Trinitytoday 10 Cover Story it meant I had lots of contact with these students and I thoroughly enjoyed them! It was a unique bonding experience with everyone on the same level. ‘In my second year, I lived in the newly-opened Jeopardy Building, and those two years in residence were a very fulfilling time.’ Ordained a curate for Murrumbeena in 1959, Jim spent the next six years in the Diocesan Task Force, establishing new congregations in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. ‘In February 1966, I was appointed Chaplain to Archbishop Frank Woods, and this was a wonderful experience. I was also his driver, so I lived at Bishopscourt, next door to the Archbishop. He was not very good on details, so I often briefed him while driving him to his engagements.’ Jim Grant’s talent for gently guiding others was becoming evident. ‘Following Barry Marshall’s move to Oxford, I returned to Trinity as College Chaplain in February 1970 and lived in the flat on the top floor of Leeper. In appointing me, Robin Sharwood had the idea that I might also be someone who could write the centenary history of the College, which I did,’ he adds, matter-of- factly. Perspective of a Century was published in 1972. At the end of that first year, James Grant was appointed a Regional Bishop, but Robin Sharwood suggested that he should remain living at Trinity and continue on as Chaplain, with Jim Minchin looking after pastoral care. ‘Robin also asked me what I was doing for my episcopal ring and suggested that I could borrow bishop Green’s ring which was held at the College, Bishop Green having been the first theological student at Trinity. And here it still is!’ he says, smiling as he extends his hand to display a simple gold ring containing a single amethyst. By now, Bishop Grant was not only College Chaplain, but had joined the College Council, was Senior Priest in the Theological School and was serving as Warden Sharwood’s ‘domestic prelate’. In this latter role he became a valued confidante to whom Robin could relate as a peer. When Sharwood resigned in 1974, Bishop Grant was appointed Joint Acting Warden with the then Dean, Rod Fawns, who was a lecturer in the School of Education. ‘Although we both had full-time jobs outside Trinity, we ran the College at nights and on weekends for some seven months until Evan Burge arrived,’ he says. But by then, the popularity of residential colleges had waned and, with falling enrolments and a laissez-faire approach to finances, the College was effectively broke. Bishop Grant was proactive in finding solutions. ‘I brought in a senior accountant from Arthur Andersen who studied the books over a weekend and then drew up a plan for our recovery. This included admitting women to help fill the vacancies. Robin Sharwood had already taken the decision to go co- residential before he left, but Rod Fawns and I had to implement it.’ Then, as now, College life also had its lighter moments and Juttoddie 1974 – the first to include women – provided a memorable one. Chuckling, the Bishop recalls: ‘I was wearing a neck-to-knee, striped bathing costume and the students put me into a bath full of water on the Bulpadock. The idea was to guess the volume of water I displaced!’ This good-natured Bishop has always been willing to laugh at himself. ‘I was then involved in Evan Burge’s appointment. This was a little controversial because the College hadn’t previously had a clerical Warden and some members of the Council wanted it kept that way. However, Evan was a non- stipendiary cleric and he proved to be a great pastor who performed numerous weddings and funerals for alumni.’ Bishop Grant’s own wedding to lawyer, Rowena Armstrong, AO, QC, took place at St Paul’s Cathedral in April 1983. They first met in 1966 at a church conference, but it was a chance encounter in the queue for the Tate Gallery in London in 1982 that prompted romance. Rowena was Victoria’s chief Parliamentary Counsel and had used her expertise to draft the »ÆÉ«app Act 1978, and all of ‘I was wearing a neck-to-knee, striped bathing costume and the students put me into a bath full of water on the Bulpadock. The idea was to guess the volume of water I displaced!’ Trinitytoday 10 James Grant having his ‘episcopal volume’ measured at Juttoddie, 12 May 1974. »ÆÉ«app Archives, MM 004534.