In an historic move last night, Sydney Anglicans have endorsed a proposal that confirmation no longer be required of people who are baptised as adults before being allowed to take Communion.
Getting the Synod on board was stage one before "wooing Australia' with the proposals, said mover of the motion, the Bishop of North Sydney Dr Glenn Davies, chairman of the seven-member committee who prepared the report.
"I'm pleased that the Synod recognises this is a reform we really desire," Dr Davies told Sydney Anglicans.net. "It is a sensible, biblical and commonsense move" and I have every confidence in convincing the House of Bishops this is a sensible way forward."
The four-part motion, "Administer of confirmation by presbyters' was approved after vigorous debate and six years after it was first proposed.
The Synod also agreed that clergy, under licence from the Archbishop, should be allowed to confirm members of their congregations.
This move would bring the Anglican Church in line with the Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox Churches.
The Synod also agreed that senior lay people should be involved in the preparation of candidates.
The Standing Committee will either bring an ordinance to the forthcoming General Synod or promote a Canon that will make the proposals possible.
Dr Davies said the crucial point was that confirmation should no longer be required of people who are baptised as adults, which "has always been an uncertainty in our Diocese'.
Most of the criticism, however, centred on the proposal to allow clergy to administer the rite.
Unlike the sacrament of baptism, only Bishops can legally administer the rite of confirmation in the worldwide Anglican Communion, with the exception of the Church of South India, which allowed priests to administer the rite in 1950.
Some opponents of the motion argued for the "special' nature being confirmed by the visiting bishop, while others countered the move was "un-Anglican'.
The Rev Mark Calder, rector of St Andrew's, Roseville, argued that allowing clergy into a domain preserved for bishops "served no practical or pastoral need' and was a "provocative move about a non-gospel matter' that will further isolate Sydney Diocese from the rest of the country.
