Greg Thompson (bishop)
Quick Facts
Biography
Gregory Edwin "Greg" Thompson (born 1956) is an Australian Anglican bishop. Since February 2014, he has served as the Bishop of Newcastle. In March 2017 he announced his resignation. He was previously, from 2007 to 2013, the Bishop of the Northern Territory.
Early life and education
Thompson was born in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia. He studied at the University of Newcastle. He trained for ordained ministry at Ridley College, an Evangelical Anglican theological college in Melbourne.
Ordained ministry
Thompson was ordained in 1986. From 1988 to 1994, he was Parish Priest of Darwin in the Northern Territory. Then, from 1994 to 1999, he was the New South Wales State Secretary of the Bush Church Aid Society. Having returned to parish ministry, he was Rector of St John's Church, Darlinghurst, between 1999 and 2004, and then Rector of St John's Church, Canberra.
Thompson was ordained to the episcopate on 31 May 2007 at Christ Church Cathedral, Darwin. He then became the Bishop of the Northern Territory. In September 2012, he was elected as the next Bishop of Newcastle. He took up the appointment on 2 February 2013, becoming the 13th Bishop of Newcastle.
Personal life
Thompson is married to Kerry.
In 2015, Thompson reported that he had been sexually abused by Ian Shevill as a young man when he was 19 and interested in the priesthood. Shevill has been identified as a sexual predator by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2016.