Peter Jensen

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Peter Jensen

Denomination	Anglican Church of Australia
Senior posting
See	Sydney
Title	Archbishop of Sydney
Period in office	2001 — present
Consecration	29 June 2001
Predecessor	Richard Henry (Harry) Goodhew
Successor	incumbent
Religious career
Previous post	Principal of Moore College
Personal
Date of birth	11 July 1943
Place of birth	Sydney

The Most Reverend Peter Jensen (born 11 July 1943), is the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, and Metropolitan of the Province of New South Wales.

Jensen was born in Sydney and educated at Bellevue Hill Public School and The Scots College. After completing his Leaving Certificate, he studied law for two years and worked as an articled clerk before he moved into primary school teaching. He entered Moore Theological College in the late 1960s and won the Hey Sharp prize for coming first in the Licenciate of Theology, the standard course of study at that time. In addition he has an MA (Hons) from Sydney University, a BD from London University, and a DPhil from Oxford. His 1976 Masters dissertation was entitled "Calvinism and the Persecution of the Witches in England (1563-1604)," and his 1979 doctoral dissertation was entitled "The Life of Faith in the Teaching of Elizabethan Protestantism."

Jensen was appointed Principal of Moore College in 1985 and lectured in Systematic and Biblical Theology during that time. He gained a reputation as a gifted preacher, and was often seen at the annual Katoomba Christian Conventions.

On 5 June, 2001, Jensen was elected as the 11th Archbishop of Sydney. He was consecrated on St Peter's Day, 29 June 2001 and immediately called upon all churches in the Sydney Diocese to aim to reach 10% of their communities by 2012. While most commentators were sceptical that that goal could be met in secular Sydney, the result has been an unprecendented increase in church planting with more than 60 new congregations started between 2002 and 2005 and a 30% increase in candidates for Anglican ministry over the same period.

Jensen has a gained a reputation with the Australian media for being a forceful spokesperson for evangelical Christianity. He does not shy away from entering public policy debate. He is generally regarded as a political conservative and has been known to have supported the work of the Conservative Prime Minister John Howard on a number of issues, in particular though the 2004 ban on gay marriage. Jensen is also the only Anglican Archbishop in Australia not to have opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq by Coalition forces that included Australia. He has spoken out on issues as diverse as stem cell research and industrial relations, but his public comments always have a common theme - they are always related to "Jesus" and "The Bible."

It is Jensen's conservative approach that has made him one of the most controversial priests in Australia. With much fanfare, he launched a mission aiming that 10% of all Sydney residents would be attending a "Bible-based" church by 2012. This definition of Bible-based was notable for excluding Roman Catholics and Uniting Churches. Indeed, this conservatism has led some to regard Jensen as a fundamentalist. Jensen, however, does not prefer the term "fundamentalist" to describe his interpretative stance, arguing instead for a rational understanding of the authority of the Bible.

Despite the fact that Jensen is considered to be quite anti-Catholic, this has not stopped him from developing a good rapport with the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell. Whilst Jensen disagrees with the Catholic churches elaborate style of worship, he and Cardinal Pell have found common ground due to there shared conservative stance on issues relating to politics, the importance of scripture and opposition to liberal interpretations of it. Both men are outspoken on issues such as pre-marital sex, abortion, euthanasia, drug use, and homosexuality and are both deeply opposed to the ordination of women or homosexuals in their respective churches. These are all issues that relate to the Christian right which has lead the left-wing Sydney Morning Herald to refer to the co-operation between these two leaders as “the ecumenism of the right.” It is also noted that both men have praised the conservative government of John Howard in its effort to promote values of both family and life through in a variety of ways including legislating to ban gay marriage, heroin injecting rooms, and euthanasia whilst moving to make abortion a last resort option for women with un-wanted pregnancies by offering financial assistance to groups such as Anglicare to council women on the long-term emotional affects of abortion and mandating that women receive counselling of this nature before they are allowed to proceed with an abortion-a policy that has caused much opposition from groups such as the Australian Democrats and the Australian Greens. Both Pell and Jensen have also spoken warmly about the conservative governments funding of faith-based private schools which has rescued financially many Anglican and Catholic schools that would have suffered under the Labor party oppositions plans to cut public funding to these church schools and direct it instead to government high schools which both men were highly critical of. Jensen and Pell have also both criticised the conservative government’s policy in relation to the treatment of asylum seekers as well as its stance on Industrial Relations.

Recent publications by Sydney journalist Chris McGillion and Dr Muriel Porter have also been scathing in their critique of Jensen, particularly with regard to his conservative stance towards issues such as the ordination of women bishops and homosexuals. Jensen maintains the historically traditional view held by Anglicans which, it is claimed, is based on an understanding of the authority of the Bible over culture. They also note the Sydney practice of "salting" other dioceses with new parishes that promote an evangelical form of theology. Indeed, Jensen has been accused of marginalising those with different approaches to Anglicanism, notably the Anglo-Catholics, who tend towards more emotive and ritualistic forms of service. Jensen has, however, been present as an ordaining bishop at other Anglo-Catholic dioceses in Australia.

Tensions were generated between Jensen and his theological liberal colleague, Archbishop Peter Carnley, during the latter's time as primate of the Anglican Church in Australia. Tension between Jensen and Carnley and the other bishops of the Australian Dioceses resulted in Jensen being the sole bishop not to stand in protest against the Australian Government's participation in the invasion of Iraq in 2003.^{[citation needed]}

Jensen has written a number of books on Christian doctrine including At the Heart of the Universe (1979) and The Revelation of God (2002). In November and December 2005 he also delivered the prestigious Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Boyer Lectures on the topic "The Future of Jesus". These lectures have subsequently been published as a book.

[edit] See also

• Sydney Anglicans
• Phillip Jensen (brother)

[edit] References

• Myers, Benjamin (2004). "Theologia Evangelii: Peter Jensen's Theological Method". Churchman 118 (1), 27–45.

Religious Posts
Preceded by Richard Henry (Harry) Goodhew	Archbishop of Sydney 2001 – present	Incumbent

Persondata
NAME	Jensen, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Cleric
DATE OF BIRTH	July 11, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH