Day: June 19, 2023

The Mooloolaba Eight: sexuality, ethics, and church practice

Regular readers of my blog will know that, from time to time, I leave my natural environment of detailed exegetical exploration of biblical texts, and move into matters of church practice or issues of key concern in the wider society—even, at times, into politics.

This blog is such a venture, written in response to the news that on 17 June 2023, eight people who had been ordained as Uniting Church ministers and who for years have exercised ministry in Uniting Churches, have now joined the Diocese of Southern Cross Inc. (I will refer to this as the DSC in what follows.) What follows is entirely my own point of view, and I do not claim to be speaking for any part of then Uniting Church in this blog.

That “Diocese”—to be precise, it is an incorporated company that has taken an ecclesiastically-sounding title—is related to GAFCON, the breakaway group of Anglicans who have grown increasingly dissatisfied with the worldwide Anglican Communion, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The critical issue for GAFCON (indeed, the only issue, it seems) is homosexuality. GAFCON (the Global Anglican Future Conference) has been vehement in its criticism of the Anglican Church as a collection of issues in this area have been considered. Some GAFCON leaders from African countries have indeed supported the introduction of the death penalty in that country in some instances of homosexual practice.

The eight “former Uniting Church ministers” who have joined the DSC are all firmly convinced that the practice of homosexual sex is abhorrent, that gay people (broadly understood) are perpetual sinners, and that the church needs to take a strong stand, condemning same-gender relationships and writing that point of view into the doctrine and practices of the church. (None of them, I should hasten to add, have called for the death penalty to be imposed.)

The Uniting Church has consistently refused to do as they have wished in relation to homosexuality; their most recent spectacular failure was the efforts to derail the national Assembly meeting in Melbourne in 2018. This was the meeting where, despite the blocking tactics and argumentative strategy of members of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations—what I have described as their “aggressive apologetic antagonism”—the UCA Assembly agreed that same gender couples could be married under the auspices of the Uniting Church.

These eight people left the Uniting Church to join the DSC in a ceremony held at Mooloolaba, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, that “recognised” them as Pastors in the DSC. What precise status that gives them is unclear; they cannot be seen as ordained Anglican ministers, since Anglican ordination require connection to the episcopal line of tradition, which Uniting Church ordinations do not have, at least in their eyes.

The Facebook page for the Diocese of Southern Cross proclaims that Faith Church Sunshine Coast and Hedley Fihaki were welcomed to the Diocese of the Southern Cross. Hedley Fihaki, of course, is the former chairperson of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations in the Uniting Church, which recently caved in on itself and closed. The ACC is no more. Hedley and his companions are seeking a new base.

Glenn Davies and Hedley Fihaki

So the Mooloolaba Eight left the Uniting Church. It is rather ironic that their service of “recognition” was presided over by Glenn Davies, the former Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. Whilst he was still Archbishop in Sydney, he had invited members of the Anglican Church who disagreed with Sydney Diocese policy about sexuality, to “please leave”. The Mooloolaba Eight left their church to join a breakaway group headed by the person who said “please leave”. How ironic!

The Facebook post continues: “As well as being commissioned as pastor of Faith Church, Hedley was formally recognised by Bishop Glenn Davies as a presbyter in the diocese along with seven other former Uniting Church ministers who have chosen to join us in the Diocese of the Southern Cross. Welcome to Philip Anderson, David Graham, Anne Hibbard, Roger Hibbard, Raymond McIlwraith, Lulu Senituli, and Harold Strong.”

I have to confess that I know and have had interactions with six of the eight people identified in this post—some as members of the same council of the church, some through online conversations, some as colleagues in ministry in placements in the same synod as me, and one who I taught whilst they were in theological college. (A wise colleague has helpfully reminded me that, in line with Ezekiel 18, the sins of the student should not be attributed to or visited on the teacher!)

Some of those who were “recognised” this past weekend have been aggressive in their pursuit of their homophobic agenda, for years, whilst in the Uniting Church. This has been a very bad thing for the Uniting Church, because much energy and effort has been diverted from the core matters of importance in the church, to attempt to placate and include those who prosecuted this strident line. Now that they have moved on, the UCA can hopefully return to key matters of mission and ministry unhindered by such regressive views and the associated intrusive aggressive tactics.

There are interesting questions of church order now to be explored. Presumably, the eight people have or will resigned from their status as ordained ministers within the Uniting Church. My understanding is that two of them have already been engaged in processes within the Uniting Church over the past year, in this regard. But the move to the DSC must surely mark the time when they each formally resign from the Uniting Church.

The DSC itself is a curious beast. There is debate amongst Anglicans as to whether this is “a real diocese” or not. I have seen a direct statement that “this is a real Anglican diocese”, but also a similarly definitive claim that “this is not an entity in fellowship with the Anglican Church in Australia”, and so not actually an Anglican diocese. That’s all a matter for Anglican polity nerds, though.

What interests me more is how the eight who were “formally recognised as presbyters” will portray themselves and act in ministry. Will they simply continue as if they remain ordained? If the DSC is acting like an Anglican entity, their ordination as Uniting Church ministers will not be recognised—no bishop, in the line of apostolic succession, laid hands on them at their ordination, and so they technically are not to be regarded as ordained. That’s how I understand it, from my non-Anglican standpoint; but it will be interesting to see what eventuates.

The other element is the curious fact, commented on by some of my Facebook friends, that the person who “recognised” the eight people at Mooloolaba on 17 June was Glenn Davies, who was previously Archbishop of the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church. This diocese has fought long and hard, over many years, to oppose the ordination of women.

Yet the former Archbishop of Sydney, who so strenuously opposed the ordination of women in that role, has seemingly validated the ordained ministry of the one woman in the Mooloolaba Eight. It will be interesting to see how this is dealt with.

Apparently the DSC, being affiliated with the schismatic GAFCON within the Anglican Church, is nevertheless open to women ministers. Indeed, the first GAFCON-affiliated congregation in Western Australia, New Beginnings Church in Mandurah, Western Australia, has an ordained female minister, the Rev. Linley MatthewsWant, who is an Anglican minister.

Glenn Davies with Linley MatthewsWant in Mandurah, WA

So the irony is that the former leader of the aggressively anti-women’s ordination push is now the leader of an organisation with ordained female in ministry. Isn’t that a telling revelation as to the ethics of Glenn Davies? Either he really believes in the ordination of women, but put this to one side while he was in the Sydney Diocese; or else he has shelved the firm commitment that he had in the past for entirely pragmatic reasons in the present. Neither option indicates a good grasp of ethical responsibility, in my view.

So what next for the Mooloolaba Eight? We will just have to see where this leads next …

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On the end of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations, see

The end of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations and, hopefully, their aggressive apologetic antagonism

My previous posts on the various evangelical/fundamentalist groups in the UCA are at

Ramping up the rhetoric, generating guilt and provoking panic: the failed strategy of conservatives in the UCA (part I)
Ramping up the rhetoric, generating guilt and provoking panic: the failed strategy of conservatives in the UCA (part II)
Ramping up the rhetoric, generating guilt and provoking panic: the failed strategy of conservatives in the UCA (part III)

For the various affirmations that the Uniting Church Assembly has made that led the church to agree to the marriage of people of the same gender, see

Seven Affirmations

Psalm 86: a primer of prayer (Pentecost 4A) part II

Psalm 86 is offered by the lectionary for this coming Sunday, the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. This psalm comprises a string of prayers, offering petition, thanksgiving, adoration, and intercession, filled with phrases that occur in other psalms and prayers in Hebrew Scripture. Although some commentators have criticised it for being unoriginal, it serves an important purpose, collating many phrases that can serve well those who pray.

In an earlier blog, I considered the structure of this psalm, and explored three types of prayers that are to be found in it: thanksgiving, adoration, and intercession. See

Psalm 86: a primer of prayer (Pentecost 4A) part I

In this blog, I turn my attention to the petitions that are included in this psalm. The opening section (verses 1–7) includes a substantial collection of petitions to be prayed in times of trouble. Along with the further petitions in verse 11 and verses 16–17, there are a total of eleven petitions to God in this psalm. Let’s consider each of them in turn.

“Incline your ear, O Lord” (v.1) is a request made in other psalms (Ps 17:6; 31:2; 71:2; 88:2; 102:2); in one psalm, there is a confidence that God “will hear the desire of the meek … will strengthen their heart … will incline your ear to do justice” (10:17–18). Likewise, a number of psalms include the request for God to “answer me” (v.1; see Ps 4:1; 13:3; 27:7; 55:2; 69:13, 16, 17; 102:2; 108:6; 119:145; 143:1, 7). In one psalm the author affirms that “I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God” (Ps 17:6); likewise, in Ps 86, the psalmist affirms with confidence that “in the day of my trouble I call on you, for you will answer me” (v.7).

In the same verse, the psalmist describes themselves: “I am poor and needy” (v.1)—a self-description also offered at Ps 40:17; 70:5; and 109:22. The phrase is placed in parallel with “the downtrodden” at Ps 74:21. That God stands with the poor and needy is asserted regularly in the psalms; “because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now rise up, says the Lord; I will place them in the safety for which they long” (Ps 12:5).

So God “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap” (Ps 113:7); God “maintains the cause of the needy and executes justice for the poor” (Ps 140:12). “As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me; you are my help and my deliverer, O God” (Ps 40:17; also 70:5). And the psalmist pleads that the king will “judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice … defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy” (Ps 72:2, 4)

“Preserve my life” is the next petition (v.2), echoing the same prayer found at Ps 64:1; 79:11; 119:49, 159; 143:11; a prayer made on the basis that God is “a hiding place for me [for] you preserve me from trouble” (Ps 32:7), for “though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies” (Ps 138:7).

The psalmist undergirds this request to God with the declaration, “I am devoted to you” (v.2), a phrase that might also be translated as “I am a godly person” or “I am a faithful person”. The Hebrew word used here, hasid, is the basis for the contemporary group of ultra-conservative Orthodox Jews known as Hasidic Jews. Many psalms uses this word as a description for those in Israel who were godly people (Ps 12:1; 52:1) or faithful people (Ps 4:3; 16:10; 30:4; 32:6; 37:28; 50:5; 52:9; 79:2; 85:8; 89:19; 97:10; 116:15; 132:9, 16; 145:10). The NRSV also translates this word as blameless (Ps 18:25) and as saints (Ps 31:23).

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The plea of the psalmist for God to “save” them (v.2) is another persistent refrain throughout the psalms—both “save me” (Ps 6:4; 7:1; 22:21; 31:2, 16; 44:6; 54:1; 57:3; 59:2; 69:1; 71:2, 3; 109:26, 116:4; 119:94, 146; 142:6; 143:9) and “save us” (Ps 28:9; 31:2; 80:2; 106:47; 118:25). This is a request grounded in the assurance that “God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart” (Ps 7:10); “the Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit” (Ps 34:18); God “fulfils the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry, and saves them” (Ps 145:19). Of course , God as Saviour is an important Hebraic way of understanding the divine, that then has implications and influence as the New Testament documents are written, centuries later.

The self-description of the psalmist in this verse, as “your servant who trusts in you” (v.2), is a description found also in verses 4 and 16. The writer presents themselves as God’s servant in a number of other psalms (Ps 19:11, 13; 27:9; 31:16; 35:27; 69:17; 109:28; 116:16; 143:2, 12) as well as twelve times in Psalm 119 (vv.17, 23, 38, 49, 65, 76, 84, 124, 125, 135, 140, 176).

The attitude of trust in God (v.2) is a stance which is shared with other psalms. “Those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you”, the psalmist sings (Ps 9:10). “O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me” (Ps 25:2), they sing, affirming that “steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord” (Ps 32:10), “happy are those who make the Lord their trust” (Ps 40:4), and “in God I trust; I am not afraid” (Ps 56:4; and similar, 55:23).

“Be gracious to me, O Lord” (v.3) is yet another petition that is typical of the psalms. The psalmist regularly implores God, “be gracious to me, for I am in distress” (Ps 31:9; similarly, 6:2; 9:13; 56:1), or “be gracious to me, and hear my prayer” (Ps 4:1), or “be gracious to me and answer me” (Ps 27:7), or simply, “be gracious to me” (Ps 25:16; 26:11; 30:10; 41:4).

In one song, the psalmist muses, “has God forgotten to be gracious?” (Ps 77:9), but in typical style, this cry of lament transforms into words of praise, for “you are the God who works wonders … with your strong arm you redeemed your people” (Ps 77:11–20). God showing grace towards God’s faithful people is indeed “your custom toward those who love your name” (Ps 119:132).

The cry for God to be gracious is a constant and insistent plea, “for to you do I cry all day long” (v.3). The cry of the psalmist is expressed often (Ps 3:4; 5:2; 17:1; 18:6; 27:7; 28:2; 39:12; 57:2; 61:1; 77:1; 88:1–2; 102:1; 119:146–147, 169; 120:1; 142:1, 5–6). Even though the psalmist cries to God “with my whole heart” (Ps 119:145), there are times when this cry feels futile; “I cry by day, but you do not answer me, and by night, but find no rest” (Ps 22:2), and “O Lord, I cry out to you; in the morning my prayer comes to you; why do you cast me off? why do you hide your face from me?” (Ps 88:13–14).

Yet the psalmist is persistent, crying “all day long” (v.3); this mirrors the oppression and distress experienced by the psalmists “all day long”. Various psalms reflect “sorrow in my heart all day long” (Ps 13:2), “groaning all day long” (Ps 32:3), “all day long I go around mourning” (Ps 38:6), “all day long I have been plagued” (Ps 73:14). “All day long my foes oppress me” (Ps 56:1), laments the psalmist, “all day long my enemies taunt me” (Ps 102:8), even bemoaning that “we are being killed all day long” (Ps 44:22). Extended personal distress seems to mark a number of psalms.

However, in other psalms, we have affirmations that “the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their cry” (Ps 34:15); “when the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears” (Ps 34:17); “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry” (Ps 40:1); “he regarded their distress when he heard their cry” (Ps 106:44). As the psalmist cries “out of the depths”, so they are assured that “with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him there is great power to redeem” (Ps 130:1–8).

The same dynamic, of calling out to God and anticipating an answer, is sung in the petition in v.6, “give ear, O Lord, to my prayer”. This is found in ten other psalms (Ps 5:1; 17:1; 39:12; 54:2; 55:1; 80:1; 84:8; 140:6; 141:1; 143:1), and the parallel request, “listen to my cry of supplication” (v.6) is also offered in two other psalms (Ps 5:2; 61:1).

The psalmist’s confidence that, “on the day of my trouble I call on you, for you will answer me” (v.7), is also reflected at Ps 17:6. This confidence is undergirded by the words spoken by God to those who trust in God: “those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name; when they call to me, I will answer them” (Ps 91:14–15).

Verse 11 moves from the offering of prayers and anticipation of receiving answers, to the request to “teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth”. The language here reflects another common element in the relationship between the psalmist and the divine, as a student learning from a teacher.

“Teach me” (v.11) is what the psalmist asks for, seeking to be taught “your ways … your paths … your truth” (Ps 25:4–5), “your way” (27:11; 143:8), “your will” (Ps 143:10), “the fear of the Lord” (Ps 34:11), and “wisdom in my secret heart” (Ps 51:6). Throughout the longest psalm of all, there are regular petitions for the Lord to teach “your statutes” (Ps 119:12, 26, 33, 64, 68, 124, 171) as well as “good judgement and knowledge” (Ps 119:66). The psalmists appear to be keen students, thirsting for knowledge.

The next request is for God to “give me an undivided heart” (v.11)—an unusual request, not found in any other psalm, and using a Hebrew word that appears in only two other places in Hebrew Scripture (Gen 49:6; Isa 14:20). The purpose of this request, “to revere your name” (v.11), draws on a very common Hebrew word, found often in the formulaic “do not be afraid” (Gen 15:1;21:17;26:24; 35:17;46:3; Exod 14:13; 20:20; etc.; and on into New Testament texts). This is no fear in the sense of negative terror, for the psalmist clearly draws on the positive sense of the verb, yare’, to indicate a reverence towards God.

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In the final set of verses, there are three further petitions worthy of note. “Turn to me and be gracious to me” (v.16) is a petition repeated exactly (Ps 25:16; 119:132) and in shortened form, “turn to me” (Ps 69:16; 119:79). “Give your strength to your servant” (v.16) recalls the closing verse of a powerful nature psalm, “may the Lord give strength to his people! may the Lord bless his people with peace!” (Ps 29:11). The latter part of verse 16, “save the child of your serving girl”, echoes the petition of verse 2, “save your servant who trusts in you”, which we have dealt with above.

Finally, “show me a sign of your favour” (v.17) does not reflect any other psalm, but does evoke the petition of Gideon to the Lord, “now I have found favour with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me” (Judg 6:17).

The purpose of this sign which is sought by the psalmist, “so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame” (v.17), does however reflect a common request across a number of psalms, pleading for enemies to be “put to shame” (Ps 6:10; 31:17; 35:4, 26; 40:14; 50:5: 57:3; 70:2; 71:13, 24; 83:17; 97:7;109:28; 119:78; 129:5). The other side of this petition is the request, “do not let me be put to shame” (Ps 25:2, 20; 31:1, 17; 71:1; 119:31, 116).

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And so we can see that throughout this psalm, in offering petition, thanksgiving, adoration, and intercession, the psalmist has made use of many phrases that occur in other psalms and prayers in Hebrew Scripture. This psalm, a primer for prayer, serves an important purpose, as it draws together many phrases that can serve well those who pray.