AUSTRALIA
Virtue Online
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
May 17, 2012
The governing body of the Traditional Anglican Communion yesterday suspended TAC Archbishop John Hepworth from the Church’s College of Bishops, which rendered him ineligible to function as Bishop Ordinary of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia.
The authority has been transferred to Vicar General Fr. Owen Buckton assisted by Bishop David Robarts as Episcopal Authority with immediate effect.
The announcement was made by India-based Archbishop Samuel Prakash, Acting Primate of the TAC. The new administrators of the TAC in Australia are both members of ACCA.
“Hepworth is no longer permitted to serve as Bishop Ordinary of Australia,” Johannesburg-based Bishop Michael Gill, Secretary to the College of Bishops, told VOL.
Fr. Buckton is based in Rockhampton and Bishop Robarts lives in Launceton, Tasmania.
The suspension as Bishop pertains to both the TAC and ACCA. Bishop Hepworth had sought to enter the Roman Catholic Church through the Pope’s offer of an Ordinariate but had been rebuffed following allegations that he had been raped by three priests four decades ago.
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