Zero room for moral compromise

 "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we do not live out the truth." (1 John 1:5-6 NIV)

St. John’s Cathedral’s Sunday 27 September 2026 "Pride Choral Evensong" sermon champions a dangerous cultural pivot, framing the church's embrace of secular intersectionality and LGBTIQA+ identity politics as a triumphant evolution. Preacher Allana Wales lauds the parish for replacing biblical boundaries with the "god of diversity and inclusion," celebrating how the institution has seemingly merged its identity with the progress pride flag.

Scripture, however, offers a scathing critique of this syncretism. 

1 John 1:5-6 declares that God is absolute light and truth, leaving zero room for moral compromise or spiritual darkness. By asserting that the church has "always comprised" these ideologies and needs to transform its theology around human constructs, the sermon walks squarely in darkness while claiming fellowship with light.

Instead of calling sinners to repentance and holiness, this sermon bows to cultural pressure, trading divine truth for human validation. The true church abandons God whenever it replaces the unchanging standard of His Word with the shifting, secular altar of inclusivity.

This sermon serves as a poetic and ideological bookend to Dean Peter Catt’s eighteen-year tenure, which abruptly concluded following heavy public backlash over allowing the Cathedral to be used for filming an OnlyFans-focused reality television series involving adult-content creators. The controversy—sparked by a segment featuring a faux-religious reaffirmation ceremony inside the sacred space— precipitated Catt's retirement after critics argued it crossed the line from radical inclusivity into the secular commodification of the church. 

Was this sermon - last preached of Catt's tenure - a defiant double-down on the exact theological trajectory that defined his departure?. When progressive secular values and identity politics are framed synonymously with divine work there is a blurring of the lines between institutional orthodoxy and modern cultural movements.

Weep Brisbane for your Cathedral. 

Mourn and lament. 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

The sermon is available in full text at this link to the Cathedral's website.

The church is playing games.