Anglicans elect migrant, former-Buddhist, person of colour as Archbishop of Sydney By Michael Koziol
Source:-https://www.smh.com.au/
The Anglican diocese of Sydney has elected its first person of colour Archbishop, Kanishka Raffel, at a time of significant division in the broader church over the blessing of same-sex couples.
The vote on Thursday night was an emphatic win for the 56-year-old, who was born in the United Kingdom to Sri Lankan parents and emigrated to Australia at age seven.
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Just six months later his father died from a heart attack. The young Kanishka was raised by “a single mother migrant lady in a place where we had no family”.
Archbishop-elect Raffel is unusual in another way: he was raised Buddhist. It was only while at the University of Sydney studying arts and law that he engaged with Christian friends about their faith, read the Gospel of John and converted religion.
“It was transparently historical. I was reading about a real man located in a particular point in history,” he says. “The picture of Jesus in John’s gospel was just so compelling, and that really provoked me unexpectedly.”
Archbishop-elect Raffel will be consecrated at the end of the month and arrives amid renewed friction between the conservative Sydney diocese and the national Anglican church, primarily concerning same-sex unions.
His predecessor Glenn Davies was a strong advocate for conservative social values. The church’s decision under Mr Davies to donate $1 million to the same-sex marriage “no” campaign caused controversy, as did his 2019 directive to Anglican supporters of marriage equality to “please leave us”. Dr Davies stressed the missive was directed to bishops, not LGBTQI parishioners.
But the issue continues to divide. In November the church’s national appellate tribunal ruled that priests could bless same-sex couples who were already married elsewhere, arguing it would not breach the church’s fundamental principles and was up to each individual diocese.
Dr Davies said this was untenable as “it would be naive to think that mutually contradictory views on same-sex marriage can co-exist within our national church”. The issue is expected to come to a head at next year’s Anglican general synod, delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
If Anglicans were expecting Mr Raffel to take a different path, they will be disappointed. While he acknowledges “there are a variety of approaches to marriage” in wider civil society, for the faithful there is only one right answer.
“There isn’t really any question about what the Christian approach to marriage is,” he says. “I think that’s a given. There’s a consistent Christian approach, and I think we’ll be sticking with that.”
For Anglicans who don’t want to stick with that, his message is simple: “Jesus is the head of the church. It’s not about what I want or what anybody really wants, it’s about accessing the mind of Christ through attention to his word, and agreeing with that.”
To LGBTQI Anglicans: “I’m saying we stand together in the same position at the foot of the Cross. I’m not calling on anyone to do anything other than what I’m calling on us all to do, which is to welcome the loving lordship of Jesus in our lives.”
Asked if donating $1 million to the “no” campaign was a mistake, Mr Raffel says he doesn’t want to discuss the decision-making process. But “we wanted people to be informed about what we thought some of the issues were, and that costs money”.
This year’s census is likely to again show an increase in the number of Australians identifying as having no religion. Mr Raffel denies this arises from the church’s failure to move with the times.
“The parts of Anglicanism globally that have accommodated themselves to western secular culture are exactly the places where the church is weakest,” he says. “The places where there’s a robust confidence in God’s word, with a joyful but sacrificial commitment to discipleship and obedience to that word – those are the places where the church is most vibrant and growing.”
More recently, religious leaders have had to grapple with ethical questions over the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Some people of faith are concerned it was originally developed using aborted foetal cells from the 1970s.
The incoming Archbishop says it’s right to raise the concerns but still counsels people to take the vaccine, noting the abortion was not procured to extract foetal cells and, in any case, it was a long time ago.
“People who take the vaccine today are removed from significant responsibility for it and taking the vaccine is actually a good thing for other people around today,” he says. The 55-year-old is now eligible for the jab and says he will get it himself.
