Yay Kaete! On your side! BTW, I believe some women priests are called
Mother - tho I am not too keen on Mum or Dad appellations - I'd just rather
call them by their Christian name - however ...
Thanks for sending those articles - I will read properly later.
I think we are in no problem area here in Newcastle - but the Hawkesbury is
Very Close !!!!!
Also - I think St Aug's is ok-ish about this - don't you?
J

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 8:06 PM, Kaete <kaete@...> wrote:

> Two articles, below, of a number which may be found at the page:
>
> http://www.melbourne.anglican.com.au/main.php?pg=blogs&story_id=12052&blog_i
> d=1603. The GAFCON declaration, itself, may be found at:
> http://www.gafcon.org/
>
> Tell you, if this GAFCON movement catches on here in the Newcastle Diocese
> I'm out of it for good. Already I'm angered by the increasing move to call
> male ministers "Father" (yet what do female ministers get called? Still
> 'Reverend", as far I can see. Inequality, +++!)
>
> As one who is both transsexual and bisexual, and as one who is also
> strongly
> believing in, and promoting of, the notion of gender equality, I have
> applauded and been very glad the acceptance I have been given in the
> diocese. I have felt very supported, very included.
>
> Are we going to allow the infiltration of what is, after all, a very
> literalist, and patriarchal, interpretation of the bible to govern us in
> the
> future? Are we to exclude the gays, the lesbians, the transgendered, the
> intersexed, and those of our children and other relatives who may also be
> so?
>
> well wishes,
>
> Kaete
>
> Mobile: (Australia) 0407 176 786. Email: kaete@...<kaete%40kaete.net>
> URL: http://www.kaete.net/
>
> ======
> http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/06/29/1214677845723.html
>
> Anglicans' new group denounces liberalism
>
> Linda Morris with agencies
> June 30, 2008
> Advertisement
>
> THE Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, has joined conservatives in
> Jerusalem angered by liberal thinking on homosexuality, to back the
> creation
> of a global fellowship that challenges worldwide Anglican unity but stops
> short of a formal split.
>
> Dr Jensen said the new fellowship of like-minded churches opposed to the
> consecration of homosexual clergy and same sex blessings, and bound by
> strict interpretations of the Bible, would "bring order out of the chaos"
> that erupted five years ago when the American Episcopal Church consecrated
> its first openly gay bishop.
>
> The plan for a fellowship of confessing churches and a council of primates
> was adopted yesterday, the final day of the Global Anglican Future
> Conference, which had been called by dissenting Anglican leaders from
> Africa
> and parts of North America and Australia.
>
> When the final communique was signed, the conference broke out in
> spontaneous applause and singing. Speaking to the Herald from Jerusalem, Dr
> Jensen said the development was "groundbreaking" and would likely help
> preserve Anglican unity, rather than destroy it, by providing an
> ecclesiastical structure by which breakaway dioceses opposed to liberal
> thinking could remain within the Anglican fold.
>
> "We are in a battle for ideas between the liberal wing who want to export
> their ideas to the rest of us and the Biblical Anglicans. These 1000
> leaders
> are standing for the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and reasserting
> that He is the way to God. It's a moment of huge spiritual impact."
>
> The conference leaders said a "false gospel" in liberal churches had
> claimed
> God's blessing for same-sex unions "over the biblical teaching on holy
> matrimony" and the resulting crisis had "torn the fabric of the Communion".
>
> The conservatives were critical of the failure of the 77-million member
> Communion and its leader, the Archbishop of the Canterbury, to discipline
> liberal churches "in the face of overt heterodoxy". In a challenge to the
> authority of Canterbury, they said: "While acknowledging the nature of
> Canterbury as an historic see, we do not accept that Anglican identity is
> determined necessarily through recognition by the archbishop of
> Canterbury."
>
> But they added: "Our fellowship is not breaking away from the Anglican
> Communion."
>
> Conservatives say they hope to form a North American province - counter to
> the Anglican tradition that archbishops oversee parishes only in their own
> provinces.
>
> This story was found at:
> http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/06/29/1214677845723.html
>
> =============
>
> http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/religious-condemnation-of-homosexuals-denie
> s-human-rights-20080629-2ytn.html?page=-1
> Religious condemnation of homosexuals denies human rights
>
> * Michael Kirby
> * June 30, 2008
>
> A THOUSAND conservative Anglican leaders met in Jerusalem last week, among
> them Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria who was reported as saying that
> Anglicans who preach the inclusion of homosexuals in God's church were
> guilty of apostasy. He is not alone in this view. In Zimbabwe, the former
> bishop of Harare, an ardent supporter of President Robert Mugabe, withdrew
> from the Anglican province in May saying he could not co-exist with so many
> gays and lesbians in the church.
>
> Many of us know the passage from the Old Testament book of Leviticus that
> declares homosexuals an "abomination". It is one of a long list of
> denunciations that has profoundly affected the way three great world
> religions ‹ the "People of the Book": Jews, Christians and Muslims ‹ have
> responded to sexual minorities. Only in a few countries is there a strict
> separation of church and state, so what they teach about morality
> influences
> secular laws by which most people on the planet are governed.
>
> The problem is that those who believe in the inerrancy of religious texts
> find it difficult, or impossible, to tolerate those who deny or doubt their
> truth. Often the reaction against apostates is explained as being for the
> benefit of those affected. And it is ascribed to a command from God
> himself.
>
> No doubt there are some in modern Jewish society who still adhere to views
> such as those in Deuteronomy that advocate the stoning of apostates, but
> generally speaking, few Jews would take them seriously as a command for
> contemporary civilian law. Christians have a similar tradition. In the
> 1250s, in one of the first descriptions of traditional English law, Henry
> Bracton declared that apostates should be burnt to death. Then, in the
> 1770s, William Blackstone declared Christianity to be "part of the laws of
> England", enforceable as such. Such laws have long since ceased to be
> observed, although occasionally the law of blasphemy is invoked to protect
> an Anglican concept of God.
>
> It is 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted
> by the United Nations on the recommendation of a committee led by Eleanor
> Roosevelt. It gave effect to one of the Allied war aims in the Second World
> War, upholding the right of everyone to "worship God in one's own way
> anywhere in the world".
>
> For most Jews and Christians today, the thought of punishing people because
> they abandon or deny their old religion, is unthinkable. Increasing numbers
> of Australians declare on the census that they have "no religion". So even
> hardline believers tend to skip over the passages in Deuteronomy. Much
> easier to single out those of Leviticus and to denounce sexual minorities.
>
> Still, in some countries apostasy is very much a live issue, especially in
> some Islamic countries. The Holy Koran does not prescribe compulsory
> adherence to Islamic beliefs. On the contrary, it states that "there is no
> compulsion in religion". God alone has the right to punish those who do not
> adhere to Islam or who turn their backs on its beliefs.
>
> On the other hand, the Hadith, a secondary source of Islamic law, records
> the prophet as saying that whoever rejects Islam must be killed. This has
> become a source for civilian laws and stern punishments in some Islamic
> countries. Occasionally, as in Sudan, those laws appear to be used as
> political tools for removing outspoken opposition personalities.
>
> In Malaysia, the constitution contains standard guarantees of freedom of
> religion. However, in 2007, a decision of that country's highest court, in
> the Lina Joy case, by majority, denied the applicant the right to record a
> change of her religion from Islam to Christianity on her identity papers so
> that she could marry her Christian fiance.
>
> One of the foremost critics of the Malaysian court decision on apostasy was
> Dr Thio Li-ann, a professor of law and a nominated member of Singapore's
> Parliament, a Christian who took a leading part in persuading the Singapore
> Parliament to reject proposals to repeal the old British laws against
> homosexuals, based on the teachings in Leviticus. For her, refusing to
> permit Lina Joy to have freedom of religious conscience was an abomination,
> notwithstanding Deuteronomy. But the abomination in Leviticus had still to
> be enforced. Like most non-Western countries in the former British Empire,
> Singapore maintains its criminal laws against gays.
>
> On the 60th anniversary of Eleanor Roosevelt's Declaration, we need to
> promote tolerance and acceptance of diversity among all the People of the
> Book. For the sake of the planet and survival of the species we must
> embrace
> the universal principles of human rights. It is no accident that they were
> promised as a foundation stone for the New World Order created by the
> United
> Nations. Without respect for such basic rights, peace and security will
> always be at risk.
>
> Most of the world's great religions are founded, ultimately, on simple
> principles of loving God and one another. It is from those principles that
> religious tolerance derives.
>
> The Nobel laureate and religious leader Desmond Tutu recently wrote a
> foreword to the life story of Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay
> bishop in the Anglican Church. Tutu declared his acceptance of the
> authority
> of Scripture as the word of God. But he has not forgotten that the Bible
> had
> been used to justify racism, slavery and the humiliation of women. He
> declared: "I could not stand by whilst people were being penalised again
> for
> something about which they could do nothing ‹ their sexual orientation."
>
> The big challenge before us is to telescope centuries of experience, law,
> culture and tolerance in the West into a few decades in the rest of the
> world. Unless we do so, the mixture of religious intolerance and weapons of
> mass destruction will be a great threat to the world and everyone in it.
>
> Michael Kirby is a judge of the High Court of Australia. This is an edited
> version of a speech he will give tonight, at the invitation of the La Trobe
> University Centre for Dialogue, at the Asia Centre, Melbourne University.
> He
> will speak at 7pm and the lecture is open to the public.
>
>
>


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