Clergy at Holy Trinity
Reverend Robert Newton, Vicar
Robert Keith Newton was born in Cardiff, Wales, the youngest of five children and was educated at the Bishop of Llandaff School before going to university. In his home parish of St Paul's Grangetown, Robert was a chorister (also singing with the Welsh National Opera on two occasions- St Matthews Passion Cardiff 1974 and Billy Budd the Opera touring Spain 1975) and server, later to be a member of parish council. After school he went to Manchester University where he gained a 2 (1) Honours degree in Politics and Modern History in 1983 writing his primary source thesis on the Jesuit Missions in Matabeleland 1880-1920. Following his studies at University he went to work as a USPG (United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) missionary teacher in Zimbabwe at St James Anglican Mission Nyamandhlovu, 100 kms northwest of Bulawayo.
On returning to the UK in 1986 he was selected for ordination training by the Church of England under the auspices of the Diocese of Hereford and studied at St Stephen's House Oxford where he met such luminaries as JND Kelly (Early Christian Creeds), Archbishop Michael Ramsay, Rowan Williams Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity (later to be Archbishop of Canterbury) and Dennis E. Nineham (Gospel of St Mark). He was ordained Deacon and Priest in 1989 and 1990 at Hereford Cathedral and served as assistant curate in the parish of Ludlow. For the first year of his ministry he toured around the parish in his cassock on a moped, eventually learning to drive a car to avoid getting soaking wet. He has served as an assistant priest (Ludlow) and a school chaplain (Malvern College) before coming to Australia and has worked in independent church schools in South Australia (Trinity College Gawler) and New South Wales (Newington College Sydney).
Since 2000 he has served as Assistant Priest at Christ Church Warrnambool and Chaplain at Deakin University, Rector of Glenelg-Wannon (Coleraine/Casterton) and as Archdeacon of Ballarat. Robert came to Christ Church Brunswick in October 2007 and has just concluded his role as Archdeacon of La Trobe. Since being in the Diocese of Melbourne Robert has been on Archbishop in Council, the Building Committee of the Diocese, the legislation committee that wrote the 2013 Parish Governance Act, and currently member of the Melbourne Anglican Diocesan Schools Commission, Director at Hume Anglican Grammar and Stakeholder Member of Trinity Grammar School.
Robert's interests include travel, fishing, gardening, model trains, watching Rugby Union and supporting the Geelong AFL team. Some of his lifetime achievements have been to sing in an opera, to tie his own fishing flies, educate and help some of the world’s poorest people, build an indoor and outdoor model railway and successfully plant a 3-acre vineyard in the Barossa Valley. He has a wife, Jane who teaches prep at Hume Anglican Grammar and daughter Darcey who, after completing her schooling on a state dance scholarship at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, has now completed a nursing degree at Deakin University and is about to undertake training at the University of Melbourne to be a Doctor of Physiotherapy.
Robert Keith Newton was born in Cardiff, Wales, the youngest of five children and was educated at the Bishop of Llandaff School before going to university. In his home parish of St Paul's Grangetown, Robert was a chorister (also singing with the Welsh National Opera on two occasions- St Matthews Passion Cardiff 1974 and Billy Budd the Opera touring Spain 1975) and server, later to be a member of parish council. After school he went to Manchester University where he gained a 2 (1) Honours degree in Politics and Modern History in 1983 writing his primary source thesis on the Jesuit Missions in Matabeleland 1880-1920. Following his studies at University he went to work as a USPG (United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) missionary teacher in Zimbabwe at St James Anglican Mission Nyamandhlovu, 100 kms northwest of Bulawayo.
On returning to the UK in 1986 he was selected for ordination training by the Church of England under the auspices of the Diocese of Hereford and studied at St Stephen's House Oxford where he met such luminaries as JND Kelly (Early Christian Creeds), Archbishop Michael Ramsay, Rowan Williams Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity (later to be Archbishop of Canterbury) and Dennis E. Nineham (Gospel of St Mark). He was ordained Deacon and Priest in 1989 and 1990 at Hereford Cathedral and served as assistant curate in the parish of Ludlow. For the first year of his ministry he toured around the parish in his cassock on a moped, eventually learning to drive a car to avoid getting soaking wet. He has served as an assistant priest (Ludlow) and a school chaplain (Malvern College) before coming to Australia and has worked in independent church schools in South Australia (Trinity College Gawler) and New South Wales (Newington College Sydney).
Since 2000 he has served as Assistant Priest at Christ Church Warrnambool and Chaplain at Deakin University, Rector of Glenelg-Wannon (Coleraine/Casterton) and as Archdeacon of Ballarat. Robert came to Christ Church Brunswick in October 2007 and has just concluded his role as Archdeacon of La Trobe. Since being in the Diocese of Melbourne Robert has been on Archbishop in Council, the Building Committee of the Diocese, the legislation committee that wrote the 2013 Parish Governance Act, and currently member of the Melbourne Anglican Diocesan Schools Commission, Director at Hume Anglican Grammar and Stakeholder Member of Trinity Grammar School.
Robert's interests include travel, fishing, gardening, model trains, watching Rugby Union and supporting the Geelong AFL team. Some of his lifetime achievements have been to sing in an opera, to tie his own fishing flies, educate and help some of the world’s poorest people, build an indoor and outdoor model railway and successfully plant a 3-acre vineyard in the Barossa Valley. He has a wife, Jane who teaches prep at Hume Anglican Grammar and daughter Darcey who, after completing her schooling on a state dance scholarship at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, has now completed a nursing degree at Deakin University and is about to undertake training at the University of Melbourne to be a Doctor of Physiotherapy.