Leadership
Vision, Guidance and Support
Defence Anglican Chaplaincy provides an effective Leadership and Governance structure to ensure both the Defence Force leadership and serving Chaplains are provided the associated vision, guidance and support for effectiveness.
Leadership
Our Leadership Team has extensive Defence Force Experience…
Our on-going commitment to Leadership is to provide experienced and capable leaders that the Defence Force can call on at the appropriate times.
Grant Dibden
Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force
Grant is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon and served 26 years as a logistic officer.
He was involved with the Navigators throughout his military career and left the regular Army in January 2005 to work with them becoming their National Director in 2009.
As part of that transition he became a Chaplain in the Army Reserve where he served until his appointment as the Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence in March 2020.
Grant has a Theological Diploma, Bachelor of Theology, Bachelor of Science, Masters of Management in Defence Studies, Graduate Diploma of Management, and has formal qualifications in Training Development, Project Management, Chaplaincy and as a Company Director.
Darren Hindle, RAN
Archdeacon - Navy
Senior Chaplain Darren Hindle graduated from theological college in 1996 and commenced ministry in Vancouver, Canada, in 1997, where he was appointed as the Director of Training at the Artizo Institute. He was ordained a priest in 2003, within the Diocese of the Rio Grande, West Texas and New Mexico, ECUSA.
In July 2005, he joined and commissioned as an Officer in the Royal Australian Navy, and assumed his first posting as a chaplain in HMAS Waterhen.
Since 2005, Darren has served in most SERCATs, with a break in service, when he served as Associate Minister in St Andrew’s Kowloon, Hong Kong (2007-2009). He returned to Australia in 2009 as the Rector of All Souls Anglican Church, Leichhardt, in Sydney’s inner west.
He recommenced service as SERCAT 3 in 2012. In 2015, he transferred to SERCAT 5 SERVOP C, returning to HMAS Waterhen and HMAS Penguin. In 2017 as SERCAT 7, he was posted to HMAS Kuttabul, undertaking higher duties as Senior Chaplain and Co-Ordinating Chaplain Australia East. He was advanced to Senior Chaplain in 2019.
He has served operationally in the Middle East (J08 JTF633) in 2019, in the Solomon Islands (J08 JTG 637.7, MPSG, SIAF) in 2023, and within HMA Ships Tobruk (2006-2007) and Canberra.
In the latter, he served as Senior Chaplain, Surface Command (2020-2022). Collectively he has been force assigned to 10 different Operations.
Other postings as a senior chaplain include Chief of Staff, DGCHAP-N, and to the Navy People Wellbeing Program team, Navy Strategic Command, where he was the first chaplain to be seconded outside of the Navy Chaplaincy Branch.
He was most happy to assume responsibilities as Director Fleet Chaplaincy commencing 15 January 2024.
Glenn Buijs
Archdeacon - Army
Glenn became an Anglican minister in 1989 and has served in the Melbourne Diocese ever since in various appointments including being an examining Chaplain for Lay Minister for the Diocese and the Diocesan Coordinator for Multicultural Ministry.
He is the incumbent of Epiphany Hoppers Crossing and the Archdeacon of Williamstown.
Internationally, Glenn was also appointed Canon of Resurrection Cathedral in Popondetta, Papua New Guinea Glenn, and he is also the Founding Director of Edvance Aid, an overseas Aid charity, which works primarily in the South Pacific.
Glenn became an Army Reserve Chaplain in 2002 and has held various appointments before becoming the Anglican Faith Group Leader Chaplain and Army Archdeacon in 2022.
John (Cam) Carroll
Archdeacon - Airforce
Cam Carroll was ordained in the Diocese of Ballarat in 2001 by Bishop David Silk and has served in several country parishes before joining the RAAF in 2007 as a Defence Chaplain.
As a senior Chaplain he is now Director Chaplaincy Air Command and is responsible for the raising, training and sustainment of Air Force Chaplains for operational deployments and general governance.
Governance
“There are two separate entities that come together to provide governance, oversight and funding of Defence Anglicans.
Whilst there is some overlap, Defence Force Anglican Chaplaincy Incorporated (DFACI) is an incorporated association which primarily interfaces with Defence Chaplains and the Defence Force Board (DFB) is a canonical body of General Synod which primarily interfaces with the Church.
Both are necessary and the Bishop Chairs both and the Archdeacons are members of the DFB and the DFACI Executive.
Defence Force Anglican Chaplaincy Incorporated (DFACI)
DFACI is the Professional Association of Anglican Defence Force Chaplains providing rules and regulations for the governance of Anglican ministry in the Defence Force in accordance with Anglican polity and ecclesiology.
The DFACI Committee for 2024/2025 consists of:
- Chair – Bishop Grant Dibden
- Archdeacon Navy – Chaplain Darren Hindle RAN
- Archdeacon Army – Chaplain Glenn Buijs
- Archdeacon Air Force – Chaplain Cam Carroll MAICD
- Secretary – Chaplain Phil Riley
- Assistant Secretary – Byron Steele
- Treasurer – James Malizani
- Public Officer – Chaplain Kate Lord
- Service Representatives
Navy – Chaplain Kate Lord
Army – Chaplain Adam Mannion
Air Force – Chaplain Mitchell Herpes
Reserve Member – Chaplain Armen Nalbandian
Housing Member – Chaplain Byron Steele - Defence Force Board Lay Representative – Mark Francis
- Clergy Representative – Chaplain Glenn Buijs
- Registrar – COL. Duncan Sherman (Retd.)
Defence Force Board (DFB)
The Defence Force Board of the Anglican Church of Australia is an important interface between the Anglican Church and the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
The Board seeks to promote a closer relationship between itself and Anglican National Church agencies and the 23 dioceses of the Australian Church.
The Defence Force Board (DFB) was established by a Canon of General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia in order to:
- be a resource available to the Primate, the bishops, the Synod and the Standing Committee of General Synod on all matters concerned with the ministrations of the Church among men and women of the Defence Force and the families of those men and women;
- consult with and to give advice to the Bishop to the Defence Force, and
- maintain the office of the Bishop to the Defence Force.
The Defence Force Board’s members have played an important role in supporting Anglican ADF Chaplains.
Defence Force Board Membership
The member’s affiliation or diocese appears in brackets.
- The Right Reverend Grant Dibden (Chair)
- Chaplain the Venerable Darren Hindle RAN (Navy)
- Chaplain the Venerable Glenn Buijs (Army)
- Chaplain the Venerable Cam Carroll MAICD (Air Force)
- The Reverend Andrew Nixon (Head of NSW Police Chaplaincy, Sydney)
- The Reverend Cath. Wynn-Jones (Sydney)
- The Reverend Doctor Lyn Pearson (Melbourne)
- Colonel Mark Francis Retd. RFD CA GAICD (Canberra)
- Dr Michael Tong (Northern Territory)
The Board usually meets four times a year with one of the meetings to coincide with the conduct of a Vocational Panel for prospective ordination candidates
