Reformation Dinner 2025

Bishop Paul grew up in outback and far-north Queensland, the son of a district magistrate and army nurse turned shopkeeper. With minimal experience of church, he was ushered into the Lutheran Church when he became a student boarder at St Peter’s Lutheran College, Indooroopilly in Brisbane.

Bishop Paul graduated from Luther Seminary in Adelaide and was ordained in 1988. He has served as pastor in both Lutheran schools and parishes and in 2015 he was elected as Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Queensland. In 2021, he was elected bishop of the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand. In 1997, he gained his Master of Education through the University of South Australia.

Since early Seminary days, he has read and studied the development of the Welsh and Irish Celtic communities, including travel in Wales during his long service leave in 2010. He cherishes the intuitive relationship between theological education and the mission of the Church, in Celtic Church life and believes there is inspiration for the contemporary Church, in engagement with this undervalued story in the history of Christianity.

Bishop Paul is married to Heidi, who comes from a Lutheran farming family in the Riverina, NSW. Heidi and Paul have three adult children, one grandchild (with a second due in November 2025). Their youngest child, Jeremy, serves as the Lutheran pastor in the Kadina parish.

Bishop Paul is also interested in Christian education; rugby union; mission collaboration with Asia Pacific Christian communities; movies; books and reading; ecumenical relations between Churches; languages; and the application of technology to improving life (he drives a Hyundai EV).