Update on Anglicanism in Australia

Cracks in the Communion: How Same-Sex Marriage is Threatening the Anglican Church of Australia

18/09/2019  |  Editor • David Ould 

 

 

 

SHARE

The Gospel Coalition (AU)

CURRENT EVENTS

Photo of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Wangaratta by Bahnfrend, wikicommons

After a relatively quiet period, the issue of same-sex relationships has made a sudden reappearance in Anglican politics. We asked David Ould, Anglican minister and prominent blogger on Anglican affairs, to help us understand the situation.

---

TGCA: There seems to be quite a bit of noise about same-sex marriage in the Australian Anglican Church at the moment. Could you tell us what has caused this flurry?

While the question of marriage has been a difficult one for both the global Anglican Communion in general and the Anglican Church of Australia for quite a while, things have come to a head recently through the decision of the synod (church parliament) of the diocese of Wangaratta to approve a liturgy for the blessing of persons who have entered a same-sex marriage. While this decision is grievous in and of itself, it’s been made worse by a number of exacerbating factors:

1. The motion was promoted by the Bishop of Wangaratta, John Parkes.
2. The Anglican Church of Australia has been in a temporary “cease-fire” over this topic. The bishops agreed when they met in March 2018 not to pursue or progress any unilateral innovation in this area and, instead, to act only within the constitutional framework of the Anglican Church of Australia. In effect this meant that they were agreeing that change could only be made through the General Synod (effectively the national parliament of the denomination). Bishop Parkes promotion of a liturgy of blessing is seen by many as a direct breach of this agreement.

Things have come to a head through the decision of the synod of Wangaratta to approve a liturgy for the blessing of persons who have entered a same-sex marriage. 

TGCA: What has been the response from the main dioceses to these developments?

Varied! There are 23 dioceses in Australia, including 5 Metropolitan dioceses; Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. Sydney has long been conservative and their standing committee and Archbishop both issued strong condemnations of Wangaratta’s actions. Brisbane is a hotbed of liberal theology—often actively promoting gay ideology—and so, while there has been no official reaction, it is reasonable to assume they are watching with supportive interest. Perth will be much the same. Adelaide is a very mixed economy.

Melbourne—the seat of the Primate (lead bishop) of Australia, Archbishop Philip Freier—is orthodox on the key questions yet is often accused of being too passive. While the diocese of Melbourne leans towards the evangelical wing there are a good number of liberal clergy and perishes who have often aggressively pushed the revisionist agenda, particularly in matters of human sexuality. Archbishop Philip Freier has the very difficult job of balancing his clear obligations as a bishop to “drive away all false and strange doctrine which is contrary to God’s word” with his deep desire to “keep the peace”.

TGCA: How have evangelical and orthodox organisations such as EFAC and GAFCON responded?

EFAC do not see themselves primarily as a political body and so any action has been left to GAFCON who issued a response to Wangaratta which contained, not only a rejection of Bishop Parkes’ actions and the more general promotion of liberal theology in the Australia Church, but an invitation to anyone “troubled” by these moves to contact GAFCON directly. This has been interpreted by many as the beginning of GAFCON laying out a structure for support and even alternate oversight of faithful Anglicans.

TGCA: Is this a line in the sand for the Anglican communion? What’s at stake here? What are the best and worst cases?

When similar events have happened in other Anglican provinces (national churches) there have been splits arising from what has often been described as “a tear in the fabric of the Communion”.

Holy Satire

Transgender Baptisms

Church Of England’s Transgender Baptisms Blaze Trail For 3 More Blasphemous Rites


Hans Fiene
The Federalist


Note: Ever the ecumenical fellow, throughout my life, I have made a multitude of friends from a variety of faith traditions. After learning that the Church of England has offered congregations some guidelines for affirming transgender identities, I was flummoxed. So I sought my progressive Anglican priest friend, Victoria Vivian Jambutter, hoping she might explain what’s happening across the pond. What follows are the thoughts and predictions of Rev. Jambutter, who is a totally real person.

Wonderful news, lads, ladies, and gender-nonconforming sentient organisms! As Helena Horton put in a recent article for The Telegraph, “the Church of England has encouraged its clergy to create baptism-style ceremonies for transgender people to welcome them into the Anglican faith.” Or, to state things a bit more thoroughly, the Church of England has released some guidelines for using a ceremony known as the Affirmation of Baptismal Faith to indicate God’s, and the church’s, acceptance of those identifying as transgender.

If a man declares that he is actually a woman, the guidelines essentially say, let’s augment the Affirmation of Baptismal faith in such a way as to include her new name and pronouns as an indication that both God and the Church of England accept her new identity.

“Now, wait a second,” you might be asking yourself if you’re one of those stuffy traditionalists who falls somewhere on the “actually Christian” spectrum of Christendom, “if the Church of England accepts Reginald’s claim that he is now a she known as Regina, isn’t this a gnostic rejection of the Triune God who created Reginald as a male, redeemed him as a male, and will resurrect him as a male?”

Why, yes! Yes, it is!

“Why, then,” you may respond, “are Church of England progressives placing social justice inclusivity above biblical faithfulness?”

The answer is quite simple: Because that’s how we resolve our religious anxiety.

Divided Christendom

Divided Christendom is a stressful thing, forcing all who dwell within it to ask themselves “How do I know that my group is right instead of one of the other ones?” There are many ways to answer this question. Catholics resolve this anxiety by pointing to the pope and saying, “The Catholic Church is the true church because it’s the only church that has him.” Baptists point to the Bible and say, “the Baptist Church is the right one because we teach what the Bible really teaches.”

For progressive Christians like me, however, the purpose of Christianity is not so much to find God in his supposed representative on earth or in his unchanging word but by moving beyond the bigotry of the apostles. Christianity, you see, is not about faithfulness. It’s about evolution. For progressives, the best way to convince ourselves that we are the most evolved Christians is to embrace every sin that’s condemned by the fundamentalist fuddy-duddies around us.

The Quiet Reformation

Falling Apart, Regrouping, Reforming

A recent guest-post at  Kiwiblog revealed and discussed the schism taking place within the Anglican Communion in New Zealand.  This is something which we have expected to occur.  We have mentioned previously the chasm that has been opening up around the world in the Anglican communion--publicly evident in Africa, Australia, and the United States.  Signs of it are appearing in Scotland.  It will inevitably occur throughout the United Kingdom.  The straw-breaking-camel's-back issue is homosexuality.  To change the image, it is a Bridge Too Far.

The Kiwiblog guest post by John Stringer reveals that the same dynamic is now actively unfolding in New Zealand.

Holding To the Faith "Once For All Delivered to the Saints"

Scottish Infidelity Versus Fidelity 

The acceptance of sexual sin in the Scottish Episcopal Church is causing ructions and schism.  It is part of many such excisions taking place around the world within Anglicanism.

One of the largest churches in Edinburgh has voted to split from the Scottish Episcopal Church amid tensions over its decision to become the first Anglican body in the UK to endorse gay marriage.  St Thomas’ is the latest evangelical parish to quit the official Anglican church in Scotland and back a rival splinter movement in reaction to the vote supporting gay marriage in June last year.

A number of other churches have either left or are considering leaving in the wake of the decision to change the Scottish Episcopal Church's (SEC) definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman.  [The Telegraph]

This development is consistent with similar moves around the world.

A Recovery of Church Discipline

Seminal Moments

The Anglican Church has been effectively split for a long time.  There are major "parties" within the church, of which the predominant ones are the High Church Anglicans, the Modernists, and finally the Evangelicals.  

The Evangelical wing has a vibrant (but minority) presence in the United Kingdom.  The same is true of New Zealand and Australia--although through the ministries of the Sydney Anglicans the presence and influence of the evangelical wing of the Anglican Church in Australasia is growing.

We are not all that familiar with the High Church Anglicans, but they appear bound up with traditionalist Roman Catholicism.  The Modernists, however, we know well, largely because they have their own representative voices in New Zealand.  Modernism can be described as largely secularist with icings of religious practice dotted in disarray over the cake.

World wide Anglicanism, however, is another beast entirely.  It is largely dominated by the doctrines and practices of true, hard core, Bible believing Christianity.  Recently, this international, global group held a conference in Jerusalem.  They sent a clear message back to the Anglican hierarchy in England.

Victorian Clergy

The Perfect Occupation, or Not

Historian A. N. Wilson tells us what his dream job would have been, had he lived in the Victorian period.  Wilson is an historian of Marxist stripe.  He is not a Believer.  Nevertheless he writes:

It is difficult to conceive of any more agreeable way of life than that of the Victorian country parson.  If I had to choose my ideal span of life, I should choose to have been born in the 1830's, the son of a parson with the genetic inheritance of strong teeth. (Improvements in dentistry are surely among the few unambiguous benefits brought to the human race by the twentieth century.)

I should avoid a public school education through being 'delicate', and arrive at Balliol with a good knowledge of Greek to be taught by Benjamin Jowett. . . . After a short spell-say, five years-teaching undergraduates at the Varsity, one of them would introduce me to his pretty, bookish sister, and we should be married.  I should resign my fellowship and be presented with a college living, preferably a medieval church, a large draughty Georgian rectory and glebe enough to provide the family with 'subsistence'.  By now it would be, let us say, the 1860's, and I should remain here for the next forty years, a faithful friend to generations of villagers to whom I would act as teacher, amateur doctor and social worker, as well as priest.

Unjust Judges Who Rule The Church of England

Dishonouring the Name of Christ

If a saintly man can be branded a sex abuser, none of us is safe

By Peter Hitchens
The Mail on Sunday


If we won't fight injustice wherever we see it, then we are not safe from suffering injustice ourselves. If a man's reputation can be destroyed in an afternoon by a secret kangaroo court, then we too can one day be propelled into a pit of everlasting shame by the same process.

If it can happen to anyone, it can happen to you. And it does happen. Accusations of long-ago sexual crime have become a sort of industry in this country. People are so horrified by them that they almost always believe them.

Because the crime is so foul, we stop thinking. To their shame, police and prosecutors use our horror to get easy convictions, when they must know that their cases are weak. The less actual evidence they have, the more they stress the disgusting nature of the alleged crime. And they forget to remind us that it is alleged, not proved.

Equally shamefully, judges do not stop these trials and juries leave their brains at the door. They convict not because they are sure the case has been proved beyond reasonable doubt, but because they are angry and revolted.

I am miserably sure there are disturbing numbers of people in British prisons now, prosecuted on such charges, who are innocent of the accusations against them. It is our fault, because we have forgotten what justice is supposed to be like, and that, if we do not guard it in our hearts, it will perish in the country.

The Great Ejection

A Self-Imposed Famine

There are many legacies which have been passed down from Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan revolutionaries.  Some have continued to influence the churches in England to this day.  One of the most significant and long lasting arose out of the Conventicles Act (1664) which banned Nonconformist or Puritan worship from Henry's Church of England.

There was to be one national church; other churches were not recognised after 1660.

Thus, non-Anglicans were forced to conform to the Church of England or give up public office.  About 1,000 ministers (one in six) gave up their livings, and about 2,000 clergy and teachers were ejected.  Charles (II)'s attempts to circumvent this legislation were blocked.  Intended to restore unity, these acts on the contrary created a permanent religious schism in England, the long-term legacy of the Civil War.  [Robert Tombs, The English and Their History (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), p. 253.]

State churches were and will ever be an oxymoron.  They do not survive--at least with any evidence of sustained spiritual life.  It is not drawing too long a bow to observe that the fruits of the Great Ejection are still being borne in the Church of England.

The modern Anglican church in the UK remains largely bereft of spiritual life: the one sign of spiritual life rests with the Evangelical wing.

A Death Rattle

Offensive to God and Man

The nineteen fifties saw the first waves of immigrants from the West Indian colonies to the UK.  Most ended up in London in search of work and a new life.  By 1956, well over 40,000 per year were coming into the UK. 

David Kynaston [Family Britain: 1951-1957 (New York: Walker and Co., 2009), p. 449] records that the new immigrants encountered a "range of reactions".  On the whole, most were broadly accepting, on both sides.

But one stands out as breathtakingly bad:  it involved one 1955 arrival, Carmel Jones--who eventually became a Pentecostal minister.

Biggest shock was, one, the cold, and two, having gone to church for the very first time--so elated, so delighted that I'm coming from an Anglican church back home, I went to join in worship, and so I did--but after the service I was greeted by the vicar, who politely and nicely told me: "Thank you for coming.  But I would be delighted if you didn't come back."  And I said, "Why?"  He said, "My congregation is uncomfortable in the company of black people."

That was my biggest shock.  I was the only black person in that congregation that Sunday morning, and in my disappointment, my despair went with me and I didn't say anything to anyone about it for several months after that.  

If one wants at least one explanation for why the Anglican church in so many parts and places is spiritually dead today, the incident recorded above would go a long way.

Homosexuality Winnows the Church

J. I Packer and The Refiner's Fire

We have read the recently written biography of J. I. Packer.  Few would argue against the contention that Packer has been the most significant orthodox theologian of the Anglican Church over the last fifty years.  For those of our readers who comprise the informal gerontocracy within the Christian Church, the account of Packer's life reads like a trip down memory lane.  

He has been a wonderful servant of his Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.  Presently in his 91st year, Packer remains active and faithful.  For many years he has taught and ministered in Canada and the United States.  Always loyal to the original biblical construction of the Anglican Church, he was finally ejected by the Anglican Church of Canada because of his biblical stand against homosexuality.
In that action, the Anglican Church of Canada indirectly confirmed that it was an apostate denomination.  Ironically this has led to a purifying revival amongst many North American Anglicans, who have determined to "come out from among them, and touch not the unclean thing".  [II Corinthians 6:17]  Such are the "mysterious ways" of God to perform His wonders.

Denying the Means of Grace to Homosexuals

The Church of England Genuflects to Baal

The Barnabas Fund has written:

The Church of England’s General Synod has just passed a motion calling on the UK government to ban what they term “conversion therapy”.

By this, they do not mean the sort of horrific medical treatments such as “chemical castration” that were sometimes forced on gay people half a century ago. Rather, what the General Synod voted to ask the government to ban was “prayer ministry”, i.e. praying for people who experience unwanted same-sex attraction to be set free from that. In other words, what the General Synod asked the government to ban was a particular form of prayer.

It is sad that the Church of England has done this.

The sadness is twofold.  Firstly, the General Synod has called for the State to exercise control over the content of prayers to the Lord Jesus Christ.  In doing so, the Anglican Church has declared its belief that the UK government is a higher authority than King Jesus.  It also exposes the church's disbelief in liberty of conscience and religious faith.  The Anglican Church would rapidly move back to the days of state control of religion--that is, to the same kind of tyranny over conscience that held sway before the Toleration Act of 1689.

The second point of sadness is this: the General Synod, by this benighted action, would remove a means of grace from penitents seeking to overcome the sin of homosexuality.  In this case at least the Anglican Church has become the enemy of converted and repentant homosexuals, showering them with a thousand treacherous kisses.  "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy."  Proverbs 27:6

When True Christian Faith Collides With a Lust for Power

The Choices We Face

Canon Gavin Ashenden
AnglicanInk

[This piece was written before the Anglican Church met at Canterbury in 2016.  The issues and divisions which the author addresses in this article were once again papered over.  But the establishment of a new, reformed Anglican church remains inevitable.  It is only a matter of time.  Ed.]

In Germany in the 1930’s, the seed of fascism was taking root. It grew ferociously fast. Some parts of the Church saw what was coming and stood against it. They became known as ‘the Confessing Church’. Other parts of the Church cooperated with the secular agenda of the new regime, hoping to buy political credit and claiming it gave them an invaluable influence.

Before long, the fascist state turned on the accommodating part of the Church that had for a while cooperated and compromised, and destroyed it, - as it had always intended.

There were a few brave men and women in the Confessing Church who knew what was coming and made it their business early on to speak as prophetically as they could in the name of the Gospel and the Living God, against the coming evil. They were first ostracized and then arrested.

One of the bravest of them, Dietrich Bonheoffer, was hung in prison by piano wire in April 1945, in a final act of spite as the end of the military struggle with Nazism approached.

The rest, as they say, is history.

CANTERBURY 2016

What does this have to do with the meeting of 38 Archbishops of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion in Canterbury in the second week of January 2016.

One might begin with two observations: those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it; and old generals are always busy fighting the last war.

The Saruman's Amongst Us

Kissing Judases

I was once invited to a dinner with a Roman Catholic cardinal.  He was a friend of Pope John Paul II and had been on of those who elected his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.  The main topic of the evening was the state of religious freedom around the world, but the conversation ranged far wider, and it was both deep and delightful.

Just as we were about to finish our coffee and end the evening, he suddenly changed the topic and asked me about the crisis roiling the worldwide Anglican Church.  Not wanting to be drawn on what Francis Schaeffer used to call a "soup question" rather than a "dessert question" (one that requires asking early in a meal to do justice to its importance), I replied somewhat lightly, "The Anglican Church is flourishing in many parts of the world, especially in the Global South, but it certainly has huge problems in the West.  But then, you had your Borgia popes."

Instead of brushing off the remark, as I expected, the cardinal became serious.  "Yes," he said, "Alexander VI (with his record of incest, murder, bribery and corruption) was one of the worst leaders ever to have led the Christian church  But he never denied a single article of the Apostle's Creed, whereas several of the Episcopal bishops flout the teaching of the church catholic and deny the very heart of the Christian faith--and still stay on as Christian leaders.  That is the shame of the Episcopal Church, and that is unprecedented in Christian history."

The cardinal was correct.

Refining Fire

Exiles Departing an Unbelieving Church

We have recently recommenced reading the book of Ezekiel--this time, in large chunks at a time, rather than chapter by chapter.  Ezekiel was an exile, having been "removed" from Judah to Babylon in one of the early Babylonian actions against Judah and Jerusalem.  Other exiles would follow, ending up in the final siege and destruction of the city, and the terrible slaughter of the year 586BC. 

It was in captivity that Ezekiel was called by God to be His prophet to the exiles, even as Jeremiah was called to be God's prophet to Judah.  Jeremiah has been called the "weeping prophet" because of his heart-wrenching lamentations, mourning, and weeping over the stubborn Israelites and their refusal to listen to Jeremiah's warning of imminent destruction.  If Jeremiah was the weeping prophet, Ezekiel was the suffering prophet, called by God to act out before the exiles Judah's heard-hearted refusal to listen to God, and the inevitable consequences that followed.

The first twenty-four chapters of Ezekiel document Israel's centuries of unfaithfulness and unbelief.  The exiles, watching from afar, hoping for some relief, hated Ezekiel and his message of condemnation and threat--which is to say, they hated God.  The nadir of Ezekiel's suffering comes when the Lord tells him that He is about to take his wife, but that he must not mourn for her.

For Shame

Ecclesiastical Paddling Poolers

There are parts of the church--far too many for comfort--which crave acceptance from outsiders--otherwise known as Unbelievers.  Some speak of churches needing to be "seeker friendly"; others appeal for relevance, clarity, plain speaking. 

What might clarity and plain speaking look like where we live?  To make people feel at home in a church service one would need to use "f . . .k" every third or fourth word, because that's how folk speak at home around here.  Mind you, then folk would say, "Why f . . . bother going to f. . .  church--it's just like f. . . . home anyf....ingway."  Point well taken.  We think this stuff risks becoming so loopy it belongs in the asylum.  That's what a craven lust for acceptance will do to you. 

The Church of England risks becoming a poster boy for this kind of inane worldliness.

Prophetic Bombers

Anglican Church Definitively Condemned 

It seems inevitable that severe disruption of some kind, if not a split, is going to occur in the Anglican church.  This ought not discourage us on the face of it, for not all separations and splits are bad.  The call to "come out from among them and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing" (II Corinthians 6:17) remains, reminding us that it is the Living God Who is sovereign and His Word rules over churches, not the reverse.

What is discouraging is the extent of judicial blindness now manifest in the Anglican church.  The Telegraph recently presented the thinking of bishops via a report, compiled by a panel of bishops, and  issued by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York over the issue of homosexuality.  As is so often the case in such matters it is the childish, asinine reasoning that accompanies the attempt to justify what is wicked that reveals so much about the spiritual condition of the denomination.  What is the recommendation of the report?

What Would the Martyrs Be Thinking?

A Full Centimetre Longer Than High Street Minis

The by-line in an article published in the Daily Telegraph informs us that the new Archbishop of Canterbury is warning that 'the Church of England . . . had to face up to a “revolution” in attitudes to homosexuality.'  So far, so good.

That a "revolution" in attitudes to homosexuality is taking place in the West, including Britain, is undeniable, although arguably the word "revolution" is misleading.  Change, or more accurately, devolution is certainly occurring.  But it is consistent change.  It is expected change.  The West has no moral absolutes, no ethical fundamentals.  It gave that away a long time ago, when it rebelled against the God of the heavens and the earth. Instead the creed, "Man is the measure of all things, and nothing human is foreign or immoral to me" has become the UK's established religion.  Homosexuality is a human activity, non?  Therefore, there can be nothing foreign nor immoral about it.  Consequently, in the West homosexuality must inevitably come to be recognised as a human right, an activity protected by law.  The duty and function of the law then becomes to  condemn and punish any who disagree because they refuse to accept and submit to the (now) established humanist religion. 

How is the Church of England to face up to such a "revolution"  is the key question?

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Right This Very Minute 

Theology - N.T. Wrights and Wrongs
Written by Douglas Wilson
Thursday, 06 December 2012

Allow me to take just a brief moment to respond to some of the arguments presented here by Brad Littlejohn, in response to my recent interactions with N.T. Wright on the question of women's ordination.
Brad has a three basic problems with my take on the N.T. Wright business with women bishops.

First, he is concerned that conservatives not dismiss the liberals with "the very same sort of arrogance and incomprehension" that (he acknowledges) they treat us with. Now I quite agree that we ought not to act like they do, and so I don't. But it is not arrogance to take Wright to task for exegesis that he feels sheepish about, and which he introduced to us with a very British self-deprecating cough. As those who follow this blog know, I have honored Wright (and a bunch of his work) plenty in this space. But on this issue he has beclowned himself, and we are not fooling anybody by declining to say so.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Serious Scholars Clown Car Review

Theology - N.T. Wrights and Wrongs
Written by Douglas Wilson
Monday, 26 November 2012

In the previous post, I took N.T. Wright to task for trifling with the text of 1 Tim. 2:12, and for insulting our intelligence. A discussion broke out in the comments about whether I had been too cavalier and dismissive of Wright. So here's a little something about all that.

In the first place, I did not refer to him as Entie Wright. I think that should count for something. In the second place, as one commenter pointed out, I have on numerous occasions been appreciative of Wright's contributions and scholarship. I have read a number of his books, and have learned a bunch. I am not walking any of that back. I just yesterday after church recommended one of his books (Surprised by Hope) to a parishioner. But third, and this is the main point now (a point which every successful Bible teacher ought to take to heart), he is a bibilical expositor, not a rock star, and not a celebrity.

Every expositor is capable of error, obviously, but sometimes the error is of a kind that is followed immediately with a clap of thunder.

Those Horrible Conservative Anglicans

 Entertaining Apoplexy

We have been largely amused at the intemperate venting of spleen over the Anglican Church's decision not to ordain women as bishops.  For some it is a sign of the end of the world.  For others it is a deadly insult to modern educated progressive Man, er--Person.  Still others see it as an embarrassing anachronism. 

Granted the Anglican Church is in all sorts of strife and bother over this--largely because of inconsistency.  It has recognised female bishops in countries such as New Zealand and the United States.  It has ordained women as priests, curates, ministers, archdeacons--whatever they might be called.  So why does the "office" of bishop represent the Rubicon beyond which "you shall not pass"?  Granted episcopally governed churches are hierarchical and bishops represent the locus of church authority and power.  But how compelling is this case when the Bible's teachings on the matter of men exclusively holding office have been re-interpreted or ignored or glossed to mean something else for all other ordained offices in the Anglican Church.  If those arguments are compelling for vicars, they must be equally compelling for bishops--surely.

These peccadilloes notwithstanding the outrage has been diverting.  Here is a sample from a correspondent for The Guardian: