Archbishop Geoffrey Smith strongly criticized a plan to form a non-geographic diocese for disaffected conservative congregations that “will be forced to leave the Anglican Church of Australia.”
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.
Smith, the Archbishop of Adelaide, won handily in ballots cast electronically because of COVID-19 restrictions, three weeks after a deadlocked electoral board failed to reach a majority in all three houses.
Centrist Geoffrey Smith failed to win an election by a single vote in four of seven ballots, as conservatives held out in favor of GAFCON-Australia chair Richard Condie.
Philip Freier's early resignation allows a new primate to be elected before this summer's General Synod, which will likely respond to respond to endorsements of same-sex marriage in two dioceses while aiming to preserve unity as a "mixed economy church."
