We’ve not always done this well. Kanishka is a strong advocate for reconciliation with the Indigenous community – and not afraid to put uncomfortable truths about this on the table.

Kanishka was raised in Buddhism but converted to Christianity at university. He says that he was “a very surprised Christian. I didn’t have any interest in Christianity at all and suddenly I found that God had revealed his love in Jesus and that was life-altering for me … there was something about it that was obviously generous and gracious. Certainly, I would say now that God was speaking to me through Scripture, saying that the death of his Son was a death for my sin and that this was a really wonderful gift. This was an invitation to life.”

Trained in literature and in law, as well as in theology, Kanishka is a fine preacher. His voice is natural, unaffected, and clear. Since the cathedral services have been livestreamed, thousands of people have tuned into hear his sermons each week. His personal warmth is matched by a genuine humility and spirituality. Kanishka is a man who says his prayers.

And well might he turn to prayer, since he faces an enormous task. The demographic trend is away from institutional forms of religion. The cultural authority that the Anglican Church once held has been eroded. No longer are “Christian values” synonymous with the generally held morality of the community.

Only about 60,000 people regularly attend Anglican churches in the Sydney diocese. This is a number that has been more or less stable for a while. But it represents a shrinking percentage of people in a rapidly growing city. The Anglican Church has resources it could deploy, but these are often tied up in crumbling Victorian-era buildings.

There is, however, a deep spiritual hunger in our community – a desire that has intensified during the pandemic. Research conducted by McCrindle Research in 2020 showed, among other things, that 28 per cent of Australians say that they prayed more during the pandemic.

Many Anglican parishes have reported an extraordinary number of new people in their pews since in-person services have resumed at the end of 2020. It was striking how the Easter message of God’s love for us in Christ’s death and of the hope of resurrection resonated powerfully with a community now a little less sure that life is simply about material things.

So what should the Anglican Church in Sydney do, under its new Archbishop? No doubt there will be a need for structural changes and organisational revitalisation. No doubt there are areas in which we could modernise. But the real need is not to be more relevant. It is to be more deeply and genuinely what we are: local communities of forgiven sinners, seeking to live out Jesus’ call to love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves.

Kanishka says that his prayer is: “That God would be pleased to grow – in love, knowledge, service and numerically – local churches that are open to all, welcoming of the hurting, and ministering God’s love, serving their communities and being an adornment to the gospel they preach.” What a blessing to our great city such churches could be.

Michael Jensen is the rector of St Mark’s Anglican Church, Darling Point, and was one of Kanishka Raffel’s nominators for the office of archbishop.