Confused Australian bishops obfuscate

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.

Ironically, a second motion supporting chastity and the Biblical view of marriage was passed.

The bishops were certainly confused – because their decision on the second motion directly contradicted their decision on the first. How the bishops could vote for the one but not the other is beyond mortal man to determine!

The following day, Archbishop Kanishka Raffel presented a petition which was passed, calling for the bishops in effect to repent and to affirm the Biblical teaching.

Where does this leave the Anglican Church in Australia? In a confused and divided state.

The behaviour of the bishops was reprehensible. Ignoring the clear will of the Church, and more importantly, the clear teaching of the Scripture, they deliberately put the Anglican Church into a confused and divided state – so that they could continue to proclaim their heresies.

The ending of the pretence of unity (despite lots of fine sounding words) means that those dioceses who are out of step with the Scriptures, will now be more confident in embracing the sexual philosophies of this age. They know that they cannot be dealt with.

However, the majority of the Synod is clearly Biblical. The results of the elections to the standing committee of the General Synod showed that the Biblical Christians are now in almost complete control of the Church. But they need to be careful. Generally, the regressives prefer bureaucracy and they seem to have infinite patience. They will continue to chip away at the orthodox and seek to gradually wear them down.

Despite all the talk of a split, I suspect that the vast majority of Biblical Christians in the Anglican church will not leave. They are too strong and numerous. They are also well organised, and most are determined to continue their fight for Biblical truth.

Meanwhile, the unity of believers is more important than ever. Those who are outside the Australian Anglican Church should pray that the Lord would prosper, revive and renew that Church. We seek the unity and peace of Israel (Ps.122).