new Anglican leader joins the IR fight

from The Australian: Anglican leader joins the IR fight [July 11, 2005]: by Andrew West, July 11, 2005 ...

THE new leader of Australia's 4 million Anglicans has attacked the Howard Government's proposed industrial relations reforms....

Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, elected as the Anglican primate at the weekend, yesterday said "I don't agree with (Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews) when he says we should butt out. The key principle the church would want to defend is proper protection for the weakest and most vulnerable in our community. That is a prime value of the Judeo-Christian tradition, one that rings through the prophets and the Gospel."

...."I think members of churches do have to be prepared to stand up for deeply held values," he said. "And that sort of thing does happen from time to time."

Dr Aspinall defeated his major rival, Sydney archbishop Peter Jensen, to win the primacy after a third candidate, Perth prelate Roger Herft, withdrew.

Forty electors met in Sydney's St Andrew's Cathedral on Saturday to choose a replacement for Peter Carnley, who recently retired as Perth archbishop. Dr Aspinall, 44, is the youngest man to hold the primacy but his term will last only two years.

He said his primary mission was to rebuild the Anglican congregations, which outside the Sydney diocese have dwindled by 7 per cent over the past decade.
"I want to call the 4million Anglicans in Australia to a unity of commitment, to Jesus Christ and Christ's mission in Australia," he said.

"We have a lot of very important things to say in our community and we need to be creative about getting out there and saying those things. We need to communicate the riches of the Anglican tradition and the good news of the Gospel."

Dr Aspinall is a theological liberal who supports the consecration of women bishops. But he declined to reveal whether he supported the ordination of practising homosexuals to the priesthood. "No statement from me today about homosexual or women bishops is going to resolve those issues," he said.