Bishop

Bishop of Lismore

Most Reverend Geoffrey Hylton Jarrett DD
Bishop of Lismore
PO Box 1
Lismore NSW 2480
Phone: 02 66220407
Fax: 02 66219960   Email: chancery@lismore.catholic.org.au

 

MOST REVEREND GEOFFREY JARRETT, D.D.

Bishop of Lismore, NSW

BISHOP GEOFFREY JARRETT was born in Kyneton, Victoria, on 1st December, 1937, the elder son of Hylton and Beatrice Jarrett, the third generation to be born there of an English pioneer family in the district.

He was educated at Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne. After working in London for several years in the Film Unit of BBC Television, he commenced studies for the Anglican ministry at the Theological College of the Society of the Sacred Mission at Kelham, Nottinghamshire. On returning to Australia he worked as an Anglican priest until he was received into the Catholic Church in 1965.

Archbishop Guilford Young accepted him as a candidate for the Archdiocese of Hobart and his further studies were entrusted to the Marist Fathers at St Peter Chanel Seminary, Toongabbie, NSW. Bishop Jarrett was ordained priest by Archbishop Young in Sydney on 14th May, 1970.

During his 30 years' ministry in Tasmania Bishop Jarrett was Administrator of St Mary's Cathedral and a parish priest in Hobart. He was active in ecumenical affairs as a member of the Executive of the Tasmanian Council of Churches and as Chaplain and Honorary Fellow of Jane Franklin Hall within the University of Tasmania. From 1994 to 1999 he was National Chairman of the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy.

Bishop Jarrett was appointed a bishop by Pope John Paul II in 2000, and his episcopal Ordination took place in St Carthage's Cathedral, Lismore, on 22 February 2001. Upon the retirement of Bishop Satterthwaite he became the fifth Bishop of Lismore on 1 December, 2001. Within the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, Bishop Jarrett is a member of the Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations and the Commission for Liturgy.

The Bishop's Coat of Arms

Bishop Jarrett's personal arms are a green cross on a gold ground. The arms of the cross end in leaves, as if the wood of the cross is living and growing. In the arms of the cross are four red pomegranates (fruit, opened to show seeds). At the foot of the cross is a red heart. The design of the arms is inspired by a phrase in the writings of Cardinal John Henry Newman (Parochial & Plain Sermons, IV, 17) “The planting of Christ's Cross in the heart is sharp and trying, but the stately tree rears itself aloft, and has fair branches and rich fruit, and is good to look upon.”

The bishop’s motto is SUPRA FIRMAM PETRAM (Upon a strong rock). The phrase recalls Christ's words about the wise man who built his house upon the rock (Mt 7:24); His charge to the apostle Peter (Mt 16:18); and Christ Himself who is the Rock (I Cor 3:11) and living stone on which the Church is built as a spiritual house in the lives of believers (I Peter 2:4-8). The phrase occurs at various places in the liturgical books, viz. Introit antiphon for the Mass of a Martyr, referring to the constancy of the martyr’s witness to the law of God; and the antiphon for the office of None in the Office for the Dedication of a Church, referring to the solid foundation of the Church as the house of the Lord: “Hæc est domus Domini, firmiter ædificata; bene fundata est supra firmam petram.”

The motto has no connection with the design of the arms; it was chosen because the text occurred in the Office of the Day on 9 November 1964 when the future bishop was received into the Catholic Church.