Roger Adrian Herft (born 11 July 1948) is a former bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. He was the Archbishop of Perth from 2005 to 2017. He was previously the Bishop of Newcastle from 1993 to 2005 and the Bishop of Waikato in New Zealand from 1986.
Herft was removed from Holy Orders in February 2022, after the Episcopal Standards Board of the Anglican Church of Australia determined in December 2021 that Herft had failed to address child sex abuse claims made against priests under his control during his time as Bishop of Newcastle.
Early life and education
Herft was born in Wattegama in Sri Lanka. He studied at the Royal College in Colombo, later training for the ministry at the Theological College of Lanka in Pilimatalawa. He received Bachelor of Theology and Bachelor of Divinity degrees from the University of Serampore.
Clerical career
After working in parish ministry and prison chaplaincy, he was invited by the Diocese of Waikato in New Zealand to become a parish consultant in 1983. In 1986, Herft was elected Bishop of Waikato, becoming one of the youngest bishops in the Anglican Communion; he was consecrated bishop on 28 October 1986.
Herft was elected Bishop of Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1992 and enthroned at Christ Church Cathedral in May 1993. He was chaplain of the 13th Lambeth Conference in 1998.
In 2004, Herft was elected as the seventh Archbishop of Perth and Metropolitan of the Province of Western Australia and was installed on 11 June 2005, succeeding Peter Carnley.
Herft nominated Kay Goldsworthy as Australia's first female Anglican bishop and consecrated her at St George's Cathedral in Perth on 22 May 2008.
Herft was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2013 for service to the church, particularly interfaith relations and social justice.
On 11 May 2016, it was announced that he would succeed Jack Nicholls as the next prelate of the Venerable Order of St John. Prior to this he was sub prelate of the order in Western Australia. On 1 September 2016, however, it was announced that Tim Stevens, formerly the Anglican Bishop of Leicester, had been appointed as the prelate.
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
On 21 July 2016, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), published an article which stated that "One of the nation's most senior Anglicans, the Archbishop of Perth, Roger Herft, received complaints about a priest involved in a paedophile ring but allegedly failed to formally report him to police." The article also says that "Archbishop Herft wrote that the complaint "left me in an unenviable position" because "Father Peter had my licence [to be a priest] and if he reoffended I would be held liable as I now had prior knowledge of his alleged behaviour". There is no record of Herft reporting the priest to police.
On 12 August 2016, Herft appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and was questioned about his policy in regard to the reporting and responses to allegations of abuse during his time as Bishop of Newcastle. Herft admitted that there had been no framework for dealing with accusations of child sexual assault during the first half of his tenure in Newcastle. He had written a policy called "Principles and Procedures for Dealing with Accusations of Sexual Harassment" in 1993, but this had not been prepared with child sexual abuse allegations in mind.
A record of a 1998 meeting between Herft and other church officials showed there had been concern about following up abuse allegations. Herft said that allegations would not have been followed up unless there was a formal written complaint. He agreed with the commission that this was "Totally unacceptable" as it left children at risk.
The commission heard evidence that Herft had been informed of allegations against Graeme Lawrence who had been dean of Newcastle Cathedral. Herft reported that he had no recollection of specific allegations against Lawrence, who was later defrocked after having group sex with a teenage boy.