Response to the Statement “Reflections on the Anglican Communion”,

All members of the Anglican Communion welcome the statement from Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr Williams has done us a great service in these reflections following the recently held General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States.  I offer my own response to his statement.

Among other things, Dr Williams has recognised the following:

First,  a separation within the Communion is inevitable.  To use an analogy,  partners have separated although they have not divorced.  This is recognised in his categories of constituent churches and churches in association with the Communion.

Second,  the Archbishop has made it very clear that this whole controversy is, at a fundamental level, about the authority of the Bible, and the way in which we learn and follow God’s will in fellowship with each other. The presenting issue may be human sexuality but the real issue remains the word of God.

Thirdly,  the Archbishop has spoken of the need of a covenant to hold the constituent churches together and for new institutions to develop. In talking like this he seems to be more optimistic than I would be. Rather than looking into the mid-term future with hopes for the development of new covenants and institutions, I think we need to be looking at the realities of the present situation, and recognising the need to accept the new relationships that have occurred.

Like him, I am not without hope that our future relationships can be sustaining and enriching.  Unlike him, I think that the Communion has already become a looser network of churches with much in common but, unfortunately, much that separates.

The Archbishop remains concerned that our life together remains a valid and vital way of presenting the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. I think that his summons for us to listen to the word of God enables us to continue to have a future. Just as Archbishop Williams does, I also pray that it may be so.

The Most Rev Dr Peter F. Jensen
Archbishop of Sydney
28 June 2006