Anglican Archbishop condemns unification plan

Update on the unification plan: Obviously it was a media beat up on a slow news day, but the response from Sydney Anglicans have been measured and informative - note the following short interview of Peter Jensen on the 7:30 Report - and the excerpts I have taken deal with the "doctrinal" issues rather than the bureaucratic / institutional ones:

On the Nature of the Church

KERRY O'BRIEN: Archbishop Jensen, can you imagine a day when Anglicans and Roman Catholics are united as one church?

PETER JENSEN, ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY: No, Kerry, not this side of Heaven. In Heaven, we'll all be one church.

....

KERRY O'BRIEN: Why?

PETER JENSEN: Because there's no need for it. The churches are really big institutions, denominations. They have grand histories, that's fine, but they're not the real Church. There's one real Church that all Christians now belong to and although there is some use in, perhaps, denominational mergers from time to time, I don't really see any need for the churches to unite in that way.

(alluding to the Church invisible vs visible, and the conflation of the Roman Church with the former as Augustine's City of God on earth)

....

On Papal Authority

KERRY O'BRIEN: How hard would it be for the Anglican church to accept one central authority, that is, the Pope?

PETER JENSEN: If I said impossible, that's what's on my mind. It is impossible. There may be some Anglicans who would, Anglicanism is a very big body of people, but not the Anglican Church that I know, because we deliberately made the decision, hundreds of years ago, that there was one head of the church, Jesus Christ, and not the Pope and that's why we are not part of the Roman Catholic church

Later...

"...But the sort of rethink which says that somehow the Pope of Rome is going to be in charge of all Christians, never."

(Perhaps Kerry (and Anglicans!) should consult the 39 Articles to see the approach to the authority of the Bishop of Rome)

Later...

"It's not a matter of being biased against Roman Catholics, but it is a matter of deep principle with us. We'd prefer to say, you become Anglicans."

and so on..

On Objective Truth

"Christians are a little bit odd in today's world. We actually believe in objective truth, which makes us awkward. It makes us awkward with each other, too, but I think that's a testimony worth fighting for."

(Something Kerry should be pleased to hear considering as a journalist he should be interested in matters of truth - unless the ABC is going the same way as Channel 7, for example.)

....

On Protestantism and Biblical Authority

PETER JENSEN: We do have one central authority, that's the Bible. What we have is a lot of people who interpret the Bible, which is perfectly right. Each of us is accountable for interpreting the Bible. That's our central authority. Now, that is the way that God rules his Church. That leads to all sorts of differences of opinion. It is called Protestantism, and I'm actually in favour of it. I think it's a good thing in the modern world.

(One the one hand Kerry devil's advocates in favour of a merger, but is trumped by this postmodernist-flavoured appeal to diversity.

On the nature of the Bible

KERRY O'BRIEN: Isn't the Bible itself an imperfect document?

PETER JENSEN: I would say it isn't, but that would be a very interesting discussion that you and I could have.

....

All in all a very adroitly handled and neat little summary of most of the major issues here. Worth watching further.