Mark Thompson, Head of Theology, Philosophy and Ethics at Moore College and the President of the Anglican Church League, wrote this for the January 2011 Special Edition of the Australian Church Record.

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Those elected as Synod Reps in 2011 will have the opportunity to make a difference in some of the important issues in the next three years.

For example, how will Synod help the Diocese:  

• Ensure the focus of our work as a diocese remains the parish churches and so avoiding the pressures of centralisation

• Address the future needs of ministry in the churches of the diocese given the cultural and demographic changes which have and are taking place (e.g. resourcing a significant expansion in cross-cultural ministry)

• Maintain and develop the missionary commitments of the diocese through CMS and other means

• Preserve, strengthen and extend the evangelical inheritance of the diocese by ensuring all decisions are evaluated in terms of biblical gospel principles

• Continue the work of reforming our common life and the structures that support it along biblical lines

• Renew, refresh and resource our commitment to providing the best and most appropriate theological education for those who serve in our churches through Moore College

• Continue the work of developing and implementing a governance policy for all diocesan organisations which increases effectiveness and accountability and embeds biblical principles

• Remember and maintain the good things from our Anglican Evangelical heritage

• Continue the work of restructuring the administration of the diocese in the light of changed financial conditions

• Review the effectiveness of regionalisation as it is currently conceived

• Build on the complementarian decisions of the diocese as we continue to encourage a genuine partnership of men and women in ministry

• Review the way we resource those who serve our fellowship in denominational leadership (e.g. archbishop and bishops) to ensure that nothing hinders the effective exercise of their ministry to us

• Elect a new archbishop who will lead us into the future with clarity, conviction and compassion for the world lost without Christ

• Endorse, encourage and facilitate the important ministries of the laity

• Engage with the General Synod in a principled yet courteous fashion to bring about those structural changes in the General Synod and the Anglican Church of Australia which will best serve the interests of the gospel of Christ

• Work through how we might continue to assist and resource the ministries of biblically faithful men and women outside the diocese and across the world (building on the role we’ve been able to play in GAFCON and the Global South)

• Respond to the Anglican Covenant and the Jerusalem Declaration.

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