The Reverend Dr John Mark Capper

Honorary Priest at St Paul's, John Capper has worked with Shell in Australia and Europe as a Chemical Engineer. 

He studied theology at Ridley College, Melbourne and was ordained in the Anglican Church (in the Anglican Diocese of Armidale) in 1985. 

Since ordination John has served as Vicar of Collarenebri (north-western NSW) and Principal of the Church Army College of Evangelism in Sydney, as well as providing backup, support and mentoring to parishes and clergy in Australia and the UK. He has led teaching and evangelistic missions in Australia and overseas.  

Whilst much of John's ministry over recent years has revolved around educational institutions, he has also been involved in local church ministry. (This has included Acting Rectorships and locum positions in parishes as diverse as Darlinghurst (Kings Cross) and Redfern in inner Sydney and Roseville East and Denistone East/Marsfield (now Macquarie Anglican) in suburban Sydney. At Macquarie Anglican John was a Senior Associate Minister). Whilst in England John was active in the parish of All Saints' Cottenham (Diocese of Ely) and in assisting with services in Selwyn College Chapel.

John returned to Australia in 1998 after completing a PhD on 'Karl Barth's Theology of Joy' in the Divinity Faculty of the University of Cambridge. John has also studied history, philosophy and education at a postgraduate level. He was appointed to the Theology Department of Tabor College Victoria in 2003 having taught for five years at Tabor College in Sydney. John has also taught at a number of other colleges, including the Wesley Institute for Ministry and the Arts, Southern Cross College, the United Theological College and with the Antiochian Orthodox Church. John is crazy enough to believe that both theology and ethics are linked, and even that both may be practical and useful in life and ministry! Put another way, what we believe affects how we live.

John has publications and conference papers to his credit in the areas of the theology of joy, trinitarian theology, the thought of Karl Barth, online adult education, and the Internet and ministry. He has an ongoing interest in the book of Lamentations, the writings of Julian of Norwich, and the nature of mission at social margins. 

John assists with services in the parish, and preaches on occasions.  He and Wendy run a weekly home group, and are keen encouragers of the ministry of small groups.

Wendy and John have four daughters, spread between high school, college and university.