Interview: Peter Jenson

This article appeared in the Conference edition of the Church of England Newspaper on 22 September 2003 and is reproduced here with their permission.

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones

Billy Graham will not have known it at the time, but two boys who were in the audience at one of his 1950s crusades were so affected by what they heard, they have gone on to become hugely influential church leaders of their own.

The Most Rev Peter Jensen is the Archbishop of Sydney, and his brother, Philip, is now dean in the same diocese. The power of the message that converted Peter all those years ago is still very much the motivation behind his own missionary zeal.

Blackpool might be a long way from boomerangs and Aussies' beloved barbies, but the Australian Archbishop has come thousands of miles because he believes that a lot can be learned from the English Church.

"This conference renews my determination to continue the fundamental themes of Bible, cross and mission as central to our work," Dr Jensen says. And he has an incredibly bold vision for his diocese.

"Our aim is to have 10 per cent of people in the diocese in our churches in the next 10 years. It has really fired the imagination of people and forced us all to look at church differently, and has got the imaginations going."

NEAC's Fanning the Flame conference is adding extra impetus to the mission, he says, and he says it is very important for this country because it has brought so many evangelicals together, who he describes as the hope for the Church.

"The Church of England is faced in this country, as it is in Australia, with a massive missionary task and if NEAC can renew, revitalise and refocus the evangelicals on that task it will have achieved great things."

Dr Jensen is well aware of the context that the conference finds itself in: "It occurs at a crucial time, at a time when the Church worldwide is in unprecedented crisis and the Church of England has passed through some very difficult days."

In these difficult days, many evangelicals in this country have looked all the way to Australia for leadership, and have been encouraged by his messages of support. As a great champion of their cause, he has taken a special interest in the dissenting parishes in Vancouver and then Oxford, who had deep grievances over the liberal agendas being pursued by their bishops.

There have been rumours that the Archbishop could be asked to provide alternative episcopal oversight to the orthodox parishes, but he said that these are completely groundless claims and that he had no intention of interfering with English concerns.

Yet, he then pointed out that Sydney has a long association of giving episcopal help to the Church in South Africa, adding, "Such things, in a theoretical world, are always conceivable, but I would expect the English to settle their own problems."

The difficult days for the English Church and the rest of the Communion are by no means over. The crisis meeting of Primates in October has come too late to stop the Church from fragmenting, he says. "There is a re-alignment going on independent of any meeting in October. In New Westminster about 10 parishes are already out of communion with their bishop and they have received the support of the Bishop of Yukon. The [October] meeting is not going to be the be-all and end-all of such a re-alignment. The re-alignment has begun."

While he may be conservative on the homosexual debate, his views on lay presidency are radical and present a further threat to the unity of the Anglican Communion.

"It is perfectly clear that the vast majority of the clergy and laity in the Diocese have no theological objections to lay administration [of the sacraments]. As to when it will happen, that remains to be seen."

There are plenty of other things keeping the Archbishop busy, which he takes seriously and sees as a great responsibility: "The job of the Archbishop is to teach God's people and to be responsible for the appointment and nurturing of other ministers of the Gospel."