”'It [lay administration] is a subject we have been talking about in our diocese for 30 years,' he said. But he was aware there was 'considerable disagreement' about it around the Communion, and to date his diocese had held back from engaging with it formally.”Held back from engaging with it formally??!!!? Excuse me while I choke with laughter. Sydney synod voted to approve lay presidency in November 1999,after which the move was vetoed by (then) Archbishop Goodhew. Once +Jensen had seized the reins it reappeared on the table, and a committee appointed to explore ways getting around the national church’s Appellate Tribunal finding that Lay Presidency could only proceed if first approved by General Syod. To further this end the Act of uniformity was formally repealed by Sydney Synod in 2003: we’re now in a situation where the practice is by no means unusual here, just not mentioned in public lest our new-found best friends remember just who it is they’ve jumped into bed with.
So I guess by “engage with it formally” the Archbishop means “let others know that as far as Sydney’s concerned the issues been decided. Our way.”
To be honest though, sometimes I wonder why anything the Archbishop says should surprise me. An interview printed in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald said:
”Dr Jensen said gay men and women had no reason to feel discriminated against by the stance he had taken on human sexuality”Right. So they can’t be ordained, can’t work for the church in any other capacity, can’t study at the diocese’s theological college, can’t get married, nor express their sexuality in a relationship with someone they love. His Priests can publically refuse the Sacraments to GLBTs without any fear of reproach, he insists same-sex couples are intrinsically incapable of raising happy and emotionally well-balanced children, and is proud of his role in driving the church into schism over one man’s consecration as Bishop.
But gay men and women have got no reason to feel discriminated against. Got that everyone?
At least Father Christian knows when he’s telling lies. The scary thing about the Sydney hierarchy is that they really believe their own bullshit.
4 comments:
I was going to do a post on this point but I'll say it here first.
These new bed fellows at GAFCON are poles apart! Al, did you read Bishop Duncan's address? Mimi has posted it. On page 13 I read that the Bishop laments the "decline of use of the Prayer Book last Century"
That's the LAST thing the Sydney Fundies want! As I said to Mimi they love A-4 sheets, photocopied. They are NOW in with a group who really are aligned with Rome.
These Roman types love it that they are More Catholic than the Catholics. You see this amoungst the high church Anglo-Catholics. They're not liberals at all. The Pope doesn't like gays, so they don't like them. The Pope doesn't like women as priests, so they don't.
Now the Bible-types like Jensen want to "get back to the Bible" while their new mates want to "get back to the Prayer Book".
Watch the fur fly. The shortest marriage in history.
OMG! Are you saying that "lay administration" actually happens in Sydney? Perhaps one of the Eucharists at GAFCON should be presided over by a lay person. That would be fun!
He took a stance????
Was that the wide stance?
I am told, by those in the know, that this really is Jensen and not an actor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ziECzNKhM
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