JourneyOnline
CONSERVATIVE Christian lobby groups no longer have the only public Christian perspective on political and social issues in Australia.
Anglican Dean of Brisbane, the Very Reverend Dr Peter Catt, launched A Progressive Christian Voice (APCV) in August not just to put an alternative ecumenical Christian voice into the public space but also to counter Sydney centrism.
"We've got membership nationally," he says. "APCV started in Brisbane but it's not got a Brisbane focus."
"A bunch of us in the mainstream churches felt that in the public square the Christian voice had become monolithic, so we decided it was important to ensure that there was at least one other voice representing a different Christian viewpoint," he says of the origins of APCV.
"We realised that the media are heavily Sydney-centric.
So when powerful figures like George Pell and Peter Jensen are based in Sydney, and the media that tends to look for comment is also in Sydney, that skews it even further.
The new organisation already has runs on the board, having attracted national attention with their statements calling on the federal government to implement the Gonski educational reforms, and on marriage vows and equality.
The next step to cement its national presence will be a website, which Dr Catt believes APCV now has funding for.
"When the [Anglican] Diocese of Sydney introduced its new wedding rites, the reports I heard on the ABC were that the Anglican Church had a new wedding rite.
There was no distinction made that it was one diocese out of 23 which had a new wedding rite.
"But having said that, it is also because other voices haven't ventured into the square."
Visit the APCV Facebook page: "A Progressive Christian Voice Australia".
Photo : The Very Reverend Dr Peter Catt, President of APCV. Photo courtesy of St John’s Anglican Cathedral
