The Diocese of Sydney’s synod has eliminated a provision of its governance policy that required lay officials of diocesan-affiliated schools and aid agencies to profess their belief in a traditional ethic of sex and marriage.
The Rev. William Taylor: “Yesterday’s commissioning was the second of its kind, and I suspect many others will now follow — and, in due course, ordination services.”
The Very Rev. Kanishka Raffel, dean of Sydney’s St. Andrew’s Cathedral, was unanimously elected as the 12th Archbishop of Sydney by the diocese’s synod on May 6. Raffel, a London-born Sri Lankan and a Buddhist convert to Christianity, will be the first person of color to lead the vibrant conservative evangelical diocese, which has great power and influence in the GAFCON network.
The Anglican Church of Australia's highest legal authority has ruled on narrow legal grounds that a liturgy for same sex blessings approved in 2019 by the Diocese of Wangaratta is valid, and that the Diocese of Newcastle may revise its clergy discipline rules to prohibit disciplinary action against priests who enter into same sex marriages.
Wangaratta Bishop John Parkes will comply with the Australian primate's request to wait until the church's Appellate Tribunal renders a judgment on his diocese's authorization of same-sex marriages.
"We've been frozen on the issue of same-sex couples now for many years — 25 years or more... So I think somebody has to break the deadlock and it might as well be me."
