Archbishop Peter Jensen’s Address to Sydney Synod - EMBARGOED

At 7.00pm this evening in the Town Hall, Dr Peter Jensen, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney will deliver his address to the Synod of the Diocese of Sydney.

The Synod is meeting today in the Town Hall today so that members of Anglican parishes who have obtained tickets can attend as well as diocesan clergy and lay synod representatives.

Archbishop Jensen will use the opportunity of the Address to report to the Synod on the progress of the Diocesan 10 year Mission that was endorsed overwhelmingly by Synod three years ago.

Dr Jensen will list those issues that he believes make society resistant to the proclamation of the gospel in our society.

"First, the sheer busyness of life in the new utopia we now inhabit. Our prosperity has been purchased at a fearful price to relationships. The cost of living virtually demands two incomes in a family; work has become all demanding; shopping has become a recreation instead of a mere necessity; sport and children's activities impact more and more on Sunday. Christian fellowship seems to be an optional extra, even for believers; Christian service has to be done on top of an already stressed life.

"The person most likely to come to join a church is the person actually brought by a friend or relative. When relationships suffer because of busyness, the more difficult it is to succeed evangelistically. 

"Second, ignorance of Jesus and the gospel. With every passing decade, the knowledge of the basic facts of the gospel, which could once be taken for granted becomes more and more garbled. I wonder what we would find today if we took a survey of Bible ownership; I wonder if we would do that work today. It is certainly easier to reach the person who has some knowledge than the person who has none whatsoever.

"Third, the bad name of the church Australia-wide. People want to disassociate the church from Jesus. I believe that there are several elements to this " a distrust of any authoritative institution; a recognition that church membership makes demands; bad experiences of boring and irrelevant church services; proven allegations of child abuse and cover-up, which tarnish the wonderful work done by so many over such a long period. 

"Fourth, the deep, deep unwillingness to commit. We live in a society which sets huge store on the individual and autonomy and on freedom of choice. Commitment of all sorts seems difficult. People recognise that a commitment to Jesus is an all-encompassing matter; they see it as an unacceptable loss of freedom. My informants especially mentioned the generation between say ten and thirty: for them accepting Christ would mean a totally unacceptable restriction on their moral freedom " unacceptable and unimaginable. But, then, those who worked among the aged could see no great move towards spiritual reflection there either " except, and this applies to all age groups, a spirituality which is itself individualistic, which does not make spiritual or moral demands. 

"That is a realistic list. It helps us analyse what the difficulties are and it reminds us that in the end all Christian work is spiritual. Scripture, prayer, preaching, sacrifice: these are still the means of advancing the kingdom; the difficulties are themselves fundamentally spiritual."

Dr Jensen then asked ‘Can we see any fruit of the Mission?’

He notes there already appears to be an increase of people attending diocesan churches of 3%.

"Formal religion remains much the same, but here is what is evident: 
more paid workers,
more congregations,
more children's work,
more money,
more students in training, with our biggest ordination ever next February,
more people attending our churches in one way or another.

"The increase appears to be in the order of 3%. That is about double the rate of the increase we experienced in the quite good years 1991-2001. It is almost double the rate of population growth in Sydney itself."

Dr Jensen also told Synod that the time was right for the Mission because of change in our culture.

"Keen observers have begun to announce the death of secularism. According to members of a Financial Review panel on power in Australia, "religion is the "new black" and secular is totally ten minutes ago'; "secularism is really on the nose,' (The Australian Financial Review Magazine, October, 2005, 30). They are not alone in saying this. I think there are many signs of a new interest in moral and spiritual matters, as the failure of secularism to feed the soul becomes more and more apparent.

"Materialism and individualism are destroying family life and whether we like it or not families are the bedrock of a civilised society. We are proving unable to give young people a sense of meaning, community and the transcendent, but these are integral to the needs of growing children. People want something more than secularism; I think the drift towards church schools indicates this; all the more important that those who value public education insist that space for Scripture teaching be fully maintained. I believe that the gospel ministers to human need in precisely these areas, meaning, community and transcendence.

"I think that it immensely heartening that Christians are far more prepared to speak about the faith in the public arena than even five years ago. For thirty years we have behaved as though we were cowed into silence by humanistic secularism. They seemed to have all the best lines.  Now a contest has begun and I am glad of it.

"It is interesting also to observe the greater willingness of some of our political leaders to declare their faith. This has been criticized but we must defend the right of citizens inspired by the teachings of Jesus Christ to enter politics and to seek, through entirely democratic means, the support of their fellow citizens for a set of values grounded in their faith.

"Mind you, if our politics continues to be corroded by personal insult, by grudges and partisan tribalism going back decades, by a hatred of the man or woman opposite rather than a rigorous contest over the value of their ideas, how will we encourage the best in community to serve their community? Recent events both in New South Wales and in the Federal arena only serve to remind us of the need for such gospel qualities as civility, compassion and forgiveness in public life. We must all speak the truth in love."

Archbishop Jensen concluded his address by encouraging the synod to continue to undertake the Mission with zeal and enthusiasm.

CONTACT: Margaret Rodgers (W) 02 9265 1507 (mobile) 0411 692 499