Whither The Australian Anglican Church?

Posted on May 15, 2022 
Filed under Anglican Church of Australia, Culture wars, General Synod

“This week the General Synod of the Australian Anglican Church has been debating what its stance is to be on human sexuality. A vote to affirm the church’s traditional position on marriage was strongly supported by clergy and laity but was narrowly rejected by the bishops.

A split is looming, but in this, Australian Anglicans are not unique.

In recent decades, Christian denominations all across the West have been dividing along progressive versus conservative lines. Anglican Churches in Scotland and New Zealand have been impacted by this trend. In North America, denominations affected by splits include the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the American Baptist Churches USA.

The trigger in all these cases has been whether the church will endorse same-sex unions. However, the fault lines run deeper than attitudes to human sexuality. …”

– Melbourne Pastor and Academic The Rev. Dr Mark Durie looks at what is happening in the Anglican Church of Australia and where it may be headed.

He argues that ‘Anglican progressives’ have misread the theological landscape.

For some very helpful context, here’s a chart of Diocesan Representation at General Synods 1962-2022. Click the image for a two-page PDF file.

Table initially complied by Robert Tong, updated by Daniel Glynn 6 May 2022.

(Fun fact: The Diocese of St. Arnaud, mentioned in the table, was in the Mallee and Wimmera regions of north-west Victoria. It merged with the Diocese of Bendigo in 1976.)