Archbishop Peter Jensen has used his annual address at the Anglicare Christmas dinner to launch a scathing attack on the social policies that are shaping Australian society.
Dr Jensen has told the fundraiser’s 150 guests this nation’s grandchildren and preschoolers “will one day lead the charge against us for the world our era has created.”
"Most notably we have been prepared to risk the gains which come from well-ordered family life based on marriage, in favour of looser arrangements fragile in essence and temporary in experience," he said.
Dr Jensen also called on his listeners to begin expressing a form of individualism that differs markedly from that usually promoted by society.
The Archbishop says the individual’s response to the gospel and responsibility to heed the living God were far different from the selfish individualism of modern culture.
"It is an individualism which bears both its own burdens and the burdens of others, which delights, no matter what the world or even the church may say, to follow the Lord Jesus in discipleship, which finds its true freedom in service," he says.
“There comes a time in most lives where conscience, bound to the word of God must take precedence, and where God expects you and me to stand alone, just as the Lord himself stood alone for the salvation of mankind.”
The Archbishop says that is is also the individual and their desire for social change that lay at the heart of Anglicare.
“Anglicare is a voluntary society. That is to say, the genius of its work goes back to supporters who are volunteers. They are individuals who do not wait for other people to act, or wait for the government to do something.
"They see in Anglicare an agency which will express their own hopes and intentions towards the needs we see around us" to do something for love and life and hope in the name of him who came to bring love and life and hope into the world.”
The Archbishop’s criticisms come in the wake of new research revealing de facto relationships harm the likelihood of successful marriages, and the increasing tension between work and home life is damaging Australian households.
For more information see…
De-facto relationships damage future married life
Work/home conflict drives change
Photo: Robert Edwards
