Australian Group Joins Traditional Communion
Episcopal News Service. February 6, 1998 [98-2086F]
(Christian Challenge) Approximately 5,000 Melanesians from the Torres Strait Islands off the coast of Australia left the Anglican Church of Australia (ACA) recently to join the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), an international association of continuing churches. Clerical and lay representatives of the group cited a recent dispute over the selection of a bishop for the Torres Strait, along with the merger of the group's orthodox diocese of Carpenteria with the liberal diocese of North Queensland, as events precipitating their departure. Owen Buckton, spokesman for the Traditional Anglican Communion, said the church's encouragement of "an all-embracing ecumenical liberal approach" also contributed to a "growing feeling of betrayal" among the Torres Strait Anglicans. The newly-formed Church of the Torres Strait comprises 17 parishes with property valued at $5 million.