Apologies if you were trying to use the forums this morning, there was an error which I’ve corrected. Everything should be fine for the moment, but if the forums behave strangley for you then please let me know (email me at home is prob best - stevens at ihug dot com dot au, or reply to this thread).

Cheers,
Luke

There has been no postings for a while, I thought I’d check and see if they are getting through.
craig

Luke
I tried to access a forum today to which I contributed earlier in the week only to find it no longer exists. It was the one about Philip Jensens comments of last week which included a post from the Hindu student Philip referred to in his sermon. Has this forum been removed permanentl and if so could you please explain the reasons for this? Thank you.

Hi Eileen,

Yes, unfortunately it is gone, which was not what I wanted, but ultimately it was out of my control. Sorry guys. Eileen I’ve explained in more depth in reply to your email, and if anyone else is concerned they can contact me via email - stevens at ihug dot com dot au (spelt out to avoid spam harvesters).

Thanks,
Luke

I appreciate your situation Luke.  but let me send my voice of displeasure to the censors above you.  Without full and frank and open (and even sometimes silly) discussion, the veil of secrecy that ‘appears’ to surround the Jensens and co will remain - which gives ammunition to those who already feel alienated by the hierachy.

**please not - even though an outsider, I don’t see a veil of secrecy personally, but know many people who do.  So my comment was about one of appearance, not necessarily fact.

Tricky situation indeed.

By the way, the fact it was removed even made the media:

[quote author="SMH"]
During his sermon, Jensen delivered an anecdote about a Hindu student from the University of NSW who came to him seeking information about Christ. But in the end the student chose to reject the truth, Jensen said, and retain his Hindu faith out of “family tribal loyalties”. The Hindu student posted a statement on Anglican Media Sydney’s website early this week, saying Jensen publicly misrpresented him. But yesterday, his statement was removed.

Ian.

I don’t see why any thing should of been removed. Even if it was for legal reasons I didn’t think any one was defamed.(thats the only reason I can think of) I for one think that if a posting has been removed from this site, because it was a public posting and read by all, the reason should be made public to all.

If we are going to start censoring what is said here, we have already stifled freedom of speech and can even be likened to our unfortuante reformist history, where Luther had an Annabaptist ??(I think) starved to death in prison because he differed in public from Luther.

There are some reformist ties I would rather leave where they are, and that is in history.

craig… a wise man said “lets not repeat history and make the same mistakes, but learn from them and make new ones”

Thankyou for all those who have expressed their concern about the removal of the thread initiated by robocow.

Unfortunately the Anglican Media staff who participate in these forums (myself, Luke Stevens and Sarah Barnett) are not really in position to answer these concerns. (Correct me Luke and Sarah if I’m wrong about that!).

Any comments we were to post about the ‘reasons’ behind the decision may be taken as the official answer. However our comments would be more informed by personal speculation than the actual decision making process.

I’ll look into the possibility of posting an official comment on this matter.