Presidential Address, Synod 2026
Cathedral Newsletter – 17 September 2026
Image courtesy Anglican Media Sydney
Friends in Christ, here is the first section of our former Dean, Kanishka Raffel’s keynote address as Archbishop to Synod (our Anglican ‘parliament), from Monday this week…
People matter to God.
To King David this is a marvel almost too wonderful to comprehend. He says in Psalm 8:
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! …When I look at your heavens… the moon and stars which you have set in place, what is man (humankind) that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him?
Even the bible writers struggle with the idea that people matter to God.
Our own experience makes us wonder. In the face of unexpected tragedy, pitiless evil, the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the innocent we wonder, ‘Does God see? Does he care?’
Yuval Harari in his book Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow, raises the question of humanity’s future in an AI world. If AI makes better decisions, solves more problems, and produces better outcomes faster and cheaper than humans – what are humans for? Is humanity relevant or necessary anymore?
The Bible says, people matter to God.
This is a truth we learn from creation. The first chapter of the bible tells us that human beings, unlike any other of God’s creatures are made in God’s image. The pinnacle of creation is not any star or sun, not any mountain or sea, not any plant or animal – but the human couple, male and female.
As God’s image bearers humans possess unique dignity and irreducible worth, having been made ‘a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crowned with glory and honour’, the Psalmist says.
And yet, our first parents refused the high calling of their creation and asserted a futile and pathetic independence from the source of all their life and good and blessing. They refused God’s good word, they refused God’s loving rule, they refused life as God had ordered it in the garden. And we have all followed in their footsteps.
But people matter to God. What is true in creation, is true also in redemption. ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’
People matter to Jesus.
The Lord said, ‘The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
‘Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’
He raised the lifeless body of Jairus’ daughter with a word, and he did the same for the son of the widow of Nain.
In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays to his Father, ‘Not as I will but as you will’ and resolves to drink the cup of God’s wrath so that by his death ‘he might break the power of …the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.’
People matter to God. It is a truth we learn from the new creation. The apostle John peers into heaven and sees a Lamb as though slain, and ‘a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages’, crying out with a loud voice ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!’ Many peoples, many languages; one song, one Saviour.
People matter to God, so when we speak of our purpose as Sydney Anglicans in terms of making and maturing disciples of Jesus through the Spirit-dependent proclamation of the gospel, we do so because the risen Jesus left us a mission – to make disciples of all nations.
We do so because we recognise that Jesus is glorified as people come to put their trust in him who loved us and gave himself for us.
We do so because it is God’s purpose from eternity that all things in heaven and on earth should be united under the Lordship of Jesus, and every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
And we do so because people matter to God.
People – every person - is made in God’s image, endued with inalienable dignity and worth that is independent of their sex, age, ethnicity, education, health or productivity.
People are precious…
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As I said, you can read on, or watch the whole keynote address, which is full of encouraging stories of people coming to Jesus around our churches. Kanishka also addresses various contemporary issues like religious freedom and antisemitism and Indigenous ministry, and also reflects on the big anniversaries of some of our key organisations like Moore College and Anglicare, both 170 years old this year.
Warmly in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney
P.S. More decisions and stories from Synod are reported here, including one I was asked to bring to Synod on religious freedom.