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The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have added their voices to the chorus denouncing Zimbabwe’s decent into anarchy as Robert Mugabe seeks to maintain his hold on power.

On April 24, Dr. Rowan Williams and Dr. John Sentamu released a joint statement warning that unless the international community takes action, the “continuing political violence and drift could unleash spiraling communal violence.”

Nobel laureate and former Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu warned “Zimbabwe is staring into the abyss. Violence is growing and the people are suffering greatly as a result. It is now vital that we all do what we can to calm the situation.”

He backed the call of the present Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe. “It is obvious that supplying large quantities of arms at this stage would risk escalating the violence, perhaps resulting in the large-scale loss of life,” he said on April 24.

The Primate of Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane joined his Roman Catholic counterpart Archbishop Philip Wilson and other church leaders in releasing a statement of “deep concern over the deteriorating political, security, economic and human rights situation in Zimbabwe.” If “nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing atrocities similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi,” they warned.

Drs Williams and Sentamu also voiced concern over the state sanctioned violence unleashed against the people of Zimbabwe. “Faithful men, women and young people who seek better governance in either political or church affairs continue to be beaten, intimidated or oppressed,” they said.

“Churches across England have been praying for Zimbabwe before, during and after the polls,” the English archbishops said. They urged all Christians to pray for the peace of Zimbabwe, adding “we must work to build a civil society movement that both creates political will and gives voice to those who demand an end to the mayhem that grows out of injustice, poverty, exclusion and violence.”

The Australian House of Bishops has agreed to an informal “flying bishops” protocol, granting traditionalists opposed to the ministrations of women bishops alternative episcopal oversight.

Circulated amongst the bishops before the meeting by the Archbishop of Adelaide, adoption of the protocol was a prerequisite for the appointment of Australia’s first woman bishop. On April 11, the day after the protocol was announced, Perth Archbishop Roger Herft appointed Archdeacon Kay Goldsworthy as his suffragan.

The new bishop will be consecrated on May 22 and will attend July’s Lambeth Conference. She will join women bishops from New Zealand, Canada, the United States and Cuba in the gathering of the Communion’s 900 bishops. While the Australian Church’s appellate tribunal last year held there was no legal disqualification of women bishops, the bishops had agreed not to move forward until they had discussed the ramifications of the issue.

Reactions to Archdeacon Goldsworthy’s appointment were mixed. The Bishop of Northwest Australia announced that he would not permit the new bishop to officiate in his diocese, while the president of the Sydney-based Anglican Church League, Dr Mark Thomson said the Perth decision added a new level of difficulty to the relationship between the various dioceses in the Australia and raised questions of doctrine and discipline for those committed to “living out” the teaching of Scripture.

Bishop-elect Goldsworthy said she did not believe the move would split the church in Australia. “Women were first made bishops over 20 years ago in the Anglican Communion and the communion has continued to work,” she noted.

The bishops’ Women in the Episcopate protocol stated that they “recognised the good faith of those in the church who support the new development of women bishops and of those who find that they cannot do so.”

“They resolved to nurture the highest possible level of collegiality as bishops in the future,” the statement said, and they “agreed to make special provision in situations where the ministry of a woman bishop would not be welcome.”

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen said he was “pleased that there has been considerable goodwill during the formation of these protocols.”

An opponent of women bishops, Dr. Jensen said “action was needed to protect the consciences of those who believe, as we do, that the consecration of women bishops is against biblical teaching. There are strongly-held convictions which separate us but we have endeavoured to find a way forward with courtesy and respect.”

A report detailing the sexual abuse of children in state care over the past forty years has been tabled before the South Australia state parliament.

The 600-page report prepared by retired Supreme Court Justice Ted Mullighan on April 1 warned that children in state care remained at risk of sexual abuse unless reforms were instituted to fix a system “in crisis.”

“Nothing prepared me for the foul undercurrent of society revealed,” Justice Mullighan wrote in his final report. “I was not prepared for the horror of the sexual cruelty and exploitation of little children and vulnerable young people in state care by people in positions of trust.”

Chartered by the state government to 2004 in investigate abuse in Anglican institutions, the mandate of the Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry was broadened to look at allegations of abuse within government and non-government institutions. The report documented hundreds of cases of abuse over the past forty years and offered 54 recommendations to fix the system.

The abuse of children in state care took place in orphanages, youth shelters and foster homes run by churches and the government and was perpetrated by foster parents, their sons, teachers, priests, social workers and strangers. Organised groups of pedophiles also preyed on and abused children in state care, he said.

South Australia premier Mike Rann said the stories found in the report had “sickened him.”

“Decade after decade, the perpetrators of this abuse not only robbed children of their innocence but also stole both their past and their future,” Mr Rann said.

The commission determined that 242 alleged victims were wards of the state when they were sexually abused. It referred 170 witnesses with information about 434 alleged pedophiles to police, who have arrested two suspects.

The Archbishop of Adelaide, Dr. Jeffrey Driver, said he was “deeply saddened by the extent of abuse” revealed by the Mullighan report.

“I acknowledge, with deep regret, that some of that abuse occurred in institutions run by the Anglican Church in South Australia,” he said in a statement.

“Without reservation, I repeat our apology to victims of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is always intolerable. When it is perpetrated by a person holding a sacred trust it is particularly repugnant,” Dr. Driver said.

In 2006 the diocese settled the claims of 36 men, who as boys were allegedly molested by Church of England Boys Society youth worker Robert Brandenburg. Former Adelaide Archbishop Ian George was forced into early retirement in June 2004 following an independent review that sharply criticized his handling of the abuse controversies.

The Archbishop of Adelaide has circulated a proposal for alternative episcopal oversight for those opposed to the ministrations of women bishops ahead of this week’s meeting of the Australian House of Bishops.

In a split 4-3 decision released on Sept 28, 2007 the Church’s Appellate Tribunal found the language of the Law of the Church of England Clarification Canon 1992 did not require a bishop to be male in order to meet the definition of ‘canonical fitness’ for the Episcopal ministry.

Two suffragan sees, one in Melbourne and one in Perth, are presently vacant and supporters of women bishops hope a woman cleric will be appointed to fill the vacancy in time for the Lambeth Conference.

However, opponents of women bishops, led by the evangelical Archbishop of Sydney and Anglo-Catholic Bishop of Ballarat have protested the decision, saying such an innovation must go through General Synod, rather than a re-reading of the canons by a court.

Dr. Driver is understood to have proposed creating an ad hoc structure where a retired male bishop, or a neighboring bishop would be invited to stand in for a women bishop, when faced with a congregation that does not recognize her orders. However, this structure would not be enshrined in canon law, but would rely on “good will and Christian grace” from all concerned.

The proposal also addresses the problem of women bishops in the Province of New South Wales. The Metropolitan of New South Wales, Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney will not consecrate a woman to the episcopate. The proposal would allow a new bishop in the province to be consecrated by someone other than the metropolitan.

The likelihood of success of an Australian informal flying bishop scheme is not high, as traditionalists tell The Church of England Newspaper the assumption of “good will” is not one they have been able to count on in the past.

“Women bishops in our national Church are now inevitable,” the suffragan bishop of South Sydney, the Rt. Rev. Rob Forsythe said after the Appellate decision.

“We may not like it; we may not like the process that paved the way for it; we may disagree with the decision on either theological or legal grounds or both; but the reality is that women bishops will be in Australia this decade,” he said.

“We therefore need to think seriously about how women bishops will affect the Diocese in which they are consecrated and the Anglican Church of Australia as a whole,” Bishop Forsythe said.

A spectrum of theological belief and social concerns at work within the Anglican Communion were on display in Holy Week and Easter sermons and pastoral letters this past week.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori went Green for Easter asking American Episcopalians to consider the cost of their affluence. “We cannot love our neighbors unless we care for the creation that supports all our earthly lives,” she said and could not respect “the dignity of our fellow creatures if our sewage or garbage fouls their living space.”

“When atmospheric warming, due in part to the methane output of the millions of cows we raise each year to produce hamburger, begins to slowly drown the island homes of our neighbors in the South Pacific, are we truly sharing good news?” the presiding bishop wrote in an Easter message to the church.

New Zealand’s archbishops called Christians to see Easter as the celebration of love over death. Easter was the unique event in world history where the “final suffering of the Son of God reveal how deep God’s empathy is for the world, and how far divine love will go to redeem the pain and sin of the world. Evil manifested in so many forms - political, religious, psychological, and spiritual - poured itself out completely in this event.”

“And the Easter miracle is this - these murderous forces exhausted themselves without finally exhausting the faith, hope, and love of God,” Archbishops Brown Turei, David Moxon and Jabez Bryce wrote. “The resurrection,” they said “is the place in human history where evil, injustice, and prejudice are transfigured into justice, goodness, and enlightenment.”

The Dean of Perth urged Anglicans to rid themselves of outmoded notions of Easter. “The Resurrection of Jesus ought not to be seen in physical terms, but as a new spiritual reality,” the Very Rev. John Shepherd said, noting it was “important for Christians to be set free from the idea that the Resurrection was an extraordinary physical event which restored to life Jesus’ original earthly body.”

The resurrection was a spiritual event for the disciples and not “historical records as we understand them. They are symbolic images of the breaking through of the resurrection spirit into human lives,” Dean Shepherd said.

The Archbishop of Sydney used his Easter message to warn Christians against false teaching and the occult. The popular fascination with ghosts reprented “the longing of the human heart for an existence beyond the grave,” Dr. Peter Jensen said.

Yet Christians believed death was not the end. “When you trust in Jesus Christ, you are trusting the one person who can take you through the greatest calamity of life and bring you safe to the other side. Christians don’t try to contact their dead because we know that they are with Jesus and we will join them as whole people - in fact those who belong to Jesus will be transformed people,” Dr. Jensen said as it “shows you that new beginnings are possible.”

The president of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA), Archbishop Ian Ernest of the Indian Ocean, wrote he hoped the Paschal season “will instill in us an urge to seek transformation and thus empower us to work towards the making up of a society based on gospel values.”

“By his precious death and glorious resurrection, Jesus has reconciled the world to his Father. It is therefore imperative for CAPA to emerge as a reconciling body in Christ,” he said, and “facilitate conversations and dialogue in the midst of conflicts” that continue to plague Africa.

The Archbishop of the West Indies has urged the evangelical wing of the conservative Global South coalition of provinces not to boycott the Lambeth Conference.In an interview broadcast March 12 on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Archbishop Drexel Gomez urged evangelicals to reconsider their position. “I prefer to be at the table where the discussion is taking place than to view it in absentia,” he said, “and the future of Anglicanism - to a large extent - will be determined by the outcome of Lambeth.”

His remarks came the same week as the Diocese of Sydney reaffirmed its decision to boycott the conference, with the Dean of Sydney arguing that the reputation of any bishop who went to Lambeth “knowing that unrepentant homosexual activity is wrong’ would ‘always be tarnished.”

Archbishop Gomez told ABC the Lambeth Conference was the sole vehicle for coming to a “communion-wide consensus” on the issues dividing the church. “If a significant number of bishops stay away from it, then a consensus would be impossible.”

There remained a “need for us to meet together to try and forge a way forward,” he said.

Archbishop Gomez stated that he and Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen were united in their opposition to the innovations in doctrine and discipline taken by the American and Canadian churches on the question of homosexuality. However, Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals were divided on how to address the challenge.

On March 14, the Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen called upon all orthodox Anglican bishops to boycott Lambeth. “I would urge those bishops who believe that unrepentant active homosexuality is wrong not to compromise their own beliefs, the scriptures, the church of God and the holiness of Christ” and accept the Archbishop of Canterbury’s invitation.

To go to Lambeth and be present with those bishops who consecrated Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire is to have “fellowship with false teachers in their wicked work. It cannot help but diminish faithful Christians’ confidence in you as a leader. To believe otherwise is a further illustration of the naivety, which leads you to attend,” he said.

The goal of the American bishops is to overturn the 1998 statement on homosexuality, he said. “They came last time for the final debate and they lost. They come this time with an action that they refuse to repent of. The American bishops did not listen last time they will not listen this time,” he said.

Dean Jensen’s speech was one of four delivered at a briefing held at St. Andrew’s Cathedral Chapter House in Sydney on March 14. Joining the dean were the President of the Anglican Church League, Dr. Mark Thompson, Australia’s former ACC representative Robert Tong, and diocesan spokesman Russell Powell.

Both Archbishop Gomez and the diocese of Sydney deprecated claims that the June GAFCON conference would be an alternative to Lambeth. GAFCON was designed to be “a means for strengthening the conservative view within the communion,” Archbishop Gomez said. Those attending would “come away refreshed and reinforced in their convictions, but it does not mean that that would be the end of the Anglican Communion.”

Sydney’s Russell Powell told the audience at the Sydney Cathedral GAFCON was not envisioned as an alternative to Lambeth, but a gathering whereby traditionalists could find a common way forward to focus on the future of mission throughout the Anglican Communion.

The Archbishop of Sydney has endorsed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to Australia’s aborigines for past government mistreatment.”

As Christians, we know that repentance and forgiveness liberates people to serve one another,” Dr. Peter Jensen said.

On Feb 13, Prime Minister Rudd (pictured) offered a 360-word statement from the floor of parliament in Canberra. “For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry,” he said.

“To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.”

“We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation. For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.”

Dr. Jensen said he hoped the government’s “apology will help to reconcile indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and that it will make a real difference in the lives of those affected.”

In 1998 the Anglican Church of Australia offered its own apology for its complicity in the mistreatment of aborigines through government assimilation programmes.

The boycott of the 2008 Lambeth Conference does not mark the end of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Sydney has said. However, the Lambeth Conference’s role as an “instrument of unity” is no more.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald on Feb 5, Dr. Peter Jensen said he and his suffragans would not attend the July 16 to Aug 3 gathering out of “faithfulness” to Scripture and in solidarity with Africa’s Anglicans.

On Jan 30 Archbishop Peter Akinola stated the Nigerian bishops along with those of Rwanda and Uganda “are not going to the Lambeth Conference.”

The proposed agenda of the 2008 Lambeth Conference will differ in purpose and structure from past gatherings of the Communion’s bishops. Speaking to the BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme on Jan 27, Archbishop Rowan Williams stated he wanted the Lambeth Conference to give “space” to the “huge number of Anglicans” for whom homosexuality is “not the overwhelming issue, who really want to talk about mission, about development, and questions like that.”

Dr. Williams said he hoped Lambeth would allow the bishops to have a “good serious look at what structures we need to avoid the kind of confusion we’ve had in the last couple of years.”

His desire was also for “both ends of the spectrum” to “make some concessions to stay together. So the American Church is willing to say, ‘Alright, we won’t rush things,’ if the African and other churches are willing to say, ‘We won’t instantly condemn’.”

In his Advent letter to the Primates, Dr. Williams stated the Lambeth Conference would be “a meeting of the chief pastors and teachers of the Communion, seeking an authoritative common voice.”

However, the agenda does not envision creating a forum for the bishops to find their voice. The bishops will be given a “look” at the proposed Anglican Covenant, but no action will be taken, nor will there be any consequences for rejecting the common voice reached in 1998.

Archbishop Akinola expressed disquiet with the proposed agenda. “What is the use of the Lambeth conference for a three weeks’ jamboree which will sweep” the issues dividing the Communion “under the carpet,” he said.

Dr. Jensen explained that while the 1998 Lambeth Conference “made it clear that the leaders of the overwhelming majority of Anglicans worldwide maintained the biblical view of sexual ethics,” within five years Anglican churches in the US and Canada had “officially transgressed these boundaries in defiance of the Lambeth resolution and the teaching of the Bible.”

The “fallout” had made it “clear that we shall never go back to being the communion which we once were,” he said.

The African provinces that are boycotting Lambeth are “are not ending the Anglican Communion, or even dividing it. They are simply dealing with the reality that the nature of the communion has now been altered and reflecting that Lambeth is not as crucial to the future as it once was.

Dr. Jensen said he had come to share the African view “that since the American actions were taken in direct defiance of the previous Lambeth Conference, the Americans have irreparably damaged the standing of the conference itself.” To attend the conference without a resolution of these questions would be to “overlook” the “issues at stake.”

As the Conference is presently constructed, “those who say [that these issue do] not matter are the ones who are attending Lambeth,” Archbishop Akinola said.

Leaders of the Global South coalition tell The Church of England Newspaper there appears to be little the Archbishop of Canterbury can say or do at this stage to salvage the situation. While assurances have been given and programmes laid out at every Primates meeting since 2003, no substantive action has occurred.

“Why will it be different this time?”, one primate said.

A Ugandan bishop has urged Christians to back a campaign banning the death penalty.

The Rt. Rev. Zac Niringiye, the Assistant Bishop of Kampala told a Christmas Day congregation his ministry with death row convicts had taught him it was possible for murderers to reform.

He cited the case of John Katuramu, the former prime minister of Toro province, who in 2004 was sentenced to death for murdering the Prince of Toro, Charles Kijjanangoma.

“Katuramu now has joy, peace, love and faith because he has been redeemed by Jesus Christ,” said Dr. Niringiye. “He told me that he may physically be living in Luzira [prison] but at heart, he is a free man.”

“There are over 500 convicts on death row” in Uganda, he said. “I have interacted with them and seen how they have been transformed. Such people should be given a chance to live a new life,” the bishop said.

Amnesty International reports that as of August 2005 there were 555 prisoners on death row in Uganda, including 27 women. They have been convicted for various criminal offences including murder (65%), robbery (33%), kidnapping, aggravated robbery, treason, and cowardice in action.

Speaking to the Melbourne Age newspaper last week, the Archbishop of Sydney voiced support for the death penalty in that country. Dr. Jensen noted Article XXXVII affirmed the state’s right to impose the death penalty: “The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian men with death, for heinous and grievous offences.”

Dr. Jensen has challenged the use of the death penalty for those convicted of drug smuggling by the Indonesian government and in other, non-capital cases world-wide.

“But I cannot absolutely rule out capital punishment in all circumstances, since the Bible itself allows it,” he said.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Primate of Australia has rebuked Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, saying its policies were “inhumane.”

Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from Jerusalem at the close of a nine day tour, Dr. Phillip Aspinall said Israel faced a difficult task in combating Palestinian terrorism, but its current policies were wrong headed.

On Dec 12 Dr. Aspinall said his delegation of Australian Christian leaders had met with “Israeli leaders and we understand their concerns. I mean, where there are acts of violence and terrorism, it does make them want to secure their own lives.

“Our concern is that in doing so, they don’t then oppress another group of people and behave in an inhumane way to another group,” he said, adding that the “wall and some of the restrictions that are imposed on Palestinians do have those inhumane effects.”

It was difficult for visitors to judge the situation clearly, he noted, but “if steps are taken which then lead to great frustration and feelings of being pressured and hemmed in and oppressed on the part of another group of people, that may well have the effect of leading to more anger and more frustration and more violence,” Dr. Aspinall said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has appointed the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne to serve as his representative to the Vatican and as Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome.

The Very Rev. David Richardson will take up the post after Easter in succession to the current director, the Rt. Rev. John Flack, the former Bishop of Huntingdon.

“I am delighted that someone of David Richardson’s stature will be carrying forward the much-valued work of his predecessor, Bishop John Flack. His role at this important time builds on four decades of dialogue between Anglicans and Roman Catholics,” Dr. Williams said.

“It will be exercised in the context of the ‘many area of witness and service” which call for “closer co-operation between us’, as Pope Benedict and I affirmed in our Common Declaration last year,” he said.

Dean Richardson stated he was “looking forward” to working with “Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and Lambeth Palace in the cause of the Gospel and our shared ecumenical endeavour.”

Born in Australia, Dean Richardson was reared in North Devon and the Midlands where his father served as a parish priest. Educated at the University of Queensland, St Barnabas College Adelaide, Melbourne Divinity College and the University of Birmingham, he served his curacy at Great St. Mary’s in Cambridge and returned to Australia in 1979. In 1988 he was appointed Dean of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Adelaide and Dean of St. Paul’s in Melbourne in 1999.

Should a diocese in New South Wales elect a woman as bishop, the Archbishop of Sydney will not participate in her consecration.

Writing in the December issue of his diocesan magazine, Dr. Peter Jensen stated that while it was incumbent that the Church handle doctrinal disputes “courteously”, “truth is even more important than unity, and the consequences of unbiblical teaching have to be revealed and opposed.”

The Sydney archbishop and metropolitan of the Province of New South Wales stated he opposed the “innovation” of women bishops “on scriptural grounds.”

Dr. Jensen affirmed his belief in the “equality of men and women in Christ,” but noted their function within the church differed. The introduction of women bishops through a decision by the Appellate Tribunal of the Anglican Church of Australia on a point of grammar was the wrong way to resolve the issue, he wrote in his Christmas letter to the diocese.

The Australian Synod’s refusal to pass legislation permitting women bishops should not have been sidestepped by a “legal decision resting on a 4-3 majority.” This was “scarcely a sound basis for a change of this magnitude” and was a “shaky start to an innovation,” Dr Jensen said.

Working with the Anglo-Catholic bishop of Ballarat, Dr. Jensen reported on the October formation of the Association for the Apostolic Ministry to support Anglicans opposed to women bishops, “to represent their interests and to further educate the Church about biblical teaching on this subject.”

North Sydney Bishop Glenn Davies told Anglican Media Sydney Dr. Jensen’s absence at the consecration of a New South Wales bishop would mark a “a break in unity” of the church as the “visible fissures of disunity would only increase.” Sydney’s suffragans stated they too would not participate in the consecration of a woman bishop.

However, Bishop Davies said he was encouraged by the on-going conversation between Dr. Jensen and the Primate of Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall on creating a safe space for traditionalists, as the “experience in the USA and Canada, where women bishops have been introduced, is not encouraging for the treatment of minorities.”

The Diocese of Melbourne has backed the legalization of abortion. In a submission to the Victorian Law Reform Commission made by an all-women panel appointed by Archbishop Philip Freier, the diocese stated public acceptance of abortion “indicates that a change in the law is timely.”While abortion “is a serious moral issue” it should not “remain a matter for criminal law,” the diocese said.

Melbourne’s submission was one of 40 from church, medical and community groups to the Reform Commission reviewing state abortion laws. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne’s submission opposed the decriminalization of abortion, but urged further resources be directed towards the support of women with problematic pregnancies.

There were “no specific biblical texts addressing therapeutic or induced
Abortion” the diocesan panel said, and explained that “the Bible is a collection of texts written in a world without our modern medical practices and so does not speak specifically to the ease and safety with which a pregnancy may be terminated today.”

It rejected the “absolutist position” that life begins at conception and the “pro-choice perspective” that held that women were free to “do what they like with their own bodies.” The diocese stated “that while the embryo/foetus is fully human from the time of conception, it accrues moral significance and value as it develops.”

Thus while the “destruction even of an early embryo is of moral significance, we believe the moral significance increases with the age and development of the foetus.”

The abortion of a foetus at 28 weeks was “more serious” than at 10 weeks, they said, but added there should not be “a legislated absolutist end-point after which an abortion could not proceed.”

Writing to his diocese on Dec 10, Dr. Freier said Melbourne did “not have a definitive viewpoint on abortion” and as a whole the Anglican Church “has predominantly been silent about abortion.”

The diocesan panel which prepared the report was currently engaged in preparing a paper outlining on the “Pastoral and Liturgical Guidelines on Abortion, which is expected to be made available to churches in 2008,” he said.

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Archbishop of Adelaide, Dr. Jeffrey Driver has initiated an inquiry into the case of the Rev. John Mountford, the former Church of England school chaplain who escaped prosecution in Australia on charges of child abuse after his victim declined to testify.

In August, South Australia prosecutors dropped all charges against Mountford, who had fled to Thailand to escape prosecution, allegedly with the connivance of former Adelaide Archbishop Ian George. 

Forced to resign over the Mountford affair, Dr George denied accusations he had shielded the one-time boys’ school chaplain.  However, letters written by Dr. George to Mountford leaked to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1993 appeared to express the Archbishop’s relief that the chaplain had gone abroad.  “I am glad that you were not subjected to the pain, the humiliation and the public spectacle which the media would have relished in your case.”

It was likely that Mountford would be “charged with an offence” had he remained in Adelaide, Dr George wrote, adding “You will see that I have done everything I can both to support you, and preserve your reputation.” Mountford, who served as chaplain at the Blue Coat School in Edgbaston, Birmingham, from 1987 to 1990, went out to Australia in 1991 to serve as chaplain of Adelaide’s St Peter’s College.

Extradited to Adelaide after 15 years in Thailand, Mountford escaped prosecution on sexual abuse charges after his victim declined to testify in open court.  However, Mountford remains a priest in good standing.

Last week, Dr. Driver referred the Mountford case to the diocese’s Professional Standards Committee to “consider whether it is now appropriate” to hold an inquiry now that legal proceedings have concluded.

He told the Adelaide Sunday Mail, “once it became clear there were no ongoing criminal matters being pursued with Mountford I wrote to the Professional Standards Committee of the diocese asking whether it was the view of the committee an investigation proceed under the protocols of the diocese.”

Should the diocese prefer charges against Mountford, who has since returned to the UK, it will be the first formal investigation into the affair.

Christian climate change campaigners have welcomed the new Australian government’s pledge to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd endorsed the agreement which governs carbon emissions believed responsible for global warming, after taking the oath of office on Dec 3.   Following Rudd’s announcement, Governor-General Michael Jeffery endorsed the treaty for Australia on behalf of the crown.

“This is the first official act of the new Australian government, demonstrating my government’s commitment to tackling climate change,” Rudd said in a statement.

Rudd led the Labor party to victory at the Nov 24 general election, ending 12 years of conservative rule, by promising a new generation of leadership, withdrawal from Iraq and by support for the Kyoto pact.

Word of the Australian support for the Kyoto Protocols was well received by delegates to the Bali environmental summit.  Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said he could “speak for all present here by expressing a sigh of relief.”

Ben Thurley, Advocacy Coordinator for TEAR Australia, said he was “thrilled that the first act of our new Prime Minister was action on Kyoto.  I hope it signals a new era in climate change negotiations.”

Andy Atkins, Advocacy director of Tearfund said, “This is a huge boost to the Bali talks, good for Australia and the world’s poorest people who suffer most at the hands of a changing climate.”

Government ministers from almost 200 nations along with environmental activists are in Bali, seeking a global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions over the next five years to a level 5 per cent below the 1990 rate.  During the election campaign Rudd pledged to cut Australia’s carbon emissions to 60 per cent of its 2000 rate by 2050.

The Anglican Church of Australia heard conflicting views on the adequacy of the American Episcopal Church’s response to the Primates’ during their General Synod in Canberra last month.

In his presidential address, Archbishop Philip Aspinall of Brisbane told Synod he believed the US Church had substantially complied with the primates’ request to imposea moratorium on gay bishops and blessings.  He acknowledged the US church had failed to provide adequate support for its embattled traditionalists, but noted that overall the response had been “positive.”

ACC general secretary Canon Kenneth Kearon told synod he believed there had been a “genuine attempt” by the US church “to seriously repair the breeches of trust which have arisen.”

However, the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jensen stated he had not been persuaded.  On Oct 22 he told Synod he believed that though the US response might have been “well intentioned” it had not “healed the rift.”

Dr. Jensen argued the “the matters at stake are theological, not legal; about the heart, not mere politics. Integral to the discussion is the authority and interpretation of the Bible. Scripture is the way in which God rules his church and we as Anglicans are committed to listening to scripture with unique attentiveness.”

“We have learned from the American experience that the matter of human sexuality is never going to be regarded as a minor one. It goes to the heart of our humanity and God’s authority,” he said.

Synod also divided on the question of women bishops.  Evangelical and Anglo-Catholics bridled over a request to “welcome” a church tribunal’s ruling that held that as a matter of grammar, women could be appointed bishops under canon law.

An ad hoc group, the Association for Apostolic Ministry, headed by Dr. Jensen and the Anglo-Catholic Bishop of Ballarat, Michael Hough, drew almost a third of the delegates to a meeting of those opposed to women bishops.

A war of words has erupted between Anglican and Roman Catholic Church leaders in Australia over climate change.

Bishop George Browning of Canberra attacked the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell in a speech to the Anglican Church of Australia’s General Synod last week, denouncing the Cardinal’s skepticism over global warming.

The Cardinal’s view that Jesus had said nothing about climate change was “unbelievable.” Bishop Browning said he had written Cardinal Pell saying that Jesus had a great deal to say about the “rich taking what belonged to the poor and about the heritage of the children.”

As Christ had spoken “about both of these things he spoke about climate change,” the Bishop of Canberra said.

Writing in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph on Oct 28, Cardinal Pell said “some allege preachers raise their voice when they have a weak point. It has never worked for me and it doesn’t work in science and politics.”

He said he was “a believer in the Catholic understanding of faith and morals. I reserve my leaps of faith for religion e.g. the Incarnation and Redemption. I am certainly skeptical about extravagant claims of impending man-made climatic catastrophes, because the evidence is insufficient.”

“Scientific debate is not decided by any changing consensus, even if it is endorsed by public opinion. Climate change has always been occurring,” Cardinal Pell argued.

Bishop Browning encouraged Synod to take an activist stance towards climate change. “We need to do it today. I want all of you to leave the synod today believing this is our core business, it’s not (simply) something greenie Christians do.”

The Australian bishop’s words found support from the Bishop of Liverpool. On Oct 24 Bishop James Jones addressed a briefing for members of the House of Representatives in Washington, urging the US government to take action on climate change.

The Bible, not sexual politics is at the heart of the divisions within the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen wrote last week.The “Windsor process has failed” and “irreversible actions have occurred” within the life of the Anglican Communion that mean it “will never be the same again,” Dr. Jensen wrote on Oct 8. “A new and more biblical vision is required to help biblically faithful Anglican churches survive and grow in the contemporary world.”

He said last month’s New Orleans statement from the American Church affirms the belief that “the practice of homosexual sex in a long term relationship is morally acceptable.”

The Episcopal Church is “prepared to wait for a short time while the rest of the Communion catches up. But they do not intend to reverse their decisions about this,” Dr. Jensen said.

“Biblical conservatives” have responded by looking to the Primates for succor and “from now on there will inevitably be boundary crossing and the days of sacrosanct diocesan boundaries are over.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams had planted his flag in the liberal camp, Dr. Jensen said, when he challenged “conservative interpretations of Romans 1 and John 14, and thus raising the issues of interpretation, human sexuality and the uniqueness of Christ as Mediator.”

Dr. Williams’ April 2007 lecture in Canada, entitled The Bible Today: Reading and Hearing “signaled the importance of hermeneutics for our future,” Dr. Jensen wrote. “We may think that this whole business is about politics and border-crossing and ultimatums and conferences, but in fact it is about theology and especially the authority and interpretation of Scripture.”

Evangelicals must “plan for the next decades, not the next few months,” he said, in responding to this Biblical challenge. “What new vision of the Anglican Communion should we embrace? Where should it be in the next twenty years? How can we ensure that the word of God rules our lives?” he asked.

Politics, not canon law or the Gospel drove the Sept 28 church court decision to permit women bishops in Australia, critics have charged.

While supporters of women bishops have hailed the court ruling as a victory for justice and inclusion, opponents see it as a power grab that gave supporters of women bishops a victory through the courts after they had failed to pass the legislation through General Synod.

In a split 4-3 decision released on Sept 28, the Church’s Appellate Tribunal found the language of the Law of the Church of England Clarification Canon 1992 did not require a bishop to be male in order to meet the definition of ‘canonical fitness’ for the Episcopal ministry.

The Primate of Australia, Archbishop Philip Aspinall of Brisbane said he hoped the decision would not divide the Church. “The Anglican family across Australia is a diverse group and we are mature enough to engage in robust debate on many issues.”

However “some in our family who will be unhappy with this ruling,” he admitted.

The Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr. Philip Freier, welcomed the decision saying
the diocese “has historically strongly supported women becoming bishops.”

Melbourne would “work at developing ways to make sure that those who do not welcome it will feel that their views are understood,” he said.

However, North-West Australia Bishop David Mulready said his diocese would not “compromise its beliefs” in opposition to women clergy.

“We want women to have a ministry within the Church, but to have a woman as the leader of a parish is not on, simply because of what the Bible says, not because of culture or traditions,” he told the Western Australian.

“There are people who think it is sexist but we don’t expect people who don’t understand the Bible to understand our argument” the evangelical bishop said, “it’s got nothing to do with being male dominated.”

Sydney standing committee member Robert Tong, told The Church of England Newspaper the opinion came as “no surprise” because of the views of the majority of the Tribunal. “Why should any conservative, evangelical or catholic, participate in any future references to the Tribunal on any issue?” he said.

The tribunal had usurped the authority of General Synod, and had “betrayed the framers” of the Church’s constitution, who saw it as “holding the ring” against “novel innovations,” he said.

Its decision would lead to further divisions in the Church, Mr. Tong said, as priests ordained by women bishops would not be licensed in dioceses that did not permit women priests.

An Australian Church court has ruled that the grammar of the Church’s constitution permits women priests to be elected bishops.

In a split 4-3 decision released on Sept 28, the Church’s Appellate Tribunal found that the language of the Law of the Church of England Clarification Canon 1992 did not require a bishop to be male in order to meet the definition of ‘canonical fitness’ for the Episcopal ministry.

The court’s 79-page decision applies only to diocesan bishops, as the election of suffragan or assistant bishops is governed by the Assistant Bishops’ Canon 1966 which requires bishops to be male.

The Primate of Australia, Archbishop Philip Aspinall of Brisbane explained that “whenever there are vacancies in dioceses that have adopted the 1992 canon and whose own diocesan law permits it a woman can become a diocesan bishop.”

He did not foresee division within the Church over the decision. “The Anglican family across Australia is a diverse group and we are mature enough to engage in robust debate on many issues.”

However, he acknowledged that there would be “some in our family who will be unhappy with this ruling and it is now our urgent duty to offer care for those who retain a conscientious objection to women bishops.” Dr Aspinall noted the House of Bishops had agreed earlier this year not to consecrate women bishops until after the April 2008 meeting of General Synod.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jensen stated he was disappointed such a contentious issue had been decided by a church court rather than through the deliberative processes of general synod.

“Those who are opposed to this development base their objection on conscientious grounds as a matter of biblical principle. The innovation will inevitably create ongoing difficulties around the church for decades to come,” he said.

“There are many people in all dioceses who, while they welcome women priests, will not agree that a woman should be consecrated as a Bishop,” Dr. Jensen wrote. “This is because the position of Bishop affects relationships with every parish and with every other Diocese.”

He stated the Australian Church would likely need to develop “some means of taking care of minority groups who are disenfranchised by this development,” citing the Church of England’s Provincial Episcopal Visitor program as a model.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has begun soliciting the views of the primates as to whether the Sept. 25 statement from the House of Bishops adequately responds to the primates’ request for clarification on The Episcopal Church’s stance on gay bishops and rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.

Archbishop Williams has begun telephoning and writing the primates, seeking their views. However, his trip to Armenia and Syria, and the opening of the Church of England’s House of Bishops meeting on Oct. 1, has hindered a speedy response to the New Orleans statement.

Public statements from some of the primates indicate a split of opinion along factional lines, with some declaring the statement adequate, while others have dismissed it as dishonest and non-responsive to the primates’ request.

Archbishop Alan Harper, Primate of Ireland, said the “American bishops have gone a considerable way to meeting the reasonable demands of their critics.”

Bishop David Beetge of the Highveld, the acting primate and vicar general of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, said he welcomed the decision “for the simple reason it gives us more space and time to talk to each other.”

The Primate of Australia, Archbishop Philip Aspinall of Brisbane said he believed the bishops had “responded positively to the substance of [the primates'] requests.”

Other primates were more critical. “What we expected to come from them is to repent. That this is a sin in the eyes of the Lord and repentance is what we, in particular, and others expected to hear” from the House of Bishops, said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, Primate of Kenya.

The Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, said the bishops’ response fell short. The primates had given The Episcopal Church “one final opportunity for an unequivocal assurance” that it would conform “to the mind and teaching of the Communion,” he said, and the bishops failed to do that. The primates are unwilling to accept further “ambiguous and misleading statements” from The Episcopal Church, he said.

Published in The Living Church.

Reactions to the US House of Bishops New Orleans statement amongst the Primates have broken along factional lines, with conservatives denouncing the statement as insubstantial and dishonest, while liberals have praised its candor and modesty.

The divergent views of the adequacy of the US response to the Primates request for clarification of American church practices towards gay bishops and blessings further complicates the Archbishop of Canterbury’s hopes of forestalling a schism within the Communion.

Straightened finances and fears of a boycott by the primates of Wales, Ireland and Scotland to an emergency primates’ meeting to discuss the American response to the primates’ Dar es Salaam communique, has led to Dr. Williams telephoning the Communion’s primates to try to find a common mind.

Whether the primates’ round robin will produce an amicable resolution appears to be further hampered by the different world views of the players in Anglicanism’s great game. Aides to the Archbishop told The Church of England Newspaper during his meeting with the American bishops in New Orleans that Dr. Williams hoped to find the right combination of words that would satisfy the church’s disparate factions.

However, leaders of the Global South coalition have demanded not words, but action from the American church, and have little trust in the veracity of American promises of good behavior. Leaders of the liberal wing of the US Church and across the Communion are also divided, with some arguing that truth must not be subordinated to expediency while others hope their place within the councils of the church can be saved through the artful use of semantics.

The Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Alan Harper of Armagh lauded the American response, saying the American “Bishops have gone a considerable way to meeting the reasonable demands of their critics.”

Archbishop Harper noted the “generous agreement” of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori “to put in place a plan to appoint Episcopal visitors for dioceses that request alternative oversight” and stated that while the bishops had declined “participation in the ‘Pastoral Scheme’ offered by the Primates,” they had “at least” recognized the “useful role” of the Communion in these debates.

Dr. Harper stated this seemed to be a “balanced and relatively generous response in a very delicate area of inter-provincial relationships.”

Bishop David Beetge of the Highveld, the acting primate and vicar general of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, said he welcomed the decision “for the simple reason it gives us more space and time to talk to each other.”

The Primate of Australia, Archbishop Philip Aspinall of Brisbane said he believed the US had “responded positively to all the requests put to them by the Primates in our Dar es Salaam communiqué.”However, he went on to damn the American Church with faint praise saying “Certainly they have responded to the substance of those requests.”
However the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jensen was not as sanguine. “At first reading, the statement from the TEC bishops does not seem to say anything new,” he noted. “The situation may not then be changed in any way.”

The African churches were stronger in their condemnation. “What we expected to come from them is to repent. That this is a sin in the eyes of the Lord and repentance is what me, in particular, and others expected to hear coming from this church,” Kenyan Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said.

The Assistant Bishop of Kampala, David Zac Niringiye told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme Uganda believed the statement was inadequate as it was “not a change of heart”, but a temporizing solution.The Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola stated the US response fell short of what was required. The primates had given the US “one final opportunity for an unequivocal assurance” that it would conform to the “to the mind and teaching of the Communion.”

He said the primates were unwilling to accept further “ambiguous and misleading statements” from the US Church. “Sadly it seems that our hopes were not well founded and our pleas have once again been ignored.”

Meanwhile the Anglican Mainstream group said they were disappointed with the response because it failed to address the specific questions asked of it by the Primates’ Meeting in February, and backed the Common Cause College of Bishops. In a statement they said: “The first two points — on the election of non-celibate gay and lesbian bishops, and on public rites for blessing same-sex unions — suggest that the TEC House of Bishops has agreed not to walk further away from the rest of the Anglican Communion for the moment.

“However, the TEC House of Bishops gives no indication of being prepared to turn and walk back towards us so that we may walk ahead together, and in reality same-sex blessings are continuing.

“Moreover, there is no response to the Primates’ request to suspend all legal action.”

The Church Society also rejected the House of Bishops statement saying it demonstrates TEC has ‘abandoned orthodox Christianity’.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jensen has called for every home to have a Bible.

He will back up his words by asking this month’s meeting of diocesan synod to underwrite the plan at an estimated cost of £200,000.

Writing in the Southern Cross, Dr. Jensen said he had a “dream to give all our fellow citizens in the Diocese a copy of the word of God.”

He asked the Diocese to “set aside the year of 2009″, which he noted was the 50th anniversary of the first Billy Graham Crusade in Sydney for the project which would “fulfill the aim of our Diocesan Mission that all may hear his call to repent and believe on him.”

The Bible was one of the Church’s “chief evangelistic weapons” he said. But the knowledge and ownership of the Bible “is growing less common.”

The Bibles will be distributed in book, CD and DVD form he said. “If we wish to make the Word of God well-known, we may expect to use contemporary means of communication so that all will have access.”

The Bishop of Australia’s Northern Territory Greg Thompson has backed an initiative by Australian Prime Minister John Howard to create an “emergency response taskforce” to tackle child abuse in Aboriginal communities.

In June the Prime Minister announced a series of reforms that included bans on alcohol and pornography in Aboriginal areas, government take over of indigenous township leases, removal of the Aboriginal land permits system and withholding of welfare payments to the parents of neglected or abused children.

Following the Northern Territories diocesan synod last month, which asked the Howard government to consult more widely with aboriginal leaders, Bishop Thompson said he welcomed the government reforms.

The situation had become so bad, there was blame enough for all, he said. “It does both sides of politics and all levels of government no credit that the situation has reached the crisis it has,” Bishop Thompson said.

The extraordinary reforms were proposed by Prime Minister Howard in response to the Little Children are Sacred report, which detailed chronic sexual abuse in remote aboriginal communities.
Some Aboriginal community leaders opposed the reforms, stating in an open letter that they went “well beyond an ‘emergency response’.”

“Some of the measures will weaken communities and families by taking from them the ability to make basic decisions about their lives, thus removing responsibility instead of empowering them,” they argued.

In an extended attack upon the Howard government’s plans published in the Guardian last month, liberal activist Germaine Greer called the proposals racist, saying it was “hard not to view this as yet another attack on native title by the white establishment.

However, on Aug 17 the Australian Senate passed the reform package by a vote of 56 to 6. Community Services Minister Nigel Scullion called the vote historic, saying it would lift the “veil of silence” that surrounds child abuse.

“This legislation will help open indigenous communities to overcome the circumstances that led to the shocking accounts outlined in the Little Children are Sacred report,” he said.

Over 100,000 peopled gathered in 700 Churches on Aug 9 to watch a live webcast debate between Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd. Taking questions from a cross section of church leaders the two politicians outlined their party’s political platforms and discussed its implications for Christian voters.

“I acknowledge of course that God is neither Liberal nor Labor,” Prime Minister Howard said, but noted that his party and its coalition partner the “National Party has within its ranks a very significant number of people who are extremely active members of various Christian denominations.”

Mr. Rudd countered that the religious right did not have a corner on Christian values. “Personal faith also provides a compass point for my life,” he said at the National Press Club. “It also therefore helps shape the view I try to bring to the public space as well.”

In the first debate of its kind, the two political leaders appealed to the disparate but growing Christian voting bloc in Australia in the run up to this year’s Federal elections.

The leaders played to their strengths sounding themes that appealed to their voting base. Asked if he supported gay marriage, the Labor leader said no, but declared his support for civil partnerships.

American Bishop John Spong has been banned in Sydney. The controversial former Bishop of Newark has been forbidden to preach or officiate in the diocese during his current book tour by Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen. Sydney has also chided the Primate of Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane for reversing the policy of his predecessor and allowing Bishop Spong to preach. During the Newark bishop’s 2001 book tour Archbishop Peter Hollingworth banned him from preaching, while Archbishop Aspinall has permitted the controversial bishop to preach at St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane this Sunday.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

Accusations made by the head of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) that the Church of Nigeria was a puppet of the Archbishop of Sydney are false and demeaning, a spokesman for the diocese has said.

“No one guides and advises Archbishop Akinola what to do except the Lord of the Bible,” the Archbishop of Sydney’s media officer Margaret Rodgers said in a statement given to The Church of England Newspaper.

In an Aug 3 press release, the Rev Richard Kirker, chief executive of the LGCM responded to a report published by this paper that the Church of Nigeria was considering appointing a flying bishop for Britain, by stating it would be “perfectly consistent” for Archbishop Peter Akinola to appoint a bishop for British Anglicans who might “find comfort under his brazenly homophobic creed.”

“It has been clear for some time that under the guidance of Peter Jensen (the Archbishop of Sydney) the Nigerian Church has been distancing itself from the Church of England and particularly the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury,” Mr. Kirker charged.

Sydney responded that the LGCM chief’s statement “appears to be akin to the ‘chicken dinner’ slurs that were used by some liberal churchmen in their attempt to offset the biblical understandings of African bishops at the time of the 1998 Lambeth Conference.”

At the 1998 conference American liberals charged the African bishops had succumbed to the blandishments of conservatives to support the condemnation of homosexuality after having been offered a free chicken dinner.

The suggestion the Nigerian leader acted under instruction from the Archbishop of Sydney was “patently untrue and it has no basis in fact. It is deeply shameful for it has at its base an inherent racism that fails to acknowledge the Biblical commitment and insights of this particular African Primate.”

The Primate of Nigeria is a “Christian leader greatly admired in the Diocese of Sydney. His commitment to the authority of the Holy Scripture in the life and understanding of the individual Christian, and in the communal structure and mission of his own province and of the Anglican Communion worldwide, is a shining example to Anglican Church leaders both nationally and internationally,” the Sydney statement said.

A one time resident of the West African country the LGCM leader is a longtime critic of the Nigerian church’s stance on homosexuality. During the 1998 Conference the Bishop of Enugu, the Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma sought to cast out the spirit of homosexuality from Mr. Kirker. The impromptu exorcism filmed by the BBC, failed, apparently, to take.

“While Archbishop Akinola spreads his brand of religion to England the main concern of LGCM remains that the Church of England does not respond to this schism by increasing its own institutional homophobia – competing with him for the prize of who can be nastiest to gays!” Mr. Kirker said.

The Diocese of Sydney’s six bishops will not respond to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s invitation to attend the 2008 Lambeth Conference, until they know the course of action taken by the American bishops to the demands made by the Primates in their February Dar es Salaam communiqué.

In a letter dated July 30 addressed to Archbishop Rowan Williams, Archbishop Peter Jensen and his five suffragans thanked Dr. Williams for their invitation to Lambeth, saying it had “been received with pleasure and it would give us a great deal of joy to be able to join you” in Canterbury for the gathering of the Communion’s bishops.

They regretted, however, that they could not give Dr. Williams their answer at this time. “Unfortunately the timing of the invitation has proved difficult,” they explained as they were first “looking for the response” of the American House of Bishops to the Primates’ February communiqué before they could give him their final answer.

Sydney indicated it would follow the lead of the African churches and decline to attend the conference should the bishops who consecrated Gene Robinson or who have authorized local rites for the blessing of same sex unions be invited to attend.

“In view of the real hesitations that we experience in joining with those who have consecrated Bishop Gene Robinson, and with others who have allowed for the blessing of same-sex unions, and given the significance of these events, we feel that we cannot give an answer to your kind invitation until later in the year,” they stated.

A spokesman for the Anglican Consultative Council, whose general secretary Canon Kenneth Kearon serves as the Conference secretary told The Church of England Newspaper the invitations to Lambeth had been “coming in, in their hundreds.”

The Rev. Canon James Rosenthal stated the Conference organizes did not have an exact count as of yet as to who would attend the meeting, and noted the July 31 deadline to respond had been extended, as some overseas bishops “have stated they had not received their invitations yet.”

The bishops of the Diocese of Sydney have told Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams that they will not respond to his invitation to attend the 2008 Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion’s bishops until they learn how The Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops responds to the primates’ communiqué.

If the bishops who participated in the consecration of the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson as Bishop Coadjutor of New Hampshire attend Lambeth, the bishops of Sydney might not, Archbishop Peter Jensen and his five suffragans said.

Read it all in The Living Church.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd will respond to questions from a television audience of 200 church leaders in a televised debate hosted by the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL).

“This is the first time there’s been an address like this in terms of leaders allocating that time to one constituency of any sort,” Glynis Quinlan of the ACL said of the Aug 9 debate in preparation for this year’s Federal elections.

The Christian “vote” in Australia may swing the election between the Liberal and Labor parties which is expected to take place later this year, or by Jan 19, 2008.

The centre-left Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd will be the main challenger to the conservative coalition led by Liberal Party of Australia leader John Howard and his collation partner Mark Vaile of the National Party. Labor hopes to gain at least 16 seats in the 150-member House of Representatives to form a majority government.

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said the debate will allow Christian leaders to bring their issues before the party leaders.

“This is a unique chance for Christians to hear first-hand from the prime minister and the opposition leader about why they think they should be endorsed to lead our nation, and to hear their responses to questions from church leaders,” he said according to a report by Anglican Media Sydney.

“We need to be influencing all political parties to develop well-considered policy initiatives and a vision for Australia that engenders an increasingly moral and caring society.”

Anglicans remains Australia’s second largest denomination after Roman Catholics, a June 27 report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics finds. However, while the Roman Catholic Church grew by 7 percent to 5.1 million members between 1996 and 2006, the Anglican Church of Australia declined by 5 percent to 3.7 million members.

Those professing no religion grew from 2.9 million to 3.7 million over the last ten years in Australia, currently representing 19 percent of the population. Immigration has fueled a rise in the proportion of non-Christians in Australia with the numbers of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and other faiths increasing from 600,000 to 1.1 million. However, Christianity is still the largest faith, with 12.7 million adherents. But as a proportion of the population, Christianity has fallen from 71 percent to 64 percent.

The Anglican Church’s membership losses are not evenly spread as past reports from the Diocese of Sydney report growth, while other dioceses have reported year to year declines. However membership declines have hit Australia’s more liberal churches the hardest with the Uniting Church declining by 15 percent to 1.1 million and the Presbyterian churches declining by 12 percent to 600,000.

The fastest growing Christian groups were the Pentecostals, increasing by 26 percent to 220,000. The Sydney Morning Herald noted that after Brisbane, Sydney is the most Christian city in Australia, and the site of the largest growth of Pentecostals including the 19,000-member Hillsong Church and Christian City Church.

The paper noted that Sydney is the epicenter of the shifting social fabric in Australia with an increasingly diverse ethnic and religious mix, an ageing population, and a decline proportion of the population living in traditional families.

The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Sydney has asked questioned the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams’ decision to invite to the 2008 Lambeth Conference the American and Canadian bishops who participated in the consecration of Gene Robinson and who continue to permit blessings of same-sex unions in violation of 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10.

Meeting at the Chapter House of St Andrew’s Cathedral on June 25, the clergy and lay leaders of Australia’s largest dynamic diocese questioned why Dr. Williams sought to “maintain union with the unrepentant” bishops of the Communion who had rejected its teachings on human sexuality while “continuing to refuse fellowship to faithful and orthodox Anglicans such as the Church of England in South Africa.”