The media gets Anglicanism wrong – but it is so complicated Anglicans get it wrong too.
The ‘“simple” story of an “Anglican split” with the formation of the new Diocese of the Southern Cross by the conservative Global Anglican Futures (GAFCON) network turns out to be far from simple.
One minister, Peter Palmer, and most of his congregation have left the Anglican Diocese (region) of Southern Queensland. A simple split at first glance but complicated by Glenn Davies, former archbishop of Sydney becoming the interim bishop of the Diocese of the Southern Cross. Few in Sydney think Glenn Davies has left them, or become a non-Anglican.
Plus many Primates (national church leaders) representing most of the world’s Anglicans are backing the move.
But examine the word “split”. If one church, or minister, leaving Anglicanism is a “split” then Australian Anglicanism has had several waves of “splits” in the last fifteen years or so.
There have been four distinct waves of church plants by Australian Anglicans, all carrying some Anglican DNA and with ties back to their birthplace. If they are regarded as splits – the Diocese of the Southern Cross is the smallest of the splits though the most publicised.
FIEC
The largest wave is the 55 churches in the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC). This extraordinarily successful church planting movement began with the formation of EV church in 1996 on the Central Coast of NSW in the southern part of the Newcastle Diocese.
At the time evangelicals believed that there was a “Toronto line” – which meant that the Newcastle diocese kept the lower part of the diocese free of evangelical ministers.
The planting of EV church caused controversy at the time. It was planted by Sydney Anglicans, and led by a Sydney Anglican minister, but was not an official activity of the diocese. EV church and its siblings are independent churches. Andrew Heard who founded EV Church and was the first chair of FIEC is a graduate of Moore College. EV church now has planted daughter churches, and has grand-daughter churches or plants of plants.
The Sydney diocese later passed an “Affiliated Churches Ordinance” which allows ministers of approved Churches to receive benefits such as belonging to the Sydney Superannuation fund, return to Anglican ministry from a non-Anglican church and hold a license from the Archbishop.
Newcastle diocese later tried to have the Affiliated Churches Ordinance declared invalid by the Anglican Church’s Appellate tribunal but failed.
However, only thirteen churches are currently affiliated. The FIEC has effectively become a new denomination, although many of its churches have Sydney Anglican DNA. Some of the more established FIEC churches have built new church buildings, such as EV Church itself and the Orange Evangelical church.
City on a Hill
In Melbourne, City on a Hill was planted in 2007 out of St James Old Cathedral and has grown into by far the largest Anglican church in the diocese with five locations in Melbourne and Geelong, licensed as Authorised Anglican Congregations. In a unique arrangement, it is also part of the Acts 29 church planting movement. In Melbourne, the thriving City on a Hill remains integrated into the local diocese. Senior Pastor of City on a Hill, Guy Mason, is an ordained Anglican minister and a graduate of Ridley College.
But City on a Hill also has branches in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Wollongong. The first two are in the Anglican Diocese of Southern Queensland. The Brisbane and Gold Coast churches have not joined the local Anglican diocese although theothercheek believes they approached the bishop.
This means that the Gafcon breakaway, Southern Cross church Beenleigh Logan is only the most recent Anglican alternative in that diocese with half a dozen FIEC and two City on a Hill churches also within its boundaries.
Trinity Network
South Australia’s oldest church, Holy Trinity on North Terrace, now has 13 branch churches, planting the first in 2001. Last year Covid restrictions led to a new church plant at Mile End to ease pressure on the city building. Trinity Online is now a permanent “extra” church..
The Trinity network has reached beyond the obvious places in Adelaide to plant evangelical churches, smashing the suggestion that church plants serve only comfortable places. Some of the newest plants, at Pooraka in the North and in a TAFE in Tonsley are in far from traditional “Bible belt” territory.
Paul Harrington, who has led the expansion of the Trinity Network from the city base is a Moore College graduate and is licensed by the Archbishop of Adelaide as Trinity’s rector. The leaders of Trinity’s branch churches are licensed ministers as well, although the churches are not registered as Anglican churches.
They have avoided using church property to maintain a high degree of independence.
The Trinity network can be best described as “semi-detached” from the diocese.
If the network continues to expand beyond 20, which is very likely, Trinity will be at the scale of the largest Pentecostal churches in Adelaide, and significantly also at least two-thirds the size of the diocese.
The numbers
What constitutes an Anglican breakaway is moot. But if one was to count each of these local churches separately there are 72 churches with various amounts of Anglican DNA planted outside or only halfway outside an official Australian Anglican dioceses.
Will any one of these other movements join the Diocese of the Southern Cross? That is one of the unknowns of the moment. Each movement already provides strong ties of fellowship. All are growing.
In the long run, their Anglican DNA may be one of the least important aspects of these churches. In common with most church plants they are not attempting to recycle existing pew-sitters, competing with the long-established churches in suburbs and towns but drawing new people to Christ. Christianity, if not a specific Angkican structure, is better for their new life.
This is very helpful.
Having spent a decade in the Newcastle Diocese as an evangelical minister (South of the “Toronto line”, but north of “Checkpoint Chasuble”, I’ve had front row seats to much of this stuff. The big issue for me has been that when it comes to the “Formularies” that make up the foundation of the Anglican Church, the Liberal dioceses split some time ago. The response of the Diocese of the Southern Cross reflects a desire NOT to split from Orthodox Anglican belief.
How you define a split is such an important thing…