Glenn Davies | |
---|---|
Archbishop of Sydney | |
Church | Anglican Church of Australia |
Province | New South Wales |
Diocese | Sydney |
In office | 23 August 2013 – 26 March 2021 |
Predecessor | Peter Jensen |
Successor | Kanishka Raffel |
Other post(s) |
|
Orders | |
Ordination | 1981 (deacon) [1] ·? (priest) by Sir Marcus Loane [2] |
Consecration | 21 December 2001 [3] |
Personal details | |
Born | Glenn Naunton Davies 26 September 1950 |
Nationality | Australian |
Denomination | Anglicanism |
Alma mater |
Glenn Naunton Davies (born 1950) is an Australian Anglican bishop. Since August 2022 he has served as bishop of the Diocese of the Southern Cross, an Anglican diocese set up outside of the Anglican Church of Australia. [4] He previously served as the Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of the Province of New South Wales in the Anglican Church of Australia [5] from 23 August 2013 to 26 March 2021. [6]
Davies was born on 26 September 1950.[ citation needed ] He was educated at Shore School, the University of Sydney, [7] Westminster Theological Seminary, Moore Theological College and the University of Sheffield. [8]
Davies was ordained in 1981 and began his ordained ministry as a curate at St Stephen's, Willoughby. He was then a lecturer at Moore Theological College until 1995 and rector of St Luke's, Miranda. He has been the canon theologian of the Diocese of Ballarat.
Davies was the Bishop of the North Region (of Sydney) from 2002 to 2014. [9]
In 2013, he was nominated by 182 members of synod for Archbishop of Sydney. [10] He was subsequently elected and became the archbishop-elect on 6 August 2013. [11] His installation service was held on 23 August 2013.
Davies took conservative stances on issues of morality. He directed criticism at church branches that had moved to bless same-sex unions, such as the Wangaratta diocese in Victoria.
In October 2019, in his presidential address to the synod of the Diocese of Sydney, [12] Davies advised those who wanted to change the doctrine of the Anglican Church of Australia to allow the blessing of same-sex marriage to leave the church. [13] These comments were criticised by some within the church who want it to be more inclusive. [14] In response, Davies indicated that his comments were directed at those who wanted to change church doctrine and not to members of congregations or those who identified as gay. [13]
He said: "I fear for the stability of the Anglican Church of Australia. These developments have the potential to fracture our fellowship and impair our communion. I have stated this on numerous occasions at the annual National Bishops' Conference, but sadly to little effect. My own view is that if people wish to change the doctrine of our church, they should start a new church or join a church more aligned to their views – but do not ruin the Anglican Church by abandoning the plain teaching of Scripture. Please leave us." [15]
This hardline stance caused the Anglican Church to split in Australia in 2022, with a breakaway "Diocese of the Southern Cross" having conservative elements of the church leaving the parent church. On 15 August 2022, it was announced that Glenn Davies would be the first bishop of the new Diocese of the Southern Cross set up by GAFCON Australia. [16]
Davies is the author of Faith and Obedience in Romans (1989, Sheffield Academic Press) as well as numerous journal articles and essays. [17]
Davies is a recipient of the Centenary Medal.
The Church of Nigeria is the Anglican church in Nigeria. It is the second-largest province in the Anglican Communion, as measured by baptised membership, after the Church of England. In 2016 it stated that its membership was “over 18 million", out of a total Nigerian population of 190 million. It is "effectively the largest province in the Communion." As measured by active membership, the Church of Nigeria has nearly 2 million active baptised members. According to a study published by Cambridge University Press in the Journal of Anglican Studies, there are between 4.94 and 11.74 million Anglicans in Nigeria. The Church of Nigeria is the largest Anglican province on the continent of Africa, accounting for 41.7% of Anglicans in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is "probably the first [largest within the Anglican Communion] in terms of active members."
Since the 1990s, the Anglican Communion has struggled with controversy regarding homosexuality in the church. In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture". However, this is not legally binding. "Like all Lambeth Conference resolutions, it is not legally binding on all provinces of the Communion, including the Church of England, though it commends an essential and persuasive view of the attitude of the Communion." "Anglican national churches in Brazil, South Africa, South India, New Zealand and Canada have taken steps toward approving and celebrating same-sex relationships amid strong resistance among other national churches within the 80 million-member global body. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has allowed same-sex marriage since 2015, and the Scottish Episcopal Church has allowed same-sex marriage since 2017." In 2017, clergy within the Church of England indicated their inclination towards supporting same-sex marriage by dismissing a bishops' report that explicitly asserted the exclusivity of church weddings to unions between a man and a woman. At General Synod in 2019, the Church of England announced that same-gender couples may remain recognised as married after one spouse experiences a gender transition. In 2023, the Church of England announced that it would authorise "prayers of thanksgiving, dedication and for God's blessing for same-sex couples."
The Diocese of Sydney is a diocese in Sydney, within the Province of New South Wales of the Anglican Church of Australia. The majority of the diocese is evangelical and low church in tradition.
The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the Catholic Church. According to the 2016 census, 3.1 million Australians identify as Anglicans. As of 2016, the Anglican Church of Australia had more than 3 million nominal members and 437,880 active baptised members. For much of Australian history since the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788, the church was the largest religious denomination. It remains today one of the largest providers of social welfare services in Australia.
Moore Theological College, otherwise known simply as Moore College, is the theological training seminary of the Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia. The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney holds ex officio the presidency of the Moore Theological College Council.
The Church of the Province of West Africa is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 17 dioceses in eight countries of West Africa, specifically in Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Ghana is the country with most dioceses, now numbering 11.
Peter Frederick Jensen is a retired Australian Anglican bishop, theologian and academic. From 1985 to 2001, he was principal of Moore Theological College. From 2001 to 2013, he was the Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of the Province of New South Wales in the Anglican Church of Australia. He retired on his 70th birthday, 11 July 2013. In late 2007, Jensen was one of the founding members of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), which he served as General Secretary. He stepped down in early 2019 and was succeeded by Benjamin Kwashi, former archbishop of Jos in Nigeria.
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of which twenty-one are located in South Africa, and one each in Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Saint Helena.
The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA), known until 2013 as the Church of England in South Africa (CESA), is a Christian denomination in South Africa. It was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It appointed its first bishop in 1955. It is an Anglican church and it relates closely to the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, to which it is similar in that it sees itself as a bastion of the Reformation and particularly of reformed doctrine.
Robert Charles Forsyth is an Australian Anglican bishop who served as the Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, a region of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, from 2000 to 2015. Before this he was the rector of St. Barnabas, Broadway.
The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada. Two of the major events that contributed to the movement were the 2002 decision of the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorise a rite of blessing for same-sex unions, and the nomination of two openly gay priests in 2003 to become bishops. Jeffrey John, an openly gay priest with a long-time partner, was appointed to be the next Bishop of Reading in the Church of England and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church ratified the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay non-celibate man, as Bishop of New Hampshire. Jeffrey John ultimately declined the appointment due to pressure.
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported more than 1,000 congregations and more than 128,000 members in 2023. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014. In June 2024, the College of Bishops elected Steve Wood as the third archbishop of the ACNA. Authority was transferred to him during the closing Eucharist at the ACNA Assembly 2024 conference in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) is a series of conferences of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders, the first of which was held in Jerusalem from 22 to 29 June 2008 to address the growing controversy of the divisions in the Anglican Communion, the rise of secularism, as well as concerns with HIV/AIDS and poverty. As a result of the conference, the Jerusalem Declaration was issued and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans was created. The conference participants also called for the creation of the Anglican Church in North America as an alternative to both the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada, and declared that recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury is not necessary to Anglican identity.
The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is a communion of conservative Anglican churches that formed in 2008 in response to ongoing theological disputes in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Conservative Anglicans met in 2008 at the Global Anglican Future Conference, creating the Jerusalem Declaration and establishing the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), which was rebranded as GAFCON in 2017.
Peter Lindsay Hayward is an Australian Anglican bishop who has served as an assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney since 13 April 2010, in the role of Bishop of Wollongong.
Christopher Edwards is an Australian Anglican bishop who has served as the Bishop of North Sydney in the Diocese of Sydney since 5 May 2014.
Kanishka de Silva Raffel is a British-born Australian Anglican bishop of Sri Lankan descent, who has served as the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney since 28 May 2021. He previously served as the 12th Dean of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney from 4 February 2016 until his installation as archbishop.
Michael Rennie Stead is an Australian Anglican bishop. Since December 2015, he has been Bishop of South Sydney, an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Sydney.
The Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa/New Zealand (CCAANZ) is an evangelical Anglican denomination in New Zealand. It is not a member of the Anglican Communion as recognised by the current Archbishop of Canterbury, but is recognised by the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). The church consists of 20 parishes, some of which consist of clergy and church members who left the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia after it allowed bishops to authorise blessings of same-sex marriages, and some of which were newly established at the time of the formation of the church.
The Diocese of the Southern Cross is a new Anglican diocese in Australia unaffiliated with the Anglican Church of Australia or the Anglican Communion. It is led by a former Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies.