The Diocese of Sydney is a diocese in Sydney, within the Province of New South Wales of the Anglican Church of Australia. The majority of the diocese is evangelical and low church in tradition.
The diocese goes as far as Lithgow in the west and the Hawkesbury River in the north, and it includes much of the New South Wales south coast. It encompasses Australia's largest city as well as the city of Wollongong, and includes Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. It is, geographically, among the larger Anglican dioceses in the world, though the smallest diocese in the state of New South Wales and one of the smaller dioceses in Australia. By attendance, it is also by far the largest diocese in the Anglican Church of Australia; in 2011, its 58,300 weekly attenders accounted for 37.6 percent of the Anglican Church's weekly attendance of 155,000, and in 2015, the diocese's 688 active clergy accounted for 28.1 percent of the active clergy across the church. As of 2023, the diocese reported that 48,000 adults, or about one percent of the total population in its boundaries, regularly attend services at Diocese of Sydney churches.
Kanishka Raffel, formerly Dean of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney since 4 February 2016, was elected as Archbishop of Sydney on 6 May 2021, and was consecrated and installed in that position on 28 May 2021.
History Foundations Richard Johnson The Anglican ministry has been present in Sydney since its foundation in 1788. An Evangelical cleric, Richard Johnson, was the first chaplain to the new colony of New South Wales and was sponsored by the London Missionary Society. Other chaplains, notably Samuel Marsden and William Cowper, were also sent. Their positions were unusual as their stipends were paid partly by the colonial government and some (Marsden among them) received large grants of land from the governor of the colony. Some (again including Marsden) were also magistrates. The early chaplains (Johnson and Marsden) were under the authority of the governor, as per their commissions. In 1802, Governor King declared the Parish of St. Phillip's Sydney (later named St Philip's Church, Sydney, after the Apostle) and St. John's Parramatta, (later St John's Cathedral, Parramatta) and 'that the churches now building at Sydney and Parramatta be named Saint Phillip and Saint John.'
Thomas Hobbes Scott In 1825 Thomas Hobbes Scott the former secretary to J. T. Bigge, the commissioner of the inquiry into the administration of the colony of New South Wales by Governor Lachlan Macquarie, was appointed the first Archdeacon of Australia while still under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Calcutta. The archdeaconry was created as a corporation sole.
In his position as archdeacon, Scott was a member of the Legislative Council (ranking next behind the Lieutenant Governor) and had almost complete control of all church matters. The Colonial Office appointed him King's Visitor to schools and so he became responsible for public education throughout the colony. His educational policy was guided by the principle that the church and education were inseparably connected and the funds to sustain them were administered by the same trustees. Since this view was shared by the Colonial Office, the governor Bathurst, in March 1826, created the Corporation of the Trustees of Church and School Lands, granting one-seventh of the lands of New South Wales to the corporation for the purposes of the Church of England and education in the colony. Scott became the ex officio Vice-President (the President being the Governor.)
It was mainly the combination of Archdeacon Scott's official positions as a member of the Legislative Council, as King's Visitor and also as Vice-President of the Corporation of Church and School Lands and of the substantial nature of the granting of the lands to the Corporation that led to Courts later holding that at this time the Church of England was the established church in the Colony of New South Wales. Scott retired in 1829 and was succeeded by William Grant Broughton. Scott was shipwrecked while returning to England and assisted the Anglican ministry in the new colony of Western Australia and then in establishing a Church of England chaplaincy in Batavia in the then Dutch East Indies.
William Grant Broughton
William Grant Broughton succeeded Scott in 1828. During the time that Broughton was the archdeacon the corporation was abolished and the Church of England lost its favoured place and other Christian churches were also awarded glebe land in towns in the colony. Unlike in England, the Church of England was never 'established' in New South Wales.
The Diocese of Australia was formed by letters patent dated 18 January 1836 and Broughton was enthroned as Bishop of Australia on 5 June 1836. He then lost the ex officio position on the Legislative Council (though regaining it briefly later before the creation of a partly elected council in 1842). He continued an education policy and established The King's School, Sydney.
Formation of the diocese The Diocese of Tasmania separated from the Diocese of Australia in 1842. In 1842 (after the erections of New Zealand and Tasmania dioceses), its jurisdiction was described as "Australia, Norfolk Island" (but not "Van Diemen's Land") or "New South Wales, Port Phillip (i.e. Victoria), Norfolk Island, South Australia". By letters patent of 25 June 1847, the Diocese of Australia was divided into the four separate dioceses of Sydney, Adelaide, Newcastle and Melbourne. Broughton remained as Bishop of Sydney; he became metropolitan bishop and the Diocese of Sydney recognised as the metro-political see over Newcastle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Tasmania and New Zealand. The Diocese of Sydney has been led by an archbishop since 1897.
Moore Theological College
The diocese initially relied upon priests and bishops who were trained in and had migrated from England and Ireland. Broughton had attempted to found a theological college but it closed in 1849. In 1856, Moore Theological College opened, the official theological college (seminary) for Sydney Anglicans. Since that time it has grown in size and stature. In 2006 it had in excess of 450 students, many of whom end up in ministry outside the ecclesiastical and geographical boundaries of the Sydney diocese.
Anglican Church League Since the beginning of the 20th century, Evangelicals within the diocese were concerned about growing Anglo-Catholicism and Modernism within the church and fought very hard to preserve Sydney's Evangelical nature—especially as Tractarian clergy had started arriving from England in the 19th century. Out of this came the Anglican Church League, a body of Evangelicals who worked in the politics of the diocese to further the Evangelical cause. Currently, all bishops and most senior officeholders in the diocese are members of the Anglican Church League.
Anglicans Together In response to the dominance of Evangelicalism and Calvinism in the diocese, a number of other Anglicans and parishes identified with different Anglican traditions of churchmanship, such as Anglo-Catholicism and Broad Church, have joined in the formation of an organisation called Anglicans Together. The organisation supports traditional forms of Anglican liturgy, such as the Book of Common Prayer, as well as encouraging a broader spectrum of theological perspective. Members of Anglicans Together also support celebrating the Eucharist every Sunday and its focus as the principal form of Christian worship. The use of vestments for clergy and an emphasis on the Catholic nature of Anglicanism are also supported.
Characteristics of Sydney Anglicanism
Evangelical distinctives Most Sydney Anglicans stand within the evangelical English Puritan traditions. Evangelicals within the diocese see themselves as standing in the heritage of the English Reformation and direct the diocese accordingly. As such the diocese officially holds to belief in the divine inspiration and authority of scripture in line with the official statement of Anglican belief, the "Articles of Religion" (more commonly known as the Thirty-Nine Articles). There are, however, a number of beliefs that differentiate the Evangelicalism of the Diocese of Sydney from other Evangelical traditions:
Typological interpretation of the Old Testament—a biblical theological approach which interprets Old Testament prophecies regarding the Land of Israel, the Jerusalem Temple and the Davidic Kingdom as having a typological rather than literal fulfilment in the New Covenant; thus rejecting dispensationalism but supportive of Christian Zionism, of which the first is more characteristic of American Evangelicalism. This approach is described by Graeme Goldsworthy, a Sydney theologian, in his book According to Plan.Goldsworthy, Graeme. According to Plan. Intervarsity Press, 1991 Identification of church with the local congregation as opposed to a diocese or denomination.See Sydney's ecclesiology, influenced by the former Principal and Vice-Principal of Moore College David Broughton Knox and Donald Robinson (later respectively Principal of George Whitefield College and Archbishop of Sydney) among others, believes that the church is God's people meeting around God's Word.See for example, This leads to church meetings being centred around the public reading, explanation and response to God's Word. Further, Anglicans in Sydney generally identify themselves primarily with their local congregation rather than a denomination or institution, and place less emphasis on the celebration of Holy Communion (called the Eucharist by many Anglicans) than do Anglicans of many other dioceses. The importance of evangelism and a personal faith.
Sydney Anglicans have been described as fundamentalist and sect-like by their opponents. They respond by arguing that whereas fundamentalists interpret all parts of the Bible literally Evangelicals in Sydney interpret the Bible in the context of the literary genre.
Affiliation with Anglican doctrine For most of the last 450 years Anglicans worldwide have used the Book of Common Prayer framed by Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer in 1549, revised significantly in 1552 and modified slightly in 1662. They have also subscribed to, or otherwise acknowledged as foundational, the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion as listed in the Book of Common Prayer. While the Book of Common Prayer is no longer used in many Sydney churches, the diocese still fully affirms the doctrine and principles embodied within it as they interpret them. In keeping with the theologically reformed character of the 39 Articles, the diocese holds the view that all church doctrine and traditions are subject to the authority of Scripture.
Disassociation from Anglican tradition
There are some areas of church practice that are being challenged within the diocese that have potential ramifications for the wider Anglican Communion. The system of episcopal order is under review with some eager to redefine some of the roles of the threefold order of deacons, priests and bishops.
The diocese is considering whether the laying on of hands at confirmation could be performed by the rector of the parish. Although confirmation by a priest is common practice in Orthodoxy and is permitted in certain circumstances in Roman Catholicism, in the Anglican tradition confirmation can only be celebrated by a bishop. In 2005, possibly as a precursor to this change, the diocese formally removed the requirement of confirmation prior to partaking of communion for those who have been baptised as adults. However, it is common practice throughout the diocese to allow all adults who profess genuine repentance and Christian faith to receive communion regardless of whether they have been baptised or confirmed.