Sydney Anglicans have agreed that a loose network rather than any formal structure is the best way to meet the pleas of independent evangelical churches for assistance.
In recent years, the Sydney Diocese had been approached to help ease the administrative and financial burden falling on independent ethnic churches, as well as pastors forced to start churches outside their denomination due to their evangelical convictions.
Yesterday, Matt Greenwood a former Anglican minister and now pastor of the newly planted Western Suburbs Community Bible Church in Perth explained to sydneyanglicans.net the importance of the new law for his ministry.
Mr Greenwood said he hoped the support from Sydney Diocese might ease the burden on his church in a number of areas including the interchangeability of ministry, insurance and community credibility.
After the Synod debate late last night, chief mover of the bill, the Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, agreed that the new law offered the hand of friendship through a networking mechanism.
"It's about providing a warm welcome not structures," he said.
In a key change to the legislation, the Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, and the Bishop of North Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies, successfully put an amendment denying such "affiliate' church bodies the automatic right to speak in Sydney Synod.
"It would not be helpful if they were made quasi-members of Synod," Bishop Forsyth said, explaining that it created an unnecessary structural relationship.
However a similar attempt by Bishop Forsyth and Bishop Davies to remove a provision in the bill urging the Archbishop of Sydney to give pastors of the independent churches a General License from Sydney Diocese was very narrowly defeated.
In response, Dean Jensen pointed out that the Archbishop of Sydney has already granted General Licenses to clergy living outside Sydney Diocese and cited numerous examples, including Bishop John Reid who lives in Newcastle Diocese.
"This will be an important expression of fellowship," Dean Jensen said.
Earlier in response to questions about the bill, Dean Jensen scotched the idea that it was "Alternative Episcopal Oversight' by another name.
"The term "episcopal' is not used anywhere in the ordinance. The Archbishop [of Sydney] would have no jurisdiction," he said. "I don't think the independent churches want the Archbishop interfering in their ministry. It's not about creating hierarchies of power."
This then raised queries from the floor " including a rare intervention from Archbishop Peter Jensen, the Synod President - about whether the proposal then undermined Sydney Diocese's strong commitment to child protection and sexual abuse protocols.
"If anything we should be able to raise standards by bringing the independent churches into our PSU (Professional Standards Unit) system," Dean Jensen said. "[The independent church] will be disaffiliated if they do not meet the standards."
Earlier, an attempt by the Rev Chris Albany from South Hurstville parish to defer the bill was easily defeated.
A series of amendments from Garth Blake SC that sought to gut the ordinance and limit its effect to the geographic boundaries of the Diocese of Sydney was also defeated.
Mr Blake was unable to convince Synod that the proposals were unconstitutional, despite his belief the new bill could lead to civil court cases, and even the Archbishop of Sydney being brought before the Appellate Tribunal (the national church's high court) and dismissed.
Bishop Forsyth later told sydneyanglicans.net that such concerns were inaccurate and that "he had no doubt these moderate proposals were legal."
He urged Anglicans not to overreact to the Affiliated Churches Ordinance passed in Sydney Diocese.
"Although there are some details I am uneasy about," he said, "It is important not to let the ordinance to be seen as anything more than it really is. It is a mechanism by which the diocese can enter into contracts of support with various other, non-Anglican churches both within and outside the Diocese. It is not about extending the authority of the Archbishop of Sydney beyond the Diocese of Sydney."
Bishop Forsyth noted that there had been a lot of controversy in the last decade over the question of churches being created outside the Diocese supported by Sydney churches. But he re-emphasised that this law does not mean that these churches are part of the Diocese of Sydney.
"It merely means they may be brought into a partnership of friendship and support. It might not be what others want, but it is important not to overreact," said the Bishop.
