Peter Jensen

Peter Jensen (born 11 July 1943) is the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, and Metropolitan of the Province of New South Wales.

Life
Jensen was born in Sydney and educated at Bellevue Hill Public School and The Scots College. After completing his Leaving Certificate, he studied law for two years and worked as an articled clerk before he moved into primary school teaching. He entered Moore College in the late 1960s and won the Hey Sharp prize for coming first in the Licenciate of Theology, the standard course of study at that time. In addition he has an MA (Hons) from Sydney University, a BD from London University, and a D. Phil from Oxford.

Jensen was appointed Principal of Moore College in 1985 and lectured in Systematic and Biblical Theology during that time. He gained a reputation as a gifted preacher, and was often seen at the annual Katoomba Christian Conventions.

On 5 June, 2001, Jensen was elected as the 11th Archbishop of Sydney. He was consecrated on St Peter's Day, 29 June 2001 and immediately called upon all churches in the Sydney Diocese to aim to reach 10% of their communities by 2012. While most commentators were sceptical that that goal could be met in secular Sydney, the result has been an unprecendented increase in church planting with more than 60 new congregations started between 2002 and 2005 and a 30% increase in candidates for Anglican ministry over the same period.

Jensen has a gained a reputation with the Australian media for being a spokesman for evangelical Christianity. He does not shy away from entering public policy debate. Although generally regarded as a political conservative, he criticised the previous Australian government over its refugee policy in the week of his election as Archbishop. He has spoken out on issues as diverse as stem cell research and industrial relations, but his public comments always have a common theme - they are always related to "Jesus" and "The Bible."

Works
Jensen has written a number of books on Christian doctrine including The Heart of the Universe and The Revelation of God (2002). He will also deliver the prestigous Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Boyer Lectures in November 2005 on the topic "The Future of Jesus," which will be published as a book.

Links

 * Program transcript of Peter Jensen's first lecture
 * Program transcript of Peter Jensen's second lecture
 * Program transcrip of Peter Jensen's third lecture
 * Stream of Peter Jensen's first lecture - Jesus, the prophet at the end of the world
 * Stream of Peter Jensen's third lecture

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