A synod of more than 800 members has overwhelmingly elected Bishop Glenn Davies as the 12th Archbishop of Sydney.
Dr Davies replaced Dr Peter Jensen who held the post for 12 years. For much of Archbishop Jensen’s tenure, Dr Davies served with him as the Bishop of North Sydney.
Read it all and there is a biography here and the statement of Canon Rick Smith is here
I thought Anglicans adhered to the idea of apostolic succession and Holy Orders as a sacrament. Why is this guy in layman’s dress?
The Diocese of Sydney is special.
LOL. Not that I should be complaining. It more or less conforms to my view of things.
Possibly because he’s a strong proponent of lay presidency at the Eucharist, Ad Orientem? http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2004/24-september/comment/letters-to-the-editor/sydney-diocese-and-the-‘necessity’-of-lay-presidency
In other words he thinks he is just a layman with a man made commission and nothing more? Wonders never cease. I think I may actually agree with an Anglican “bishop.”
Isn’t Sidney “low church”? I think Archbishop Jensen quite often also wore coat and tie.
What would lead you to believe that Anglicans believed apostolic succession and Holy Orders were a sacrament? (Article XXV). Seems to me that the more Anglican concern is his ability to rightly teach the word, administer the sacraments (Article XIX), and oversee church discipline (Cranmer, Homily 17). As for his clothes, I’ve seen plenty of folks in purple robes who couldn’t preach their way out of a paper bag, wouldn’t know a sacrament if it landed on their face, and think church discipline is something that only fundamentalists do. I’ll take the guy in the tie and jacket.
Honestly I can’t think of any article of faith that is binding on the conscience of anyone in TEO or the CofE. There are quite a few clergy and even bishops who have challenged every word in the Lyonian Creed after the words “I believe…”
The Thirty Nine Articles are actually quite “Reformed.” Which is one reason they have been ignored by a lot of the Anglican churches for generations, and especially the TEC. Doesn’t go well with cafeteria Anglo-Catholicism.
As one for whom the role of Sydney Anglicanism beyond its own borders — though its churchmanship does not fully reflect my own vocational and ecclesial experience as lived out in an Anglo-American perspective — has become strategically important in the renewal of biblical orthodoxy in the wider Anglican world, I rejoice that of the two ‘finalist’ nominees for Archbishop, it is Glenn Davies who has been elected. May God enable him to exercise faithful and mutually edifying leadership globally as well as locally.
#1 AO [blockquote]I thought Anglicans adhered to the idea of apostolic succession and Holy Orders as a sacrament. Why is this guy in layman’s dress?[/blockquote]
Well certainly he isn’t wearing a ridiculous jewelled onion on his head nor the holy oversized beard which AO’s church regards as sacramentally de rigour, but otherwise he wears what many preachers wear.
As for Anglican episcopal garb, I would be surprised to see him wearing bands, gaiters or one of those equally ridiculous top hats with tapes to keep the side brims up which our bishops used to wear.
One wishes him well, probably a safe pair of hands, particularly having been a bishop for, well, longer than Justin Welby, and I do hope he doesn’t hole Sydney’s case in the Communion below the waterline by putting into action any beliefs he holds on ‘lay celebrants’. Prayers for his calling and his ministry and that he will continue to show the rest of us the best that Sydney Anglicanism can offer and can be.
RE: “I rejoice that of the two ‘finalist’ nominees for Archbishop, it is Glenn Davies who has been elected.”
William, I would be interested to hear why *this* one’s election is more a cause of rejoicing than the other.
Please share your perspectives on the differences between the two!
Sarah, As I’ve sought to acquaint myself with both the background to the election and the qualities of the nominees, Dr. Davies has stood out as stalwart in biblical orthodoxy; rooted in the long history, not just caught up in the current contentiousness, of the Sydney Diocese; personally beloved among those amongst whom he has already exercised a pastorally magnanimous episcopal ministry; seasoned in his relationships beyond Sydney Diocese; and willing to engage in the ‘give and take’ of mature theological discourse at Synod, Gafcon, and more widely, without compromising doctrinal conviction. In these respects he seemed to me to stand vocationally taller than his final rival, without in any way calling the latter’s virtues in question. Dr. Davies even has the capacity to make the case for ‘lay presidency’ at the Holy Communion in a manner with which those of us ecclesially skeptical about it can respectfully engage.