Jenan Taylor
14 August 2024
Ridley College’s new principal hopes the college and the Church will work well together to continue bringing the good news of Christ to the world.
The Reverend Canon Dr Rhys Bezzant has been appointed the next principal of Ridley College effective 1 January 2025.
Canon Bezzant believes that by working together the college, parishes and ministries can better recruit, train and send future ministers.
He said parishes needed leaders formed after God’s own heart to be effective and faithful to God’s task of bringing the good news of Christ to the world.
“Humanly speaking, the church rises or falls according to the quality of its leadership. And theological colleges exist to form leaders for parishes and for our witness in the world,” Canon Bezzant said.
“A theological college can do many things, but training leaders for pastoral ministry must be central to its identity and life!”
Read more: New principal of Ridley College appointed
Canon Bezzant said despite never ever seeing himself as a career academic, he was thrilled at the appointment.
After being ordained a priest in 1997 in the Melbourne diocese, Canon Bezzant worked in many churches including in Heidelberg and Carlton.
He said even now his heart still beat as a pastor.
“I’ve done well in the academic zone, but I am a pastor at heart. I love mentoring, I love preaching, I love talking to people.”
He believed having this kind of heart in lecturers and leaders was critical for a theological college, because its role was to train people for church and mission service.
Canon Bezzant said his pathway to leadership was uncomplicated.
He grew up in a non-Christian household but became a Christian at age 13, and has never looked back.
Being a Christian was the best way of being human, and introducing people to Jesus was the greatest privilege, Canon Bezzant said.
For him, the church was his family, in that he found his deepest relationships there.
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Canon Bezzant counted former Ridley principal the Reverend Canon Dr Peter Adam and Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students chaplain Peter Leslie as his most inspirational mentors.
“They have consistently spoken into my life, encouraging my faith and obedience, and nurturing my sense of calling to Christian ministry,” Canon Bezzant said.
“They were honest about their own experiences living as Christians, and gave me a positive example of joy, singleness, and applying the Scriptures to all areas of life.”
He said staying in academia and not going back to a parish was something he had to decide again and again.
Canon Bezzant said he loved mentoring, and it would become an even higher priority given his job was to find and recruit future ministers for Melbourne and beyond.
He said he wanted to mentor people who were thinking of attending Ridley and nurturing their sense of vocation so they could sense what it might mean for them to be in ordained ministry.
Canon Bezzant said he was aware many parishes found it difficult to raise up clergy or any Christian workers, but he wanted them to persevere.
“I preached in many different churches last year on Matthew chapter nine where Jesus says, ‘Pray the Lord of the harvest to raise up shepherds for the harvest’, and that’s what needs to happen,” he said.
“Churches need to work hard to raise up the next generation of ministers. That would be glorious. That’s what makes my heart beat.”
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