Jenan Taylor
13 September 2022
The newly formed Diocese of the Southern Cross has announced that it will be forming a second parish, which will be located in Brisbane.
GAFCON executive officer and DSC spokesperson Michael Kellahan has confirmed that another Queensland DSC congregation had been announced.
Former Brisbane diocese rector the Reverend Peter Judge-Mears has resigned his position to take up the leadership of the second parish. He announced this in a letter to his church St John’s Wishart, published on its Facebook page.
Mr Judge-Mears told podcast the Pastor’s Heart that he would be leading Southside Anglican church in Brisbane.
Read more: Child safety measures to ‘expand’ as splinter diocese grows: GAFCON
Mr Judge-Mears told the congregation at St John’s Wishart he had been concerned at the widening division between received Anglican theology and the perspectives of the Brisbane diocese.
He said despite raising his disquiet with the Brisbane Archbishop Philip Aspinall, and despite Bishop Aspinall’s resignation, it had not been eased.
“I am concerned that the mission of Jesus with which we are charged should be delayed no longer,” he said.
Mr Judge-Mears told the Pastor’s Heart that he had been struggling with the need to separate from the Brisbane diocese since its Synod in June.
“It’s a decision that has affected the community in my church, that was tearing a church apart,” he said.
“The Church has felt like it’s been on hold, like someone had hit the pause button, and the mission of the Church feels like it’s been hijacked.”
Mr Judge-Mears said he had prayed that the pause button would be released and that as two communities the work of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus could continue.
The Diocese of Brisbane has been approached for comment.
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