Don’t let the facts…
“Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.” So goes the old saying. In Sunday’s Sun-Herald, Simon Webster writes –
“A vicar has sparked outrage in Britain by distributing a pamphlet urging women to do as their husbands tell them. Reports could not confirm whether he got his wife to deliver them for him. … Not to avoid members of the media – they would have been the least of his worries – but to steer clear of Mrs MacLeay. God only knows how she reacted when she read her husband’s musings.”
It would have been relatively easy to go to the St Nicholas’ website to hear the ‘offending’ sermons or to read this (which was posted a week ago) – The Rector of St. Nicholas’, Angus MacLeay, writes:
“On a different point another strand of headlines speak of the Rector telling women to be silent and of a leaflet written by him being distributed around the congregation in January. The reality is that I have written no leaflets, nothing has been distributed and no-one has ever told women to be silent.”
It’s worth reading both the article and the letter in their entirety, and then listening to the sermons (31 January and 14 February 2010).
And if this comes up in conversation, it’s a good opportunity to speak about the Lord Jesus, as Mark Oden does at the start of the first sermon.
ABC Radio spot on Christians and sainthood
Last night, ABC Radio’s PM spoke with Bishop Glenn Davies and others on the impending canonisation of Mary MacKillop. Transcript and audio here. (Photo: Wikipedia.)
Shock! Horror! Church Believes The Bible!
“At the heart of all the press coverage is the very ordinary fact that at St Nicholas Sevenoaks, as in many other evangelical churches up and down the country, we engage in an expository preaching ministry which requires both preacher and people to engage humbly with God’s word, the Bible.”
– Angus MacLeay, Rector of St Nicholas’ Sevenoaks, writes about the fuss in the UK media last week over some sermons on marriage. (h/t Anglican Mainstream.)
Building Healthy Churches: 9 Marks in Scotland and Northern Ireland
Last week, Mark Dever, Mike Gilbart-Smith and Colin Adams (who runs Unashamed Workman), spoke at the 9Marks Conference in Ballymena, Northern Ireland.
The audio has been posted online and will be there for 60 days.
Last weekend, Mark Dever spoke at another 9Marks conference – this one in Scotland. That audio is now online on the website of Charlotte Chapel, Edinburgh.
Not a good sign
“Dissident Uniting Church minister Francis MacNab has posted a giant billboard over the Monash Freeway with pictures of Florence Nightingale, Martin Luther King and himself as model leaders…”
– from Barney Zwartz in The Age. All a bit sad.
Falling on Deaf Ears?
“In many churches, there is almost no public reading of the Word of God. Worship is filled with music, but congregations seem disinterested in listening to the reading of the Bible.”
– Albert Mohler reflects on why so many congregations in the US aren’t all that interested in hearing the Bible.
Could the same be said for your church?
Take a hammer to your downloads!
Over at the Fervr website, Tim Yap has some godly advice for youth – though there are many adults who should hear it too.
“Let’s keep it simple: downloading ‘free’ stuff from the internet which is supposed to cost money, whether it be music, movies or games, is against the law.”
‘Excited throng to welcome new Anglican bishop’
“Wollongong Bishop-elect Peter Hayward will adopt one of Australia’s biggest Anglican flocks at a packed consecration ceremony in Sydney … on April 13 …”
Encouragement from Psalm 41
Allan Blanch, an Emeritus Vice-president of the ACL, and who served as Rector in the parishes of Broadway and Beecroft, recently preached at St. Paul’s Lithgow on Psalm 41.
Most edifying. Listen here.