Aspinall warns Jensen

THE head of the Australian Anglican Church, Phillip Aspinall, has warned a breakaway conservative faction that its members risked a legal battle if they tried to overstep the laws of the church.

Speaking on ABC Radio last night, Dr Aspinall said he was saddened by the rift and disappointed by the Sydney Archbishop's boycott of the forthcoming meeting of church leaders at Lambeth, and said the rebels' actions added to "confusion and chaos" in the church.

With less than a week until the arrival of the Pope, he also expressed reservations about new police powers to fine people considered to be annoying World Youth Day pilgrims.

"I think we should only restrict the individual freedoms of people … when there's a very good reason … so I would have some concern about some of the reports I've heard about the laws. I think perhaps inadvertently trying to contain things too tightly may well provoke an opposite reaction."

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans was formed last week to create a rival primate's council and support bishops of breakaway congregations who disagree with the US church's liberal stand on homosexual clergy and same-sex blessings. Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney, has emerged as one of its leading lights.

Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed Dr Aspinall the official main spokesman for the Lambeth Conference, so the two high-profile heads of the Australian Anglican Church are now the public faces for two rival positions.

Dr Aspinall said the Anglican Church was a "large welcoming house in which there is room for people who hold different views".

Despite Dr Jensen's assurances that the rebels did not want to split the church, Dr Aspinall warned that "everybody should stick to the rules" because "once you get into court cases" over property "there are no winners".

 Aspinall warns Jensen
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia