Posted on 07/09/2005 8:59:43 AM PDT by sionnsar
Main Entry: pri'mate
Etymology: Middle English primat, from Old French, from Medieval Latin primat-, primas archbishop, from Latin, leader, from primus
Date: 13th century
1 often capitalized : a bishop who has precedence in a province, group of provinces, or a nation
2 archaic : one first in authority or rank : LEADER
3 [New Latin Primates, from Latin, plural of primat-, primas] : any of an order (Primates) of mammals comprising humans, apes, monkeys, and related forms (as lemurs and tarsiers)
-pri'mate-ship \-*ship\ noun
--pri-ma'tial \pr*-*m*-sh*l\ adjective
The Archbishop of Brisbane, the Most Rev Phillip Aspinall, has been elected Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia in Sydney today.
The General Synod’s Board of Electors, comprised of all diocesan bishops along with 12 elected clergy and 12 elected laity, selected Archbishop Aspinall from a wide range of candidates including Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev Peter Jensen.
Archbishop Aspinall will hold office until the next General Synod, to be held in 2007.
As Primate, he will chair the General Synod and represent the Australian church to the general public and in a number of Anglican Communion forums.
Archbishop Aspinall will continue to fulfil his duties as Archbishop of Brisbane as the position of Primate is not a full-time one.
He will hold his first media conference as Primate at the Chevalier Resource Centre in Kensington, Sydney at 3PM tomorrow.
Full details of his appointment can be found by visiting media releases.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Irregular bishops under threat
Deposing bishop Aspinall
Archbishop Philip Aspinall of Brisbane (Australia) has deprived a priest from his benefice, saying the Rt. Rev. David Chislett may not hold episcopal orders in a continuing Anglican Church and remain rector of All Saints’ Church, Wickam Terrace. Bishop Chislett and the Rt. Rev. David Moyer were consecrated bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) Feb. 16 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, Pa., by 10 bishops including two active Anglicans: the Rt. Rev. Ross Davies of The Murray (Australia) and the Rt. Rev. Maternus Kapinga of Ruvuma (Tanzania). At the close of the Rosemont service, Bishop Davies licensed the two as assisting bishops of The Murray.
Deposed bishop Chislett
Condemning bishop Bennison
The Bishop of Pennsylvania, the Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr., condemned the consecrations saying they were invalid, as only two Anglican bishops had laid hands on Fr. Moyer and Fr. Chislett. The diocese has yet to make another move against Good Shepherd’s property. In 2002, Bishop Bennison deposed Fr. Moyer for “abandoning the communion” of the Church. The bishop’s actions are the subject of continuing litigation in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas.
Writing to the Brisbane clergy on May 24, Archbishop Aspinall stated that Fr. Chislett, vice-chairman of Forward in Faith Australia, had been removed from office as a rector under the Benefices Avoidance Canon. His consecration in a continuing church was “fundamentally inconsistent with his position within the Anglican Church.” While noting the April 7 tribunal examining 0the matter was “unreserved in accepting that Fr. Chislett has acted genuinely to heal the pain and sorrow” experienced by opponents of the ordination of women and that he had acted in good faith to resolve “the perceived lack of alternative episcopal oversight” afforded to those whose conscience could not accept women’s priestly orders, Archbishop Aspinall argued that the unresolved divisions within the Church on this issue could only be resolved “within the structures of this Church, and not outside of them.”
The decision to depose him, Bishop Chislett wrote to his churchwardens on May 24, was an abuse “natural justice” that threatened all clergy, irrespective of theological stripe. “It is clear,” he noted, “that the archbishop’s action is not based on any perceived dishonesty on my part, or on my contravening of the constitution, canons, rules or regulations of the Anglican Church of Australia in the Diocese of Brisbane. Rather it is based on an entirely subjective interpretation of what is “grave cause,” to use the language of the Benefices Avoidance Canon.” [Living Church 31/05/05]
I caught hint of that later. I never liked the situation Chislett got into, though -- and it's explicitly prohibited in our canons.
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