by Jeremy Halcrow
After an exhaustive two hour debate at its May meeting, the Standing Committee voted 32 votes to 10 to extend Archbishop Peter Jensen’s retirement age from 65 to 70.
The final motion agreed to by the Standing Committee said the decision had been made because of the ‘critical importance’ of Dr Jensen’s leadership to the diocesan Mission.
The decision means Dr Jensen, who will celebrate his 60th birthday this year, will remain Archbishop for a further ten years.
Last October, Synod committed itself to see ten per cent of the population in Bible-based churches in ten years. Bruce Ballantine-Jones, who moved the motion to extend Dr Jensen’s retirement, argued that, “For the Synod to embark on the most ambitious project ever attempted by any diocese knowing that the person who embodies the spirit of the mission would leave halfway through would be demeaning and fatal to the mission.”
Dr Jensen was not present for the debate, which was chaired by Bishop Reg Piper
When he was later told of the decision, Archbishop Jensen said, “This is not a matter that Christine and I have looked for, but we are ready to serve, God willing, as we are requested.”
Canon Ballantine-Jones defended the decision in a Sydney Morning Herald article last month. “To deny ourselves the benefits of this gifted man’s leadership and to require him and the diocese to live with the uncertainty of an unknown future would be to expose everyone to very damaging destabilisation,” he said.
Bishop Robert Forsyth, said that while there had been differences over ‘how and when’ the decision should be made, but nonetheless had reached ‘a common mind in believing that Peter has been a marvellous gift of God to the diocese and in wishing to see him continue his leadership of the mission.’
Prior to agreeing to the extension, Standing Committee had debated at length two other questions. Firstly whether this matter would be better left for a further two years, and secondly, whether Standing Committee should send it as a recommendation to the Synod. In the end both these suggestions were rejected by 25 votes to 17.
Mr Ballantine-Jones rejected calls that the decision was one Synod should have made, saying it would expose the Archbishop to ‘hostile media and sectional opposition’.
He also rejected concerns that the decision should have been made closer to Dr Jensen’s retirement so his health and other issues could be better assessed.
“The real point is that once the matter had been raised, had it been deferred, he would be put on trial where every word and action would be open to the accusation that he was positioning himself for an extension. This would be intolerable and would cripple the archbishop and the diocese.”
Debate on the matter was conducted in Archbishop Jensen’s absence. Bishop Reg Piper, who is the senior regional bishop of Sydney Diocese, chaired the Standing Committee. The issue was discussed at length, particularly the questions of whether the matter should be left for a further two years, or whether the Standing Committee should determine the question or send it as a recommendation to the Synod when it meets next in October. The Standing Committee voted to take the decision itself and then voted with 32 votes in favour and 10 against for the extension of Archbishop Jensen’s retirement age.
When he was later told of the decision, Archbishop Jensen said “This is not a matter that Christine [his wife] and I have looked for, but we are ready to serve, God willing, as we are requested.”
The decision to reduce the Archbishop’s retirement age from 70 to 65 was first proposed in 1992 in the lead up to the 1993 Archbishop’s election. However the Rev Lindsey Johnstone successfully sought to have the debate deferred on the grounds that ‘candidates shouldn’ be knocked out at the last minute’.
Mr Johnstone said the bill was brought by supporters of Phillip Jensen’s candidacy for Archbishop and had a political agenda behind it’.
“It was intended to head off the election of John Reid, to make it harder to elect Harry Goodhew and easier to elect Phillip Jensen.”
The bill was passed the next year, but later was successfully amended by Justice Ken Handley to allow the Archbishop of Sydney to stay on to 70 if he was elected Primate of the Anglican church of Australia. Justice Handley said he has been ‘unimpressed’ with the way the retirement debate has been handled over the past decade.
“Moving the goalposts on an individual basis is inappropriate in any organisation, but especially in a Christian organisation,” he said. “It would have been best if we has just stuck with 70 as the retirement age.”
Bishop Robert Forsyth, said it was clear that Standing Committee had ‘a common mind in believing that Peter has been a marvellous gift of God to the diocese and in wishing to see him continue his leadership of the mission, God willing, as long as he can.’
However Bishop Forsyth, who is chair of the Retirements Committee that oversees decisions to extend retirement ages for parish clergy admitted a decision to extend retirement by five years, many years out from the retirement date was unprecedented.
“Our usual practice is to extend clergy retirement dates by a few months. Even in exceptional circumstances we have never made such a decision more than a year out from the retirement date.
Asked if the decision to extend the Archbishop’s retirement may have set a precedent for rectors who could argue they were similarly essential for the fulfilment of the Mission in their parish, Bishop Forsyth said, ‘Possibly’.
