Melbourne Anglicans face a dilemma. They must decide whether to obey state laws or the teachings of the Bible.
Their diocese demands that members sign a Code of Conduct that among many other rules, agrees not to seek to change or suppress a child’s gender — as dictated by Victoria’s conversion laws under the Change Or Suppression (Conversion) Practises Prohibition Act 2021.
Those who don’t sign the Code are banned from serving in the church or attending synods.
They include religious liberty analyst Elizabeth Kendal who laments that many church members have folded and complied with the code of conduct, ignoring Biblical teachings on gender and sexuality.
She told Vision Radio it’s a “shocking development.”
WHY RELIGION LIBERTY ANALYST REFUSES TO SIGN CHURCH CODE
Ms. Kendal explained: “Article 6 has a long list of about 30 prohibited activities. When you get right down to 6.2 (y), you’ll find that you will not engage in any conduct to change or suppress a child’s gender identity or sexual orientation.”
“It does tell you that the referring legislation is the Victorian state government’s Conversion Prohibition Act. So there can be no confusion what it’s talking about.”
“I just immediately saw it and said, well, I can’t sign that.”
“I mean what if a 12-year-old girl tells me that they’re going to socially transition and they don’t want to be called Mary anymore, they want to be called Kevin, and then they’re going to start on puberty blockers and testosterone.”
“There’s no way known I can affirm that child and assist them in their transition.”
“That’s what the state government requires and that is now what the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne is complying with.”
“OVERWHELMINGLY CHURCH MEMBERS HAVE JUST FOLDED AND COMPLIED”
“You have to sign the code of conduct to be any sort of worker, paid or volunteer, and even to be a synod rep, so if you don’t go along with the ideology you can’t even go to synod and vote against it,” Elizabeth Kendal explained to Vision Radio.
“I see it as an absolutely shocking development,” she added.
“But it seems overwhelmingly people have just folded and complied.”
“Most states in Australia now either have anti-conversion practices laws enacted or on the table.”
“We’re all going to face them and the thing that really gets me is that these laws are rooted in radical gender ideology. They are based on a lie.”
A “PAINFUL EXPERIENCE” FOR THOSE WHO REFUSE TO SIGN
Elizabeth Kendal admits it’s been a more painful experience than she initially anticipated.
“I first raised my objections in November of 2023, and I spent the whole of 2024 really doing battle, writing to the archbishop and the archdeacon and different people.”
“I was encouraged to write a piece for the Melbourne Anglican [The Diocese News And Opinion Outlet], but they refused to publish it.”
“I’ve put all my correspondence and that article on my elizabethkendal.com website where I’ve added a new tab just labelled Compliance.”
OPPOSITION TO THE CODE OF CONDUCT WAS SHUT DOWN
“A very senior Anglican leader proposed to put forward a motion at the Synod in October to just ask if the Code of Conduct could be reviewed,” Ms. Kendal recounted.
“The Archbishop refused to allow it to even be discussed, and had it struck from the record.”
“So that was a huge blow to the evangelicals who were thinking they might be able to get it discussed, debated, and maybe changed.”
“I think one of the biggest problems that people have is this idea that we have to obey the government.”
“That’s fair enough. Romans 13 tells us we need to obey the government, but there hasn’t been a lot of good teaching on how far that goes.”
She pointed out: “There were a lot of churches in Germany that obeyed the Nazi government.”
“There are a lot of churches In China that obey the Communist Party even though that God-appointed authority of government has now gone rogue and is in rebellion against God.”
“PEOPLE ARE CHOOSING TO OBEY THE DELEGATED AUTHORITY RATHER THAN GOD”
The religious liberty analyst and now banned Anglican noted people are “choosing to obey the delegated authority rather than the supreme authority who is God.”
“And there’s a lot of confusion. There have been a lot of people in my own church very angry with me for not complying and just being pragmatic and signing it and getting on with it.”
“But I can’t sign it. I would be lying and making a false declaration if I signed it,” she declared.
Ms. Kendal told Vision Radio she believed the church feared reputational damage and that it would no longer be seen as a pro-LGBT, trans-friendly. church.
“You sort of wonder whose approval they’re really after there.”
“I think we need to look at how we appear in God’s eyes more than how we appear in the government’s or the culture’s eyes.”
THE DIVISIONS IN THE CHURCH
“I think there are two groups in the church.
“There are those who have fallen right in line with the ideology.”
“They believe that there are children born in the wrong body and we have to help them through transgender surgery and everything and they believe it.”
“Then there are others who want to do what the government says because we want to be on the right side of the government, even though we disagree with them.”
“Some people even said to me: I signed the document. Even though if I was put in that position of needing to counsel a child with gender dysphoria, there’s no way known I could affirm them.”
“I would not affirm them,” they added, “I would not assist them. I would counsel them according to scriptures and that God created them and they should accept biological reality.”
Elizabeth Kendal said she thought: “Well, why did you sign it? You’ve made this false declaration by signing it.”
WHY IS THERE SO MUCH CONFUSION OVER THIS ISSUE?
“There’s been enormous confusion. And I think it’s because we’ve been so comfortable in this country where the governments haven’t really done this before.”
“They’ve introduced some pretty dicey laws, but they’ve always had these. exemptions.”
“So [until recently] we’ve been able to have an exemption that keeps us safe as Christians.”
“But there’s no exemptions in the Victorian laws, not for medical practitioners, not for churches and religious schools or people, and not even for parents. No exemptions at all.”
“You must affirm and assist. So this is a completely new situation for the church.”
GOVERNMENTS ARE INFILTRATING THE CHURCH
“What the government has done, specifically in Victoria, is they have left their own sphere of civil government and they have crossed over into the realm of the church.”
“They’ve entered the sphere of the Church to tell us what we are allowed to believe.”
“We have to believe radical gender ideology and [the government tells us] how we may minister.”
“According to the Victorian law you can’t even pray for someone who comes to you requesting prayer, so their consent is irrelevant.”
To listen to the full interview with Elizabeth Kendal click the link below:
