‘A New Church’: Why Reverend Uniting Preaches to Anglicans in a Gay Couple’s Home | Rural australia

On a cool, gray Sunday in November, in a small house on the edge of Armidale, a new church was born.

About thirty parishioners are crammed onto the wooden terrace, overflowing through the sliding doors and into a living room dominated by a black Kawai concert grand piano. They sit on patio furniture, white plastic lawn chairs, and stools in the breakfast bar.

On the edge of the bridge is an altar, a table draped in the purple Advent cloth with candles, flowers, wafers and wine. A hand-quilted Celtic cross with a love heart at its base drapes the front, facing the parishioners.

The new church does not yet have a name.

Stop reading if you’ve heard this before: A congregation of Anglicans are hosting an Advent service hosted by a Reverend of Uniting Church in the Armidale house of husband-and-husband duo, Peter Sanders and Peter Grace.

They could no longer attend their usual church, St Mary’s, because they would have been forced to separate in order to continue their church roles. Peter Sanders was the music director and organist, and Peter Grace had an unpaid leadership role on a small committee.

“According to the Diocese of Armidale, one would have to be in the right state of grace to receive Communion,” says Grace.

“And the good state of grace is being single heterosexual or gay,” says Sanders. “Can you imagine if it had been done to younger people when people have no identity and don’t feel good about themselves? “

“How many graves are there already in the countryside of young boys and girls who have not felt accepted and have committed suicide? “

Guardian Australia emailed Bishop Rod Chiswell, head of the Diocese of Armidale, for comment, but received no response. He previously told the ABC that he and the dean had sought to have a “pastoral conversation” with Sanders and Grace. Chiswell claimed he did not fire Sanders and that the men were not asked to leave the church.

“The Anglican Church of the Diocese of Armidale, like the Lord Jesus, welcomes all who choose to come to church, regardless of their sexual orientation,” said Chiswell.

“Involvement in positions of ministry or other leadership… is conditional upon acceptance of the code of loyalty in service. “

Ultimately Grace and Sanders disagree with the conservative brand of Anglicanism preached by the leaders of the Diocese of Armidale, so they left.

Unfortunately for the diocese, they took the majority of St Mary’s with them.

Leaving a church is not easy. “Mourning” and “loss” are the words used to describe the experience, especially since many of those attending the service at the Peters’ home had been coming to St Mary’s for years, if not decades. These people organized weddings, baptisms and funerals at St Mary’s. This church was a big part of their life – it’s not something easy to leave.

A group of six parishioners held meetings on what to do about the direction their church was taking. Many were outraged by what they perceived to be the evangelical style of preaching promoted by the new bishop and the conservative interpretation of the Bible.

The two Peter’s point out that the new church was not created for them and are more worried about those who have dedicated much of their life to St Mary. Sanders tells of an elderly woman reading a book.

“When you read in church, it is written, ‘Hear the word of the Lord.’ They changed it to “This is the word of the Lord,” and the lady said, “I don’t say that. I believe that God speaks to everyone as an individual – they to listen the word of the Lord ”.

“We had found fundamental doctrinal differences with the Anglican clergy. And we wanted to get our two brothers back, who are gay and married, ”explains Marg Kennedy.

“It wasn’t going to happen unconditionally on us – we wanted to support them. We found this intolerable after a while and decided that we had to move forward with our gay brothers.

“And we had to start a new church. “

Jan Clark sewed the cloth draped over the altar for the service and procured the used sherry glasses from op stores to hold the communion wine.

“It’s technically a home church,” she explains. “We don’t have a clergy. But we are bound by love for each other and by worship. There are endless ways to approach God.

“It is the hope that we stay together as a family, as a church – family and worship. And people are comfortable because now we can worship as we please, without the restrictions, which were becoming more and more severe and more and more unpleasant for us. So now we can have the service we want, enjoy the service, and feel spiritually nourished.

The uncompromising doctrine in the Diocese of Armidale does not represent the entire Anglican Church – in fact the Peter’s believe it to be a very minority view in the Australian Anglican Church. They have received outpouring of support from Anglican bishops across the country and say they would have been accepted almost everywhere else.

“It wouldn’t be a problem in Queensland. It is the Diocese of Armidale. The Diocese of Armidale has aligned itself with Bishop Jensen in Sydney, ”said Sanders.

Sanders refers to Bishop Peter Jensen, the first leader of Gafcon, a dissident conservative movement within the church that was formed in 2008 in reaction to developments in the church at large, including the ordination of ‘an openly homosexual bishop and the acceptance of same-sex unions. .

The situation in Armidale is at the crossroads between the flirtation of Australian politics with culture wars, the religious discrimination bill and the rift within the Anglican world church itself. And in the middle, there are ordinary people, like those who have gathered in their homes reciting the Salvation of Peace.

Uniting Church offered the use of one of its buildings, and a close personal friend and participant from St Mary’s asked Reverend Uniting Will Pearson if he could organize the first service.

And he does, quoting Luke 21:36: “Pray constantly that you will have the strength and the intelligence to go through whatever awaits you and that you find yourselves standing before the Son of man.”

When asked what he thought about being a United Church Reverend tending to a herd of Anglicans, Rev. Pearson said:

“It took me back to when I was growing up in a small community, Yarrowyck, where there was a different denomination in the church every Sunday. A Sunday would be Presbyterian, another Baptist, another unifier … “

“I found it to be a truly fascinating experience.”

Reverend Pearson’s service speaks of hope, referring to the joy and love the disciples found in following Jesus, but also warns of the tribulations they would face and that awaited them from the powers that felt threatened by them.

The closing hymn for the service is “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory” – an anthem cheekily chosen by Sanders. It’s uplifting, something to strengthen the congregation, and just as important, fun to sing on an organ. The final note still resonates when the congregation separates because, like any country church service, it ends with tea and coffee, homemade cakes and slices, and conversation.

And really, this morning tea is really what a church is. Everyone here has a personal connection to God, and no one, not even a bishop, can take that away from him. Going to church is a manifestation of this connection, not a condition of it, and much of the value of going to church is more mundane. Friends. Connections. Community.

Thelma McCarthy had been attending St Mary’s for “40, 50 years”. Ninety-six, a World War II veteran, life member of the Labor Party, Thelma was appalled at the way the Peter’s were being treated for their sexuality and evangelistic preaching.

“I left in June,” McCarthy says, “And all these others were the same. Some of them returned to St Mary’s, only to continue, but many of them have not returned since.

“I think today has been very healing.”

She quotes Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am among them. “