PRAYING THE CHRISTMAS COLLECTS
The traditional Collect for Christmas-Day, the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord, in the BCP 1662 reads:

“Almighty God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin: Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit: through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end.Amen.”

Originally in the BCP 1549, the very first edition of the BCP, it read “this day to be born of a pure Virgin” for it was intended for Christmas Day only. Later, as it was used during the week after Christmas it was changed to “as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin.”

What we seem to have lost, I think, in much modern Anglican worship is the sense of living within what I may call liturgical time and within the Church Year. Only as we so live, think, pray and meditate can we really pray meaningfully the Christmas Collect(s).

That is, the Collect only makes full sense if, and only if, during the season of Advent we have entered into the preparation for the Birth & Coming of the Messiah through our association in reading, meditating and praying with the righteous remnant of Israel, particularly John the Baptist. In Liturgical time, as contrasted with chronological or regular time, we place ourselves in the sphere of the Holy Spirit within God’s historical revelation and acts of redemption and move with Him through them. And with the righteous in Israel we look for the Advent of the Messiah. Doing so we can then share the joy of the shepherds, of Mary and Joseph, and of Simeon and Anna.

Thus on Christmas Eve/Day we can truly exclaim in joy that the Messiah is born [as also on Easter Day we can shout with more joy that he is risen from the dead, and on Pentecost we can rejoice in the gift of the indwelling and empowering Holy Spirit].

Further, as the words of the Collect remind us we can rejoice that because of the Incarnation of the only Son of the almighty Father there can be and is regeneration for man.

The second Collect for Christmas found in the BCP 1549 and the American BCP 1928 but not in the BCP 1662 reads:

“God [the Father], which makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of thy only Son; grant that as we joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him, when he shall come to be our Judge, who liveth and reigneth…”

Once again a careful noting of these words makes us realize again that fully to experience that of which they speak we need to be “in the Spirit” moving with the Lord God in his acts of revelation and redemption in ancient Israel so that the Incarnation is the cause for great joy – Glory to God in the highest!—and in the light of the First Coming we live in expectation of the Second! At Christmas we “receive him as our Redeemer” both within Liturgical Time and also as the Lord of the present time who redeems us now because he lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God.



The Rev’d Dr Peter Toon December 22, 2001 Peter@toon662.fsnet.co.uk

The Revd. Dr. Peter Toon
Christ Church Rectory
Hot Lane, Biddulph Moor
Stoke-on-Trent ST8 7HP
England

GLORY TO GOD

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, a meditation for

Let us seek to enter into the experience of the shepherds who were out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night (Luke 2:8ff.).

Let us suppose that they were employed by the Temple in nearby Jerusalem to provide lambs for the sacrifices required by the Law of Moses in order for the people to worship and serve the Lord God according to his declared will. Let us further suppose that they were pious Jews who were looking for the advent of the Messiah.

All of a sudden the blackness of the night was replaced by brilliant light and the presence of a messenger from heaven. They were filled with amazement and fear for they knew that they were in the near presence of the God of their fathers, the holy and righteous Lord before whom all creatures tremble!

The shepherds did not know that already the greatest event in the history of Israel/Judaism had occurred not far away in the town of Bethlehem. The long expected Messiah of Israel had been born.

So the proclamation by the angel was “NEWS of a great JOY”! “Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you [the descendants of Abraham] is born this day in the city of David [Bethlehem] a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”

Heaven declares that the Messiah [the Christ] is born and that he is both Saviour and Lord. As such he is given titles and a work that belong to the Lord God himself! This Messiah is no mere man!

Then the shepherds are instructed to go and find the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. (Bethlehem was a small town with only a few inns and so to find a new born babe in the stable of one of the inns was not a difficult task.)

But before the men could arrange for the safety of their sheep and begin their walk down the hill into Bethlehem, they were further amazed by the granting to them of a wonderful vision into heaven.

What were they given to see? A sight of the heavenly choir of angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim praising the LORD God in song with words which were addressed first to God himself and then to the world. Heaven was celebrating the Incarnation of the Son of God, the entering into space and time of the Messiah, the Saviour and the Lord.

What we may call the benediction of the heavenly choir expressed that which had occurred – God had sent forth his only-begotten Son. Thus, Praise be to the Lord God and Peace [Shalom] to his covenant people.

To God in the highest, GLORY.
To his people on earth, PEACE.

[We may recall that the Church has expanded this angelic benediction into the Canticle that we call the Gloria.]

When they had recovered from this overwhelming experience, the shepherds set off to see with their own eyes the One who brings Peace and is the Saviour, Lord and Messiah. And finding the babe, they told Mary and Joseph what the angel had declared to them.

Mary, the mother of the Lord, Peacebringer and Saviour “kept all these things in her heart and pondered them.” Thereby she sets for us an example of constant meditation and faithfulness.

Her meditation was of the personhood, nature, vocation and character of her Son, who is also God’s Son for he is the Son of God incarnate: One Person made known in two natures, divine and human. And Mary is Theotokos, the birthgiver [mother] of God, the Son.

Let us join with the heavenly choir to glorify God the Holy Trinity and to exalt his saving and peacemaking work on earth amongst men.



The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon Peter@toon662.fsnet.co.uk Dec 20, 2001

The Revd. Dr. Peter Toon
Christ Church Rectory
Hot Lane, Biddulph Moor
Stoke-on-Trent ST8 7HP
England

Do we need to observe those three Saints' Days immediately after Christmas?

For clergymen [clergypersons] and many lay persons the latter part of Advent together with Christmas Eve & Christmas Day are very busy times. Thus they tend to take it easy in terms of attending public services after the last service on Christmas Day. If they are in Great Britain they enjoy the public holiday known as Boxing Day (26th) and keep far away from their parish church.

Yet in the Church Calendar there are three major Saints' Days immediately following the festival of THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD. These are St Stephen's Day, St John the Evangelist's Day, and The Innocents' Day, on the 26, 27, & 28 December.

It has long been held that these three Days illustrate the triple kind of martyrdom endured by God's saints -- St Stephen in will and deed; St John in will; Holy Innocents in deed.

It has also been held that these days are so placed so as to emphasize the honor due to Stephen as the first martyr, to John's special friendship with the Lord Jesus, and to the intimate connection of the death of the Innocents with the birth of the Saviour.

The problem, modern clergy have to face, is that these Days are not moveable and are long established in the Church Year. Clergy must keep them and if they do they will probably be joined at least by some of the faithful laity.

Therefore, in larger parishes there should be on each of the three days a full service of Holy Communion where the appointed Epistle and Gospel for each Day are used. In smaller parishes, what used to be called Ante-Communion [the first half of the Order for Holy Communion from the BCP], can be read by the clergyman in church whether he be alone or another with him.

That is, in one appropriate way or another the Church should remember the first martyr, the beloved disciple, and the holy innocents, and do so in relation to the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus. In each case, it will be found that an aspect of the meaning and purpose of the Incarnation of the only-begotten Son of the Father will become the clearer and union with him by grace will become the more dearer.

Thus not to keep these days will be to fail in one's duty and also to miss out spiritually on what is gained from these means of grace.

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon Peter@toon662.fsnet.co.uk
December 21,2001

www.episcopalian.org/pbs1928

The Revd. Dr. Peter Toon
Christ Church Rectory
Hot Lane, Biddulph Moor
Stoke-on-Trent ST8 7HP
England

A Pre-Christmas Meditation
THE FULNESS OF TIME
“In the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, born under the law…”[Galatians 4:3]

Since the Blessed Holy Trinity, the LORD God, is the Ruler and Guide of human history, then we should expect that the Incarnation of the Second Person of that Glorious Trinity would become incarnate at the right time in that history. So the Church confesses that the sending forth from eternity by the Almighty Father of the only-begotten Son into space and in the fullness of time resulted in the conception of the human nature of this Son by the Virgin Mary and the birth from her of the Incarnate Son of God, who is one Person made known in two natures, Son of God and Son of Mary.

Having made such a confession of faith, it is now possible to proceed by identifying some of the conditions on earth that made the time to be right for both Jew and Gentile for the Incarnation of the Son of God to occur.

In terms of the Jews, who were under the “old covenant” or “the Mosaic Covenant” or “under Law/Torah”, time was needed for the revelation and commandments of the Law to do their work. The testimony of the sages, psalmists and prophets sent and inspired by the Lord God had to be made and recorded. The experience of living under the Torah had to occur so that a people, with their holy writings, had been taught to worship and confess the one, true and living Lord God, to acknowledge his righteousness and glory, to confess and make atonement for its sins, and to walk in his ways and commandments. All had to be in place so that the Messiah, when manifested, could fulfill the Law and the Prophets, complete the revelation already given, and bring to their climax the saving purposes of God for the Jews and the world. Finally, there had to be a righteous remnant of the covenant people who were actively and piously looking for the coming of the Messiah. And when Elizabeth conceived John and Mary conceived Jesus, there was such a remnant and the time was ripe, God’s time had fully come.

To identify those conditions within the Gentile world that made the time to be ripe and right for God’s revealing and reconcilingaction is more speculative. But we can note the following:

The presence of the Jewish synagogue in the major cities of the Roman Empire and the teaching from it of belief in One God, who actually desires to be in communion with man and who requires righteous behavior of man. This Jewish monotheism stood in marked contrast to the polytheism of the day. We note that the Christian Gospel was first preached in the synagogues of the Gentile world before being proclaimed in homes and on the streets.

The Roman Peace allowing movement of persons and ideas and along with the Peace the Roman Roads, which linked all the major cities of the Near East and Mediterranean world. Apostles and evangelists used these to great advantage. Further, we may note that it was because of the Roman census required by Augustus that Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem and because of this they were in the place that Jewish prophecy had identified as the birthplace of the Messiah.

The general use of the Greek language allowing a message to be quickly disseminated by word and in writing in the Roman Empire. The New Testament was written in Greek!

Jesus, the Word made flesh [to use St John’s expression], was certainly the Saviour of the whole world but in terms of his humanity he was born as the son of Mary, a Jewish woman, and thus was born “under the Law” of Moses, the Torah. Jesus was a Jew and the purpose of his presence in Palestine was “to redeem those born under the law” [Jews]. However, Gentiles rightly confess that Jesus was first the Jewish Messiah and then by fulfilling this Role was also the Saviour of the whole world. It was the Father’s will who sent him that the two roles should be in fact one in terms of achievement.

A PRAYER

· GOD our Father, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of thine only Son, Jesus Christ; Grant that as we joyfully receive him for our Redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him when he shall come to be our Judge, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Revd Dr Peter Toon Dec 21 2001 Peter@toon662.fsnet.co.uk

The Revd. Dr. Peter Toon
Christ Church Rectory
Hot Lane, Biddulph Moor
Stoke-on-Trent ST8 7HP
England

How a poor translation of the Creed has undermined the received Church doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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The Creeds, the Apostles’ & Nicene, proclaim, teach and confess the doctrine of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. A major part of that sound doctrine is the statement as to the full identity of Jesus of Nazareth, and included in this is the statement of his human origin.

In the traditional English translations of these two Creeds we have the words: “who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary” and “and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”

When we turn to the English translation which has been used widely by Roman Catholics, Anglicans etc, we find that there is inserted into both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds the words “the power of” so that the conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to be “by the power of the Holy Spirit” in contrast to “by the Holy Spirit.”

And in the addition of this expression “by the power of” is the beginnings of error and heresy.

Each and every conception by a female is “by the power of the Holy Spirit” who energizes the laws or workings of nature. Yet what has been and is claimed of the conception by the Virgin Mary is that it was not according to the laws or the normal working of nature. It was a new creation, a unique act of God, a supernatural event wherein a virgin conceived a boy child. And it occurred first because the Virgin was open to God’s grace and will and secondly because the Holy Ghost acted directly, individually and personally (not via the laws of creation) to cause the Virgin to conceive and to ensure that her conception was of the human nature belonging to the eternal and only-begotten Son of the Father. Thereby God the Father sent his Son into the world and this Son, theWord/Logos, was made flesh and dwelt amongst men. And thereby Mary became in the words of the Fathers, “Theotokos”, the birth-giving of God [the Son].

Thus the original Latin and the original Greek of these two Creeds have no words in them that could possibly be translated “by the power of”. These words in modern English renderings were additions made by liberal Roman Catholic translators in the 1970s because they wanted to make the conception and birth of Jesus to be something less than the full and complete Incarnation of the eternal Son of the everlasting Father almighty. They wanted the conception and birth to be remarkable (like that of John the Baptist and Samuel and Jacob) but not virginal.

It is perhaps necessary to note that the words of the angel in Luke 1:35, “…and the Power of the Most High will overshadow you” make use of a Name for the Lord God and that Name is “Power of the Most High.” It is a reference to the Shekinah Presence of the Lord overshadowing her as did the holy Cloud in the O.T. come down on the Tabernacle. Thus this expression is not a justification for erroneous translating of the Creed.

Happily in the vernacular translations into other European languages in the 1970s these words were not added and in the latest ecumenical efforts to translate the Creeds into English the expression “by the power of” has not been included.

This said, many people still use the two Creeds wherein is the erroneous translation and in doing so are constantly open to receiving a less than adequate understanding and view of the human origins of the Lord Jesus Christ.

At Christmas when the Church proclaims the Incarnation of the Son of the Father it is most important that she rightly stated the true identity and origins of that Son.


The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon December 19,2001

THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT—The Two Comings of the Lord Jesus



In the Eucharistic Lectionary of THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER (1662) the Collect for this day is addressed to the Lord Jesus “who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.”

It begins, “O LORD Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee:…” The messenger was John the Baptist and thus the Gospel reading (Matthew 11:2ff.) records Jesus’ estimate of John as “more than a prophet” for he was also the herald of the long-expected Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

The Collect proceeds by making a petition for the present situation within the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of God the Father and created by the saving work of the same Lord Jesus Christ. “Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy Second Coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight…”

The Church of God lives by faith in the Son of God, who having been exalted into heaven will come again to the earth to judge the living and the dead, and thereby bring to a glorious conclusion the purposes of God with mankind in space and time. Evangelists and Pastors, Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons, are the ministers and stewards of the Mysteries of Christ (His Gospel, His Gospel Sacraments), and the people of God are to pray that these ordained persons in particular truly make use of these Mysteries so that they shall prepare the way of the Lord amongst his people for His second Advent, even as John the Baptizer prepared the Jewish people for the first Advent of the Messiah.

We know that the state of true preparation of the way of the Lord in Judaism, despite the heroic witness of John, was not as God desired. We pray that the preparation in the Church of the Second Advent will be better and will be pleasing to God the Father and thus truly beneficial for mankind.

This petition reminds us that in Advent, while we prepare liturgically for the celebration of the First Advent of the Incarnate Son of the Father, we also in heart and mind prepare practically for the Second Advent of the same Son, now exalted at the right hand of the Father. Thus the Church is called to watch and pray, and at no time more specifically than in Advent.

A final thought for meditation. It is only those who are in moral and spiritual preparation for the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ who can truly enter fully into the liturgical preparation for Christmas (that is of waiting with the pious remnant in ancient Israel/Judaism for the arrival of the Messiah and then with Simeon and Anna and pious shepherds greeting him with JOY).

The Revd Dr Peter Toon, Peter@toon662.fsnet.co.uk
Dec 14 2001



The Revd. Dr. Peter Toon
Christ Church Rectory
Hot Lane, Biddulph Moor
Stoke-on-Trent ST8 7HP
England

I THEE WED

In the traditional service of holy matrimony of The Book of Common Prayer [1549-1662], these words said by the man, after the solemn promises have been made both by the man and woman, are most significant:

“With this ring, I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods, I thee endow.”

Note – “I thee wed” & “I thee worship” & “I thee endow.”

Here the object comes between the subject and the verb (as in French or
Italian) and is a structure that is uncommon in English of any period. One would expect in normal English “I wed thee” & “I worship thee” & “I endow thee.”

Why did Cranmer choose this odd form of the English sentence in his writing/editing of the Service of Holy Matrimony?

Apparently, because he did not merely want to identify & describe what was happening in the marriage but rather to provide a form actually to perform & to enact the marriage.

The unusual order of words used by the husband for this “till death do us part” commitment & union has two specific merits --- first, there is the actual solemnity of the words for the unique moment, and secondly, the order of the words “I thee wed” tends to put equal stress on each word when spoken. And this is good and proper for an equal stress on each word brings together the three elements of the act of bodily union in/with an equal significance (man, woman and being wed).

[Note that the 1928 BCP of the ECUSA retained the “I thee wed” even though it did not retain either the “I thee worship” (because the word no longer is used of a human relation) or the “I thee endow” (because of modern property laws etc.).]

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The Rev’d Dr Peter Toon (with thanks to Professor Andor Gomme for the above insight).

November 25, 2001

THOUGHTS AT THE END OF THE CHURCH YEAR AND BEFORE DEPARTURE TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

“Woe to the Shepherds who destroy the sheep and scatter the sheep of my pasture”

These words, from the first Lesson [Jeremiah 23:1] in the ECUSA Lectionary for the last Sunday before Advent, have been ringing in my ears since I first heard them today. [It is of interest that the Epistle reading in the classic BCP Lectionary for this same Sunday is also from Jeremiah 23, but begins at verse 5 and so does not contain the above words.]

As I prepare to leave canonical residence in the diocese of Quincy in the ECUSA and move soon to Christ Church, Biddulph Moor, in the diocese of Lichfield in the Church of England, I cannot but think that these words apply very particularly as a word of the Lord today to the Bishops and clergy of the ECUSA, especially the Bishops.

The very name, The Episcopal Church, puts emphasis on the Episcopate and thus on each Episcopos [Bishop]. If the Bishops of the ECUSA fail to be what they are called to be then the whole Church suffers deeply for they are the chief pastors of the flock.

The content of the service for the consecration of a Bishop (whether in the ordinal of the classic BCP or in the 1979 prayer book) makes clear the high calling and onerous duty of each bishop to teach and safeguard the Faith, to care for the clergy and people, and to live in such a manner as to adorn the Gospel of Christ Jesus, the Chief Shepherd.

Unless my eyes deceive me and my mind wrongly interprets the empirical evidence, the clearest fact in regard to the ECUSA in my 11 years in the USA is that the Bishops have failed to be genuine pastors of the flock of Christ because they have failed to teach and guard the Faith, morals and divine order, and at the same time they have encouraged and abetted heresy, error and immorality.

They have rejected the authority of Holy Scripture over the Church; they have rejected the witness and guidance of holy Tradition in and over the Church [tradition in the dogma and teaching of the ecumenical Councils and in the classic Anglican Formularies]; they have accepted the dominant liberal, secularized, western view of human rights, sexuality, self-worth (self-expression etc.) and given to this human-centered ethos God-names and language of Zion reference. They have turned from Trinitarian Theism to forms of Unitarianism, panentheism and pantheism. And they have done this with their clergy and laity in the General Convention, in diocesan conventions and in their pastoral relations, letters and permissions.

The few bishops who have opposed some or all of this new episcopal agenda have not (it seems) declared themselves out of communion with their sisters and brethren and so are [whether they like it or not] participants in this general reality, and upon them the “woe” falls.

It needs to be noted that often these same bishops who claim to be “orthodox” have actually redefined orthodoxy to make its content significantly less than it has been in the life of the Church over many centuries. Further, some of them tend to allow in their own dioceses flagrant examples of clergy practicing the new Episcopalian religion and morality [immorality]. Thus the “woe” remains.

What applies to the chief shepherds of the ECUSA also applies to all the clergy – all of us -- for they/we share in the ethos and content. Woe to all the shepherds, woe to all of us under-shepherds. Being members of one society we all share in its disease and judgment.

Unless all the shepherds repent and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in all his Advent glory and in all his Advent holiness, and humble themselves under the mighty hand of the LORD GOD, the Father almighty, then the WOE will be for each of us a judgment that sooner or later will cause us to tremble, really tremble…

How many people are starved, how many people have been scattered, how many are walking in the way towards hell, because of the failure of Shepherds to care for the flock for which Christ died!

I wish that I could state that ALL the Bishops (circa 104) of the Anglican Jurisdictions outside the ECUSA gave a clear and unambiguous portrait of godliness, sound teaching and good order. Regrettably, too many of them seem to be ruled by ideas and passions that do not adorn the Gospel of Christ. This said, there are some fine examples of bishops in these churches who genuinely care for the flock in terms of biblical standards, thinking not of their own promotion but that of the kingdom of heaven.

Having said all this, I cannot say that the Bishops of the Church of England are a lot more faithful, holy and well ordered than those of the ECUSA. But I have not been canonically resident in Britain for the last 11 years and have no near view.

What seems very clear to me is that if the Anglican Way is to survive in the West/North as a godly form of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, then it will be despite most of the Shepherds and not because of the Episcopate. Thus, the sheep must find ways to green pasture and to still waters on their own if they are to preserve the true faith and enter into life eternal. I hope and pray that they will do this and be the means in the divine providence of causing the Episcopate to repent!

The Revd Dr Peter Toon (Sunday before Advent, 2001)

The Eleventh of the Eleventh

This coming Sunday will be November 11th. This date is engraved in the history of Europe for it is the day when the First World War ended and also the date since then when the dead of one and then two world wars have been remembered publicly by Church & State. In recent times in Great Britain the Remembrance has been moved to the Sunday nearest the 11th.

However, this year the 11th is a Sunday and so the Nation will keep a two minute silence at 11.a.m. Led by the Queen and Government in London, services will also be held at local memorials throughout the nation, as all keep the silence at 11.a.m. as an act of national unity in remembrance and thanksgiving.

Some of the most solemn moments of my life have been at such services in the 1970s-1980s when, surrounded by the military, the Guides, Scouts, British Legion etc., in small towns I have read out the names (a long list) of those who died in World War I and then (a shorter list) of those who died in World War II.

Because of the ongoing campaign (war) against terrorists and terrorism, and because the armed forces are being increasingly used in this dangerous activity, there will be for many present a special poignancy to this year’s Remembrance.

In the USA the tradition of keeping the 11th of the 11th is not as strong as in western Europe but this year, in the light of the campaign against terrorists/criminals and their evil deeds, it will be well for Americans to make a special effort to devote time to silence & remembrance, as well as to fervent prayer for the armed forces and their leaders as they are espeically active in the campaign against terrorism presently centered on Afghanistan.

In all our prayers and thoughts we need also to remember the innocent victims of war wherever they be and whatever be their backgrounds.

The Revd Dr Peter Toon November 8, 2001

ACNS 2750 - AUSTRALIA - 3 November 2001

Sydney Synod moves to forward lay and diaconal presidency at the Lord's Supper
By Margaret Rodgers

[Anglican Media Sydney] Sydney Synod passed resolutions on lay and diaconal administration (presidency) on Saturday 27 October. At the conclusion of the debate Archbishop Peter Jensen informed the Synod of his discussions on the issue with other Anglican leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The first resolution requested the appointment of a Committee on lay and diaconal administration "to investigate the options, if any, consistent with law, that are available." The committee is "to report to back the next ordinary session of the Synod [2002] together with any appropriate legislation."

The second resolution requested the Sydney representatives to the General Synod to "promote a bill for a canon to permit a deacon to administer Holy Communion" when General Synod next meets in 2004.

Archbishop Jensen had previously indicated, in his Presidential Address, his own support of lay and diaconal administration in his Presidential Address, while at the same time saying it must "be legal."

"The theology of lay administration is linked to lay ministry and especially lay preaching, and flows naturally and properly from the theology of the Bible and our reformed heritage as it applies to the contemporary world," the Archbishop said. "Other dioceses have developed novelties such as local priests and extended communion to help with ministry.

"Lay administration, should it be legal, would be a contribution to the common task of bringing the gospel to Australia."

North Sydney Bishop-elect, Dr Glenn Davies and the Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth combined to argue the initial resolution before the Synod. Dr Davies stressed that the matter had been before the Sydney Synod since 1977, with six (6) reports from the Diocesan Doctrine Commission and five (5) other reports from Synod Committees. He was following on Archbishop Jensen's earlier reference to his astonishment at suggestions in Australian dioceses "that we {Sydney} wish to adopt this course as a sort of adolescent pay back aimed at the National Church for ordaining women."

Bishop Forsyth said that he didn't "come with much enthusiasm for lay and diaconal administration of holy communion", but he was most concerned "that any way forward must follow a constitutionally legal way to proceed.". Anything less, Bishop Forsyth said "would be unworthy of us and massively divisive here in this diocese."

This resolution received an overwhelming affirmative vote in the Synod, though it was not unanimous. The Rev Dr James MacPherson, Rector of Granville, argued that the work of the proposed committee "may have the
(unintended) effect of straining even further relationships within the Australian Church."

Ms Linda Hughes, lay representative from Mt Druitt parish, and Dr Chris Forbes brought the second motion calling for a canon for General Synod on diaconal presidency. Ms Hughes said that the Synod had always linked lay and diaconal administration and that it should consider diaconal administration in its own right.

"Diaconal administration at Holy Communion is the logical first step," Ms Hughes said. "We should have done it years ago."

This motion also received strong support from the Synod, though not without a lay representative from Christ Church St Laurence, a large Sydney city church, saying that such an act would require the calling of a worldwide ecumenical council.

After debate concluded, Archbishop Jensen informed Synod members of the discussions he had held with other diocesan bishops at the General Synod held in Brisbane last July. He said that there had been frank and courteous discussions, and that he had been able to present his opinions and hear from the other diocesans.

Dr Jensen also said that he had some initial correspondence from the Archbishop of Canterbury on the matter, and that he was glad to have commenced this dialogue.

Dr Davies' motion, was carried in the following form:

"Synod noting its own frequently expressed desire for lay and diaconal administration of Holy Communion and the Archbishop's comments that he wishes to find a constitutionally legal way to proceed, requests that the Standing Committee appoint a committee to investigate the options, if any, consistent with law, that are available and report back to the next ordinary session of the Synod together with any appropriate legislation."

Miss Hughes' motion, was carried in the following form:

"Synod requests that our representatives on General Synod, at the next session of the General Synod, promote a bill for a canon to permit a deacon to administer Holy Communion."

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