Presidential Address
Zac Veron at the 2002 ACL Annual General Meeting,
15th August 2002


It is with great pleasure that I deliver my first address as President of the ACL to our AGM. I accepted nomination as President last year knowing that I was to step into the large shoes vacated by many good men who have served our Diocese well for over nine decades. Men we ought to regularly thank God for. As for me, I pray that their shoes might fit!

I wish to thank Bruce Ballantine-Jones for his wise counsel and strategic example. I have led the ACL with a competent team of men and women who continue to build on the platform Bruce and others have built for us.

During the last year the ACL Council has concentrated its efforts in three areas:

1. Our Core Business: Supporting our Sydney Diocese’s evangelical heritage by suggesting suitable candidates to fill positions on diocesan bodies,

2. Preserving and developing evangelical Christianity,

3. Setting the scene for the next generation.

To face the challenges of the future we have initiated the establishment of various taskforces from within the Council. Several taskforces have been empowered to facilitate our objectives.

They include:

Elections Taskforce (Richard Lambert, Robert Tong)

Regional Meetings Taskforce (Philip Griffin)

ACL Media Taskforce (Colin Mackellar)

Our flagship publication and our website have been wonderfully presented and published over many years. We will aim for at least four ACL News a year.

Recruitment Taskforce (Malcolm Purvis)

One of Bruce Ballantine-Jones’ passions was recruitment of new members. He emphasised the importance of this at last year’s AGM. We are only as strong as our membership base so we must never give up the drive to build our membership.

Synod Dinner Taskforce (Andrew Dirks)

Synod Ordinances Taskforce (Barry Newman)

Barry and his team will aim to give our members advice on important ordinances that will come before Synod.

The ACL has a mission statement, which is to ‘Defend gospel truth and support gospel growth’. The final two Taskforces arise from that statement. Our mission is two-fold –
1. to defend gospel truth, and
2. to support gospel growth.

We have therefore established two further taskforces to promote each aspect of that statement.

Gospel Truth Taskforce (Kim Hawtrey)
This task force will take up the first arm to defend and promote gospel truth. How? Through ACL publications (ACL News), the web site and conferences and anything else the taskforce develops. Issues which impinge on the truth of the gospel will rise up from time to time, the members of this Taskforce will aim to equip our members and our Diocese to deal with them.

Strategic Ministries Development Taskforce (John Gray)

The second arm of our mission statement is about supporting gospel growth. That is, the ACL is much more than a body which fills boards and council positions. We want to equip Christians and churches to grow.

Many have worked hard on the Council in 2001/2 … a number deserve special mention and thanks:
• Philip Griffin has done an outstanding job in coordinating our Regional Meetings.
• Robert Tong has been a great support to me and works tirelessly behind the scenes.
• Colin Mackellar continues to ably promote our ministries through the ACL media.
• Kim Hawtrey organised a very successful conference on the Bible in Parramatta.
• We also should thank Andrew Dirks who has served as secretary for several years and Laurie Scandrett who is stepping down as treasurer after 14 years in that seat.

What of the future? I believe we in the ACL must be ever vigilant against threats to evangelical ministry which may not be immediately apparent. Three threats, one from within evangelicalism and two outside, come to mind:

First, some who are influenced by traditional Catholic liturgy and theological understanding, together with Modernists or Liberals, will continue to seek a greater influence within our diocesan structures. Their voice will be heard in Synod and on the Internet, and especially in the secular press where they have many friends.

Second, divisive issues, like the blessing of same sex unions are likely to be on the National Agenda in the immediate future and cause great divisions within the National Church.

Third, complacent or naive evangelicals are the internal threat. We have recently seen major set backs for evangelical Anglicans in Canada, the USA and the UK, yet some in Sydney seem to be totally unaware of the possibility of similar threats to the gospel here. This is particularly the case among the under 45 years of age clergy ranks. Some are naive about the battles that have been fought in previous generations. Others may question why the ACL continues to be concerned about the cause of the gospel when there is presently an ACL Vice-President as Archbishop of Sydney.

These threats are also exciting opportunities for the ACL. The ACL Council recognises the challenge to develop the next generation of evangelical church leaders to play their part in promoting and defending the gospel.

Further opportunities to promote the gospel have arisen during the last year through the Archbishop’s media role and the Diocesan mission we are working towards. The ACL Taskforces are well positioned to support and equip our Archbishop and Diocese as we turn our prayers and efforts towards the next 10 years.

I wish to encourage all Anglicans within our great Diocese who love Jesus to continue to:

i) support the ACL Council in their endeavours,

ii) pray for those who minister in and through our Diocese that we may see, under God, the realisation of our dream: 10% of the population in Bible-based churches,

iii) pray and support Peter Jensen our Archbishop as he leads us in that vision.

Zac Veron
ACL President
Thursday 15 August 2002