In this column, Bishop Peter outlines an area of debate emerging in the Anglican Communion.
Those who follow church news closely will know that, in March, a group of Anglicans gathered in Nigeria proposing an alternative understanding of how the Anglican Communion should be ordered.
The historic way of expressing Anglican identity has been through the communion of 42 churches or provinces, representing around 85 million people, in relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Those who gathered in Nigeria are angered at discussions in the Church of England about human sexuality and some are angered by the appointment of a female to be the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Anglican Church of Australia is constitutionally linked to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
While some may seek to change that connection, any such move would require significant constitutional support and is unlikely for the foreseeable future.
A few years ago our Synod, by Ordinance, reaffirmed this connection with the Archbishop of Canterbury and our commitment to the established structures that link Anglicans across the globe.
Clergy who come to work in this Diocese are expected to affirm this bond.
Those proposing an alternative structure for the Communion rely on the Jerusalem Declaration (2008) as the cornerstone of their understanding of Anglican orthodoxy.
It is a contested statement not simply because of its focus on a definition of marriage as between a male and a female but also because of the way it tries to establish a particular authority for the 39 Articles and Book of Common Prayer.
It also proposes a particular way of interpreting Scripture, appealing to what it describes as the historic and consensual teaching of the Church.
Anglicans have always debated how the Christian faith is to be expressed and lived. Dialogue has been integral to Anglicanism, particularly since the nineteenth century when the Anglican Communion emerged as churches beyond the shores of Great Britain developed their own provincial life while remaining in fellowship.
We are held together in this nation by an Anglicanism defined not by a single declaration but by our Constitution, our shared creeds, our reception of Scripture, and our common life in word and sacrament.
Our Fundamental Declarations say this (and no more):
The Anglican Church of Australia, being a part of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, holds the Christian Faith as professed by the Church of Christ from primitive times and in particular as set forth in the creeds known as the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed.
This Church receives all the canonical scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as being the ultimate rule and standard of faith given by inspiration of God and containing all things necessary for salvation.
This Church will ever obey the commands of Christ, teach His doctrine, administer His sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, follow and uphold His discipline and preserve the three orders of bishops, priests and deacons in the sacred ministry.
The place of the 39 Articles, Book of Common Prayer, and the Ordinal is affirmed this way.
This Church … retains and approves the doctrine and principles of the Church of England embodied in the Book of Common Prayer together with the Form and Manner of Making Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests and Deacons and in the Articles of Religion sometimes called the Thirty-nine Articles.
The essential Article of Scripture sets a simple boundary.
That doctrine affirms that Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of anyone, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.
May we find a way of sharing our common life as Anglicans in this Diocese, which is a blessing to the community that God has called us to serve.
May we find some ways of being an example of living tenderly with difference, as we seek to proclaim the hope of heaven which is in our hearts.
+Peter
