Marriage and the Church
You have no doubt read in the news of a motion that was put up by our own Archbishop Kanishka Raffel calling upon the Australian Anglican Church to affirm what it had always declared, namely that marriage is between one man and one woman, exclusively, for life.
Due to the seemingly contentious nature of this motion and the debate around it, the vote was separated into three ballots. This is not an unusual practice. What was entirely extraordinary, was that while the lay and clergy votes were firmly in the majority when it came to supporting this orthodox motion, the majority of bishops in charge of dioceses around Australia did not vote in favour, with 12 against and 10 for.
It’s difficult to know where to from here as relationships within our national church continue to deteriorate. A colleague of mine who is at General Synod and has been blogging about this wrote on Thursday:
“But the question now remains for the Anglican Church of Australia – can the healing that the Primate called us all to possibly occur when so many of her bishops are so out of touch with the substantial majority of the church, let alone the historical orthodox catholic position of 2000 years?”
The failure to affirm does not change the doctrine of marriage. The previous General Synod in 2017 twice affirmed the teaching of Jesus on marriage. But on a deeper level, the vote reveals that these Bishops are completely out of touch: with the people on the ground in their dioceses but more disturbingly, out of touch with what God has ordained in Scripture. In some senses this has been some sort of theological/philosophical dance for some time. Same Sex Marriage is the tip of a huge iceberg. Indeed plenty of bishops haven't believed in the resurrection down the past few decades, which would seem to be pretty critical to unity.
There is very little impact for us in Seaforth, mainly because our own Diocese of Sydney strongly affirms the Bible’s teaching on marriage. For that we ought to continually be thankful. Yet, for Anglican churches in dioceses where their bishops reject clear Scriptural teaching on all sorts of doctrine, it becomes increasingly difficult for orthodox ministers to submit to the leadership of these progressive bishops.
This is where the work Gafcon is so important. Gafcon not only provides support and encouragement to those who are seeking to faithfully teach the word of God in a hostile environment, but should the need arise there is the option for evangelical churches in dioceses with progressive liberal bishops to seek out alternative oversight. This has happened overseas and is not beyond the realm of possibility in Australia
I’ll leave you with these words I came across this week from the pen of Bishop J.C. Ryle:
"Finally, I believe that it is for the safety, happiness, and comfort of all true Christians, to expect as little as possible from Churches or Governments under the present dispensation, to hold themselves ready for tremendous convulsions and changes of all things established, and to expect their good things only from Christ's second advent”.
For more updates you can go to sydneyanglicans.net