The General Secretary of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia has written to confirm that Archbishop Geoffrey Smith of Adelaide has been elected as the next Primate of Australia.
Archbishop Smith was elected by a reconvened election panel who met by video conference earlier today. The full text of the letter is as follows:
The Most Reverend Geoffrey Smith, Archbishop of Adelaide, has been elected Primate by the Board of Electors.
He received the requisite majorities in each order of bishops, clergy and lay and has accepted this office in writing.
Archbishop Smith commences in the role immediately, given that Archbishop Philip Freier’s term as Primate concluded on 31 March 2020.
The Board of Electors commenced the voting process at a face to face meeting on 14 March 2020 and concluded the election process with an electronic ballot which “opened at 4.00pm AEST on Monday 6 April and closed at 4.00pm AEST on Tuesday 7 April 2020”.
Voting was as follows:
davidould.net understands that the election of Smith follows a decision to abstain by a number of those clergy who had previously voted for Bishop Condie of Tasmania.
The new Primate’s first task was to have been chairing the General Synod. That meeting has now been postponed until 2021. Attention will now turn to the Appellate Tribunal who will make a ruling on the Wangaratta and Newcastle dioceses’ decision to approve a blessing of persons in a same-sex marriage.
Bishop Richard Condie still had 6 votes. Not bad. Lets see what Geoffrey Smith will do.
Out of interest I looked up Geoffrey Smith’s Easter message on Youtube. There I discovered that he thinks ‘the darkness we are going through’ with the virus is like what Jesus suffered on Cross (!!!) and that because of this Jesus sympathises with our suffering. To further support of this contention he then quotes Hebrews 4:15. That was the end for me! I did not hang around to hear the remaining few minutes in case it got worse.
There is no time in this life for listening to biblical incompetents making elementary errors like that, even if they are wearing bishop’s robes. Hebrews 4:15 is about our predicament as sinners prone to temptation. It has nothing to do with allegedly ‘dark times’ we are going through this Easter because of the virus. Talk about a hopeless case! Anyone wondering what ails the Anglican church today need only subject themselves a few ghastly error-riddled Easter messages like this one to find the answer.