The Anglican Church of Australia is tilting further and further towards evangelicalism, an analysis of the election results from the General Synod (national church parliament) shows. This is seen clearly in the election of members to the Standing Committee of the General Synod. A quirk in the first-past-the-post method of elections makes changes in the church personship of the synod transparent, as it displays trends easily.
In the elections conducted this week, delegates elected a solid set of evangelical clergy and laity in the houses of clergy and laity for the standing committee. A few progressives were elected from among the laity, especially highly regarded legal eagles such as Debra Mullins, who is a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland. But apart from them, it appeared to be a virtual clean sweep for evangelicals in that voting.
Of the three standing committee representatives from the House of Bishops, two are evangelicals.
There was a gap between the evangelical bloc elected and progressives who were not elected, which, in percentage terms, was wider than the previous General Synod in 2022, where the evangelical majority in the synod first emerged.
The change in the slate of Bishops elected to the Standing Committee was especially striking as the last election had three non-evangelicals.
The same pattern of a block of evangelicals being elected showed up in another important election – for the priests appointed to the Board of Assessors – Appellate Tribunal – the tribunal being essentially the high court for church cases.
This election at large being across the Synod gives a picture of the relative strengths of the evangelicals at the Synod meeting, with the evangelical vote ranging from 119-134, and the highest vote of those not elected being 72.
This account should not be read as reporting a clean sweep by evangelicals – there were several other contested elections, some not “won” by known evangelicals. The election results are on the Anglican.org.au site here and here.
The continuing and increasing evangelical majority at General Synod shows Australian Anglicans as an outlier in the Anglosphere, going in the opposite direction to the increasingly progressive Anglican Communion provinces in the US, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales and Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Redress scheme and othe abuse payments
There was no sense of resentment or reluctance to pay redress payments and costs occasioned by child sexual abuse cases, as the effect of the payments was detailed in a brace of motions on the final day of snod, seeking help for First Nations ministry and dioceses with mounting debts.
Speaking to the effect on First Nations ministry in the Diocese of North Queensland, in receivership due to redress debt.
Aunty Dr Rose Elu started by speaking of the attempt to form a breakaway church of the Torres Strait after the old Diocese of Carpentaria, which was merged into North Queensland in 1996 and wondered which church they might end up in.
“Many years ago, there was a breakaway in the Torres Strait, and I was one of those who were tasked tirelessly to bring the people back to this church. My people won’t hesitate. They will continue to pray. They will continue to find churches to worship God. The biggest fear I have is if this ask [request for support] for North Queensland fails, I will not have energy for the others to encourage our people to stay in this church.
“They will, I know, continue to find where they can worship. And as we all know, there are many denominations in this country that is including the Torres Strait and the Cape. They will go anywhere. What will that look like? From 1871, the coming of the light, Church of England and then into the Anglican Church.
“I’m not going to stand here and beg you people. And what you can do to assist. I’m here [to]Ask you for your prayers and [a] way of support for our people in the Torres Strait…”
Speaking to a motion on support for struggling dioceses, two bishops and a priest gave their stories:
Bishop Keith Joseph from North Queensland: “We are selling off over half our churches, including churches which are homes to thriving congregations, like most of them now are homesteading congregations, many of which have been gone.
“The picture of the diocese is that in 2019 to 2024, the diocese grew substantially after COVID-19. The growth was across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ministries, BCA ministries, alternative ministries such as the Cathedral and conservative evangelical parishes. In other words, the picture of growth across the entire diocese. My diocese preaches the gospel, or nothing but. It is on issues of concern for most people in this diocese, relatively conservative. It is certainly orthodox. When we say the creed, we mean every word.
“So [the diocese] has been growing, but the growth has been in many cases in parishes which will be considered to be not just Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander, but also in remote areas. So financially, in spite of growth, things are extraordinarily tight. … So we have a situation where we are really on the edge financially. ….Whilst the receiver thinks we will probably get through, it will only take one or two large civil claims to, in fact, result in the liquidation of the diocese.
“After the receivership is over, my estimate is that diocese income will be approximately 350,000 a year excluding donations. 350,000 a year will wish to own an entire diocese, which is the size of New South Wales. The population is the size of Canberra or Newcastle. As you can imagine, I don’t think this is actually possible. It’s certainly not possible to run anything more than pockets around here from Townsville, where the few viable parishes are located. …
Bishop Richard Condie, Tasmania: “To date, we have paid out over $20 million in redress claims and civil settlements for historic sexual abuse in the Diocese of Tasmania. Our actuaries have recently updated their advice. We can anticipate having to find an additional $60 million to fund our redress obligations over the next 10 years or so. As you are probably aware, we have already had to sell 75 properties in Tasmania, including 50 places of worship. A heartbreaking thing to do, along with reallocating a number of our assets to our redress fund.
“To fund the future anticipated redress obligations, we’re going to need to use most of the assets of the Diocese of Tasmania held by our parishes, both investments and physical assets, most of which are relied upon to fund parish ministries.
“Over the next 10 years, we are likely to lose most of that asset base, which will dramatically reshape the diocese of Tasmania and our diocese and leadership team as income from assets is reduced.”
Jeff Coop, North Queensland: “In the last six years, our church has grown almost threefold, but it will not be there in the next 12 months. The church that I’m in is being sold to pay the debts of people from long before us. As we heard from Arthur Copeman, there is no mechanism within the church for what we’re currently going through. The mechanism of everyone being their own entity; the standing committee doesn’t have the option of how we support this case. I want to stand here because it’s very personal. In 12 months, I will no longer be a rector. I will no longer be a stipendiary priest in charge of a local church because that church is being sold. Somewhere in the next two years, it is very likely I will no longer be an archdeacon because there will be no money for that either.
“But our church has said we don’t want to be sold, but if it comes down to a bunfight between churches, we’re willing to be sacrificed because we don’t want division…
“In Townsville two thirds of the churches will be sold. What would your town look like if two thirds of the churches will be sold. In Cairns, one quarter of the churches will be sold. There will be an area in North Queensland twice the size of Victoria where there’ll be no church at all of any denomination. There’ll be no community halls, no gathering places… Whatever happens today will be probably too late for the Diocese of North Queensland.”
Correction to Arthur Copeman’s name.
As these churches are sold, what we also lose is land zoned for churches, which once sold, we never get that zoned land again. The sins of the father pass on to the fourth generation. Exod 20:5; Deut 5:9
Typo. Not Copeland but Copeman.
thank you
John, did the Diocese of the Murray get a mention please?
Only in Passing, not in any detail. It was raised as an example of the problems caused such as not being able to legislate when a bishop is not present.