Sydney Opposes Covenant

Responding to a report by the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Sydney, the diocesan Synod has gone on record as opposing adoption of the Anglican Covenant by the Anglican Church of Australia. The report objected that the Covenant is “fundamentally concerned with maintaining structural and institutional unity rather than biblical faithfulness.”

The motion opposing adoption of the Covenant was put forth by Dr. Mark Thompson, Head of the Department of Theology, Philosophy and Ethics at Moore College. According to Dr. Thompson, “Those who have created the problem [within the Anglican Communion] won’t sign it; and if they did without repenting of the departures from the teaching of Scripture it would only demonstrate the uselessness of the covenant itself.”

According to an October 13, 2011, report on the Sydney Web site by Russell Powell, Dr. Thompson advanced GAFCON and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans as offering a better approach to resolving conflicts within the Communion.

Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen is the General Secretary of GAFCON and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.

A final decision on the adoption or rejection of the Anglican Covenant will be made by the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia.