Your most important ordinances?

Think about your denomination for a moment. What are the most important pieces of legislation governing your denomination’s assembly and churches?

We call them ordinances. Not the “ordinances of the Lord which are sure and altogether righteous” (Ps 19:9, NIV); ‘ordinances’ is our fancy Anglican name for the rules that govern our denomination. Every earthly organization (and that’s what denominations are) has to have some sort of rules by which to function.

Now the latest printed edition I had of the Acts, Ordinance and Regulations of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney ran to over 450 pages, and listed 47 ordinances, not to mention several Acts of Parliament and various regulations.

What do you think are the most important ordinances governing your denomination? See if you can write down your selections before reading on.

Before returning to that question, let me say that it’s not the ordinances governing your finances!

However—and I quote rightly—this took the majority of our time at Synod yesterday. As widely reported in our neck of the woods, last year, our diocesan endowment fell in value by over $160 million, from $265 to $105 million, with a small recovery since. The loss was turned from a paper loss into an actual loss largely because of a strategy of gearing (borrowing to invest in equities like shares). And there was a failure of risk management, which has been admitted. So there was debate for over three hours regarding the stewardship of our finances.

It was a stressful debate: hard question were asked and hard things were said, and yet it is fair to say that it was all conducted with grace and humility. The key issues brought in the motion debated included:

• recognition that the financial strategies were legal and had been reported
• admission that losses flowed from the strategy of gearing and especially a failure in risk management, and
• a reaffirmation that we would continue to depend “on our Almighty God and Loving Heavenly Father, who is no man’s debtor and knows our needs better than we know ourselves” and that we will seek to “be content both in times of need as well as plenty, knowing that we can do all things through God who gives us strength”.

The key points that were debated by way of amendments were as follows:

• whether those responsible should be censured or asked to resign (lost)
• whether the gearing strategy and its risks had been insufficiently reported communication to Synod (lost)
• whether there should be a report to the next Synod on implementation of the corrective recommendations already accepted from an independent review of the relevant Board governance and risk management (carried)
• whether there should be a wholesale review of all the financial and governance practices not just the Diocesan Endowment but of all diocesan organizations (lost);
• whether there should be a theological/ethical investigation of the advisability of the practice of gearing to invest in shares before returning to the practice (lost).

I moved on the last amendment, and although I was disappointed the motion lost, I accept the will of the Synod. There may be other ways for me to request help in understanding the theological and ethical advisability or otherwise of gearing.

But back to my opening question. What are the most important ordinances governing your denomination? For us, Glenn Davies, the Bishop of North Sydney suggested they were:

• the ordinance governing the election of a new Archbishop, and
• the ordinance governing Moore College (our theological college or seminary for training our candidates for ordained ministry and other ministers and missionaries.

We made some amendments to both ordinances yesterday afternoon. Both sets of changes were fairly minor, but Bishop Davies rightly urged us never take amendments proposed for such ordinances lightly, because the matters are so crucial.

Do you agree? The only other ordinance I could think of as being of comparable importance was the one that governs the nomination of a new senior minister or senior pastor to a particular parish or church.

Between them, two of these three ordinances decide who leads the diocese and who leads the churches, and the other determines the quality of those who lead in terms of doctrine, theological depth and faithfulness, and also, to a significant though lesser degree, in terms of character and capability.

Lose your theological college and you lose your denomination’s theology. Allow a poor appointment process, and you can end up landed with a leader who changes the tone of your church or even your whole diocese.

What do you think are the most important rules governing your denomination?