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Sydney diocese report warns of 'impaired communion' with Church of England
By Muriel Porter
CHURCH TIMES
September 6, 2024
THE Anglican Church of Australia (ACA) would "automatically" cease to be in communion with the Church of England if the Appellate Tribunal determined that the C of E was "inconsistent" with the Australian Church's "Fundamental Declarations", a report to the Sydney synod by the diocese's doctrine commission suggests.
The Appellate Tribunal is the church's highest court, and the Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Revd Kanishka Raffel, is a tribunal member. The report says that the Church of England could be ruled "inconsistent" if it "rejected the scriptures as 'the ultimate rule and standard of faith' or if they ceased to 'obey the commands of Christ and teach his doctrine'".
The ACA, the report continues, "has no legal power to declare whether it is in or out of communion with any other Church in the [Anglican] Communion, other than the Church of England. Nevertheless, serious breaches of gospel communion do exist within the Anglican Communion, and 'impaired communion' or 'broken communion' accurately describes this doctrinal reality."
Sydney diocese last year supported GAFCON with a contribution of $A179,000, of which $A152,000 provided subsidies for fees and travel costs for poorer delegates to the GAFCON conference in Kigali, Rwanda (News, 21 April 2023).
According to a report for the Sydney Synod, the diocese also supported the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa/New Zealand ($A80,000), a theological college in Madagascar, a student from the diocese of Kuching, Malaysia, and Bibles for the diocese of Kalima, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In Australia, it gave significant financial support to dioceses that align with Sydney diocese's theological stance: Bathurst, NSW; Tasmania; North West Australia; the Northern Territory; and Armidale, NSW. In 2024, the "Work Outside the Diocese Committee" has allocated a total of $A416,000 for its work both in Australia and overseas. Church attendance declines. Anglican adult church attendance in Sydney has declined by seven per cent over the past ten years, or by 14 per cent against population growth, according to a report to be presented to the Sydney Synod. The Synod begins its annual meeting on 14 September.
Only one third of church centres recorded increased attendance, while two-thirds recorded declining numbers, the report states. The churches that grew did so primarily at the expense of declining churches, rather than from newcomers. Larger churches declined at a greater rate than medium- or small-sized churches.
Some parishes, the report says, "may not have been as active as others in effectively pastorally addressing complex contemporary issues including child sexual abuse, family and domestic violence, identity issues and divorce and remarriage".
It concludes that the "data shows that internal characteristics of growing church centres are a clear vision which is communicated to and owned by the congregation; clear, faithful and challenging Bible teaching; a willingness to try new things; and a strong sense of belonging". The report recommends that the diocese needs "to pursue a laser-like focus on growing disciples in depth and numbers".
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