Abuse victim advocates are concerned that only nine of Australia's 23 dioceses have agreed on a uniform code of conduct for clergy and church workers.
An abuse victim advocate believes the Australian Anglican Church has made good progress in cracking down on abuse in recent years, but says the national church needs to cooperate to ensure their parishes are safe places for ministry.
Faye Hansen, the chairperson of Towards a More Appropriate Response (TAMAR), says all 23 Australian Anglican dioceses must adopt the Faithfulness in Service code as passed by 2004 General Synod to reduce sex abuse and misconduct in churches.
Only nine of the 23 Australian dioceses have adopted the Faithfulness in Service code: Armidale, Bathurst, Gippsland, Grafton, North Queensland, Northern Territory, Rockhampton, Sydney and Willochra.
Faithfulness in Service is a national voluntary code of conduct, which applies to all clergy and licensed laypersons, irrespective of diocesan consent. Application of Faithfulness of Service to other categories of church workers in any diocese will depend upon diocesan adoption.
"It's preferable if all 23 dioceses could agree to the same code, because it's when you have lots of different codes that errors tend to occur," Ms Hansen says.
"You would like to hope that with a uniform code of conduct we can reduce abuse, but we can't ever completely eliminate it as long as sin exists in the world."
Twelve dioceses are yet to consider adopting Faithfulness in Service and Newcastle diocese has adopted Faithfulness in Service and made an amendment.
A number of Victorian dioceses including Melbourne have not adopted Faithfulness in Service but Melbourne Diocese's Director of Diocesan Services, Archdeacon Graeme Sells says they have had a similar code of conduct for clergy and licensed lay workers since 2002.
"We have a clergy code of conduct for Melbourne of which about 80 per cent is in the Faithfulness in Service document," he says.
Melbourne Diocese's Registrar and General Manager, John McKenzie says Melbourne hasn't introduced the national code because they were waiting for the final round of amendments to be considered which were put through the General Synod Standing Committee last month.
"When that document is published again, we would look at it with a view to introducing it at our synod this year," Mr McKenzie says.
Newcastle Diocese has changed paragraph 7.4 of the code from "You are to be chaste and not engage in sex outside of marriage' to "Your sexual behaviour should be characterised by faithfulness and integrity'.
Newcastle Diocese has advised the General Synod Professional Standards Commission that this amendment relates to heterosexual de facto relationships. Representatives of Newcastle Diocese informed the Commission the amendment arose because there are lay workers in the diocese living in long term de facto relationships for whom there are pastoral difficulties in getting married.
Newcastle Diocese has also adopted Lambeth 1998 resolution 1.10, which "upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage' and rejects "homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture'.
The amendment to the Faithfulness in Service code appears to contradict the Lambeth 1998 resolution 1.10.
An issue raised by the Newcastle amendment is whether the only valid expression of exclusive lifelong and public relationship of marriage between a man and a woman in the scriptures is within a marriage solemnised under the Commonwealth Marriage Act.
This issue has been referred by the General Synod Standing Committee to the national Doctrine Commission for consideration.
Media reports last month suggested that the Diocese of The Murray in South Australia rejected the Faithfulness in Service code in April 2005.
However, the Bishop of The Murray Diocese, Ross Davies denies this and says the Diocesan Council has merely drafted their own, simpler code until Faithfulness in Service is reviewed at their bi-annual Diocesan Synod in 2007.
"I am in favour of Faithfulness in Service in principle and hope it will be uniformly adopted around the 23 Dioceses," Bishop Davies says.
In a related child protection issue, Bishop Davies says South Australia's relatively limited resources means having one state-wide Professional Standards Director and Committee for the three South Australian dioceses would be a preferable arrangement. He hopes the three dioceses can adopt a common protocol allowing them to work cooperatively with the one professional standards unit.
"Work is underway in Adelaide at present to create this. I expect by [our Diocesan] Synod in 2007 the whole new system will be operating in South Australia," he says.
In October 2005 Archbishop of Adelaide, Jeffrey Driver introduced a Code of Good Practice for clergy which applied to all new appointments from that date. The code is adapted from the code in place in the Province of Victoria and slightly from Faithfulness in Service. All existing clergy will be asked to assent to the code by December 31, 2006.
The Director of Sydney Diocese's Professional Standards Unit (PSU), Philip Gerber says Sydney was the first Diocese to implement the Safe Ministry Policy for recruiting clergy and church workers at their Diocesan synod following General Synod's resolution in 2004.
"The policy is a statement of clear intent by the Diocese to ensure safe ministry and deal effectively with all incidents of abuse and misconduct," Mr Gerber says.
The policy deals with comprehensive screening, clear codes of conduct, compulsory training of people working with children and youth, a proper and timely response to allegations, care and assistance of victims and supervision and support of offenders and other persons of suspicion.
Sydney is also the first diocese to implement the General Synod recommendation that every parish nominate a safe ministry representative. The law takes effect from April 1, 2006.
The safe ministry representative will assist the minister in complying with legislation, maintain safe ministry training records and report to parish council the progress in implementing training and screening processes.
The Safe Ministry Policy also requires that all people working with children must do training every three years.
"Over the next 12 months we will do follow up through the Safe Ministry Board to make sure parishes have chosen a safe ministry representative," Mr Gerber says.
This year Moore Theological College implemented mandatory Child Protection Essentials training for all incoming first year students as part of their orientation weeks. The workshops, run by Youthworks are also being run for other students in the college who have not yet completed the course.
The PSU held 13 seminars last year alerting clergy and ministry workers to the importance of the Faithfulness in Service code.
In 2005 there were 722 clergy and 189 licensed paid lay workers invited to attend the seminars. An overwhelming 344 lay workers both paid and voluntary ended up attending.
Of the three clergy in paid clerical ministry who did not attend, two reportedly had appropriate reasons for not attending and indicated their willingness to attend any follow-up seminars. Only one member of the clergy refused to attend, saying he did not regard the seminars as valid or useful and indicated he had no intention of attending.
Ms Hansen says that while the church has worked hard to crack down on child sexual abuse, it needs to recognise that there are also vulnerable adults at risk.
"Our focus has rightly been on dealing with child abuse issues, but an area we need more education and thinking about is the abuse of vulnerable adults. We need more awareness about it for clergy and parishioners," she says.
Ms Hansen says vulnerable adults include people suffering from grief and loss, marriage difficulties or domestic violence, the elderly and people who are legally adults but have an intellectual disability.
"Some people don't report abuse because they are elderly or intellectually disabled and others blame themselves because they are at a vulnerable point in their lives," Ms Hansen says.
"There needs to be ongoing education and training programs for people already in ministry and for those being trained in ministry."
