HISTORIC MOMENT AS FORMER COAST PRIEST BECOMES BISHOP
around the country with more than 4000 people logging on to see the 55-year-old become one of Australia’s youngest bishops.
Indigenous elders conducted a special smoking ceremony to cleanse the hall before about 20 bishops and a host of priests entered and the ceremony began to the sound of the didgeridoo.
Members of the Thuringowa Brass band performed and the Tokelauan Catholic community, wearing traditional dress, sang and danced down the main aisle to the altar where they delivered a large Bible, investiture ring and ceremonial headwear, known as a mitre, to the new bishop.
The ceremony was steeped in the ritual and traditions of the Catholic Church with Bishop Timothy Harris referred to as “a servant of the chosen one” and promising to hold his new office faithfully until his death, before lying face down on the floor at the altar in a sign of humility. The service was also attended by the Pope’s representative in Australia Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana.
The last episcopal ordination to take place in Townsville was more than 30 years ago in 1984, for Bishop Raymond Benjamin.