Scottish Episcopal Church gets called out by … The Anglican Church of Australia??

I don’t expect much good news from the Anglican Communion or Australia anymore, and I certainly did not expect this.  The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia (ACA) just passed a resolution expressing “regret that the Scottish Episcopal Church has amended their Canon on Marriage to change the definition that marriage is between a man and a woman by adding a new section that allows clergy to solemnise marriage between same-sex couples….”

Further, the resolution expresses “support for those Anglicans who have left or will need to leave the Scottish Episcopal Church because of its redefinition of marriage and those who struggle and remain….”

Given that some in the ACA would rather denounce interventions of support, such as from ACNA and Bishop Andy Lines, this is remarkable.  Now this resolution does not overtly mention such interventions, but still….

I knew there would be such a resolution proposed at the ACA General Synod but I didn’t give it a snowball’s chance.  It seems the Diocese of Sydney’s influence and numbers are so increasing and the influence and numbers of the libchurchers are so declining that Australia is not firmly in the libchurch camp anymore.  If so, I gladly confess this good news snuck up on me.

David Ould is more on top of this and has the full text of the resolution here.

How to – and How Not to – Deal with False Teachers

When I read about Spong’s visit to Australia, I nearly went ballistic. So read at your own risk. But the linked news report illustrates very well how to, and how not to, deal with false teachers.

The Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen did the right thing and banned Spong from his churches. He then went beyond the call of duty and had the diocese’s newspaper attack Spong’s heresies.

But the Primate of Australia? --Phillip Aspinall has rolled out the red carpet for Spong. Among other things, he’s invited the heretic to preach two sermons at the Cathedral of Brisbane. And the wolf has been welcomed to help himself to the school girls as well.

The retired Episcopal bishop of Newark, New Jersey, Bishop Spong will also give a public lecture at St Aidan's Anglican Girls School in Brisbane.

This is an outrage. What part of 2 John 9-11 does --Aspinall not understand?

Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

And any number of NT passages confirm you don’t aid false teachers. As St. John teaches, you don’t even give them a greeting or a bed to sleep in! Much less give them the pulpit in the cathedral.

To me, this is a bigger issue than Gene Robinson as it goes more directly to the truth of the Gospel and the responsibility of the church to defend and teach it.

Unless he’s completely ignorant of the Bible (and I’ll be charitable and assume he’s not), --Aspinall is directly and willfully violating God’s word in an area that strikes to the heart of the gospel and the church’s responsibility to it. And he’s turning his flock over to a wolf. This is damnable.

----

And, yes, I’ve noticed that in his Lambeth invitations, the Archbishop of Canterbury is violating 2 John 9-11 as well. That you don’t invite stiff-necked apostates to Lambeth is a pretty simple application of St. John’s teaching methinks. You have to be quite an academic to dance one’s way around that.

How clear do God and his apostles have to be before Anglicans get it? You don’t aid or enable heretical teachers!


Hat tip to Stand Firm.