Australian Bishops’ Meeting, March 2017

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The bishops of the Anglican Church of Australia have met this week as they do every year. Not much to report but the following big ticket items should be noted:

  1. Some time was spent looking at the Royal Commission (into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse of Children) and it’s impact upon the Anglican Church. The process for Anglicans is almost over with the final hearing tomorrow in Sydney. One bishop who was there noted that in comparison to other major denominations the Anglican Church had come out of it fairly well (notwithstanding particular cases such as Grafton or Newcastle) and particularly well when compared to the Roman Catholic Church. Of course even one instance of abuse of children is one too many.
  2. The bishops spent some time revising the language of the Bishops’ Protocols to make them clearer, without changing any substantive positions. Those protocols are now once more available on the national church website as a single pdf file.

All in all not a very controversial meeting. As one attendee put it to me,

My summary would be the College of Bishops have maintained collegiality but have not addressed any long term issues faced by the Anglican Church in Australia.

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  1. neil payne

    thank you

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