Australian Archbishop Denounces

Syncretal Rite

Ruth Glehdill, Religion Correspondent The London Times April 1, 2005

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jennsen, today poured more oil on the flames of a controversy which threatens to further divide the already splintered Anglican Communion. In response to a question about a  controversial aboriginal-inspired ceremony authorised in some Australian  Anglican dioceses, Dr. Jennsen criticised the healing tea liturgy as “syncretical.”

Dr. Jennsen’s controversial comments were made on Thursday at a summit of top international church scholars gathered together in Basingstoke at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, to resolve the Biblical languages academic accreditation crisis.

Dr. Jennsen described the healing tea liturgy is “an unholy fusion of pre-Christian aboriginal spirituality with the absolute dregs of British colonialism.” According to Dr. Peter Sutten, a prominent Australian anthropologist, the ancient aboriginal healing ritual revolved

around consumption of a koala meat and vegetable broth followed by ceremonial resting. In the modern aboriginal healing rite that developed after European contact, however, the leaves of a powerful imported stimulant were added to the koala soup: camellia (common tea).

Dr. Jennsen’s objection to the healing ritual as currently practised in some Australian Anglican dioceses is focused upon what he describes as the “syncretic confusion between Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the character in aboriginal mythology known as ‘Eternal Healer of the Broken, One of Three Who All Are One.’”

Dr. Jennsen insisted that the healing liturgy should be revised to omit all references to the aboriginal deity, and that the unnatural stimulant camellia should be filtered from the ritual healing broth.

Speaking for the Anglican Indigenous Network, however, Bishop Whahakuihui Vecroe responded to Dr. Jennsen’s statement saying, “the koala tea of mercy is not strained.”