Robert Mercer (priest)
{{Short description|Roman Catholic priest in England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix = The Reverend Monsignor
| name = Robert Mercer
| image =
| caption =
| church = Roman Catholic Church
| see = Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
| ordination = 1959 (Anglican)
17 March 2012 (RCC)
| consecration = 1977 (Anglican)
| other_post = Bishop of Matabeleland (Anglican; 1977–1987)
Metropolitan Bishop of Canada (ACCC; 1988-2005)
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1935|1|10|df=y}}
| nationality = Zimbabwean
| religion = Roman Catholic (formerly Anglican)
| spouse =
| children =
| alma_mater = Port Elizabeth and St Paul's Theological College
}}
Robert William Stanley Mercer CR (born 10 January 1935) is a Roman Catholic priest in England. Formerly an Anglican bishop, he was the fourth Bishop of Matabeleland in Zimbabwe, a diocese of the Church of the Province of Central Africa, a province of the Anglican Communion. Since 2012 he has been a priest in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, a personal ordinariate for former Anglicans within the Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom.
Early life and education
Ordained ministry
=Anglican=
Ordained as a deacon in 1959 and as a priest a year later, his first post was as a curate at Hillside, Bulawayo. After time at St Teilo’s Carmarthen, he returned to his homeland.
In 1970, he was deported from South Africa because of his stand against apartheid, specifically for running, with other Anglican clerics, a multi-racial parish at Stellenbosch University.{{cite news|last=Greaves|first=Mark|title=Former Anglican bishop turned Catholic priest is star of anti-apartheid musical|url=http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2012/03/28/former-anglican-bishop-turned-catholic-priest-is-star-of-anti-apartheid-musical/|accessdate=4 April 2012|newspaper=Catholic Herald|date=28 March 2012}} He was then chaplain of St Augustine's School, Penhalonga and then rector of Borrowdale, Harare.
Mercer was ordained as a bishop in Matabeleland in 1977 and served in the midst of a civil war. From 1988 until his retirement in 2005 he was the metropolitan bishop of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada.[http://anglicancatholic.ca/bishops/housbish.htm The House of Bishops - ACC/C] Though retired to England, he remained a member of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada's house of bishops until January 2012.
=Roman Catholic=
On 7 January 2012, Mercer was received into the Roman Catholic Church as a member of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham at St Agatha's Church, Landport.{{cite web|url=http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2012/01/another-anglican-bishop-answers-pope-benedicts-call-to-unity/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128124019/http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2012/01/another-anglican-bishop-answers-pope-benedicts-call-to-unity/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=28 January 2012|title=Another Anglican Bishop Answers Pope Benedict's Call to Unity|publisher=The Anglo-Catholic|date=2012-01-07}} On 27 March 2012, he was ordained a Catholic priest by Bishop Alan Hopes in the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Portsmouth.{{cite web | url=http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2012/03/another-former-anglican-bishop/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517180125/http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2012/03/another-former-anglican-bishop/ | url-status=usurped | archive-date=17 May 2013 | title=Another Former Anglican Bishop | publisher=The Anglo-Catholic | date=27 March 2012 | accessdate=29 March 2012}} On 21 June 2012 it was announced that he had been elevated to the rank of Chaplain of His Holiness, entitling him to the title of monsignor.{{cite web |url=http://www.ordinariate.org.uk/page.aspx?pid=534 |title=Anglicans come home in Croydon |accessdate=2012-06-23 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404000630/http://www.ordinariate.org.uk/page.aspx?pid=534 |archivedate=4 April 2012 }}
Despite becoming an ordained member of the Roman Catholic Church, Mercer continues to be a member of the Anglican Community of the Resurrection and to live in accommodation in Worthing purchased for him by that community.{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/faith/articles-of-faith/?blogId=Blogc0bba33c-410b-4dc5-9505-f7e4c0ceeb0bPost7b02f84f-8d6b-4c6f-80fc-4933fe8d94e7 |work=The Times|title=Who knows? It's behind a paywall|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite web | title = Mirfield monks buy Ex-Anglican turned Catholic £160,000 flat | work = Huddersfield Examiner | date = 19 April 2012 | accessdate = 2016-08-26 | url = http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/mirfield-monks-buy-ex-anglican-turned-4954796 }}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
{{Portal|Christianity}}
{{S-start}}
{{s-rel}}
{{S-bef|before=Stanley Mark Wood}}
{{S-ttl|title=Bishop of Matabeleland|years=1977–1987}}
{{S-aft|after=Theo Naledi}}
{{succession box | before= ? | title= Metropolitan Bishop of Canada| after= Peter Wilkinson | years=1988–2005}}
{{S-end}}
{{Bishops of Matabeleland}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mercer, Robert William Stanley}}
Category:Anglican bishops of Matabeleland
Category:20th-century Anglican bishops in Africa
Category:Bishops of Continuing Anglicanism
Category:Anglo-Catholic bishops
Category:Anglican bishop converts to Roman Catholicism
Category:21st-century British Roman Catholic priests
Category:English Anglo-Catholics