As Archbishop Peter Jensen did before him, Davies has asked the Bishop of Canberra & Goulborn, Stuart Robinson, to lead in his place. Other diocesans from the Province would also be expected to participate.

Grafton Diocese is in the NSW Province centered around Sydney. The Province contains the dioceses of Grafton, Newcastle, Bathurst, Armidale, the Riverina, Canberra & Goulbourn and the Archdiocese of Sydney.

Davies is on record as saying that he not only opposes the ordination of women and same-sex marriage, he says gay sex, adultery and fornication are sins. His own ordination took place only last August. Archbishop Davies makes no apologies for his conservative stand on the ordination of women, gay marriage and sex outside marriage that follows in the tradition of evangelical Anglican polity and theology.

By contrast, it has been reported that Dr. Macneil denies penal substitution (in contradiction of Article XXXI which is the official doctrine of the Anglican Church of Australia).She has also clearly suggested that "homosexuals in same-sex relationships" should be ordained in the Anglican Church (in contradiction of the Bishops' Protocol which she will be expected to endorse).

Davies has been described as a "theologian of a very conservative stamp" but rejects the label "old-fashioned."

Marriage between a man and a woman is the "bedrock of society" because it provides the necessary stability for producing and raising children, he says. He is "appalled" that people "abuse" this idea as "old-fashioned". "Just because something has been true for 10,000 years of history doesn't mean it is not appropriate for today," he opines.

Likewise, as one of the few Anglican dioceses in Australia to consistently vote against the ordination of women bishops, his Sydney flock is "merely maintaining a view that has been held for 2000 years in the Christian church". His stance, he acknowledges, is "countercultural". But there are plenty of other opportunities for women to exercise ministry in the diocese, he believes. "By and large, women are not sitting in our pews frustrated that they are not doing things women can do in other dioceses. By and large, they are content'," he adds, while admitting that some women have left.

The recent defeat of same-sex marriage laws in the NSW Parliament, even if only by one vote, saved NSW from "folly", "embarrassment" and further waste of the Parliament's time, Davies believes. The 63-year-old former bishop of North Sydney with a PhD in New Testament studies has written to Prime Minister Tony Abbott to commend him for his stand against same-sex marriage laws.

Meanwhile, it is "fine" for two men to have a relationship and live together, and enjoy normal citizens' rights under the law, "but don't call it marriage", he says. And yet "gay sex is a behavior that does not have God's approval; it actually has his disapproval. That is not the way we were made biologically".

Adultery is a "heinous act of mistrust" while "fornication" (as he calls sex outside marriage) damages a future marriage bond, according to the father of two daughters who also has two grandchildren.

In his first presidential address to the Sydney synod last month, Davies lamented that the diocese's churches are "in danger of becoming an Anglo outpost" in multi-ethnic Sydney. The proportion of Australians identifying as Anglicans in the census has more than halved since 1961, from 35 per cent to 17 per cent.

As for the child sex abuse royal commission, Archbishop Davies says bring it on. It is the "perfect opportunity" to shine light on the Gospel message that peace and reconciliation is found in Jesus, he says.

With unfortunate though apparently co-incidental timing, the news of Macneil's appointment came just as the royal commission's spotlight turned to an Anglican children's home in her Grafton diocese.

The commission this week has heard gut-wrenching testimony from former inmates of the North Coast Children's Home in Lismore where horrific abuse is alleged to have occurred from the 1940s to the 1980s. Macneil's predecessor, Keith Slater, resigned in May and apologized for his failure in mishandling the victims' allegations. The Anglican Primate of Australia, Archbishop of Brisbane Phillip Aspinall, is scheduled to give evidence, while Philip Gerber, former professional standards director for the Sydney, Newcastle and Grafton dioceses, has already been called.

"I believe in transparency and therefore I don't see any dangers from the royal commission," Davies says. The Sydney diocese has been auditing its files dating back to the 1930s to "make sure that our house is in order", he says. He has "not seen anything" so far which would "put us in jeopardy".

The appointment of MacNeil exposes massive differences in the Anglican Church in Australia which is led by the liberal Anglican Primate of Australia, Archbishop of Brisbane Phillip Aspinall. It is also indicative of a growing trend around the Anglican Communion to ordain less than orthodox women to the episcopacy.

Retired NW Australia bishop David Mulready sums up the differences by saying that the views, held by Sarah McNeill represent pro-'gay' marriage & rubbishing the Biblical view of the Atonement,are widely held around the Australian Church. We need to persevere in God's revealed truth and be prepared to speak up. Many more liberal women (and male) Bishops will follow Sarah.

To consecrate Macneil now would be to legitimise the clear difference between her recently published views and those she will promise she believes and will uphold.

One Australian Bishop Rick Lewers of Armidale describes the documented views of Dr. Macneil as "to reject a plain reading of the Scriptures" and "a clear breach of God's will for people's lives". Most tellingly he describes the actions proposed by Dr. Macneil in her sermon of March of this year as "a departure from Anglicanism as it is expressed in its articles and creeds".

With the American Episcopal Church being led by a heterodox woman Presiding Bishop and liberal women bishops recently being appointed in New Westminster, BC, Canada and Meath & Kildare in Dublin, Ireland, the liberalization of the Anglican Communion continues at a rapid pace.

The rapidly expanding feminization of the Anglican Communion by women who hold less than orthodox views on the faith will only cement in the minds of orthodox African, Asian and Latin American Anglicans, including (GFAC) and its GAFCON I and GAFCON II gatherings, that the current realignment in the Anglican Communion will continue and reinforce that two irreconcilable views of what it means to be Anglican is now firmly entrenched and unbridgeable.

END