Anglican Archbishop Glenn Davies ‘deeply sorry’ for distress caused by letter from school heads

Glenn Davies has apologised for the “distress” caused by a letter calling on the government to defend religious freedoms in schools.

Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glen Davies. Picture: Adam Yip

The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies has apologised for the “distress” caused by a letter signed by the heads of Anglican schools calling on the government to defend religious freedoms.

In a statement released this afternoon, Dr Davies said the letter — sent last week to all federal MPs — had the “unfortunate consequence of affecting many gay students and teachers in our schools”.

Dr Davies said he was “deeply sorry”, but argued the response highlighted the need for the Coalition and Labor to work together to overhaul and strengthen existing protections for religious freedoms.

The Australian exclusively revealed the contents of the letter — signed by the heads of the 34 Sydney Anglican diocese schools — in which they called for religious protections to be framed as a “positive” right rather than a “negative” right.

Read: Dr Davies’ apology

This is because the protections are expressed as “exemptions” in the Sex Discrimination Act.

Instead of upholding the ability of faith-based schools to promote their own ethos and values, ­religious educators are given the right to “discriminate” in certain circumstances.

In his statement this afternoon, Dr Davies acknowledged the letter had created confusion in Anglican schools but argued this strengthened the case for reform and highlighted the inadequacy of the current protections for religious freedom.

“This past week has demonstrated it is untenable that religious freedoms be expressed as exemptions in discrimination acts,” he said.

“Some exemptions, such as those relating to sexuality, we do not use and have no wish to preserve. But the mere fact these remain on the statute books has alarmed people.

“Therefore, I have approached the government and the opposition for an immediate bipartisan approach which would remove these exemptions and create legislation which provides a positive protection for freedom of religion”.

Dr Davies said he had been told by the principals of the 34 Anglican schools of the “distress the letter has caused”.

“There were fears that gay students were going to be expelled or gay teachers sacked,” he says. “This really saddens me. Our schools do not expel students or dismiss staff on the basis of their sexuality, nor have they ever wanted this right”.

Writing for The Australian earlier this week, Dr Davies said the current system of exemptions was “misleading, confusing and totally ­unsatisfactory” because it ­“im­medi­ately frames the debate in terms of sex and discrimination”.

He noted the Sex Discrimination Act introduced by the Hawke government had “relegated religious freedom to the unsatisfactory category of an exemption”.

The letter was aimed at sounding the alarm on a push by Labor and Greens MPs to remove key exemptions in the Sex Discrimination Act.

If successful, this push would have removed the ability of ­religious schools to discriminate against teachers on the basis of their sexual orientation.

The principals clarified in their open letter that they did not want to discriminate against gay teachers, but warned that the exemption was the “only significant” legal protection for “schools to maintain their ethos and values with regard to core issues of faith”.

Labor’s legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus said the government had “grossly mishandled” the debate over religious freedoms by sitting on the Ruddock review into religious freedoms since May.

“This decision has contributed to significant concern and confusion, and prevented a well-informed debate on all related issues,” Mr Dreyfus said.

“Labor wants to see the provisions which allow discrimination against students and staff because of their sexuality removed ... We have said all along that the capacity for schools to run their school in line with their beliefs should be protected”.