Synod Motions Meeting

G’day all,

This week you will have received your synod mandate in the post – it’s all set for 19-22nd October.

Over the past few years, more and more evangelicals have been making great contributions to our synod by getting actively involved in putting motions forward and – by God’s grace – winning lots of them too! This is a great encouragement as for many years, synod had been dominated by people who didn’t always represent the cause of the gospel in the way that many of us orthodox Melbourne Anglicans would have liked.

Last year was particularly positive as we passed a motion making a clear statement about our general opposition to euthanasia. This was a bit of a landmark really because in the past, our synod has been in the habit of throwing ethical issues into the too hard basket instead of taking a plain and loving stand for biblical positions. This was clearly a victory for the straightforward, historic Christian position.

A key part of what’s helped us in recent time has been our greater level of organisation. For three years now, a good group of us have been meeting in the lead up to synod in order to brainstorm about motions that need to be put and to strategise about the best ways we can contribute in the synod. There has been a lot of positive fruit from these meetings and so we’re running one again this year. Please come along to contribute at

St Jude’s Carlton at 7.30pm on Tuesday 16th August.

And please also bring your lay synod reps with you.

As well as thinking about motions, we’ll also spend a little time considering the trajectory that synod has been taking recently and what’s going to be important for us if we want to have the maximum positive influence. While there has been a lot that we can be thankful for in recent time, there are also some potential risks that we need to be aware of as we seek for our church to be continually reformed in line with the gospel of Jesus.

Look forward to seeing you there and continuing to work for the glory of Jesus – even in this unusual forum.

In Christ,

Tim Anderson and Tim Patrick