Historical Synod Vote Sees Aboriginal Australians Enter Anglican Church Leadership

The Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, Australia will allow Aboriginal leaders to be represented at the Church body, following a vote this week.

Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen had supported the vote to accept two indigenous representatives who will be elected by community members.

Archbishop Jensen also had previously called for the Synod to provide a "good reception" for the ordinance.

Indigenous leaders celebrated as the vote was announced, and many of them stated that the decision was historical, as it means that for the first time Aboriginal people will be able to elect their own Anglican leaders and establish more indigenous churches and bigger congregations.

|QUOTE|Indigenous Australians have been locked out of Christian institutions for the past 218 years, said Ray Minniescon, Director of the Redfern Crossroads Aboriginal Community in Sydney, according to The Daily Telegraph in Australia.

Minniescon said, "Today I feel that God himself has opened the doors for us. It gives this Church an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and give indigenous people some glimpse of hope that this great message that they brought to our shores (that) would be one of grace and freedom, rather than the kind of message we have received over the last 218 years."

The decision means that leadership opportunities will now be opened up to the Aboriginal people within the Anglican community.

"It gives this Church a sense of huge dignity in this country now and our people a huge sense of dignity and pride," said Minniescon.

Jensen concluded that the Lord had "moved among us" in the creation of indigenous churches. "We can never forget the debt we owe to the first inhabitants of our land."