Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

The Most Reverend Dr Philip Freier, Archbishop of Melbourne is an ad clerum announced:

It is with much pleasure that I announce that the Revd Canon Barbara Darling has been appointed as the next Assistant Bishop for the Diocese of Melbourne. Her initial role will be that of Bishop for Diocesan Ministries. She will bring a wealth of experience from her years of ministry, both lay and clerical. Barbara is currently the Vicar of St James’ Dandenong; she is an Examining Chaplain, the Senior Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral and currently the chair of the Dean Search Committee.

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The Easter story is still relevant today, Melbourne’s Anglican Archbishop Philip Freier says, and he is more than happy to use today’s new media to talk about it.

Dr Freier has used the popular video website YouTube to deliver this year’s traditional Easter Message from the Anglican Church in Melbourne.

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MU Australia (part of the Worldwide Mothers’ Union) is hosting a unique meeting in Toowoomba from 2nd – 7th March to be attended by members from all over the world.

The meeting, the first of six due to be held outside the UK over the next 3 years, will provide opportunities for 95 Mothers’ Union leaders from countries as diverse as New Zealand, West Indies, India, Canada, USA, Korea, Britain/Ireland, Melanesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia, to meet together to share experiences, to celebrate diversity of cultures, to strengthen relationships, identify common goals and to plan a cohesive future for the international charity work.

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Concerns have been raised by some Melbourne Anglicans over a submission made to the Victorian Law Reform Commission on reform of the state's abortion laws.

A think tank of eight women, by invitation from Archbishop Freier, made the submission in December. The group said that while abortion was a serious moral issue, it accepted that it was not a criminal matter, and that legislation was only a partial response to the issue.

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Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Philip Freier, has called for Australian support for people affected by political unrest in Kenya this month.

Dr Freier cancelled a planned January visit to Anglican community development partners in Kenya after claims of election rigging by the country’s major opposition party sparked violent protests in one of Africa’s most stable countries.

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The Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, The Most Reverend Dr Phillip Aspinall has forecast a refocus on mission and church attendance as the Church begins its most important gathering of Anglicans in years.

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A statement from Bishop Brian Farran in response to the recent comments by Kevin Andrews about the Sudanese community and immigration policies.

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The Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Philip Freier, has welcomed the decision of the Appellate Tribunal – the Anglican Church’s highest court – that effectively paves the way for women clergy to be eligible for the office of Bishop.

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The Sydney Diocese reclassified three churches to parish status at Synod yesterday and there are still two more to come.

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Explaining why they have not replied to their Lambeth 2008 invitations

Dear Archbishop Rowan,

As Archbishop and Assistant Bishops of the Diocese of Sydney, we send our thanks for your kind invitation to attend next year’s Lambeth Conference. Your invitation has been received with pleasure and it would give us a great deal of joy to be able to join you.

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Brisbane Archbishop, Dr Phillip Aspinall has been the head of the country's Anglican community for the last two years and he's had to answer tough questions on a range of subjects - from the Government's plan for Aboriginal communities to the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay - but still nothing prepared him for the questions of Year 12 students from Mansfield State High School.

Four students from the school prepared questions for the Anglican Primate of Australia as part of Madonna King's Student Press Call.

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Archbishop to lead day of fasting and prayer for the world's poor and hungry

Dr Philip Freier, Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, will be going without food tomorrow as he leads Melbourne Anglicans in a day of fasting and prayer - as a way of marking the half way point for reaching the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of halving world poverty by 2015.

‘It is shameful that half the world’s population – around three billion people – presently subsist on less than $2US a day,’ he says.

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Resolutions from the Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Sydney

1. Consecration of Canon Bill Atwood

Canon Atwood is well known to and respected by many diocesan leaders in Sydney. He was a friend to many during the episcopate of Archbishop Harry Goodhew; he has maintained these relationships since the election of Archbishop Peter Jensen and is especially highly regarded and respected by Archbishop Jensen.

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Christians today were ‘blind’ to the spiritual dangers of wealth, according to Melburne’s Anglican Archbishop, Dr Philip Freier.

Scriptural teaching about wealth had been ‘totally attenuated’, making it our ‘greatest moral blindness’, he will tell Melbourne Synod today, Saturday 16 June, meeting at Dallas Brooks Hall, Victoria Parade, East Melbourne. All media welcome.

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Dr Peter Carnley, former Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, is one of five recipients of the highest honour in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Dr Carnley has been made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) nearly a decade after being appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 1998 Honours List for his service to the Anglican Church of Australia and to the community through his contributions to theology, the nurturing of ecumenicalism between the churches and their faiths, and in the cause of social justice. Since then he has served as Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, 2000-May 2005 and Anglican Archbishop of Perth, 1981-May 2005. 

Awards in the Australian honours system represent the highest level of recognition that can be accorded by the nation for attainment of outstanding achievement and service.

Download a list of people from the Anglican Church and other associated agencies and organisations in Melbourne who received Queen's Birthday Honours this year. This list may not be definitive so if we've missed someone, let us know!

Item from: The Anglican Media Melbourne

The first full translation of the Bible into an Australian Indigenous language, was launched at the Katherine Christian Convention 5-6 May 2007.

The project, 27 years in the making, has united both Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians, with the translation of the Bible into Kriol. The Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Philip Freier, supported the translation project.

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Two hundred years ago the British Parliament passed laws that brought an end of the transatlantic slave trade. This trade in human flesh is a dark stain on human history.

Some time ago I read a collection of letters written by the 18th century Christian, John Newton, the writer of the well-known song ‘Amazing Grace’. He was for many years a slave trader himself, so his letters described in vivid and authentic detail the sufferings of the slaves and the appalling nature of the trade.

I was horrified at his description of the inhumanity and cruelty of the traders; I was outraged that they treated other people – men, women and children just like you and me, - as though they were commodities to be bought and sold.

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St Andrew’s Anglican Cathedral, in George Street will see another very large ordination tomorrow, Saturday 3rd February, commencing at 10.00am.

This is, once again, the largest ordination service to be held in the Anglican Church of Australia this year, and indeed in other Christian denominations.

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'Finding the Heartlands of Anglicanism' - Trinity Theological College, Melbourne

Sisters and brothers in Christ, it is a great pleasure to be with you this morning.  Thank you for this invitation.

In 1832 Thomas Arnold, then head of Rugby School said 'The Church of England as it now stands, no human power can save.'

Well, over a hundred and seventy years later, the Church of England, and the Anglican Communion, are still standing.  But once again, we might be tempted to look at our situation and say no human power can save us.

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To the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition

The following is the text of a letter which I have sent to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition:

'I do not believe an Australian citizen can morally vote for a party at the forthcoming Federal election which does not have a comprehensive Climate Change Policy.

This is the most serious issue facing global humanity.  The debate is over.  Serious science is no longer in dispute.  The only matter that can be debated is the seriousness and the speed of the consequences.

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