Reports

Grace

ANGLICAN CHURCH JOONDALUP

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Corpus Christi

Sunday 10th June 2007

Parish Priest’s Report

The primate of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefforts Shori, recently ordained a new bishop for the Diocese of Virginia. Afterwards, she met with diocesan clergy for a wide open and wide ranging conversation. In her opening remarks, Bishop Katharine talked about the health of the church – something of little interest to newspaper headline writers and the communications media generally, not to mention the disease-infested swampland of internet blogs. Paying attention to what passes for news is an increasingly dangerous occupation. Over large stretches of the past two or three years, I confess to struggling with what I would call low level depression induced by following church news. I also confess to huge disillusionment with the Archbishop of Canterbury and most other church leaders. What on earth are we to make of endless and seemingly intractable fights over Christian doctrine and human behaviour in the Anglican Communion? What about primates and archbishops behaving like spoilt children, hurling ecclesiastical thunderbolts at one another across the globe? How can character assassination and naked blackmail find any place in the community of faith? Is there nothing more to us than human anxiety and fear? Can the church possibly survive? Indeed, does the church even deserve to survive?...

Read the full 2006/07 report here. [.doc] [.pdf]