While this was good news to conservative Anglicans, it provoked the complaint from the liberal wing who claimed “such motions made the members [in the Anglican Church] complicit in violence against gays and lesbians.”
This decision has also been considered as a second rebuff to the liberals within a week as the Bill of women bishop consecration was turned down in a vote on Tuesday.
The head of the Anglican Church in Australia, Archbishop Peter Carnley, therefore warned that the Church was now in danger of further fracturing.
In addition, the Australia Anglicans’ declaration will be very crucial to the Anglican Communion worldwide because its UK counterpart - the Church of England is going to publish its Lambeth Commission Report on 18th October, which will review the theology behind all the issues concerning homosexuality, and to make recommendations to the Primates of the Anglican Communion on how to maintain the highest degree of communion possible.
Bruce Ballantine-Jones, Senior Minister of Jannali Anglican Church in Sydney’s south, a former head of Sydney’s Anglican Church League, told the Synod at its triennial meeting yesterday, the Scripture was clear that sex outside marriage was sinful.
Ballantine-Jones stressed that the Church should not compromise with the world in terms of the teaching of the Bible, “For 2000 years the church has held this position. Just because in the latter part of the 20th century sociological forces have given rise to the gay movement, which has impacted in the Church, is no reason for the Church to turn its back on the clear teaching.”
He denounced the liberals’ viewpoint, which suggested that the Church had a duty to interpret the Bible in the context of the modern churchgoer. “Their [liberals] basic strategy is to throw dust in the air as to interpretation of the scripture which confuses people and allows them to advance their cause,” he condemned.
The Bishop of Western Sydney, Ivan Lee, also said the Church had opposed same-sex unions for centuries. “We don’t hold this position as a matter of mere tradition but as the scriptures dictate,” Bishop Lee said.
The General Synod expressed regret over recent decisions by Anglicans in Canada and the US to break with the Church over the issue.
On the same day as Australian Anglicans declared ruling out homosexuality in the Church, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, the most influential Anglican leader in Africa, told the Associated Press that the U.S. Episcopal Church had created a “new religion” by confirming a gay bishop in New Hampshire last year in the summer, breaking the bonds between the denominations with roots in the Church of England.
Africa is the home to nearly half the world’s Anglicans. As the Chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa, encompassing more than 37 million members, Archbishop Akinola has emerged as a leading voice for conservative Anglicans worldwide.
Archbishop Akinola backs his opposition to homosexuality by referring to the biblical truth, he echoed similar opinion that he could not accept attempts to “superimpose your modern culture on Scripture”, saying “if the word of God says homosexuality is an abomination, then so be it.”