New Anglican leader sets church agenda

Or rather has agenda set for him by an ABC journalist, who is interested in the issue of sexuality....

EDMOND ROY: Now, one of the issues you will face is sexuality. You've said you're sympathetic to gay clergy and same sex unions, but you haven't actually come out and said anything about your personal stance, have you? Why's that?

PHILLIP ASPINALL: Well there may come a time when I judge it to be appropriate to do that Edmond, but I think that the deepest struggle we have as
a church at the moment is dealing with the polarisation that's gone on. The very
fracturing and isolating of one group from another that's going on in the world
around us is also happening in the church, and it's struggling with that issue,
I think, that is my top priority in that area.

EDMOND ROY: Now, you say you're trying to find a way forward, a compromise,
but the Sydney diocese in particular of your church, has said that there is no room here for discussion.

PHILLIP ASPINALL: Well I think there has to be discussion. I don't think we
can just pull up stumps and go our own way.That's the kind of fragmentation
where groups isolate themselves from each other because they disagree, which I
think spells disaster, not only for the church but for the wider community.I
think we have to keep talking, we have to get beneath the surface of these
things and find ways forward, and that will come through dialogue.