Popular bishop retires

Bishop Hough studied with the Franciscans in Melbourne and credits them with teaching him the value and power of a living spirituality and a disciplined pastoral ministry.

On his arrival at the Anglican Parish, Bishop Hough brought with him a range of talents and perspectives on life and faith that were taken up and enjoyed by the communities he served. ‘‘If a priest is not spending more time with other people than he is spending on his own wants and desires, he is failing as a priest,’’ Bishop Hough said.

‘‘A priest is there as the servant of the community; the community is not there to serve the priest.’’

And that was what the parish found in his time there.

He was a man who was out and about, not coming across as a bishop on a pedestal but someone who could communicate and mix with everyone.

He was not a man to be constrained by his office and computer.

Bishop Hough said his Franciscan fundamentals were built through four years of post-graduate studies in the Bible he pursued under the Jesuits in Rome.

‘‘They taught me to explore the Bible in search of what God was saying and then bring that alive in a way that made sense for today’s world,’’ he said.

‘‘A preacher had to live out the message he was preaching before he has the audacity to preach it to others.’’

Bishop Hough could be funny, entertaining, sombre, challenging but always Biblically focused when he preached and spoke of the work of the church.

That is what came across to his congregations — the very human struggles people encounter as they strive to live under God and to shape their lives according to the Gospel.

Bishop Hough had the knack of not preaching at his congregation but sharing what it was God was revealing to him in the Gospel.

Much of his personal experience and spiritual insights came from his life as a missionary in Papua New Guinea.

He ministered there for fifteen years — in parish ministry in the Sepik, as principal of a theological college and biblical teacher, Bishop to the New Guinea Islands and as Bishop of Port Moresby.

Bishop Hough said he was taken aback by people in Papua New Guinea’s ability to understand and live their lives through the prism of religion.

‘‘Long before the first missionaries arrived, they were already deeply spiritual people,’’ he said.

‘‘They believed in God as the unchangeable reality in human living and went on to adjust all they did and said according to their understanding of God.

‘‘God is in our DNA as human beings and it is only when we are in tune with the living God that we can become fully that which we were created to be.

‘‘Take God out of life and we are less than our full human potential.’’

Much of Bishop Hough’s ministry has been in rural communities, having worked in Cooktown and on Thursday Island.

He said that was one of the reasons he has enjoyed working in the Central Goulburn area.

‘‘People have time to talk, to share with others,’’ he said.

‘‘There is a pace of life enabling men and women to engage with others, to stop and talk, to acknowledge each other and to enquire about how they are going.’’

‘‘I enjoy that the Christ in me is able to reach out to the Christ in everyone else.’’

Bishop Hough has been asked to continue to be available for teaching, preaching and mentoring ministry in other Anglican communities and will still drop by for a cuppa and a chat.