Owen Dowling

The Right Reverend Owen Douglas Dowling
Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn
Church	Anglican Church of Australia
Province	New South Wales
Diocese	Canberra and Goulburn
Personal details
Born	(1934-10-11)11 October 1934
Died	7 May 2008(2008-05-07) (aged 73)

Owen Douglas Dowling (1934 – 2008[1][2]) was an Anglican bishop in Australia.[3][4]

Dowling was educated at Melbourne High School and the University of Melbourne. He was a secondary school teacher until 1959. He was ordained in 1960 and was a curate at Sunshine and Deer Park in the Diocese of Melbourne. He then became the vicar of St Philip's West Heidelberg[5] and then the precentor and organist at St Saviour's Cathedral, Goulburn. From 1968 to 1972 he was the rector of South Wagga Wagga[6] and then the Archdeacon of Canberra.

On 25 March 1981, he was consecrated an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn and on 15 November 1983 was elected its diocesan bishop. He was installed on 17 December 1983. In April 1992 he was charged with soliciting after allegedly approaching and off-duty police officer. Charges were dropped in August that year after Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions deemed the case not in the public interest. Downwling retired on 1 January 1993. Dowling was an early protagonist for the ordination of women.[7][8]

His last positions were incumbencies in Tasmania at St James' New Town, Hobart and Christ Church, Longford.

Dowling was married to Gloria; after his death she became a novice in the Community of the Holy Name. She died in 2020.[9]

Publications

• Music and an Australian Prayer Book. AIO Press. 1978. ISBN 978-0-908089-15-4. with Lawrence Bartlett
• Searching Questions on Healing: A Christian Perspective. Order of Saint Luke The Physician in Australia. 2005. ISBN 978-0-908460-30-4. with Steven Hallam
• Power to Be Witnesses. Anglican Information Office. 1988. ISBN 978-0-949108-81-4.

References

1. Who's Who 2008: London, A & C Black, 2008 ISBN 978-0-7136-8555-8
2. Anglican News
3. Anglican Archives Archived 2010-05-25 at the Wayback Machine
4. National Library of Australia
5. Victoria Gazette
6. Crockford's Clerical Directory1975-76 Lambeth, Church House ISBN 0-19-200008-X
7. Porter 2011, p. 84–.
8. Driver 2014, pp. 95–.
9. Community of the Holy Name Newsletter, Winter / Spring 2020, p 7.

• Porter, Muriel (2011). Sydney Anglicans and the Threat to World Anglicanism: The Sydney Experiment. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4094-2027-9.
• Driver, Jeffrey W. (2014). A Polity of Persuasion: Gift and Grief of Anglicanism. Wipf and Stock. ISBN 978-1-61097-403-5.

Anglican Communion titles
Preceded by Cecil Warren	Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn 1983–1992	Succeeded by George Browning