Gracious Restraint!!!!!!

The meeting was much as I feared.
Archbishop Aspinall began by describing the General Convention of the Episcopal Church at which he was an observer for its first week.  Many were astounded at the size of the proceedings but having read about it at the time on many of the blogs on my list, there was nothing new in that for me. I have also attended a number of Librarian Conventions in the USA and know how they compare in size with those here in Australia.
The Archbishop  perhaps wistfully mentioned that each of the 110 dioceses has the same number of delegates irrespective of size. In Australia, General Synod is made up of representatives from each of the twenty three dioceses on a proportional basis according to the number of active clergy in each diocese. This gives the Sydney Diocese a very large number of representatives. 


He then outlined Resolutions C056 and D025 and stressed they did not rescind B033 although he described the media frenzy that resulted from their passing as being unfortunate and criticised the press releases of the President of the House of Deputies and the Presiding Bishop as being "too little, too late".

He described a long list (8?) of  the problems with the Covenant which had me feeling hopeful  until he followed with a similar list of the potential benefits.


What most annoyed me was his assertion that there needed to be more discussion of the theological and Biblical aspects of the position of committed homosexual partnerships. Although he acknowledged this had been happening for at least 40 years in the USA, it had not occurred in Australia. Yet he had no idea of what had happened in individual dioceses as a result of the few papers that had been prepared and distributed. He admitted that the Australian church lacked mechanisms for interchange of ideas. The national webpage is pathetic(my description) and the national paper is defunct. 


The Australian General Synod and the Primate do not have the powers of their counterparts in TEC. As the website states:

Although the Anglican Church of Australia is one church its structure means that political control is vested in the dioceses and the parishes rather than held centrally by the General Synod. ..... Any rule involving a matter which could affect a diocese must be adopted by the dioceses.

The diocese is the basic unit of the Australian church. .....  this bottom up structure means that the Primate, the Archbishop or the General Synod have only limited authority to speak on behalf of the church. Consequently, the church is often criticised for not being able to respond quickly enough to changing political or legal situations.  When it tries to address these situations, the Church seems rarely capable of speaking with a single voice. 

Archbishop Aspinall is a reasonable man but he seems to believe that he is dealing with reasonable men and that continued dialogue will see the church come to know the mind of God. 
If I had been acknowledged (I did put my hand up),  I would have declared that those who run the Diocese of Sydney will never join in reasonable discussion. As I stated in my previous post, women were ordained to the priesthood in Australia 15 years after New Zealand and only after those opposed had tried to prevent it in the courts of the land and failed. 


A priest, in a question, referred to understanding the Love of God but Aspinall countered with words that might have come from the evangelicals that we also need to understand what is sin. I believe he was just putting the case to be fair but was still sad to hear him say it. 

One man outed himself as a homosexual and made an impassioned plea for the hypocrisy to end. He declared that homosexuals, both out and closeted, are being ordained in every diocese in the land except Sydney and Armidale (I would add North West Australia). He later listed some examples to me in a private conversation.  He claimed that the battle over women priests had ended (this brought howls from women in particular, because it has not ended in the Sydney Diocese) and eventually must end over homosexuality. He is an out gay principal in a State school and there are no problems. The church is lagging way behind the times. 


Archbishop Aspinall stated he would not reply to that but allow the man's speech to stand. He also told us how he had breakfasted at the convention with a partnered lesbian rector from Chicago whose parish was supporting 2 clergy in the Diocese of the Sudan despite the regular criticisms from the Archbishop of the Sudan of TEC.  Aspinall several times commented on the resolve by TEC to reaffirm its financial commitment to the Anglican communion.


The meeting was arranged by Anglicans Together which is an organisation of Anglicans in the Diocese of Sydney which values an inclusive and diverse expression of Anglicanism. The Archbishop told us he read the newsletters and he encouraged us to meet and support one another.

So I believe as I did before the meeting that Archbishop Aspinall would like to be more openly supportive but  feels restricted by the role of Primate which has little real power and also by his belief that the church will move to find the will of God by continued prayer and discussion. As a person who is affected by the process I believe in a little more activism than he would prefer. 


General Synod dithered for years over the ordination of women and it was only after the then Archbishop of Perth (later Primate) and the Bishop of Canberra-Goulburn took matters into their own hands, withstood the legal attacks and ordained the first women that the General Synod finally decided in their favour. 


The Sydney evangelicals never forgave either bishop and treated Archbishop Peter Carnley with outride rudeness when he became Primate. They are not reasonable men and will never listen to reasonable discussion, Stuff em.




 

Gracious Restraint?

Tomorrow night I am attending a meeting in Sydney at which the speaker will be the Primate of Australia and Archbishop of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall.
He had lunch with Bishop Gene Robinson in Anaheim and I think also met with him in Brisbane but I am nervous about the title of his address.
Gracious Restraint: Hastening Slowly in the Anglican Communion

It is worth noting that the meeting is not in the Sydney Cathedral but in the most anglo-catholic of parishes in the diocese, Christ Church St Laurence.
I sense Archbishop Aspinall is sympathetic but am afraid any idea of gracious restraint is just seen as weakness by those who run the Sydney Diocese.

If TEC and the province of New Zealand had maintained a policy of gracious restraint I doubt there would be women priests let alone Bishops anywhere in the Anglican Communion. The stranglehold of the Diocese of Sydney has kept Australia way back in accepting the rights of women (Priests 1992, Bishops 2008 and still not as Diocesans) while New Zealand had women priests in 1977 and a woman as Diocesan Bishop in 1990). If the Australian province continues to kowtow in gracious restraint to the Sydney Diocese in acceptance of LGBT people, there will be no change in my lifetime.

I am usually far too nervous to speak up in such public meetings but would like to read out the following comment in 'The Changing Attitude Blog"

We are already present in the church. However, we are clearly not fully present. Our presence is fully welcomed and accepted in a few Provinces, tolerated in others and invisible in the majority of Provinces.

Where it is now legally possible, we are contracting Civil Partnerships and Marriages. Elsewhere we are creating relationships equivalent to marriage - loving, lifelong, faithful and monogamous.

We are present at every level of church ministry, lay and ordained, readers, deacons, priests, bishops and archbishops, celibate, single and partnered.
We are present across the whole Anglican Communion, LGBT people of faith, the majority of us invisible to and unrecognised by the church.

The attention of the Communion is absorbed by consideration of the Anglican Covenant, questions about church order, authority and doctrine and an obsession with homosexuality.

Our very presence demands an answer to the question we pose, a question that will never go away because we LGBT people will never go away. LGBT people will continue to be born and drawn into a life of faith by the Holy Spirit in OUR as yet unwelcoming Anglican Communion.

How IS the Anglican Communion going to make room for us? I know how the church is pragmatically making room for us in England and Wales, the USA and Canada, in South Africa and New Zealand. I know how the church is trying to deny room in Nigeria and Uganda, the Sudan and Kenya, the Southern Cone and South East Asia.

The conservative tactic has been to focus on the USA and Canada as the Provinces presenting the Communion with a problem. These Provinces present the Communion with a challenge, one which will engage every Province. LGBT people are in the midst of the church, woven invisibly into church life. We are constructing healthy, creative and holy lives in response to the call of God, inspired by political change in the secular world.

We are a minority in the church. We are caught in a trap. We cannot easily show the church how profoundly committed and faithful we are to God because the prejudice and hostility directed against us intimidates us into silence and invisibility.

How is the Anglican Communion graciously going to open herself and make room for us?

Bishop Robinson meets with Archbishop Aspinall

I was pleased to read on the blog of Bishop Gene Robinson
Another amazing day yesterday. At noon, I had lunch with three primates, thanks to the Chicago Consultation. Along with Bishop Tom Ely, of Vermont, I broke bread with the Primates of Korea (and his translator), Scotland and Australia.


+Gene comments on some things said by the Primate of Korea but nothing from Archbishop Aspinall, Primate of Australia.

Oh dear, won't that upset the Sydney types.

They met when +Gene was on holidays in Australia last year and some of the local idiots accused ++Aspinall of hearing one side only. He would have to be stone deaf not to know the other point of view and I presume in his normal activities he would have met ++Jensen and the other Sydney bishops often.

++Aspinall is very cautious in declaring his views. I found this:
Dr Aspinall said that he had not declared his personal position on the issue of the ordination of gay clergy because he believed it was his responsibility as Primate in the current climate to “try to find ways to enable the Church to engage in the debate in a constructive way and move forwards towards a solution”. If he were to express a strong personal view, it would add to the polarisation in the current climate, which would not be helpful. He said that he felt sympathy for the hurt that gay people experienced. “Quite a number of homosexual people have said that they are people of faith, that they are committed to Jesus Christ, and believe they are faithful members of the Church and they want to have a home in the Church and they want their contributions to be received and valued and welcomed.

He is speaking at Christ Church St Laurence in Sydney on September 15 and I plan to be present.
His topic will be:
'Gracious Restraint: Hastening Slowly in the Anglican Communion'
which is not as hopeful as I would like. I feel there has been too much restraint on our side and very little on the other. Graciousness is not a virtue held by the Jensenites. I can imagine what they will say when they hear of the lunch meeting yesterday.

++Aspinall continues as Primate of Australia

Great news which I have lifted from not too much.
On 17 October 2008, the Board of Electors re-elected Archbishop Phillip Aspinall as Primate of the Anglican Church of Australian for a further term of six years.

"To hold this position is an honour and while it comes with a great deal of responsibility it is a challenge I am pleased to accept for the next six years," he said.

Dr Aspinall nominated the ordination of Australia's first two women bishops as a highlight of his first term in office. Dr Aspinall said the Church will continue to have debates and disagreements. "I was privileged to be at Lambeth this year where the majority of the world’s Anglican bishops gathered. The generosity of spirit, companionship and warmth evident there gave me hope that we can work on these issues in a positive way and continue to strengthen the Anglican Communion," said Dr Aspinall.

(Dr Aspinall was first elected in 2005 for three years. Prior to 2005 no fixed term was attached to the position of Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia. However in 2007, in recognising the increasing demands of the position, the General Synod decided to limit each appointment to six years with a possible three year extension.)

Keeps Jensen out of the Primates council. I did not think there was much chance but strange thing do unfortunately happen.


See my previous posts.
Archbishop Aspinall (Australian Primate) speaks out
and
More from Archbishop Aspinall

More from Archbishop Aspinall

I have found the full transcript of ++Aspinall's interview on ABC radio. This part interests me most

MONICA ATTARD: Justice Kirby of the High Court; an openly gay man has said in the past that he feels let down by the Anglican Church, I mean is that something that you feel deeply about?

PHILLIP ASPINALL: Yes it is, I feel a degree of sympathy for the hurt that Justice Kirby expresses and I guess at a personal level that's really what's at stake in this debate.

Quite a number of homosexual people have said that they are people of faith, that they are committed to Jesus Christ and believe they are faithful members of the church and they want to have a home in the church and they want their contributions to be received and valued and welcomed.

The question the church is struggling with is, is an active homosexual lifestyle compatible with the gospel?

And there is no clear cut answer to that question, people feel it very deeply and the feelings run deep and I guess that's part of the nature of human sexuality. It goes to the very core of our being and sometimes it's hard to get rational discussion about it but we have to keep at it until we can.

MONICA ATTARD: Would you not be able to put this debate down once and for all if you expressed your view?

PHILLIP ASPINALL: Monica what happens in the Anglican Church is people often cry out for the leaders to speak out strongly on one issue or another.

And whenever a bishop does, another group of people will shout out, why doesn't that renegade bishop keep his opinions to himself?

So me expressing a strong view one way or the other is not going to settle the debate, I can assure you of that.

MONICA ATTARD: But it might in Australia?

PHILLIP ASPINALL: Ah no, it wouldn't even in Australia. Archbishop Jensen expressing a strong view on it has not settled the debate in Australia.

A number of others have expressed a strong view one way or another and that has not settled the debate in Australia and Australia is not going to settle it in isolation from the debate going on it the rest of the world.

I guess I personally want him to speak out more clearly in opposition to Jensen but at least he shows more sympathy to the situation of gay members of the church.

Archbishop Aspinall (Australian Primate) speaks out

I am always concerned at how Jensen is often portrayed as if he were the leader of the Anglican Church of Australia. Archbishop Aspinall of Brisbane is the Primate of Australia. However this is not a position of power, he is not much more than chairman of the Australian General Synod. It was explained to me last week that when the Anglican Church of Australia was created in 1962 the individual dioceses maintained a great deal of independence. Canons passed by the General Synod must be adopted by the individual diocese. Each diocese chooses its own bishop and, as long as the person is canonically fit, the appointment must stand. This is not true in the USA nor NZ where there are processes of confirmation by the national church. Both the dioceses of Perth and Canberra-Goulburn ordained women before the necessary legislation was passed by General Synod and while attempts were made to prevent it in the civil courts they were unsuccessful.
So as the GAFCONites talk about a committee of primates, I wonder who they will be.
The chances of Jensen becoming Primate of Australia (there is an election next October) are thankfully almost nil. Yet he continues to be the spokesman for the Primates who are in GAFCON and seem unable to speak by themnselves without displaying their inate stupidity. So how does Jensen think he will obtain the position of power he so obviously craves while still remaining within the Anglican Church of Australia?

Anyway ++Aspinall has finally spoken. In today's Sydney Morning Herald

THE Anglican Primate of Australia, Phillip Aspinall, has called on rebel Anglicans, including the Sydney Archbishop, Peter Jensen, to reconsider their boycott of Lambeth, the decennial conference of national church leaders, saying reform must come from within.

Responding to the conservatives' threat to create a breakaway faction within the global church, Dr Aspinall said there was room for diversity within the church's boundaries.


Dr Aspinall said the implications of the Jerusalem declaration issued at the conclusion of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) this week were "not entirely clear and it may take some time before we know the likely impact of what is proposed".

"If participants at GAFCON … regard themselves as Anglicans, which I understand they do, then it seems to me they should be at Lambeth. It's there that the whole Anglican family will gather."

In attempting to find the original of this statement I came upon his sermon for the commencement of the Brisbane Synod last week. I have never heard him preach but he seems to have a sense of humour. He discussed the first Lambeth Conference and drew some parallels. I will quote some parts which appeal to me.

"The first Lambeth Conference in 1867 was marred by controversy over the authority of scripture, the legitimacy of certain sexual practices and mess over Episcopal jurisdiction and boundaries.

So you can see just how far we’ve come!

Now, you don’t have to look very far to see that this underlying tension is still with us today, not just disagreements about presenting issues. One perspective is looking for ‘definitive rulings, decisive moral leadership’, doing away with uncertainty and provisionality. The other is looking for a way forward that affirms what seems to be true in the conflicting positions of those who disagree.

One view seeks closure, the other is looking for openness. To those who take the first approach it seems completely inappropriate to permit change, development, and provisionality in a church that claims to have the truth revealed by God. It also looks weak and indecisive to those looking on from outside. And it’s bound to be a slippery slope. If first one thing, then another is altered, faith is undermined and the whole edifice put at risk. No, according to this view, the faith is clear. Truth is identifiable and must be maintained ‘clear and unambiguous’.

The second view is often known as Anglican comprehensiveness and recognizes that Anglicanism includes a number of perspectives that are often in tension with one another. It would be a mistake though to think that this second view simply seeks an easy compromise for the sake of peace and the avoidance of hard questions. Rather it recognizes, as Michael Ramsey once said, that ‘The Church is a scene of continual dying’. At best it only ever has a partial grasp of the infinity of God. The full ramifications of the gospel are always being worked out in the church. The reality of God can’t be reduced ‘to the dimension of one person’s, or one group’s, need for comfort and control’. From this perspective the journey into truth, guided by the Holy Spirit, rests not on any neat system, but on faith in a crucified and risen Lord who evades and upsets all the structures in which we would contain him.

Wise Words

"The bishop is a teacher of the faith. This doesn't mean unthinkingly regurgitating formulae from the past," he said.

"Guarding and teaching the faith means bringing the depth of the church's inheritance to bear on today's questions.

"This can lead to the disclosure of aspects of Christian truth that have been forgotten or gone unexplored. The church is a place where things can happen for the first time."

From the sermon by Archbishop Aspinall of Brisbane, Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia as he conducted the consecration of Bishop Kaye Goldsworthy in Perth. Bishop Goldsworthy is the first woman to be consecrated a Bishop in Australia. Canon Barbara Darling will soon follow in Melbourne. 21 Bishops from Australia and New Zealand were present but not, of course, the Archbishop and his gang from Sydney. Their loss.