The Rights and Wrongs of Rights

Cathedral Newsletter – 12 February 2026

PAG anti-Herzog protest, panorama from north tower, courtesy Cathedral Office Manager, 9/2/2026

Dear Friends, Monday night was a tumultuous evening at the Cathedral and I thank God for the hundred or so who attended Evening Prayer, despite the thousands outside. I am thankful for those who attended to site security and those who ensured the PA was loud enough to hear the Bible readings and prayers, despite the cacophony.

I am sorry to those who could not find a way through the crowds but I am grateful to God we were all able to get away safely, even though only one exit remained passable with all other exits effectively blocked.

Sadly almost 1500 school students missed out on their co-curriculaar activities that afternoon, such as music lessons, or sports training, or drama classes. And I think the Red Cross Donor Centre lost upwards of 30 lifesaving blood donations as a result of people cancelling or being unable to walk in because of the protest.

Nor does it seem right to me that protestors’ freedom of speech and association should trump the rights of other citizens to move through the city freely, or to assemble, pray and worship in peace, in their chosen places of worship like our Cathedral.

This raises a question for Christians… Didn’t Jesus give up his rights?

In the incarnation, Jesus did not count equality with God something to use to his own advantage, but humbled himself by taking on frail human flesh. In his arrest, trial and execution, Jesu was innocent, and could have called on thousands of angels to help. But didn’t he give up his right to defend himself, in order to die for our sins? And doesn’t he tell us to have the same attitude? All true. We should look not to our own interests but each to the interests of others (Philippians 2:4-8)… which certainly includes respecting their rights.

But there’s more to the story… Acts 16 records that in Philippi, Paul and Silas were unjustly whipped and imprisoned, and dramatically freed by an earthquake. But they chose to stay and evangelise their jailer. Then the magistrates said they could go free and leave town. So why do you think Paul insisted on a public apology (Acts 16:35-40)for the abuse of his rights as a Roman citizen? After all he was able to move on…

Likewise in Acts 21, Paul was taken into “protective custody” after being accused of trumped up crimes by by a riotous and bloodthirsy Jerusalem mob. Then in Acts 22, the suspicious Roman commander intended to have Paul flogged and interrogated to try to find out why people were so angry with him. And Acts 22:25 records,

As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, ‘Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?’

Indeed “the commander himself was alarmed when he realised that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains” (v29).

These biblical examples imply there are appropriate times for Christiass to claim their legal rights, especially if they or others are being treated unjustly.

Indeed I think Paul’s assertion of rights in Acts 16 was directed to a concern for other believers in Philippi, who might have been in greater danger of mistreatment, had he not stood up for his rights. And overall through his narrative, as the author of Acts, it appears that one of Luke’s interests was to demonstrate that the Christianity Peter and Paul preached was not an illegitimate religion for the empire. Rather, it was others who tended towards riotous behaviour and violence, not the Christians.

All that’s a way of saying I want to see the legitimate rights and welfare of all people upheld in our city, not just our own.

Still I was challenged about why I didn’t give up our rights and cancel church and bell-ringing practice on Monday.  

Pragmatically, if I was to cancel church each time protest noise and numbers risked being too large and impeding our doors, then I would have cancelled church half a dozen times already this year.

But our most basic motivation is continuing the pattern of corporate prayer to Amighty God that has gone on for a couple of centuries here at the Cathedral (and its predecessor termporay church). It’s a bit like Daniel refused to stop praying!

And one of the things we pray for is the peace of Israel and the Palestinians Territories (where some of the issues are complex and fraught in the extreme), and we pray also for Iran, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, and so on.

But another big reason was recalling what happened on 9 October 2023, when the Israeli flag was raised on the Opera House in sympathy after the murderous Hamas terrorist attack. Yet when protestors swarmed the city chanting antisemitic messages, the Police permitted the march and told Jewish people to stay away for their safety. To his credit Mr Minns apologised for that and said “We will create a situation in NSW where the Jewish community can come together in their own city." But Bondi and other events show we have not done very well at that.

So when, prior to last Monday an Acting Assistant Commissioner of NSW Police said in the media that we should all stay away from the city because of the protest, I heard an echo of October 9.

And I remembered Martin Niemöller’s poem… He was sent to Hitler’s concentration camps in World War Two because he resisted Nazi control of the churches. After the War he was ashamed of his previous attitude to Jewish needs and wrote this poem:

First they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

We are speaking out for all who have been told to “stay away”.

So we recognise other people’s freedom of speech and assembly. But we also appeal, often unsuccessfully, to various protest organisers for consideration of our rights at the Cathedral. And we appeal to the Police and the Government to secure safety and welfare for people to assemble freely and pray in peace in all their various places of worship. 

And even if that fails we respond respectfully, whether we choose to ‘cop it sweet’ or whether we continue advocacy. Most of all, we act in the spirit of 1 Timothy 2:8 which encourages us in every place to pray, lifting holy hands, without anger or disputation.

Warmly in Christ,

Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney