By Joseph Smith

All bishops at the recent World Anglican Chinese Clergy and Workers’ Fellowship Conference hosted by the Diocese of Sydney and held in the Diocese of Newcastle, have stated their opposition to homosexuality and Western permissiveness on scriptural grounds, but clergy were divided as to how much attention church leaders should be giving to the crisis that is threatening to split the Anglican Communion.
Senior clergy, including Archbishop Peter Jensen and the Archbishop of South East Asia, the Most Rev Yong Ping Chung, said it was important to deal head on with homosexual issues dividing the church in the US, Canada and Britain for the sake of biblical Christianity, while others including the Bishop of Singapore, the Rt Rev John Chew, said a focus on the gay issue was a diversion from the church’s missionary task.
A panel debate held at the April conference saw Archbishop Peter Jensen and six Bishops from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore address key issues including homosexuality in the Communion and mission in South East Asia.
Archbishop Jensen warned some Western churches had compromised with the views of the Western world and that Chinese churches must be vigilant in their opposition. “We are encouraged by the preaching of the gospel among the Chinese churches,” Archbishop Jensen said. “We must resist the West’s obsession with homosexuality and all sorts of permissiveness. I admire the stance that Chinese and African leaders have taken, including some present, on behalf of God’s word.”
Archbishop Yong confirmed Archbishop Jensen’s views. “The province of South East Asia has broken communion with ECUSA and New Westminster. That is how strongly we feel about the issue of homosexual ordination,” Archbishop Yong said. “In our province Christians are serious about the scriptures.”
However, several speakers, including Bishop Chew, felt the focus on homosexuality was drawing attention away from the mission goal of the church. “Homosexuality is an issue we must face, but we must not let it become the most important agenda for us. If we let it dominate our energy, and forget about more essential things, we will have a fall amongst our own membership,” he said.
The Diocese of Taiwan has been in a five-year partnership with the Diocese of New Westminster since 2000 to provide prayer support and mutual understanding between the dioceses. “After New Westminster allowed same sex blessings in 2002, I sent an email and a letter to the Bishop to let him know we were concerned,” said the Bishop of Taiwan, the Rt Rev David Lai. “We pray the Holy Spirit will help them reconcile and focus on mission.”
The eighth World Anglican Chinese Clergy and Workers’ Fellowship Conference, held every four years, took place in Australia for the first time this year. Chairman of the organising committee and Rector of St Paul’s, Kogarah, the Rev Mee-Ping Lau, said holding the conference outside of Asia was a way to support those working in Chinese ministry worldwide.
“The focus of the conference is the mission in South East Asia, and those reaching out to Chinese immigrants in Western countries. By having this fellowship we can have cooperation from both sides and build up the ministry in both regions,” Mr Lau said.
Assistant Bishop of Sabah, the Rt Rev Yong Chen Fah, urged Sydney Christians to continue to think big in terms of mission in South East Asia. “While Sydney already has an openness to Chinese ministry, there are 500 million people in South East Asia. The task ahead of us is great,” Bishop Yong said.
“We would like Sydney Diocese, which has many resources, to share the burden with us. Moore College is moving towards 500 students. Some of those 500 should go to different parts of South East Asia where there are opportunities and teach the Bible,” he said.
Bishop of Western Sydney, Ivan Lee, said the Chinese clergy working in South East Asia were very encouraged by Sydney’s goal of seeing 10 per cent of Sydney in Bible-believing churches by 2012.
“They’re trying to reach 500 million people. Our mission looks insignificant compared to that, yet they said our mission was very encouraging,” he said. “They need missionaries to go to Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, which are difficult places.
“Please pray that they would stay faithful to the gospel and that their younger generation won’t get trapped in the Western affluence that we are trapped in.”