At Cross Purposes, Barney Zwartz, The Age, March 9, 2010

At Cross Purposes

By Barney Zwartz
The Age
March 9, 2010

http://www.theage.com.au/national/at-cross-purposes-20100308-psr2.html

"I don't think I've done anything that deserves me to be ejected from office": Bishop Ross Davies.

AT THE three-yearly parliaments of the Australian Anglican Church, clergy from The Murray are a distinctive and tightly knit group. They all dress entirely in black, except for the white dog collar, and call each other ''Father''.

At breakfast, the conversation starts: ''Good morning, Father.'' ''And you, Father.'' ''Did you sleep well, Father?'' ''Yes, thank you, Father.''

Led by their bantam fighting cock of a bishop, Ross Davies, their pride and their resentment are equally palpable: they believe they are the guardians of the true Anglican tradition, but feel increasingly marginalised in their own church.

The Murray represents the far end of Anglo-Catholicism, a once-powerful branch of Anglicanism that hopes ultimately to be reunited with the Roman Catholic Church from which they split in the 16th century. Most conservative Anglo-Catholics feel disenfranchised by the 1992 ordination of women priests in Australia - lacking the numbers, they have certainly been less conciliated than their counterparts in England - and many feel adrift in the modern church.

The tiny South Australian diocese of The Murray - with just 26 parishes, from suburban Adelaide to the Victorian border - has been their strongest bastion. It was created only 39 years ago, mainly to give South Australia a third diocese so it could be a province and the Bishop of Adelaide could become an archbishop. But now it is all unravelling - and publicly, with the other two South Australian bishops charging Davies with scandalous and disgraceful conduct. It is only the second time the charge has been brought against an Australian bishop, and it will be heard by the church's Special Tribunal - its Supreme Court - a three-strong panel of a judge, a bishop and a priest.

Across the border in Ballarat, another small but staunchly Anglo-Catholic diocese, there are problems too, with complaints against Bishop Michael Hough from clergy and laypeople being heard by the church's Episcopal Standards Commission.

Some senior Anglicans believe turmoil in these two ultra-conservative dioceses are the canary down the mine for the Australian church, highlighting areas in which it may be dysfunctional.

In The Murray, the remarkable unity has evaporated. Davies lives outside its boundaries in Adelaide and worships in a Catholic church, while still maintaining he is actively the bishop and drawing a stipend. Many of the black-clad clergy have fallen victim to infighting and episcopal displeasure. And now the axe has fallen dramatically on its bishop.

Last month, Adelaide Archbishop Jeff Driver and Willochra Bishop Garry Weatherill lodged a 17-page charge of disgraceful and scandalous conduct in the Anglican Special Tribunal.

The catalogue of complaints - more than 108 particulars in nine separate complaints - is astonishing and extraordinarily wide-ranging. Davies told The Age that he intends to defend himself.

According to his fellow bishops, Davies has protected and promoted a senior priest accused of sexual abuse against a number of women, impeding investigations and trying to intimidate investigators, making inappropriate appointments and acting as the priest's support person at meetings.

They say he improperly influenced the composition of the diocesan council to get a financial advantage - in other words, he tried to stack it with supporters to approve a payout (understood to be more than $1 million) though he has no ''legal, moral, or other entitlement to the money'', and also to get the council to revoke its decision not to pay his legal fees in pursuit of the payout.

According to the charge document, which The Age obtained from Channel Seven Adelaide, Davies avoided his duties as bishop and disparaged his own church, telling some clergy he no longer believed in the Anglican Church or faith, only the Catholic Church, which he would join if and when he got the payout.

It says he aligned himself with the a dissident group that rejected the Anglican Church after it ordained women in 1992, the Traditional Anglican Communion, and improperly helped consecrate two of their bishops. He has granted two dissident bishops licences to officiate in The Murray, though they are not ''in communion'' with the Anglican Church.

It says he lives outside the diocese in Adelaide where he worships in a Catholic church with his wife and family while several parishes in his own diocese do not have access to a priest, that he is not exercising proper pastoral care, and that he took a year's sick leave while refusing to provide evidence of illness.

The document says the bishop ''threatened'' to stay until he is 70 (in 15 years) though he no longer wished to hold the office and no longer believed in the Anglican Church or faith and was no longer able or willing to provide for the spiritual needs of the diocese, just to get the payout.

Other charges include repeated displays of anger, involving threatening and abusive language, and events from two diocesan council meetings, in June and November last year.

After the diocesan council passed a vote of no confidence in the bishop and declined to pay his legal costs, he made a number of appointments and terminations to restore his supporters as the majority.

According to a leading laywoman in the diocese, Voice of the Laity founder Lee Lyons, he has managed to gain a majority by use of his own appointments, but the votes he wants are thwarted by lay members of the diocesan council who turn up at meetings then promptly depart, ensuring the council does not have a quorum, so cannot vote.

The Voice of the Laity has more bizarre accusations, including an allegation that Davies' wife, Christine, made a false complaint to police that she was harassed by a parishioner. The group has CCTV footage on its website that it says proves the allegation is groundless.

The bishop sabotaged his own idea for an Anglican school in Murray Bridge after the uniform committee rejected as impractical his wife's suggestions for a uniform dominated by red and featuring ''Peter Pan cuffs'', Lyons says.

''The bishop was most upset. He made a comment about how angry he was, and things started to go downhill from there.''

Lyons says the school board got a bank loan but was persuaded it should borrow money from the diocese. She has documents approving a $650,000 loan from the church. But when the board needed to make payments it was told ''feelings have changed, and the loan isn't available''.

''The bishop said he had a man who could guarantee $300,000 if the old board resigned. We thought, 'Well, it means the school will be built, so that's what we will do', but once the new board took over there was a steady decline and the building was sold.''

Davies told The Age he could not comment on the complaints because the matter was sub judice, but denied he had disparaged the church. ''Despite everything that's been said about me, I've never made any public statement against my church or the other bishops. While I'm a bishop, I'm honour-bound by the code and it would be dishonourable.

''I don't think I've done anything that deserves me to be ejected from office. I will be defending myself. I am still actively the bishop. I will remain an Anglican diocesan bishop.''

Davies says it is perfectly acceptable for Anglicans to believe that ultimately the church's destiny is to come into unity with the Catholic Church, and this has been the ambition of many Anglicans since the 19th century.

The bishop's supporters say that although he lives outside the diocese in Adelaide, he has compelling family reasons to do so. They point out that a third of the city falls within his diocese, and that nearly all the congregations of The Murray are ''just down the road''.

The turmoil among Anglo-Catholics is exacerbated by Pope Benedict's shock offer last October to create a special section, or ordinariate, within the Catholic Church whereby Anglo-Catholics can rejoin Rome while maintaining their distinctive Anglican identity and worship.

Talks have begun in Melbourne between the Catholic Church, the Traditional Anglican Communion, and Anglo-Catholics who remain within the Anglican Church, most of whom are members of a group called Forward in Faith. Melbourne Bishop Peter Elliott is representing the Catholic hierarchy. There seems little doubt there will be an Australian Anglican ordinariate, but it will take years.

Davies is a leading member of Forward in Faith, which had a momentous meeting at All Saints, Kooyong, last month. ''It's the biggest meeting we've ever had. That meeting took a significant and historic decision. They voted unanimously. It was a policy decision by the whole organisation to pursue the ordinariate,'' he says.

The Pope's offer, made without consulting the head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, upset the delicate equilibrium within the Anglican Church, already beset by other worldwide problems such as looming schism over gay and lesbian bishops.

''Rome's offer was a surprise. It was such a big surprise that it derailed the thinking of the Anglican Church,'' Davies says. He has yet to decide whether to stay an Anglican or leave for Rome, but many parishioners in The Murray think he is eager to get a payout and leave before the Special Tribunal can hear his case.

Outsiders are watching with great interest, not only because it is a juicy case with plenty of human interest, but because it may have ramifications for the wider church.

''Is it just one bad apple, or is it a systemic problem with bishops?'' is how a senior Anglican layman posed the question.

When it comes to complaints about bullying levelled at bishops Davies and Hough, it may be that they are only a bit more peremptory than many Anglican bishops have been. But, according to the senior Anglican, the context in both dioceses is that the church has become ''seismic'' about sex abuse and bullying. Clergy and church workers can quickly be called before diocesan directors of professional standards if they are thought to transgress - but bishops have been largely immune.

''It's very hard to sort out problems with a bishop. This isn't Rome, where the Pope can move bishops at will. They are not up for review, they don't have a term limit on their contract, they are there till they are 70. Diocesan bishops enjoy considerable autonomy,'' the leading layman said.

''What we have counted on is the goodwill and good sense of the bishop. If you give them that much autonomy, you have to rely on their good sense and goodwill. If you love the church, even if you think you are right, you don't put the church through this.''