It may be what Bishop Robert Forsyth describes as ‘the biggest ordinance’ ever but it’s going to make parish life simpler.
Sydney Anglican churches have been given two clear choices for effectively managing parish life thanks to the Parish Administration Ordinance 2008.
The ordinance is the fruit of a two-year project undertaken by the Ordinance Reform Group, which includes Robert Wicks, Martin Thearle, Mark Payne and Bishop Forsyth.
The ordinance was approved in principle at Synod last night after a motion was put forward by Bishop Robert Forsyth and seconded by diocesan secretary Robert Wicks and will now be discussed in committee stage.
"The ordinance intends to bring together in the one consolidated and refreshed rewritten ordinance all the rules for the administration of the churches and parishes of this diocese," Bishop Forsyth says.
Bishop Forsyth wants to make clear that the rules for administration outlined in the ordinance are not rules for the ministry nor the mission of churches in the Sydney Diocese.
"They function as a kind of framework or skeletal structure which orders and empowers the various relationships and responsibilities within the community of our churches, especially when it comes to matters of finances and property," Bishop Forsyth says.
Bishop Forsyth believes this framework contains enough guidelines to stop church life becoming "dominated by the most powerful or the most persuasive", but not so many that parish life would become "stultified and caught up and distracted from its real purposes of living out the Christian life in mission".
The new ordinance brings together all the rules that are relevant to the running of parishes, which had over time become increasingly available in separate ordinances.
"It was felt that the matters should be available in one clear place," Bishop Forsyth says.
The ordinance contains two schedules: one, for parishes administered in the traditional way where the fundamental organisational structure is the church building and the community that meets there; two, for parishes administered in another way, in which the whole parish " constituting several congregations wherever they meet " forms an administrative unit as the parish. Parishes are to use either one schedule or the other.
"Our purpose was not to bring about any significant change in the principles of operation of the previous Church Administration Ordinance. We believe that getting the ordinance in this new form was a good prerequisite for any change that may or may not be wanted later on," Bishop Forsyth says.
"The Ordinance Review Group hopes that this major rewrite of the newly called Parish Administration Ordinance" will serve the churches in providing the framework and rules for good Christian administration."
