Sydney has a new Archbishop

For broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 11 Aug 2013.

After a long and passionately engaged process, Sydney has a new Anglican Archbishop.  On Tuesday night, a synod of more than 800 members from 280 churches across the region overwhelmingly elected Dr Glenn Davies, currently Bishop of North Sydney, as the 12th Archbishop of Sydney.

In his first public statement following the vote, Dr Davies said he intended to use his new role to lobby the federal government to treat asylum seekers with more dignity and humanity.  He said his church needed to:

call upon the Government to act with compassion and care for people who are made in the image of God, regardless of their ethnic origin [or] religious affiliation…

Part of God’s gift is to be able to be creative and to do things.  If you’re just sitting in a detention centre, that’s demoralising and demeaning.

Dr Davies will be officially inaugurated Archbishop at St Andrew’s Cathedral on Friday August 23.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.