To AnglicansAll www.duomo.ac.nz/acnz from Bishop Richard Randerson, re the “agnosticism” remark:

GOD : Because God is mystery we can only talk about God in terms of symbolism and imagery. There are many symbols of God, none of which can fully represent God. The traditional image is of God as supernatural creator, and some go further to claim such an entity is scientifically verifiable. It is SOLELY in relationship to that image of a scientifically verifiable entity that I used the word agnostic, meaning that you cannot prove the existence of such an entity one way or the other.
There are other images of God. The Bible says God is love, and God is spirit. These are images of God that I and many others feel much more helpful. I believe totally in God, and find these images of love and spirit more meaningful for me. But everyone needs to have an image that they feel is helpful to them, remembering that we are talking here about images, not the reality of God to which any image can only point.

JESUS : Although God is mystery we know the nature of God as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, whom we call Son of God. Through Jesus we find the nature of God to be one of love, forgiveness, justice, peace, and sacrifice for others.

BIBLE STORIES : There are different types of language. The language of science is a different type of language from the language of poetry and symbolism. Many of the Bible stories are of the latter kind, and to confuse symbolism with science is a category mistake (which both Richard Dawkins and fundamentalist Christians make). In reading many of the Bible stories the essential thing is to focus on the MEANING of the story, not to get side-tracked by debating the stories as to whether they are literally factual or non-factual. For example : A. The Creation stories do not offer us an alternative scientific view as to HOW the world was made (as Creationists claim). The MEANING of the stories is that we understand Creation as gift, and treasure it; every person and part of Creation needs to live in a relationship of inter-dependence or symbiosis, with God as the central reality; and as human beings we are called to act as stewards of the Creation to ensure its sustainability for all time. B. Jonah and the whale (literally ‘big fish’). This story tells us of God’s love for all people, in this case the people of Nineveh where Jonah was supposed to be going. C. The Virgin Birth : the meaning of this story lies in its expression of the truth that in Jesus both human and divine natures meet.

Prayer in Public : re-reading my article from Monday I see the word I used was NOT ‘embarrassed’ (as some have misquoted) but ‘uncomfortable’ (because of the excluding nature in a multi-faith setting). And by ‘public prayer’ I was not referring to prayer in a church service (where Christians gather voluntarily for Christian worship), but to prayer in a public setting such as in Parliament, or at an Anzac Day parade at the Cenotaph, where people of many faiths or of none gather..