Scenes from the Sydney Synod
Quiet: The 800-strong Sydney Anglican Synod (church parliament) fell so silent you could hear a pin drop when Darlinghurst Minister Matthew Wilcoxen spoke. He told the story of fostering for the first time – receiving a child with 12 fractures and cigarette burns to his face. the task got harder, but even more rewarding when repeated attempts at restoration failed, the boy’s two sisters needed fostering, and it was in the children’s interests to be together. “Of course we could not say ‘no’,” Wilcoxen recounted. And the children came with them to Australia from Washington.
Wilcoxen was moving a motion urging churches to support fostering and, in particular, to get connected to the Anglicare Foster care programme. Readers in other parts of the church and the country should seek out their local agency.
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Numbers: was the Sydney Anglican branch of the church facing a precipitous decline in numbers or a gentle decline formed the background to a motion on evangelism, including a heartfelt desire to pray for the lost, moved by parish minister Zac Veron. If the two recent Covid years, 2021 and 2022, are included, the diocese has 18.5 per cent fewer attendees than in 2015. The tables of attendance are in The Other Cheek’s Report
But gently pushing back, Bishops Michael Stead and Gary Koo suggested we leave out the stats and a call to formulate a “fresh comprehensive and integrated ministry strategy for 2025 to 2040.” Their changes passed – and the reasons why led to a fascinating debate. Their reason for leaving out the stats was simple, we don’t know the post-Covid picture. As other speakers said, let’s not panic, well not yet.
Stead used the words “gradual decline” on a graph to describe the one or two per cent slope that came before Covid. That fits with The Other Cheek’s “gentle decline” headline.
Michael Doyle, the minister from the Berala parish, pointed out that what worked locally for him would be different from other parishes in the city-wide diocese. A related argument seemed to gain traction – some local churches are doing much better than others, and we need to learn why. Earlier in the evening, we saw a video from Grace City Church in Waterloo of many young inner-city people becoming Christians. And it was clear that Zac Veron’s passion was in part due to his growing a local church. He knows what is possible and wants to see more of it.
Other speakers pointed out that engaging the whole 38,000 current attendees to talk about Jesus was the task needed – that we already have the tools and the people for ministry – and we need to do what we already know needs to be done. A management-consultant-turned-minister reflecting on his former life, said “Top down is not going to work.” Lively and local ministry is our best plan.
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Going for woke: Commenting on the “gentle decline” converage, Stuart Roberts an inflential conservative commentator wrote on FB “I’ve been noticing it for a while now – the Anglican Diocese of Sydney is gradually going woke. At Synod last week they effectively voted in favour of The Voice (see John Sandeman’s coverage below). That vote was dumb because, frankly, we don’t need do-gooder clergy types telling us how to vote any more than we need woke celebrities doing it. Moreover there are Christians on both sides of this question so they should have just shut up about it.”
Its worth noting that synod last year simply urged a “generous conideration” of the yes case, and this year welcomed a call by the indigenous ministry represntatives in the diocese to vote yes. Effectively voting in favour? Maybe. But it is still more than likely that most of the synod votes for the coalition next time around. And a decidely unwoke Synod discussion is detailed below.
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Conversion: Mike Southon, the Executive Director of the lobby group Freedom for Faith (FFF) had good and bad news about political engagement. A third of state electorates had an FFF-inspired candidates’ forum, most in an Anglican church where concerns could directly be put to the politicians. But “politicians tell me ‘I have not heard from the churches’ when I visit them,” Southon told the Synod. “They need to hear from us.”
Reaching out to politicians about a forthcoming “Conversion Therapy’ was a key resolution of the synod, calling on the Minns NSW Labor government to keep its promises not to ban “a consenting individual seeking prayer or other advice and assistance, nor would it ban the expression of religious belief through religious teaching.”
The alarm is raised because “the government’s Consultation Paper on Banning Conversion Practices has proposed an approach that is very similar to the Victorian legislation and the Bill introduced by [independent MP] Mr Greenwich, which is inconsistent with the ALP’s pre-election commitments.”
They synod called on the government to “to uphold its commitments regarding LGBTQ conversion therapy by introducing legislation that –
- (i) bans dangerous and damaging practices that seek or promise to change sexual orientation, but does not use the broad and vague concept of “suppression”,
- (ii) does not prohibit a consenting individual from seeking the support and assistance that they consider appropriate for themselves,
- (iii) does not prohibit religious instruction and guidance that encourages church members to live in conformity with the ethical teaching of the Scriptures by not acting on desires that are contrary to this teaching,
- (iv) does not expose parents to prosecution for failing to affirm and support their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and
- (v) does not introduce a bias towards gender-affirming treatment and the threat of prosecution for health professionals who recommend a different treatment approach.”
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Truth telling: Berthier Lainirina, Principal of St Patrick’s College in the Diocese of Toliara, southern Madagascar, in Sydney to study at Moore College was telling the Synod about the wonderful growth in Christians in his region. One small part has grown to 40 churches -“It is now an Archdeaconry,” he said. and added I am not sure you understand what an Archdeaconry is because you are more Baptist than Anglican.” (An archdeaconry is a region with enough churches to be looked after by an archdeacon. confession – this writer did not know how to spell it even though his twin is an archdeacon in the Diocese of the Murray in SA.)
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Unheard of: A motion that would have made for a good debate was withdrawn:
Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023
The Synod of the Diocese of Sydney notes with godly grief the passage earlier this year of the
“Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023” by the Parliament of Uganda, and
(a) expresses its view that, following the resurrection and ascension of Christ the King, the
purpose of secular government is to make the moral judgments necessary to establish and
keep the peace required for the church to flourish in its witness to the kingdom of God,
(b) rejects the premise that the criminalisation of private sexual acts (homosexual or
otherwise) between consenting adults is either necessary or useful for the fulfilment of
the secular government’s purpose as articulated in (a),
(c) declares that the church’s twin moral duty toward all people (including LGBT people) is
the proclamation of the gospel and the preservation of life and well-being,
and therefore –
(d) calls upon the Church of Uganda, led by The Most Rev Dr Stephen Kaziimba, to revoke
its previous support of the “Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023” and to resist actively any
attempts to use violence or coercion against LGBT persons.