The recently knighted Sir Patrick Allen says that he misses his church pastoral work but believes God has called him to do this latest task, the Governor Generalship.
Michael Ireland, writing for Assist News Service (ANS), says that Sir Patrick Allen is the first Seventh Day Adventist to be appointed to this position anywhere in the British Commonwealth of Nations.
In the past, two of Australia's very high profile Christian ministers have been appointed to the role of State Governors; South Australia's Aboriginal Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls 1976-77, who resigned due to ill health, and Victoria's Reverend Dr Davis McCaughey 1986-1992.
Davis McCaughley was a Presbyterian minister and had been professor of New Testament at Ormond College at the University of Melbourne and also, briefly, deputy Chancellor of that university. He was also one of the founding fathers in bringing Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregationalist churches together as the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977.
By contrast, the appointment by Queen Elizabeth II in 2001 (on the recommendation by the then Prime Minister, John Howard) of Brisbane Archbishop, Peter Hollingworth, as the Governor General (her representative in Australia) was fraught with difficulty.
Hollingworth eventually resigned in 2003 after he was seen to not have accepted responsibility for unsavoury issues that had arisen within the Anglican Church well before his appointment as Governor General.
Although some members of the clergy are obviously as capable as some members of any other profession at being successful Governors, as demonstrated by the above examples, this incident initiated much controversy among Australians about the place of the clergy as representative of their Head of State
"The Australian Governor General's role is much more than a ceremonial figure," explained Well-Being Australia chairman, M V Tronson. "He or she also has responsibility for constitutional and statutory matters such as signing Bills into Law and chairing the Executive Council (although he/she acts on the advice of the Parliamentarians), and he/she has some social obligations."
Mark Tronson further comments that Governors' General have been able to put their own 'stamp' on this high office. For example, the Governor General in 1977 (Sir John Kerr) dismissed the elected Australian Government led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
Later, Sir William Deane, during his term between 1996 and 2001, became the conscience of the nation in his term by regularly visiting, and therefore highlighting, the deplorable state of some outback Aboriginal settlements. Now, the current holder of the office, Her Excellency Quentin Bryce AC, engages in State visits to other nations, where she discusses a range of social issues.
Mark Tronson, a Baptist minister of 32 years, looking back with 20-20 vision, suggests there were forces in place that could have anticipated some of the problems of Archbishop Hollingworth's appointment.
Prior to his appointment Archbishop Peter Hollingworth presided over a synod in which the nature of sexual offences within his Anglican diocese inevitably found their way back to his office. Since 'the buck stops' in the Archbishop's office, his tenure as Governor General was, inevitably, to be clouded with this issue.
In the Westminster system of government, which Australia follows, if a Minister of State's department fails in its duty of care and its traced back to the minister's policy and lack of attention, the system requires that the minister resign.
In Archbishop Peter Hollingworth's situation, there was a 'very vocal call' for similar principles to be upheld by the Governor General, although it should be noted that he was NEVER a Member of Parliament and therefore NOT bound by these Westminster conventions.
However, when he was an Anglican Church official, he was 'seen' to have not taken appropriate 'action' over sexual abuse in the Anglican system, and thus was 'blamed' for having a 'wrong message' sent to the community.
Prime Minister John Howard later acknowledged this appointment was not one of his best recommendations, yet, at that time, from the viewpoint of an outsider, the Archbishop looked a very good candidate.
Hollingworth had maintained a long history of having a committed social conscience, as evidenced by his work with the Brotherhood of St Lawrence and his role in the public debate about an Australian Republic in 1999. His awards included an OBE, an Order of Australia and the appointment as Australian of the Year in 1992.
However, there were other issues that surfaced once Hollingworth was seen to have 'feet of clay'. As well as some discomfort expressed by non-Christians about the appointment of a Church Official to Governor General in the first place, there was disquiet even among the Christian community itself over the appointment of Archbishop Peter Hollingworth.
Reverend Tim Costello, a Baptist minister and social activist of national acclaim, was the public voice behind the objection of the appointment as he asserted that Australia should maintain separation of Church and State.
Mark Tronson notes: "There can be no legal or constitutional reason for this separation in Australia. This was just Tim Costello's personal opinion, in which many from the non-conformist Christian tradition concurred."
In addition, there was considerable alarm within the mainstream Christian community that Archbishop Peter Hollingworth's theological position was not representative of the 'Church going' Christians.
However, M V Tronson admits that this should not have impinged on the ability of someone to carry out the office of Governor General, because, as he has mentioned above, others have been able to express their own social and legal opinions. It just seemed to be another 'nail in the coffin' for an already troubled appointee.
Mark Tronson concludes by noting that Hollingworth was probably a worthy candidate for Governor General, but that circumstances that 'may have previously been within his control' caught up with him in the end. This fuelled an ongoing debate about the nature of Governor General appointments in Australia.
M V Tronson hopes, however, that the new Governor General of Jamaica is not dogged by any such controversy, and that he is able to govern his tiny country with the dignity that this high office commands.
