Hepworth began his seminary studies in 1960 at St Francis Xavier Seminary in Adelaide. In 1968 he was ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Adelaide. In 1972 he moved to Britain. After returning to Australia in 1976 he was received into the Anglican Church of Australia as a priest. From 1976 to 1977 he had permission to officiate in the Anglican Diocese of Ballarat. From 1977 to 1978 he was the assistant priest in the Colac parish and, from 1978 to 1980, was the rector of the South Ballarat parish based in Sebastopol.[3]
In 1992 Hepworth joined the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia (ACCA). On 29 June 1996 he was consecrated as a bishop, together with Robert John Friend, in the Pro-Cathedral of the Resurrection, Brisbane, by bishops Albert N. Haley (then diocesan bishop of the ACCA), Robert C. Crawley (Anglican Catholic Church of Canada), Wellborn Hudson (Anglican Church in America) and John Hazlewood (retired Bishop of Ballarat in the Anglican Church of Australia). Hepworth served as an assistant bishop until April 1998 when Bishop Friend (who had succeeded Haley as diocesan) resigned. From then until November 1999, Hepworth acted as bishop administrator. At the national synod of the ACCA, held from 25 to 29 November 1999, he was elected as the new diocesan bishop. In 2002 he was elected as primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) in succession to Louis Falk.
Hepworth was involved in a process to create an Australian ordinariate for former Anglicans in the Roman Catholic Church. His personal history complicated the situation. He was not raised Anglican, but had left the Roman Catholic Church and then married twice and had three children. On 1 March 2012, the TAC bishops voted against union with the Roman Catholic Church. They also voted to accept Hepworth's already announced resignation as TAC primate with immediate effect.[4] On 16 May 2012, the TAC College of Bishops suspended Hepworth, meaning that he ceased to be the TAC Bishop Ordinary of Australia.[5]
Hepworth was formerly heard regularly on Adelaide's 5AA radio station where he acted as a political commentator on the conservative Leon Byner Show. [10]
Hepworth said that he was a victim of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Australia during the 1960s and 1970s. He has alleged that he was raped on numerous occasions by three priests during his seminary studies[11] and that the Catholic Church had failed to follow due process.[12]
Hepworth died on 1 December 2021 in Adelaide. Two days before his death he was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church and also recognised as a priest in good standing. He died of complications arising from motor neuron disease.[15]
^"For Immediate Release"(PDF). Johannesburg, South Africa: The Traditional Anglican Communion College of Bishops. 1 March 2012. Archived from the original(PDF) on 12 April 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2012. The College of Bishops voted unanimously to accept the resignation of John Hepworth as TAC Primate by resolution that states: "it is resolved that he cease to hold the office of Primate immediately". Archbishop John Hepworth vacates the Office he has held since 2003, along with the individual appointments which are the prerogatives of that Office.
^"St Ann's Secret". Four Corners. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 3 October 2011. The Adelaide Archdiocese of the Catholic Church has been on the receiving end of damaging headlines in recent weeks over allegations from the former Catholic priest, now breakaway Anglican Archbishop John Hepworth, that it had failed to properly handle his claims that he had been repeatedly assaulted sexually as a Catholic seminarian decades ago. Archbishop Hepworth has, in particular, accused the Catholic Vicar-General in South Australia, Monsignor David Cappo failed to follow due process in the case, a claim Monsignor Cappo has rejected.
