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Archbishop Peter Jensen's Christmas Message 2011 on the centrality of Jesus to human history
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Full Sydney Standing Committee Resolution
Standing Committee respectfully requests the Archbishop to write to the Archbishop of Canterbury expressing Standing Committee's profound concern that the majority report from the Joint Standing Committees of the Primates and the ACC considers the TEC House of Bishops response to the Windsor Report and the Primates' Dar es Salaam Communique to be neither positive, adequate or appropriate.
Standing Committee notes that:
a. the TEC bishops request that the Bishop of New Hampshire should be invited to attend the 2008 Lambeth Conference;
b. there continue to be ‘blessings' of same-sex gender relationships in many Dioceses of the TEC, as instanced by the Bishops' letters to their people after the house of Bishops meeting;
c. the TEC bishops continue to engage in legal suits against parishes that are leaving the TEC to join with other Anglican provinces, in spite of the Primates' request that they desist from such actions; and
d. that some TEC bishops also continue to harass other clergy and laity who espouse traditional Anglican teaching and practice though remaining within the TEC.
Standing Committee also respectfully requests the Archbishop to send this resolution to the Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia so that it may be included in the Australian response to the TEC House of Bishops response.
Finally Standing Committee expresses its total support for the Archbishop of Sydney's options outlined in his article “The Next Twenty Years for Anglican Christians†that was published in the Church Times 12/10/07.
After-shocks from the earthquake rocking the worldwide Anglican Communion will be felt during the deliberations of the General Synod " or parliament " of the Australian Anglican Church this week.
In his presidential address on Saturday, the Primate advised General Synod to express their support for the Americans after, he believes, their Bishops complied with the Anglican Communion's requests to step back from their pro-homosexual agenda.
Yet in a firmly worded resolution, the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Sydney has already, last week, overwhelmingly made clear they do not agree with the Primate's assessment.
The Sydney Anglican leadership expressed their "profound concern' that the global Anglican Communion's top decision-making body believes the US Episcopal Church's response is "neither positive, adequate or appropriate'.
The resolution also gave support to Archbishop Jensen’s way forward, outlined a fortnight ago, which looked ‘steadfastly to a future in which the bonds of Communion have been permanently loosened’.
“The basic issue is no longer how can the Communion be kept together. It is, within the Communion as it has now become, how can biblical Anglicans help each other survive and mission effectively in the contemporary world?” Archbishop Jensen said.
Dr Mark Thompson, president of the Anglican Church League, who originally moved the Sydney Standing Committee resolution said his aim had been to ensure that "an evangelical assessment be heard'.
"If we don't speak, it’s easy for our concerns to be swamped… it gets painted as a marginal concern," he said.
Primate "positive' about US reaction
Archbishop Phillip Aspinall dedicated nearly half of his Presidential Address to the crisis in the Communion.
While Archbishop Aspinall acknowledged that it is "clear that a majority in The Episcopal Church is deeply convinced that it is right to include fully in the life of the church and gay and lesbian people', he believes the Americans have complied with the Primates' requests.
He believes that the "majority' of American bishops have "indicated that they will refuse consent in future to the consecration' of a "non-celibate gay and lesbian person'.
He added that the American bishops had resolved the "ambiguity' over local experiments with authorising the blessing of same-sex unions.
"Last month the House of Bishops pledged they would not authorise such rites," he said.
In regards to ensuring proper care for dissenting minorities in the United States, Archbishop Aspinall said the Episcopal Church "had legal advice that it could not implement the scheme proposed by the Primates'.
However he believes ‘there is a clear willingness to devise a scheme in conjunction with the wider Communion which responds to the substance of the Primates' request’.
In summary, Archbishop Aspinall said the American response was "positive', and although debate has not been resolved, their position ends the need for "further unilateral action'.
"On the basis of my participation in the meetings and my conversations with bishops of the Episcopal Church across the diversity of views, I believe their response is positive. I think the House of Bishops has complied with the requests of the Windsor report and, beyond what Windsor asked for, the substance of the requests from the Primates has also been met."
"Whether or not this Synod agrees with my assessment, clearly not all the issues in this debate have been resolved. Far from it."
"I believe that these recent responses from The Episcopal Church, through its House of Bishops, make it more possible for us to pursue discussion throughout the Communion without them being undermined by further unilateral action."
Further reactions
Later Saturday evening Archbishop Aspinall’s assessment was reinforced by Canon Kenneth Kearon, head of the Anglican Consulative Council, in a special after-dinner address.
“What I saw at the Primate’s meeting with the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church of the USA… was a genuine attempt by both to seriously repair the breeches of trust which have arisen,” he said.
However, Dr Mark Thompson from the ACL described Archbishop Aspinall's assessment as "a fudge'.
"At every single point [the Americans] have failed to do what Windsor asked and it is fudge to say they have."
"But the main problem is with those who consecrated Gene Robinson, including Bishop Schori" they have not repented of that."
