Victoria

These Clergy preside and minister throughout the State of Victoria

Vicar-general

To view their current ministries and covering areas, please click on individual names

The Right Reverend Dr. Mar Martin Severius

PhD., Hon.D.D., M.Div., B.A.(Th.)., C.J., V.O.S.C.

Also known by my religious name +Mar Martin Severius, I am the eldest of the five children of the late Major Howard Davis (USAF, Retired) and Sylvia Sauter Davis. As a result of my father's 20-year Air Force career, I spent 8 of his first 14 years overseas, in Japan (1957-60) and on Okinawa (1963-68). Stateside locations included Louisiana, South Carolina, and finally Indiana. In my childhood my mother introduced me to the Christian faith. She had been a “cradle Catholic” herself who arranged for my own baptism, almost two months after my birth, occurring just before Christmas 1956, at St. Patrick Roman Catholic Parish, Fayetteville, North Carolina, which had been my mother's home parish prior to her December 1955 marriage to my father, a young Air Force fighter pilot whom she had met through her civil-service employment at the base where my father had been stationed. My father was baptised six years later (along with my newborn sister). My childhood recollections included witnessing both of my parents devoutly practising their Catholic faith, which was foundation for them as a couple and for my siblings and I as a family, especially through difficult times that included my father continuing his Air Force service by flying aerial reconnaissance missions over Cuba in 1962 and over North Vietnam in 1963-65. My Catholic faith comprised the bedrock of the images of my childhood, which was nurtured by the dedicated witness of the Air Force priest-chaplains who served both military personnel and their families. Remaining very active in the church, my mother served as a base-chapel volunteer, ensuring that our family was regularly present for Sunday Mass. Inspired by my parents and by our base priest-chaplains, it was pretty natural for me in such a context to consider that God might be calling me to a vocation as a priest. At age nine I began to serve as an acolyte (known then as a “Knight of the Altar”), especially enjoying much the privilege of serving for a particular priest, Father Louis LeDoux, who greatly encouraged my vocation and whose Air Force career directed him to two tours of duty in Vietnam and ultimately to the Office of the Air Force Chief of Chaplains. By the time of my father's retirement from the Air Force in December 1970, after 20 years of decorated service, I had lived for 14 years on Air Force bases in places such as my native state of Louisiana, Japan, South Carolina, and Okinawa. The imprint of military life, including the dedicated, selfless service of priest-chaplains like Father LeDoux, had a profound influence on my life, ultimately calling me back to my original vocation to priesthood, which my mother believed had been spoken by God on the day of my birth.

Nonetheless, adolescence was a time for straying—mentally if not physically—from my original vocation. Yes, I was still participating Sunday Mass through these years and continuing to serve at the altar, but my head and heart seemed to be more interested more mundane thoughts, such as those about young women, fast automobiles, top grades in school, politics, and other relatively-normal distractions. (During high school I dated and thought on a couple of occasions that I had met the woman that I believed that I would marry.) However, during my freshman year of high school, I nurtured a desire to graduate at the top of my high-school class, because I wanted to create choices for my university education (rather than having to beg to enter a university). My first choice was the United States Air Force Academy, with second choices being the Military or Naval Academies, and with the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University being respectively third and fourth choices. Graduating first in my high-school class did nothing to enhance my chances for the Air Force, Military, or Naval Academies, as my eyes were not correctable to 20/20 vision, resulting in a medical disqualification, despite having obtained nominations from the offices of the President, both U.S. Senators, and my U.S. Representative. While the disqualification was a huge disappointment, Notre Dame accepted my application, with undergraduate study in theology commencing following admission.

The “consolation prize” was subsequent admission to the University of Notre Dame. During my undergraduate years my original vocation resurfaced, receiving encouragement from my then-pastor of my home parish, another excellent and influential priest, Father Charles Kline, who during the summer of 1976 arranged at my request a meeting with the diocesan bishop to start a conversation about enrollment in a seminary. The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana, the Most Rev. Raymond J. Gallagher, D.D., MSW, was pleased to accept me informally as a university seminarian candidate, continuing my bachelor's level study in theology at the University of Notre Dame, with official seminary enrollment to occur after graduating with a Bachelor's Degree and with acceptance into the same university's graduate divinity program. As my vocation was to the priesthood, I pursued course work in theology (major concentration) and history (equivalent second major concentration) graduating in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. I returned to the University of Notre Dame, completing studies for professional ministry at Moreau Seminary and graduating in 1981 with a Master of Divinity degree. On 11 April 1981 Bishop Raymond J. Gallagher of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana ordained me as a deacon and thereafter assigned me to an internship at St. Ann Parish, Lafayette, Indiana. Upon completion of this diaconate internship, I was ordained as a presbyter (priest) by the same Bishop Gallagher on 5 June 1982 at St. Mary Cathedral, Lafayette, IN. During my tenure as a presbyter in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana, I was blessed with the following pastoral assignments: associate pastor at St. Patrick Parish, Kokomo (1982-87); associate pastor at St. Elizabeth Seton Parish, Carmel (1987-90); founding dean of the Southern (later Carmel) Deanery in Boone and Hamilton Counties (1988-90); advocate for the Diocesan Tribunal (1987-91); elected representative and vice-chairman of the Diocesan Presbyteral Council (1990-91); associate pastor, later briefly pastor, of St. Francis of Assisi Parish and Newman Center at Ball State University (1990-91).

After a leave of absence from active priestly ministry and following my first marriage in 1991, requests for weddings generated not only opportunities for pastoral ministry but also momentum for the establishment of the Independent American Catholic Mission of St. Clare of Assisi, located near Mount Summit, IN, in May 1993. After serving in a couple of independent Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdictions, I was incardinated into the Old Catholic Orthodox Church in March 2001. Later in September 2001 the Acting Primate (Presiding Bishop), Archbishop Leland Lannoye, consecrated me as a bishop and issued appointment as coadjutor bishop of Indianapolis. For work on the draft of a proposed code of canon law (actually titled as canonical norms), in 2002 St. Moses the Black Theological Seminary Seminary awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree, with a specialty in pastoral ministry. In September 2002 Archbishop Lannoye appointed me as diocesan bishop of Indianapolis (diocese later re-designated as Diocese of Indiana in 2005). During Archbishop Lannoye's illness in autumn 2004, I served very briefly as Acting Primate of the Old Catholic Orthodox Church. During 2004-2008 I served as the first presiding bishop for the "daughter" autocephalous jurisdiction known as the Christian Church, Synod of St. Timothy (cf. website at www.christiansynod.org). Also, from 2004 through 2010 I served in pastoral-chaplaincy ministry, operating out of the Anglo-Syriac-rite (eastern-rite liturgy and practice adopted and implemented in 2005) Christian Mission of the Ascension, Hagerstown, Indiana.

Recently I have served in the following ministries: (1) serving as proud father to my son Joshua, now a high-school student; (2) conducting parish/episcopal and hospice chaplaincy ministries, primarily in east central Indiana; (3) after arrival in Australia in December 2010, providing part-time pastoral support @ EQUBED, an Anglican social mission in Dallas/Broadmeadows, Melbourne, while seeking and awaiting a more permanent and full-time assignment in both ministry and employment. In addition to episcopal ministries, I have been a "tent-making" (bivocational) pastor, serving in several professional positions, including the following: counsellor/case-manager at the Youth Opportunity Center, Muncie, IN (1992-94); mental-health therapist at Wernle Children's Home, Richmond, IN (1995-96 and 1999-2000); executive director of Westminster Community Center, New Castle, IN (1996-99); chaplain for HospiceCare, Inc., New Castle, IN (1997-2000 and 2001-2002); manager of chaplaincy services at Wishard Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, IN (2000-2001); chaplain for Covenant and New Hope Hospices, New Castle and Marion, IN (2002-2004); chaplain, bereavement coordinator, and director of volunteer services for Best Choice Hospice Care, Indianapolis, IN (2004-2005); therapist at Healing Hearts Counselling Center, Richmond, IN (2005-2006); substitute teacher for the Nettle Creek School Corporation, Hagerstown, IN (2005 to 2008) and for the New Castle, Centerville-Abington, South Henry, and Blue River School Corporations (2006 to 2008); tutor for the Tools of Empowerment Education program (autumn 2006), special-education assistant at Centerville-Abington Schools (2007-2008), chaplain at Family Hospice & Palliative Care, Berne, IN (2008-2010). Community service has included graduating in the 1998 class of the Henry County Academy for Community Leadership and membership in the following: Henry County Ministerial Association (1993-2004), membership on the Henry County Child Abuse Prevention Council (1993-99), membership on the Henry County Child Protection Team (1993-94), Crescens Lodge 33 of the Knights of Pythias since 1994, listing in the Who's Who of Professionals 1997-98. Related to the above, June 2008 proved to be an eventful month, as I married a lovely and godly woman from Talbot, Victoria, Australia, Pamela Munroe Bright (subsequently ordained to the order of deaconess). The wedding day was a beautiful one, including a beautiful and happy bride! While greeting the witnesses, both bride and groom looked forward to their shared ministry yet to come. With my partner in both matrimony and ministry, I look forward to blessed and fruitful days of labour in the God's vineyard, fortified by the comfort and consolation of the Holy Spirit, as Pam and I invite others to join us in pilgrimage unto the fullness of the kingdom that God's Son, our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus, won for us through his death and resurrection. When I found the Anglican Independent Communion Australia Inc.(AICA), together with what they believe and practice, I found a fresh hope and encouragement, I was incardinated as Bishop to commence the work of the AICA in Victoria.