Bishop of Gippsland supports Synod motion endorsing extra-marital relationships

Posted on June 4, 2021 
Filed under Australian dioceses, Culture wars

“The Diocese of Gippsland, at its recent synod, has voted to change its own version of Faithfulness in Service, the national church’s guidelines for standards in ministry, to remove the classical definition of chaste relationships (marriage between a man and a woman) and replace it with a more ambiguous definition of ‘committed and monogamous relationship’.

The resolution came from Bishop-in-Council and was endorsed by Bishop Richard Treloar in his Presidential Address. …”

– Report from davidould.net.

See also:

Bishop Treloar’s Presidential Address, 2021. (PDF file.)

The Gippsland Anglican, June 2021. (PDF file.)

A statement from GAFCON Australia: (June 01 2021, on Facebook)

“Gafcon Australia

Please find below a Statement from Gafcon Australia concerning a resolution of the synod of the Diocese of Gippsland.

In May 2021, the Synod of the Diocese of Gippsland made the following resolution:

1. In accordance with Section 7 of the Professional Standards Act 2017 and subject to the qualification that:
– Clauses 7.2 and 7.4 of Faithfulness in Service are to be understood and applied in the context that a member of the clergy or church worker who is in a committed and monogamous relationship with another person is not to be regarded as being in breach of Clauses 7.2 and 7.4 only because that relationship does not have the status of a marriage solemnised according to an Anglican marriage rite;
– Faithfulness in Service (November 2016 version) is otherwise affirmed and adopted as the Code of Conduct for observance by Clergy and Church workers in the Diocese.

2. The registrar shall amend the version of Faithfulness in Service published on the Diocesan website by inserting the qualification below the heading “Preamble” to section 7 of Faithfulness in Service and include the following note: –
(Faithfulness in Service was qualified by this paragraph when adopted by the Diocese of Gippsland as the Code of Conduct for observance by Clergy and Church workers in the Diocese.)

It grieves the Board of Gafcon Australia that the Bishop-in-Council of the Diocese of Gippsland promoted a motion to their Synod, which amended the operation of Faithfulness in Service, the National Code of conduct for church workers, in their Diocese.

The effect of this resolution is to sanction sexual relationships outside of marriage, as the Anglican Church of Australia has received it and continues to uphold. It is regrettable that by removing the possibility of any disciplinary action against a member of the clergy or lay church worker in such a sexual relationship with another person (whether of the same sex or opposite sex) the Diocese’s Code of Conduct is now in breach of the teaching of Scripture (Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral) and the teaching of marriage that our Church upholds.

Gafcon Australia supports those Anglicans in Gippsland who are likewise grieved by this development.

From the Board of Gafcon Australia.”

Image: Diocese of Gippsland.