Rhys Bezzant
Dean of the Anglican Institute,
Senior Lecturer
BA (Hons) (Melb), MA (Melb), BTh, MTh, ThD (ACT)
Contact Rhys
Rhys studied German at the Universities of Melbourne and Cologne, graduating with an MA, before commencing theological studies at Ridley where he gained his MTh on Austrian revivals of the eighteenth century.
Rhys joined the Faculty at Ridley in 2004, after working in both parish and student ministry. He was ordained priest in the Diocese of Melbourne in 1997, and has served on the ministry teams of both small and large Melbourne Anglican parishes, including Heidelberg and Carlton, as well as Prahran and Brimbank. His heart for student ministry began with involvement in the AFES while as an undergraduate, and continued as Anglican Chaplain amongst tertiary students at Latrobe University and then at the University of Melbourne while in parish ministry.
Teaching Areas
Church History and Theology and Christian Worship.
Leading students in the Anglican Institute seeking ordination, and to oversee the daily Chapel services.
Leading study tours to the sites of the German and Swiss Reformations.
Research Interests
Rhys’s primary academic interest lies in the texts and teaching of Jonathan Edwards, the eighteenth-century leader of the Great Awakening in colonial North America. He has been on several occasions a Visiting Fellow in the Yale Divinity School, and leads the Jonathan Edwards Center for Australia, housed at Ridley, which sponsors the study of evangelical history and provides an international cohort of Edwards scholars as colleagues. Rhys counts among his other heroes Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Billy Graham. He also serves on the General Synod Liturgy Commission, the General Synod Doctrine Commission, and currently is a Canon at St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne. A besetting sin is to travel overseas to visit friends and sites of historical interest.
Hobbies & Interests
His commitment to mentoring means he drinks too much coffee, which leads him to dream of one day writing a book entitled The Best Book in the History of the World on Mentoring.
