In a significant decision, parish representatives overwhelmingly endorsed the Mission. The decision will only be historic if we act.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, has expressed his disappointment at the passing of the Research on Human Embryos Bill through the lower house of Federal Parliament.

Archbishop Rowan Williams, Primate of Wales, is to be the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury. This is an historic and preeminent role in the leadership and life of the worldwide Anglican Communion which makes many demands upon the incumbent in the office.

Address to the Sydney Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast 2002 held in the Rydges Wentworth Hotel, Sydney on Friday 28th June, 2002. Societies, clubs, federations, associations, congregations, co-operatives, unions, families, - these are some of the best things about Australia. Our citizens getting together in voluntary societies provide the sinews of our nation. A government frightened of its legitimacy or bent on evil loathes voluntary societies. It tries to suborn and regulate the clubs and groups and even to disband them. In the ancient world, the state was even frightened of dining clubs and work clubs and funeral associations. In the end, the state becomes the only society, and its power the focal point of worship.

Archbishop Jensen's statement on a fundamental decision as it went before Parliament.

A Keynote Address given by Dr Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney at the Dementia Conference and Exhibition, 2002. The obsession of our culture with individualism, human autonomy and personal rights seems insatiable. But although such individualism tries to satisfy our hunger for personal freedom, it cannot meet the equally insatiable needs of the human being for love. Whether we are thinking of the tiniest and most helpless of human beings, or those who are disabled or seriously sick, or those who are helpless through age and decay, all require the love which sacrifices itself for the other, and sees that we belong together in community. Selfishness is a fault deadly to others.

My thesis is simple: the role of the Christian churches in Australia today is to speak the truth in love. This is what we have failed to do effectively. But on this depends the future of the church and the good health of our society. To fail here is to fail everywhere; to succeed here is to lay the foundation for all that we need to do in God’s name and for his glory and for the good of people. The words of the Apostle Paul challenge us still: ‘the church of the living God…’ he wrote, is ‘a pillar and buttress of truth’ (1 Tim 3:15).

A transcript of a Bible study given by Archbishop Jensen at Chapter House, Sydney on April 18, 2002. In my office at home, I have a pile of old sermons going back to the early 1970s. From time to time, if I'm really stuck, I might go back and see if I can resurrect one of these old sermons. But if you sat down and read them all through, you wouldn't find a connected story. What you'd get is the collected sermons of Peter Frederick Jensen, 1970 to 2002.

The news media is continuing to focus on Israel, Jerusalem and surrounds even today. The prophet Isaiah, whose words we're studying today, wrote around 2700 years ago. He wrote about Jerusalem, and today we're still thinking about and praying for peace in that area.

A transcript of a Bible study given by Archbishop Jensen at Chapter House, Sydney on April 4, 2002. In Isaiah chapter one, we read about the 'religion that condemns', which is very strange because you may think good religion would save. But this is the religion that condemns.

Commemoration of Anzac Day - RSL (NSW Branch). ‘Lest we forget, lest we forget’ We have sung Kipling’s great hymn, his Recessional. It is a summons to remember, and we have taken his words to our hearts.

For Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, In St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney. ‘The princesses would never leave without me, and I couldn’t leave without the King, and the King will never leave’: if the Queen Mother never took any other major decision affecting the life of her nation, her determination to face the foe at that moment would be enough to secure her an honourable place in its history. It was a noble and courageous utterance, worthy of another famous Queen with the same name. She faced the worst, and triumphed.

Town Hall Address, 27th March 2002, Acts 17:16-34 ‘God! Oh, God!’. This is what I overheard from a woman in a restaurant the other day. A few moments later, perhaps a particularly juicy bit of office gossip came out, so it was, ‘Oh my God!’. She had a penetrating voice, an excitable temperament and was an expert on God. What if we asked her to share her expertise? What if we said, ‘what’s this god of yours like?’

TO BE READ IN ALL SERVICES IN PARISHES OF THE DIOCESE ON SUNDAY 24TH FEBRUARY 2002. "In recent days, issues of child abuse and sexual misconduct generally within the Anglican Church have been widely reported in the public media. I write to reaffirm our abhorrence of such behaviour. There is no doubt that we must continue to maintain a culture of rejection of sexual misconduct and abuse of children within this Diocese as we remain true to biblical standards of morality."

Fundamentalism is religion at its most dangerous and uncouth; it is the religion which inspires young men to fly aeroplanes into tall buildings; it is the religion which bombs abortion clinics; it is the religion which insists that the Bible be taught instead of real science in schools; it the religion of racists, proselytisers, homophobes and misogynists. It may be of a Christian mould, or of a Muslim, or even of a Hindu. But it is overheated, overzealous, and it is not wanted over here. Or, at least, that is what many of us believe.

Address given at the Law Service, St James King St on Matthew 26:17-30. What are we doing here today? It is called a service of thanksgiving and dedication. But does it make any sense, or is it like an obsolete ritual reminiscent of boarding school chapel? I want to try to answer this question, beginning at a place in which we may all have a justifiable interest, namely food and drink. But not any old occasion for a party.

Our whole community must be greatly concerned at the news of the escalation of violence between Muslim and Christians groups, particularly near the town of Poso in Central Sulawesi in Indonesia, our near neighbour. Already many people have been killed, hundreds of homes have been destroyed, and there is increased fear that further disturbance and bloodshed will add to the already massive death toll. Reports say that many Christian churches and villages have been destroyed.

‘Fundamentalism’ is an ugly word, with a fearful significance. Strangely, it began life well, almost a hundred years ago. Powerful forces within our culture sought to deny the orthodox Christian faith. Humanity seized the central place, demanded freedom from God and called for the end of the authority of the Bible. In the face of modernistic attacks on the Bible and orthodox Christian faith, a number of evangelicals issued booklets defending ‘the fundamentals’. On the whole these ‘fundamentalists’ made sober attempts to guard the truth; perhaps they were not radical enough, given the challenge of modern thought. Certainly it became a popular movement in the sense that its booklets were often aimed at the mass market rather than the scholarly world.

We have witnessed once again an act of malice, wickedness and gross evil perpetrated against the innocent. Our first response was a sort of stunned disbelief, as though we were watching a disaster movie from which we would soon emerge, entertained and smiling. But this is the real world, not a make-believe one.

We are all stunned and horrified at the violent scenes from the US that we watched on our TV screens through the night and this morning. Our hearts are overflowing with sympathy for the American people, especially those in New York and Washington, and above all for the families who are bereaved, and for those who are suffering and injured. It is a fearful tragedy.

Deep Impact: Sunday 19 August at State Sports Centre, Homebush. What do they think of us? The Melbourne based journalist Kate Nancarrow recently went shopping for a religion. She has lots of religious contacts, but no faith of her own. The Sun-Herald published her report cards on all of us. The Roman Catholics scored 6 out of 10, the Seven Day Adventists 2; the Salvation Army 8. Anglicans were awarded 4.

Christianity boasts in the cross of Christ. Christian buildings display the cross: that is how they are known even in street directories. Christian graves often display the cross. War memorials use the cross. Christians often wear a cross. The class rooms of many Catholic schools display the cross. We are sealed with the sign of the cross in baptism. The greatest hymns of Christendom are based on the cross. The cross adorns our banners and distinguishes our processions. The most solemn day of the church's year is an extended meditation on the cross. The Holy Communion is centred especially on the cross. Of the many symbols connected with Christianity there is none so pervasive, so powerful, so instantly recognisable as the cross. Christianity boasts in the cross.

You may be bored; you may be glad; you may be stirred — but some of you are afraid. This ancient pageant marks a transition to office, to power. All the pomp is intended to make the transition legitimate. Power is clothed in dignity to hide its menace. The outward show is intended to reassure us: human beings may validly possess authority. But the question of power remains.

The critical moment of my life was the 1959 Billy Graham Crusade. Two things happened. First, I became a definite, committed, evangelical Christian, living for the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, a challenge from Mr Graham led me to the ministry of God's word.

This edit version of Archbishop Jensen's Halifax-Portal address was published on page 4 of The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 5th April. The role of the Christian churches in Australia today is to speak the truth in love. But one of the most notable features of the churches is our almost total lack of intellectual significance. There are individual Christian academics who make distinguished contributions in their fields and sometimes those fields have religious connections and connotations.