Archbishop Jensen’s Presidential Address to Synod (media release)

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Archbishop Peter Jensen discussed issues relating to marriage and the family in the first section of his Presidential Address to the Sydney Diocesan Synod. In the second section of the Address he discussed matters relating to the Anglican Communion, including the debate on women bishops and issues relating to human sexuality. The Synod will commence this afternoon and will meet in the Wesley Theatre, 220 Pitt Street.

Dr Jensen said the individualism that holds sway in contemporary society has created what he calls “a serious love-deficit in the community”.

“The fact is that human persons flourish best in the context of stable and loving family relationships…..the laws of the State reflect a culture in which individualism is the ruling ethos. Getting my own way is what matters. And morality is personal not communal. Thus if we have never been taught to keep our word as a matter of honour and of obedience to God, our marriages are put at risk. Divorce and even adultery cause as little comment among us [ie among church members] as they do in the community as a whole.”

Dr Jensen commented on co-habitation, emphasising that statistics reveal that those who co-habited before marriage have less successful marriages “than those who approach their unions in the time-honoured public way.”

“The satisfactions gained from the informal setting-up of domestic arrangements are short-term, and do not work in favour of the participants. That women in particular have acquiesced in this widespread fashion is puzzling: genuine feminism would certainly have counselled them to do otherwise. Even more importantly, children have been disadvantaged. The philosophy of individualism creates a serious love-deficit in the community.”

He also explored one Christian understanding of the relationship between God and his people: “our marriages are the short-term anticipations of that eternal marriage. Marriage is a reflection of God’s eternal purposes….Our real marriage is with Christ..”

Archbishop Jensen used this New Testament concept of the Church as the Bride of Christ to discuss the unity of Christians and Christian fellowships. He said the Bible shows that this relationship with God and between believers is not particularly focussed into those who meet in a certain building on a certain day, but it includes all manner of gatherings, both worldwide and local.

He said that Christian fellowships [churches] provide “a key alternative to the individualism and lovelessness of post-modernism. Whether by strengthening the family of the married, or by being the family of the single, the church is to show how we can live in a world where we can accept the authority of Jesus Christ and so our true humanity.”

The Anglican Communion
The Archbishop reasoned that the centrality and priority of the local church should not mean that Anglican Christians should disconnect themselves from the wider relationships such as the diocesan synod “as the church’s Parliament” or the General Synod or even the worldwide Anglican Communion. “These relationships can save us from insularity and make us helpfully accountable to others.” Pointing out that the Constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia brought the members of Sydney Diocese into relationship with the worldwide Anglican Communion Dr Jensen said “this is an association often accompanied by such good things as prayer and mutual assistance.” Yet he said “it is also a privilege which may cause grief.”

Dr Jensen proceeded to discuss the debate about women bishops and also sexual immorality and the Communion. “At the moment the Australian Church is discussing the issue of women bishops. If the priesting of women was wrong on scriptural grounds, it cannot be right to accept women bishops. The difficulty is exacerbated because a bishop at some level represents a whole Diocese and has to minister to every church in the Diocese. What happens if her ministry is not received, for conscience sake by a parish, or by another Diocese? …. To meet this problem some people talk of alternative Episcopal oversight. … We are confronted with one of the agonizing difficulties of modern Anglicanism. “

The Archbishop then reasoned that the role of bishops and priests is significant, but of a different order “than that posed by the acquiescence of many in the denomination to the blessing of same sex unions and the active practice of homosexuality by those in the ministry.”

“The warnings [in the scripture] about same sex practices create a fresh level of concern; they put the practitioners at deadly spiritual risk ‘the will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9,10). Certainly this is part of a list of other gross public sins; certainly we do condemn practices of swindling, lying and greed; certainly the problem is not homosexuality as such; it is the disregard for the scriptural teaching on chastity for us all, which is the problem. Heterosexual immorality disqualifies a person from active ministry as much as homosexual immorality does. These are salvation issues, and we cannot falter in making our opposition clear, even if it were to cost us everything we hold dear.”

Dr Jensen expressed his support for the nine dissenting Canadian parishes who call themselves ‘the Anglican Communion in New Westminster’ and argue that they should be recognised as authentic Anglicans. He said they faced the risk of losing their parish rights, their property and their ministry. Despite this they are recognisably authentic Anglicans since they remain with the majority opinion of the bishops at the Lambeth Conference, and ‘it is not they who have deserted the teaching of the Bible as understood for 2000 years and is still understood by the vast majority of Christians around the world.

The Significance of this Dispute
“The Anglican Communion as such is not the bride of Christ, but all of us who belong to it should aspire to the holiness of the bride. Where that holiness is put at such risk as it has been in the UK, the USA and in Canada, it will be absolutely inevitable that major divisive consequences will follow. In their activities our good name is at stake; our capacity to preach the gospel is imperilled.

“The rejection of these developments on this occasion has been widespread and powerful. They are particularly strongly voiced in the global south, where the numerical strength of the Anglican Communion is now found. Wherever it happens it is bound to lead to sustained opposition and a major and costly realignment of the churches.

“These large affairs may seem remote from the local church. But the opinions of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the doings of the American Church are instant news here, and affect our presentation of the gospel, especially as we bear the same name and are structurally connected. Far more deadly, of course, is the local endorsement of Bishop Spong, who in the name of the Anglican Church attacks the evangelical presentation of the gospel and thus gives comfort to the unbelievers who reject it. For myself, I engage in these disputes unwillingly, but I am bound to do so for the sake of the people of God in the local churches. In the end the success or failure of our Mission under God depends on the capacity of the local church to commend the gospel. It is not helped in this task by connections with a denomination which in some parts has compromised so blatantly with the culture of individualism. This has to be publicly challenged.

“The good health of these local churches is basic to our Mission strategy. We need churches of quality, whatever the size, whatever their ethos or their churchmanship. Our churches need to be places where you may hear the biblical gospel taught faithfully from the pulpit to the kindergarten Sunday School class.

“The quality of the pastorate has always been a great concern to the Archbishops of Sydney. We have wanted to know about the godliness, personal maturity and skills for ministry of those being ordained.

“The need for this quality is going to be felt more keenly in the next decade. First we are going to have to have ministers who are godly, not given to greed, or scandal, or gossip, or sexual failure. As ever, they must manage their own families well. This at a time when the culture is making it all too easy to fall into sin at these and other points. Second, they need to lead the churches in the preaching of God’s word and in prayer.”

Contact:
Margaret Rodgers
(02) 9265-1507 (w)  0411 692 499 (mob)
(02) 9560-9801 (h)

Geoff Robson
(02) 9265-1508 (w)  0403 195 841 (mob)

The complete text of the Archbishop’s address will be found on the Anglican Media website [url=http://www.anglicanmedia.com.au]http://www.anglicanmedia.com.au[/url] from 3.00pm today.

Embargoed copies of the address may be obtained from the Anglican Media office this morning, or from Anglican Media staff at the Synod.