I look forward to working with Kate and the contribution she will make to the leadership of the Diocese of Melbourne,” he said.
Kate Prowd will be Bishop of the Oodthenong Episcopate, succeeding Bishop Philip Huggins, who is due to retire in October. The Oodthenong Episcopate covers parishes in the northern and western growth areas of Melbourne and Geelong.
“It is a wonderful appointment,” Bishop Huggins wrote in a special edition of his Oodthenong Episcopate newsletter.
He said that at recent conferences to select candidates for ordination, “I have seen Bishop-elect Kate’s insights, emotional intelligence and prayerful warmth as she has helped in those moments of discernment.
“Our episcopal area has a great need for the healing power of our Risen Lord Jesus: Healing and wholeness, reconciled and reconciling, the ‘shalom’ of God for the body, mind and spirit through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. Bishop-elect Kate will be a blessing as this journey proceeds, supporting you all, ‘Jesus in our midst’.”
Kate Prowd will be consecrated as a bishop on Saturday 6 October, 2018, at a service at St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, starting at 10.30am.
