The Australian Church Record, number 1900, October 2010, has been released.
Reports from all camps seem to indicate a mood change in General Synod processes. Representatives of Australia’s twenty-three dioceses met at Melbourne Grammar school from September 18-23 under the excellent chairmanship of Archbishop Phillip Aspinall.
As usual in its daytime business, the Synod dealt with a great deal of legislation, relating to such things as the National Register, the Appellate Tribunal, Long Service Leave, the Solemnization of Matrimony, and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Council. Around the edges of the legislation, more than forty motions were deliberated, addressing issues including: Modern Slavery, the Environment, Gambling, Alcohol, Freedom of Religion, Fresh Expressions of Church, Improving Educational Outcomes of Aboriginal Youth.
The controversy in the wider Anglican Communion over homosexual clergy and same-sex unions surfaced occasionally, but when asked to endorse the definition of marriage under Commonwealth Law, the General Synod was pleased to show itself conservative. Even with moments of controversy, the themes of unity, mission and generosity were often on the lips of speakers and this mood apparently prevailed. At one fraught moment, Archbishop Jensen invited a hushed Synod to a greater trust between dioceses. Since there were over 100 new members with no personal knowledge of previous fault lines, the two or three angry voices objecting to the Diocese of Sydney grated against a general mood of relative calm and reasonable tolerance.
An attempt to move support for the Anglican Consultative Council from the Special Fund to the Statutory Fund, and thereby forcing Sydney’s contribution was defeated with good support from other dioceses. Pleas against an increase of more than 25% in Sydney’s required contribution to the Statutory Fund failed to change the 2011 budget, but were referred to the G.S. Standing Committee for further consideration.
Perhaps the generational change detectable in the rest of Western Society can also be detected in General Synod. It might be time to explore unity, generosity and mission in ways that move the rhetoric might further towards greater reality