Our People

To contact any of or staff or Parish Council members, please click our contact page. All emails will be forwarded to the relevant people.

Vicar of St Peter’s

Fr Michael Bowie

Fr Michael Bowie comes to St Peter’s with a passion for pastoral priestly ministry, worship and witness in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, including its commitment to social mission and justice. He loves being city centred, grounded in the daily offering of the Mass and the sacramental life. His training and experience have all been focused on excellent liturgical worship enhanced by fine music and thoughtful, accessible preaching.

He believes that the Church, like the Gospel, is personal, local and particular for the gathered community. Because of his understanding that the Word of God is a person and not a book, and his having exercised priesthood in diverse congregations, he is committed to the principle of presence, listening and engagement as being the key to growth in Christian community.

In 2022, Fr Michael celebrated his 30th year of ordained priesthood, on 27th June. He was born in Sydney and studied for a BA at Sydney University. This was followed by a DPhil in Latin Literature at Oxford University, and a degree in Theology, again at Oxford. He was ordained priest in the Diocese of Rochester in 1992 by the Bishop of Tonbridge.

Fr Michael is a founding member of the Sodality of Mary Mother of Priests, a strong network of theological and spiritual encouragement for male and female Catholic-minded clergy; Archbishop Stephen Cottrell is their patron. Since 2014, Fr Michael has been Associate Vicar of All Saints Margaret Street in London.

ASSISTANT PRIEST

Mtr CAra GReenham Hancock

Mthr Cara was born in Perth (in the same year and city in which Australian women were first ordained to the sacred priesthood) to a radio producer and an academic playwright who had recently arrived from England. Each of her parents, in their different ways, taught her sister and herself to cherish the power and value of communication. Though they did not know it at the time, they were giving her a great gift for her future ministry.

Mthr Cara was formed in the Christian faith in the parish of St Cuthbert’s Darlington, where she was baptised and confirmed. The clergy and community of that parish imparted to her a truth which has shaped her since childhood: that the sacramental encounter we have with the Lord during corporate worship is the pinnacle of our life, and that it makes moral and ethical claims on how we are to lead our entire lives, calling us to find ways of being agents of God’s love and justice within the larger family of humanity.

After finishing her schooling, Mthr Cara moved to Melbourne, eager to experience the life of a larger and livelier city. Living initially at Janet Clarke Hall, she undertook her first degree in English Literature and French. She worked and volunteered in libraries throughout her studies, and enrolled in a Masters degree in library studies, which she  quickly jettisoned in favour of beginning theological studies at Trinity College Theological School.

Through these years her centre of gravity was the parish of Christ Church Brunswick, where, in a life of worship centred around the Eucharist, Mthr Cara was nurtured in the faith, given opportunities to serve the Lord and his Church, and began to discern what his claim on her own life might be. This bore fruit in her entrance into an order of contemplative Anglican nuns in the south of Wales, the Society of the Sacred Cross. Mthr Cara belonged to the order for two and a half years, and the gifts she received through that life of prayer, work, and the bonds of common love go beyond what she can express here. However, the love for parish ministry which Mthr Cara discovered back in Melbourne had a claim on her heart, so with the support and guidance of the Sisters, she was sent forth to share the gifts she had gained while a nun with the church more broadly, as she offered herself for ordination and returned to theological studies at Trinity. Mthr Cara completed a Master of Divinity and undertook the various processes of selection and formation, while working as the Pastoral Assistant at Christ Church Brunswick.

In February 2024 Mthr Cara was ordained to the diaconate, and then that November, to the priesthood – joys which Mthr Cara will not attempt to put into words. She served her first curacy at the parish of St Stephen and St Mary Mount Waverley, which has affirmed her love for parochial ministry: offering the daily and weekly pattern of worship; sharing the beauty of the faith through preaching, teaching, and prayer; and being present to God’s people in times of crisis and celebration alike.

Mthr Cara is delighted to have been nominated to serve her second curacy at St Peter’s.

Director of Music

Mr Christopher watson

Christopher Watson is an APRA/AMCOS Art Music Award-winning singer and choir director who has, since January 2017, been based in Melbourne.

He was born in the UK and prior to his move to Australia had a successful career as a singer in Europe. He was a member of the Tallis Scholars, with whom he made 550 appearances, and sang regularly with Polyphony, Tenebrae, Gallicantus, Alamire, the Gabrieli Consort and Collegium Vocale Gent. In 2007 he made his debut at Carnegie Hall with Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices, giving the world première of David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Little Match Girl Passion, their recording of which won a Grammy Award in 2009. He returned to Carnegie Hall with Theatre of Voices in February 2015 to perform Stockhausen’s Stimmung. Christopher has also made over 100 recordings of repertoire by, among others, Dufay, Josquin, Tallis, Byrd, Lassus, Howells, Palestrina, Bach, Tavener, Taverner, Berio and Pärt.

He has appeared at many of the great concert halls in the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, the Koerner Hall in Toronto, Opera City in Tokyo, Melbourne Recital Centre and the Philharmonie in Berlin, where he performed the role of the Evangelist in J S Bach’s St Matthew Passion on Good Friday 2012. Christopher has sung as a soloist for the London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and many of the major Baroque orchestras in Europe, though maybe the crowning moment of his singing career was as the English national anthem singer at the Ashes Boxing Day test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2017.

Since 2017 he has been Director of Music at Trinity College at the University of Melbourne. At Trinity he enjoys working with one of the finest student choirs in Australia, and alongside the choir’s regular services of Evensong has led the choristers in concerts in New York, San Francisco, London, Cambridge, Rome and Florence and released 5 internationally acclaimed recordings. Christopher is also the Director of Music at St Peter’s Anglican Church, Eastern Hill, where he enjoys working with a choir of professional and amateur singers who provide the musical element of the church’s fine Anglo-Catholic liturgy.

Associate Priest

The Rev’d Greg Davies

Fr Greg joined St Peter’s in 2017 following his retirement from Parish Ministry. He is currently the National Director of the Exploring Faith Matters Program (also knows as Education for Ministry or EfM). Greg mentors two EfM groups from St Peter’s and is committed to assisting the parish in faith and ministry formation.

Associate Priest

The Rev’d Roger Prowd

Fr Roger has been worshiping at St Peter’s for two years and became an honorary associate priest in the parish in 2019. He was priested in 1985 and has worked in parish and hospital chaplaincy ministry since then. Fr Roger retired from full time parish ministry in 2017 following 10 years as vicar at St Stephen’s, Gardenvale. He now works part-time as the Anglican chaplain at Caulfield Hospital. He is married to Kate and they have three daughters, the family recently gaining (short term!) a female cat and her 4 kittens, fostered from the RSPC

Associate Priest

Mthr Pirrial Clift

St Peter's walls stand witness to my confirmation, wedding, and two of my children's baptisms. After 50 years absence I returned in 2019. Ordained in Newcastle in 2001; I spent six years as resident priest at the Stroud Monastery following retirement, and continue the contemplative lifestyle. The mystical aspects of Christian spirituality captivate me, leading to the practices of spiritual direction, conducting retreats and quiet days. I belong to the Third Order of the Society of St Francis. Three cats - Cat, Mouse, and Birdie - keep me company.