Comments on: Paying for the sins of our fathers

By: Bad Press: The Circus Goes On | internetmonk.com

Bad Press: The Circus Goes On | internetmonk.com — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 04:02:05 +0000

[…] Australia, Michael Frost, in an article called Paying for the Sins of Our Fathers, writes about how “the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle is going broke paying compensation to […]

By: Dave Berlach

Dave Berlach — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 23:27:57 +0000

Hi Mike,
I see your point and agree – the old reaping what you sow is coming to pass. And I’m definitely sick of hearing christians winge about how the world is treating them… we’ve got a lot of
But I think Rod makes a good point above too.
There’s a little Anglican church at the end of our street that was built in 1921 – it’s located at about the point that I regain mobile phone reception! It hasn’t been used for at least the past 20 years as the local congregation has moved twice and is now located in a new building 5 minutes away (coincidentally built by a company I used to work for, on a street where the Catholics, Anglicans, & Christian Israelites reside, which is minutes away from the baptist church, the evangelicals, the uniting church etc). My point, our area really has no shortage of “churches”.
There was a community push to save the one I mentioned, for use as a community centre or memorial for WW1 & 2, however it too was sold to a nice family whose kids go to school with mine, who have commenced restoring it to live in – and it is looking better than ever. I feel for the family as they’ve had to endure a horrible range of abuse from a few locals who somehow see them as desecrating a “community owned” site. In many ways, that family is bringing life a place that had long since died… but maybe I just have no sense of history?

By: Rod Bower

Rod Bower — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 05:57:57 +0000

Hi Mike
It may come as no surprise to you that the media were not entirely truthful in the way they presented the story. The sale of st James and the redress issue are not directly related. Although it is true to say that for the time being a percentage of all property sales is quarantined for redress.

The diocese is by no means ‘broke’ but we can no longer fund redress out of existing cash reserves. Personally I believe we should keep paying until our last cent is gone but I doubt that it will come to that.

The Anglican church, unlike our Baptist siblings has traditionally seen itself as a church by association rather than membership. This caused us to feel the necessity to have a presence in every town, suburb and village. This worked well in the 19th century when most of our churches were built and transportation was limited, and while priests were prepared to subsidise this model through poor pay and conditions. The real issue for st James is that just not enough people go to church there. As I listened to the interview the old adage ‘God has no grandchildren’ came to mind. There is a very active congregation less than 30 minutes away for anyone who feel so inclined and the community hall provides adequate resources for community gatherings.

The issue for us now is how we redeploy resources to meet the needs of this era not the one which has now passed. It is also worth noting that the unit of the church in Anglican ecclesiology is the Diocese not the parish or congregation. It is the whole diocese that needs to take responsibility for the sins of the past. That includes st James.

With every kindness
Rod