letter from Australia
The Australian Anglican General Synod met for the first time in five years in May. It was the first Synod since same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia.
The Synod revealed a number of things about what is happening in the Australian Church. The largest diocese is in New South Wales where Sydney Anglicans are almost uniformly Biblical Christians. The importance of Sydney Anglicans for the worldwide evangelical church means that what is going on here is important for elsewhere.
Archbishop Kanishka Raffel of Sydney brought a motion supporting the Anglican and Biblical doctrine of marriage being between a man and a woman. The laity voted 63–47 for the motion. The clergy 70–39. And the bishops 10–12 with two abstentions. And so, despite the vast majority of the Synod being for the Christian position, the bishops prevented it passing.
What is ‘reasonable’ in a society losing its head?
Be reasonable! That’s a cry I’ve not heard for some time. Maybe ‘reason’ is out of style in our modern …