Faithful service recognised in King’s Birthday Honours list

“A prominent educator and a husband and wife from the Northern Beaches are among Sydney Anglicans honoured in the King’s Birthday Honours list. …”

– Russell Powell has the story at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Moore College Principal to retire at end of 2027

Announcement from SydneyAnglicans.net –

“The Principal of Moore College, Dr Mark Thompson, has announced he will retire at the end of 2027.

The announcement was made at Moore College on Friday, June 5, as Dr Thompson told staff and students.

‘After discussions with the Archbishop and the Governing Board, we have decided that 2027 will be the last year that I serve as the 13th Principal of Moore College,’ Dr Thompson said. ‘No doubt there will be much more that will be said and written over the next eighteen months. But I wanted to let you know at this point, so that you won’t be surprised when advertisements for the position begin to appear in the second half of this year, and so that you might pray as the process of choosing the 14th Principal unfolds.’…”

– Read it all here. It would be really good to pray for Mark and Kathryn, for the College, and for whoever will be appointed the 14th Principal.

Also announced through the College website:

Retirement announced.

Two to remember

“It was 1856, and the new Reformed Evangelical bishop, Frederic Barker, had arrived in Sydney with his wife Jane the year before.

The bishop was responsible for most of NSW – a huge burden. He and his wife immediately saw three great needs and took action to meet them.…”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Peter Jensen commends a soon-to-be-published book on Bishop Barker by Dr. Grant Maple.

He reminds us that it is “so easy to forget our history and that impoverishes us”.

“This bill should unite Parliament” — Archbishop of Sydney Public Statement

Here’s a Public Statement, released today, from Archbishop Kanishka Raffel –

Public Statement
“This bill should unite Parliament”

I have written to the Premier, the Honourable Chris Minns, and the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council, the Honourable Penny Sharpe, to express support for a bill to prevent sex-selective abortions due to be brought before Parliament shortly.

The Anglican Church in Sydney has consistently opposed legislation that has the effect of expanding access to abortion. We hold that abortion is not a neutral moral choice but involves the loss of defenceless human life. Nevertheless, we grieve for mothers who see no other option, affirming that in our loving God, there is forgiveness and boundless goodness and mercy.

But regardless of the broader debates about abortion itself, this Bill should unite Parliament against sex-selective abortion, which disproportionately targets unborn girls.

A recent study undertaken by Edith Cowan University and Curtin University found that sex-selective abortion is widespread in New South Wales.

In my letter, I appealed to the government with these words: “My hope is that those who have in-principle support for abortion rights, on whatever ground, would nevertheless see merit in supporting this bill to safeguard our shared commitment to the dignity and equality of girl children. Far from empowering women, sex selective abortion reflects deeply entrenched cultural prejudice and belongs to crude discriminatory paradigms that contemporary and civilised societies have long sought to leave behind.”

For Christians, this concern is grounded in our commitment to the sanctity of human life and the inherent equality of men and women. Scripture affirms that both male and female are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), a conviction that underpins our commitment to the dignity of every human.

I urge Sydney Anglicans to join me in praying that the government will lead the Parliament in taking the small but vital step of supporting this bill.

Archbishop Kanishka Raffel

28 May 2026.

– Source: SydneyAnglicans.net.

The importance of a special relationship in a crisis

From The Australian Church Record, an encouraging and enlightening contribution by Robin Sydserff of The Proclamation Trust –

“At the celebration of Dick Lucas’ 100th birthday on 14 September 2025, the overseas contribution was a series of recorded video messages from past and present Christian leaders in Australia, testifying to a special relationship. The relationship, first between conservative evangelicals in the Church of England and Sydney Anglicans, has enlarged over the last fifty years and more to embrace a much wider constituency.

In a special relationship there are times when strong things need to be said. ‘Faithful are the wounds of a friend’ (Prov 27:6). …”

– What is the crisis? Who are the friends? How have they been a blessing to each other? Do take the time to read it all.

First published in the ACR’s Easter 2026 Journal.

Image from an interview with Robin Sydserff and David Cook on The Pastor’s Heart, August 2025.

Canberra-Goulburn magazine for May 2026

The Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn has posted online their Anglican News magazine for May 2026.

Here’s Bishop Mark Short’s Reflection:

“Like many of you, I’ve been fascinated by talk of The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God or even The Quiet Revival, especially among younger people in the West.

The former is the title of a 2023 book by UK journalist Justin Brierley, in which he discusses the growing number of thought leaders who are displaying warmth towards Christianity or even declaring faith in Christ. Historian Tom Holland and former Muslim turned atheist Ayan Hirsi Ali are two such examples.

The latter was the title of a 2025 report published by the UK Bible Society, which found a fourfold increase in church attendance by young adults in just five years. Understandably this generated a great deal of discussion and excitement amongst Christians within and outside the UK.

Now for the letdown: two months ago the Bible Society withdrew The Quiet Revival report after being advised the data on which it was based could not be trusted. This prompted some soul-searching on the part of Christians but we need not be alarmed; we have nothing to fear from the truth and God does not need spin or selective statistics to advance His kingdom.

So, what is the good news in the aftermath of Easter?

Christ is risen, ascended and building His church! The most important realities cannot be captured through opinion polls. Nonetheless (and here I’m being tentative rather than definitive) there are signs that something significant is happening in the spiritual climate of Australia and other similar nations.

Earlier this month the Church of England released its attendance figures for 2025. They found that while average weekly church attendance had increased only marginally over the previous year, attendance at Easter was up by 8 per cent. This tallies with reports from a number of parishes in our own Diocese of substantially increased Easter attendance this year. In other contexts, I’ve suggested we might be seeing the re-appearance of the ‘fringe’ – people not yet fully connected with congregational life who find major festivals an ideal opportunity to take first steps.

Likewise, as I travel around the Diocese, I seem to be encountering a larger than usual number of people who have recently connected or reconnected with church. Some, but not all, are young men. If there are factors common to these newcomers they would seem to be some level of engagement with matters of faith online, a longing for spiritual grounding and an interest in liturgy and/or church history.

So what are to do and make of all this?

The first step is to trust God rather than our own prognostications. As Jesus reminds us in John 3, the life-transforming work of God’s Spirit is like wind: elusive, unpredictable yet unmistakeable in its impact. Second, we need to be ready to welcome and care for the people God sends us. Third, we need to cultivate healthy communities of faith. Some are being introduced online to toxic expressions of Christianity that are allied to patriarchy or extreme nationalism. A truly Christ-centred church is the best place for people to be formed into a generous and orthodox faith through the joys and the messiness of embodied relationships.

By God’s grace let’s keep sharing and being shaped by the Gospel of Jesus, the truest and best news there has ever been.”

– Read it online here. Or direct link to PDF file.

A Pastoral Letter from the Bishop of Tasmania on Redress

A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Richard Condie –

“Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As many of you will know, over the past couple of decades we have been dealing with the sins of historic child sexual abuse that were committed in the Diocese of Tasmania. Sadly many young people became victims of abuse and have suffered terrible personal consequences. We have been determined to provide restorative justice, recognition and support for survivors through the National Redress Scheme and through civil financial settlements. …”

– Read it all at the Diocese of Tasmania website.

(Photo: Diocese of Bathurst.)

From Glebe to Gallipoli: Indigenous voices into Sydney Anglican history

From Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net –

 “Archbishop Kanishka Raffel has decried the ‘deeply repugnant’ treatment of Aboriginal Elder Uncle Ray Minniecon at an Anzac Day service, as the Diocese prepares to hear the ‘untold stories’ of Indigenous Anglicans. …”

– Read here. And there’s a media release.

Archdeacon Kara Hartley to step down — A legacy of gospel partnership

From SydneyAnglicans.net –

“After 14 years of dedicated service to the women of the Sydney Diocese, Archdeacon Kara Hartley has announced she will step down at the conclusion of 2026.

While Archdeacon Hartley originally envisioned a seven-year commitment as Archdeacon for Women’s Ministry, her tenure spanned double that time. …”

– Russell Powell has the story.

Principles of the Prayer Book

“What I offer here … is not a nostalgic plea for the recovery of a lost golden age, nor a polemical defence of one authorised book over another. Rather, it is an attempt to articulate and reflect on the principles that underlie The Book of Common Prayer, principles which have shaped Anglican worship historically and which continue to exercise normative authority within the Anglican Church of Australia.”

Bishop of The Northern Territory, Greg Anderson, writes at The Australian Church Record –

“I am probably one of a relatively small number of people these days who has been – hard to know quite how to describe it – perhaps a committed participant in liturgical church services from my earliest childhood memories. Perhaps unusually, I was an early and competent reader, so I imagine I was reading and saying the prayers along with everyone else. And since it was the same liturgy every week (apart from the Psalm, which we didn’t always say), you didn’t need to read all that well… well, you could join in from memory. Our church was devotionally warm, scripturally focused, and theologically normal, and no one imagined for a moment that liturgical services sat in tension with any of that.

That is my background. I know that this is far from everyone’s experience. All this is to say that I approach liturgical corporate worship with a long?standing positive experience – something that is relatively rare these days. What I offer here, therefore, is not a nostalgic plea for the recovery of a lost golden age, nor a polemical defence of one authorised book over another. Rather, it is an attempt to articulate and reflect on the principles that underlie The Book of Common Prayer, principles which have shaped Anglican worship historically and which continue to exercise normative authority within the Anglican Church of Australia.

Before turning to those principles themselves, two introductory notes are necessary: first, concerning the place of The Book of Common Prayer in the Australian Church; and second, concerning where such principles are to be found and how they might be identified and ranked. …”

– Read it all here.

Anglican board directs Bishop of The Murray to step down

From John Sandeman at The Other Cheek, a report on Bishop Keith Dalby of The Diocese of The Murray –

“Following the diocese becoming aware of his secret marriage to Alison Dutton in August 2023, Bishop Keith Dalby had stepped aside from his office as Bishop of the Diocese of The Murray with effect from 9 December 2023. In his statement, Bishop Murray expressed his ‘deep regret for the impact of my actions on the Diocese of the Murray, its clergy, and its people.’ …

[Bishop Dalby responds] ‘I am considering my position in light of the Board’s determination and will respond within the required timeframe. I ask for prayers for all those affected by this matter, including the people and leadership of the Diocese of the Murray.’”

– Story here.

The Arrogance of the Immoral

From Phillip Jensen –

“Because of sin, immorality is universal. Sometimes it is so blatant that everybody can see it. But what happens if everybody can see it except for the church?

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul is dealing not only with immorality, but also with arrogance.”

– Hear Peter and Phillip Jensen discuss at Two Ways News.

Easter Message from Bishop Mark Short

Mark Short, Bishop of Canberra & Goulburn and Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, has released his 2026 Easter message for the churches of his diocese –

The Bible tells us that the Roman Governor Pilate ordered Jesus to be executed with a sign that read “This is the King of the Jews”. The message was written in Hebrew, the language of the locals, Latin, the language of their conquerors and in Greek, the language of global commerce and culture. Pilate meant it as a mockery directed both at Jesus and his fellow Jews. But it disclosed a profound truth. Jesus died both in solidarity with His own people and for the sake of all the peoples of the world.

Last year I visited the suburban church where I first came to trust in Christ as a teenager. A lot has changed in those forty or so years. Red-tiled houses on quarter-acre blocks have been replaced by townhouses and multi-storey developments. What was once a working-class Anglo and southern European community is now home to many people from the Asian sub-continent. The Chinese and Australian meals of memory have given way to desi food and culture.

My childhood church is still part of that rich local life. A little smaller but much more culturally diverse than I remember it and more representative of its community. Some individuals and couples who mentored me in my younger years continue to live and worship there, because they love their neighbours and their neighbourhood and are convinced that the Risen Lord Jesus does as well. I continue to thank God for their witness. Grounded in the knowledge that through Jesus, God has forgiven them and gifted them new life they are free to engage the changing world around them with hope and with hospitality.

At a time when change can feel rapid and unsettling and social cohesion is under pressure there is no word more worthy of our attention and trust than the message of the cross.

with prayers and blessings,

Bishop Mark.

Published in Anglican News, March 2026, page 2.

There’s also news of the induction of Joshua Kuswadi as the eighth Rector of St. Matthew’s Wanniassa (page 8).

The richness of Sydney’s global engagement

“The Anglican Communion, unlike the Roman Catholic Church, is not a global hierarchical administrative structure emanating from the pastoral, doctrinal and legal authority of one man – the Pope – but rather, a voluntary fellowship based on mutual recognition of shared life in Christ and a common heritage of biblical convictions, liturgical forms, a missional and pastoral church life, as well as synodical government and episcopal leadership.

Sydney’s fellowship with Anglicans around the world has long been expressed in partnerships with many of our Anglican organisations, including CMS, Moore College, Youthworks, the Archbishop of Sydney’s Anglican Aid and since 2008, Gafcon.

These partnerships are based on a shared commitment to the authority of the Scriptures, and the reformed understanding of the faith as expressed in the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty Nine Articles. …”

–Written in January, and before G26 in Abuja, Archbishop Kanishka Raffel reminds us of the many and wide gospel links between Sydney and partners around the world.

Photo thanks to SydneyAnglicans.net: Archbishop Raffel at a tree-planting ceremony in rural Tanzania in 2023.

Southern Cross March-April 2026

Anglican Media Sydney has published Southern Cross magazine for March-April 2026.

Grab a copy at your local church – or download/read online here.

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