St Patrick’s, Mount Lawley
Diocese of Perth
Australia

Address to the Parish
30th April 2006

Thank you for being here and giving me this opportunity to explain the decisions which I have taken and their possible effect on the parish. Firstly I ask you to bear with me as I share a little history so that you will be better able to understand my position.

I was baptised an Anglican in the Church of England and grew up believing that the Anglican Church was both Catholic and Reformed. Protestant churches such as the Lutherans and Presbyterians emerged out of the Reformation in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries and they differed significantly from the Catholic Church in the way they understood Scripture, the sacraments and the way their ordained ministry was organised. Later on other Protestant Churches like the Methodists, Baptists and Pentecostals to name but a few, have emerged.

The Reformation impinged on England, but the English saw their reformation as a restoration of the faith that the Church held in the first 1000 yrs of its history, and not the creation of a new Church. In 1589 Elizabeth 1 addressed Parliament and said, "the state and government of the Church of England, as now it standeth in this reformation… both in form and doctrine is agreeable with the Scriptures, with the most ancient General Councils (of the first millennium), with the practice of the primitive Church and with the judgments of all the old and learned fathers."

In other words, the Anglican Church could still claim to be a member of the One, Holy Catholic Church despite its split from Rome. It claims this because of its acceptance of Scripture as containing all things necessary for salvation, its acceptance of the Creeds, the sacraments of the Church and the guarantee of those sacraments because of its bishops, priests and deacons who taught the Faith handed to the Apostles. The Anglican Church as we have known it is Catholic and Reformed. It is not Protestant.

In recent years talks have been held with a view to entering into unity with Rome and the Holy Orthodox Churches. Unity has never meant being taken over, but the recognition that Anglicans are members of the One Holy Catholic Church so that intercommunion can occur. Forty years ago Archbishop Michael Ramsey visited Pope Paul VI and during that visit promised the Pope that Anglicans would do nothing that would further hinder the path to unity. The Pope replied by reaffirming that Rome was not talking about swallowing up the Anglican Church. It was to be unity, not absorption.

Ever since that meeting some of the provinces in the Anglican Communion have done nothing but put more obstacles in the way of unity. So much so that a few weeks ago Cardinal Kasper who is head of the Vatican’s Ecumenical Commission said that because of its acceptance of practically every aspect of the modern world such as feminism (especially women’s ordination), abortion on demand, the collusion with the gay political agenda, the revision of the traditional understanding of Scripture to accommodate these new views and Church teaching, in some cases the denial that God exists, Anglicans have set themselves apart from the Church of the first millennium and betrayed their own Reformation. In other words the Anglican Communion has started believing and behaving like a Protestant Church in which individual dioceses and bishops do their own thing rather than behaving as a Catholic one in which the whole Church makes decisions about radical changes.

It took me a little while to understand this liberal trend. I wanted to believe it was God’s will, but along with many others throughout the world I have come to recognise this to be a betrayal of our Anglican heritage, and I have no desire to belong to an Anglican Protestant Church. In Australia the trigger that caused some people to leave the Anglican Church of Australia was the ordination of women by Archbishop Carnley before General Synod had approved the practice. This was clear example of a diocese doing its own thing. In this and some other dioceses, those who objected were told to get out and find another church. Some gave up Christianity altogether others became Roman Catholics and some remained Anglican by joining the Anglican Catholic Church of Australia, a member of the Traditional Anglican Communion which is an orthodox group of churches spread throughout the world and which remains faithful to the Anglican Way of the Reformation. The TAC is in communion with many dioceses in the Canterbury Anglican Communion including the Diocese of The Murray here in Australia, together with those individuals who remained within the Anglican Communion and joined the international movement known as Forward in Faith.

The Church of England has so far made it possible for those in Forward in Faith to remain within the Church by providing them with their own traditionalist bishops. In Australia, Forward in Faith has been trying, long before the ordination of women accelerated the liberal agenda, to have similar provision made. In recent times I have been a party to those attempts. After setting up a Committee to look at the question of making provision for Traditionalists which reported in March this year, a majority of Australian bishops again refused to make any provision, and have made it clear that they will press on with their agenda of liberalising the Church even further, and consecrate women as bishops with or without consensus from the General Synod. They are prepared to turn their backs on some of their most loyal Anglicans and leave them as sheep without a shepherd. For Traditional Anglicans in Australia this is the end of the road, a road which is littered with broken promises.

The issue which has now to be faced by us all is this, "What do you believe?" It is not an issue of who has the nicest clergy or the best parish church buildings, it is a matter of which Anglican community teaches the Christian faith which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all. We have to ask ourselves whether recent innovations in some Anglican dioceses, such as changes in the understanding of Scripture, of who can be ordained, the understanding of the priesthood, the new more feminised forms of worship and the changing moral values of the Church are a development of the English Reformation or a deviation from it. Can we still claim to belong to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church or have we become a Protestant Church with our own Anglican form of ministry? This is the question I have had to resolve for myself.

Lay people have a freedom that clergy don’t readily have. Lay people can worship where they like. It is different for clergy.

I am only your rector because I am the Archbishop’s representative in this parish. I have had to decide whether I can go on being his representative when I am persuaded that he and some other bishops in Australia, have abandoned the Catholic Faith held by the English Reformers. Archbishop Herft is a very personable and charming man but he has his deeply held principles about the direction the Church should travel. I have equally deep principles based on my obedience to Scripture and the consensus of the wider Catholic Church that lead me to a different conclusion. We can no longer travel together.

In consequence I have submitted my resignation to the Archbishop in which I indicated that I will retire from this parish and the Diocese of Perth on October 31st this year. My last Sunday in the parish will be determined by the dates of a conference I must attend around that time of the year.

Last year I said I would continue until 2007, but since that AGM, Archbishop Herft has come to the diocese and made it clear that while he respects my position, he is not willing to break rank with other bishops and make provision for Traditional Anglicans. This being so, any priest with similar views who came to this parish would be in the same position as I am. There is no-one in this diocese who is in active ministry who is available, and I doubt whether anyone would come from the east. So the parish nominators will need to find the best priest they can to serve the people of St Patrick’s.

This will have an impact on the parish, so careful management of any changes will need to be made.

Although leaving the parish and diocese I will be continuing in ministry. To use the image from ‘The Lord of the Rings’ that I used last week, I am going to align myself with the ‘Fellowship’ of those who are maintaining the Catholic Faith as Anglicanism has practised it until recent times. The members of this fellowship are Forward in Faith in Australia and the UK, the Traditional Anglican Communion throughout the world and those bishops of the Anglican Communion who are Traditionalists, including the bishop of The Murray here in Australia, in whose diocese I have a licence to exercise my ministry.

There are already 4 Anglican Catholic (TAC) congregations in Perth and together with the priests already in that Church, I and the other clergy who will make a similar journey, will gather others into the fellowship and create a missionary church. New congregations will be formed. The issue is not whether the Anglican Church we belong to is part of the Canterbury Anglican Communion or not, but which Anglican bishop can we be in communion with who will hold and teach the Faith that has been handed to us? I have been called by Forward in Faith Australia and the bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion throughout the world, to be that bishop here in WA, so I will be consecrated here in Perth towards the end of the year by other bishops from the TAC and the Anglican Communion to lead, care for and be a shepherd to Traditional Anglicans in the West in order to create and grow new congregations. Although I will be consecrated a bishop in the Church of God, I will not be allowed to exercise that ministry in the Anglican Church of Australia except in the Diocese of The Murray.

This will impact upon the parish because the Archbishop of Perth will not allow me to carry out this ministry from St Patrick’s even though Aboriginal members of the TAC use Anglican buildings in the Torres Strait. There are many inconsistencies in the policies of the liberal bishops of Australia. So I have to leave, and that saddens me enormously, but I cannot abandon Traditional Anglicans when they have called me to be their shepherd.

I also realise that my departure will have an impact upon this parish because some of you hold the same principles that I have outlined, and you may well choose to remain Anglican and join the new congregation, or convert to another denomination altogether. I also know that there are some of you who hold to the principles that the diocese believes to be the way forward and so will choose to remain here at St Pat’s and build the future under the leadership of a new priest. Others of you may choose to hold ‘dual citizenship’ and worship in both the new ACCA (TAC) congregation which will be close by and St Pat’s. Whatever choice you make should be based on what you believe about the gospel, Scriptures and the Anglican Way. Salvation is about belief, not loyalty to buildings or history even though these things are important. Right choices made for the wrong reason will eventually flounder.

I have made this announcement well in advance of my retirement so that we can work together to plan the future for those who will remain as well as those who will leave.

It would be helpful if those of you who make the decision to leave, and you may need time to reflect on this, would let me know if and when you make that decision so that future plans can be made.

Those who choose to remain here will also need to plan for the future. A new parish vestry, wardens, synod reps and most importantly, parish nominators will need to be elected at the AGM on June 11th. These will be important appointments so when the nomination papers are available next week, begin to pray about whether you should offer yourselves for office. Obviously those who choose to move on will not allow yourselves to be nominated. I realise this will be a difficult time for all of us. I commit myself to work with the new parish officials so that they can take over the reins, including taking responsibility for the administration and building maintenance that I currently undertake. I don’t know how long the interregnum will be because there are many vacant parishes in the diocese at the moment.

You will probably assume that I have a blue print for the future of the new congregation and my ministry as a bishop. I don’t, and like the first apostles, if I knew what I was doing I probably wouldn’t do it, but this has been my experience throughout my ministry, and this God of surprises still surprises.

I pray that whatever decision you make, we will work through the transition period in the next months with courtesy, understanding and mutual respect so that it will be seen that we Christians love each other.

What I have just said may surprise, disappoint or anger some of you while encouraging others who have felt marginalised within the church. I have always tried to be straight, open and honest with you in order to lead the parish as best I can. If there were any way I could remain within the Diocese of Perth I would do so, but as I have said, unlike the English, the majority of bishops in Australia refuse to make provision for Traditional Anglicans. Were I still in the UK I would still be able to remain in The Church of England without compromising my deeply held principles, but that is not an option in Australia.

I would ask you to discuss with me any issues that may arise for you out of this. I would rather you asked me than be uncertain, as together we pray that God will lead us into His future.

The Ven Harry Entwistle