Sydney Anglicans Confront Their COVID Record After Years of Silence

By Tim Grant, co-author of the Ezekiel Declaration.

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One of my early positive and formative experiences in my early ministry days was an encounter with a Sydney Anglican. Previously, I had spent years in a charismatic Baptist Church, which emphasised experience over Sola Scriptura.

This particular Sydney Anglican minister was speaking at a university ministry event at the University of Melbourne in 2007. He defended the gospel and brought scripture to bear so clearly and graciously against university students on matters of marriage and homosexuality. I had never heard Bible teaching of this calibre in my life.

When I began in youth ministry, I used many resources from their publishing arm, Mathias Media, including the “Two Ways to Live” and “Little Black Book” resources. All that proved immensely helpful to the students to whom I ministered.

Even though I was a Baptist, I had a high regard for these Sydney Anglican ministers, who were holding to the authority of scripture, even as many other Anglican dioceses departed from Biblical faithfulness.

Heartbreakingly, my view of this institution shifted during the COVID years. I witnessed and felt the personal sting as ministers of this diocese were all too willing to hand over matters of ecclesiology and conscience to the state. One senior minister posted on Facebook that it was “a Christian duty to be vaccinated.”

Another publicly criticised my endeavours to stave off vaccine passports in churches, by publicly criticising the Ezekiel Declaration, in a very public manner. I read comments from another well-known minister who insinuated on public posts that the Ezekiel Declaration was juvenile, while at the same time, publicly directing people to the nearest vaccination clinic.

I was deeply discouraged. This gospel-loving denomination had reverted to its 16th-17th-century posture, which submitted its ecclesiology to the monarchy.

This past week, however, I have been greatly encouraged as I read through portions of the 2025 Sydney Anglican Synod Session Booklet. This year, one of the special reports for the Synod included reflections on the diocese’s response to COVID. A committee was established to provide reflections on the actions of the senior leadership during the COVID years.

While the reflections of the combined committee are very broad, the Sydney Anglican Church should be commended for being willing to scrutinise itself in this way and provide critical reflection on its actions. I am not aware of any other denomination in Australia willing to reflect in such a deep manner.

Individuals of this committee were then invited to provide personal reflections. To this invitation, Reverend Zac Veron of Bayside Anglican Church provided his thoughts. His reflection is lengthy and comprehensive, raising such matters as the following:

• The response of our senior leadership appeared driven by legal liability, risk minimisation, and a concern not to offend public health authorities;

• That conscience-bound individuals were treated as problems to be managed, rather than members of the body of Christ;

• Those who tried to raise these concerns within Diocesan structures often found little sympathy or engagement;

• Praise for the Archbishop for acting as a signatory on a petition that raised ethical concerns for the development of the vaccine developed at Oxford University;

• Praise for the Archbishop for challenging the government on matters of vaccine passports in places of worship;

• Lament that many Anglicans were coerced by their spiritual leaders into taking a vaccine against their conscience;

• Lament that many individuals were stood down from ministry roles, denied opportunities to serve, and in some cases publicly or privately shamed for not receiving an experimental and provisionally approved COVID-19 vaccine. These individuals were not acting from malice, but from conscience;

• Lament regarding the spiritual trauma these created. Instead of becoming a sanctuary, as Churches became in past pandemics, they became a place of exclusion. Entry was permitted to those who adhered to government directives;

• Acknowledgment that the Vaccine mandates were oppressive decrees, and were left unchallenged and largely supported by Diocesan leaders;

• Acknowledgment that public health measures should never be the grounds of spiritual alienation;

• Acknowledgment of the proper boundaries of the state (Romans 13:1-7) and that obedience to Christ must take precedence when the state oversteps its jurisdiction;

• Acknowledgment that the state has no jurisdiction in matters of Christian worship;

• Acknowledgment that the Diocesan senior leadership departed from the English reformers and chose compliance;

• Acknowledgment of a missed opportunity to provide a prophetic witness against fear-driven government policies;

• Acknowledgment that many people felt abandoned by their shepherds;

• Acknowledgment that the pandemic response exposed a tendency to place government above Scripture in shaping ministry practice;

• Acknowledgment that worship is essential;

• Acknowledgment that the rights of conscience must be upheld;

• Acknowledgment that loving one’s neighbour is to be distinguished from obeying every health directive;

• Acknowledgment that Revelation 13 reminds Christians that godless government and false religion have in the past, and will in the future unite to oppose the faithful. Such opposition is not always overt, but can be subtle;

• Acknowledgment that framing vaccination as a Christian duty is problematic. Especially in hindsight, given the vaccines’ inability to stop transmission;

• Acknowledgment that the church must not outsource moral clarity to the government;

• Acknowledgment that while the leaders did not act in malice, the decisions did have several unintended but deeply significant consequences for church members. Such as:

  • The isolation caused by suspending Sunday services;

  • Emotional harm experienced by members excluded on the basis of vaccine status;

  • Creation of distrust toward church leaders;

  • Inability to raise concerns for fear of reputational damage, creating a climate of anxiety, discouragement and spiritual fatigue;

• Lament towards the silence of the Diocese regarding a large and unexplained rise in post-pandemic excess mortality rates;

• Lament toward little or no acknowledgment of the growing number of reports of Australians reporting vaccine injuries.

Again, the Sydney Anglicans should be commended for being one of the only Christian institutions in Australia to provide reflections on COVID, as well as inviting critical reflection, causing the entire Diocese to be confronted with uncomfortable truths.

Pray for the following:

• For Reverend Zac Veron and his family, as his reflections are read throughout the Diocese, that he might be of good courage;

• Pray that the Diocese might be responsive to the reflections of Reverend Zac Veron.

The full document can be accessed here, with reflections on COVID commencing on page 280, and reflections from Reverend Zac Veron commencing on page 302.