THE Anglican Bishop of Newcastle, Peter Stuart, has hit back at the conservative Anglicans who this week announced they were forming an independent Diocese of the Southern Cross implacably opposed to the ordination of women and same-sex marriage.
The new group was announced at the annual inaugural Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) conference in Canberra, attended by some 350 conservatively aligned Anglicans from around Australia and the Pacific.
The statement announcing the group's formation criticises progressive Anglican bishops as "unable to hold up the Bible's ancient teaching on marriage and sexual ethics".
GAFCON chair and Bishop of Tasmania, Richard Condie, said Southern Cross would be led by former Sydney archbishop Glenn Davies, who said similar splits in the Anglican Church were happening all over the world.
Despite its well-publicised problems with paedophilia - including shocking new revelations reported in yesterday's Newcastle Herald - the Newcastle diocese has worked hard in recent years to build a "progressive reputation", led by Bishop Stuart.
"I've described Bishop Glenn Davies as being like Miley Cyrus coming in on a wrecking ball," Bishop Stuart told the Herald yesterday afternoon.
Bishop Stuart acknowledged a "contested debate" between theologians over "their reading of the Bible around human sexuality".
He said the global head of the church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Reverend Justin Welby, had recognised "a plurality of views and deep division" but "encouraged those with different views to keep at the conversation".
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"GAFCON Australia and Bishop Davies are without valid reason taking a wrecking ball through the church because they have not been been able to convince about 40 per cent of Anglicans generally, and about 60 per cent of the Newcastle diocese, that their reading of the Bible around human sexuality is the only interpretation," Bishop Stuart said.
The Bishop said he would continue to speak out for "LGBTIQA+ people" and described the actions of the Southern Cross Anglicans as appearing mean-spirited, unwelcoming and unloving".
"The church is meant to be a living expression of the love of Jesus Christ," Bishop Stuart said. "When LGBTIQA+ people cannot hear that love through us, we are failing."
