At their third special meeting on the division within the church over the ordination of women and men, the LCANZ’s General Church Board (GCB) and College of Bishops (CoB) agreed on three initial actions. Last year, GCB and CoB released a report with three potential scenarios over the division in the church around the ordination of both women and men. There were 48 formal responses from individuals and congregations to the scenarios. In March 2021, GCB and CoB held a third special meeting to analyse these responses.
Secretary of the Church Dr Nigel Long said the leaders agreed on three initial actions in preparation for the 2021 General Pastors Conference (GPC) and General Convention of Synod. A statement summarising the responses and actions has been released. In brief, the actions are:
- GCB is asking the GPC to provide advice in advance of General Convention on the relevance of Theses of Agreement (TA) 1 Principles governing church fellowship to the ongoing discussion about ordination.
- The Commission on Theology and Inter-Church Relations will work (with CoB) on framing questions and providing background for the GPC on the applicability/inapplicability of TA 1.
- GCB and CoB will work together to frame any questions and/or proposals on the ordination matter that might be useful for the 2021 General Convention and for the wellbeing of the church.
You can download the statement from the link at www.lca.org.au/lcanz-leaders-release-statement-on-ordination-actions/
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