South Carolina defiant
At the 219th Convention of the Diocese of South Carolina yesterday, Bishop Mark Lawrence didn’t mince his words:
“It would be insufferable to see this great Diocese of South Carolina come under the sway of the same false gospel that has decked so much of The Episcopal Church with decorative destruction and dreadful decline.
Like those in the Church at Corinth with whom St. Paul was confronted, many within the leadership of The Episcopal Church have grown willful. They will have their way though it is contrary to the received teaching of God’s Holy Word, the trustworthy traditions of the Christian Faith, and the expressed will of the Anglican Communion—that rich multicultural body of almost 80 million Christians around the world, from many tribes, languages, peoples, and nations.…”
– and that was just the warm-up. Worth reading in full.
See also the text of key resolutions approved – including this one –
RESOLVED, That this 219th Convention acknowledges that for more than three centuries this Diocese has represented the Anglican expression of the faith once for all delivered to the saints; and, be it further
RESOLVED, that we declare to all that we understand ourselves to be a gospel diocese, called to proclaim an evangelical faith, embodied in a catholic order, and empowered and transformed through the Holy Spirit; and be it further
RESOLVED, that we promise under God not to swerve in our belief that above all Jesus came into the world to save the lost, that those who do not know Christ need to be brought into a personal and saving relationship with him, and that those who do know Christ need to be taught by the Holy Scriptures faithfully to follow him all the days of their lives to the Glory of God the Father.
(Photo of Bishop Mark Lawrence: Diocese of South Carolina.)
Where do we go from here? — Fulcrum
The leadership team of Fulcrum, the Church of England’s ‘open evangelical’ group seems to have accepted the reality of the situation in the Anglican Communion in a post on their website –
“The bishops and Standing Committees of The Episcopal Church (USA) have consented to the election of Mary Glasspool as bishop suffragan in the diocese of Los Angeles. That consent sadly confirms that TEC is determined to ignore all the repeated appeals of the wider Communion and, in the closing words of The Windsor Report, ‘walk apart’…
It is important that this is not simply a matter of disagreement about biblical interpretation and sexual ethics although these are central and important. It is now very clearly also a fundamental matter of truth-telling and trust.”
– Read the full article.
And John Richardson comments: ‘Fulcrum: their challenge to Canterbury and the challenge they must face’.
“Understandably, the statement is at pains to recognise Rowan Williams’s past efforts. Yet it is remarkably frank in the call it now makes upon him…”
(Photo courtesy ACNS/Rosenthal.)
‘The Heart’ in the Old Testament
Barry Newman has posted a PDF file of his latest series – this one on ‘The Heart’ in the New Testament.
It’s a follow-up to his earlier series on ‘The Soul’.
There’s a link on this page.
Installation of Archbishop Okoh
“The service lasted just under four hours and was worth every minute! Had it been on a weekend, there would have been ‘an explosion of numbers’ a bishop sitting next to me said…”
– Canon Chris Sugden writes from Abuja for Anglican Mainstream. He also provides a summary of the new Nigerian Primate’s sermon.
(Photo: Anglican Mainstream. Bishop Peter Tasker was present from Sydney.)
The Trials of Theology
At Reformation21, Derek Thomas thinks Carl Trueman’s essay in The Trials of Theology, edited by Andrew Cameron and Brian Rosner, is alone worth the price of the book.
(There’s some other excellent stuff in there too.)
John Piper writes this about the book:
When I began my theological studies in 1968 I devoured Helmut Thielicke’s A Little Exercise for Young Theologians.
If I were starting today I would devour The Trials of Theology.
Here is counsel from the proven dead and the wise living.“Do we need theology”?
We may as well ask, “Do we need to know God?” Ten thousand times yes.“Is studying theology perilous?”
Yes. But less perilous than ignorance.“Will it be costly?”
Let the Bible answer: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Ps. 119:71).Without the “trials of theology” we remain on the surface of the statutes of God. May the Spirit of truth make this book a means of true thinking about God, deep affections for God, and beautiful obedience to God, through Jesus Christ who is God.
Moore Books has copies.
New Nigerian Primate from today
“The new Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), His Eminence, Most Reverend Nicholas Dikeriehi Orogodo Okoh will be installed today in Abuja. He becomes the fourth Primate of the Anglican Church in Nigeria.
He takes over from the Most Rev Peter Akinola who vacates his office today…”
– from This Day (Nigeria).
God, Sex, and ‘Christianity Lite’
Albert Mohler:
“A project of theological revisionism is easy to start, but hard to stop. Like a spreading acid, theological liberalism moves from one doctrine to the next, developing patterns of argument that arise over and over again.”
– from his latest blog posting.
And then it’s worth re-reading Mark Thompson’s ‘The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns’:
“It is increasingly clear that the gospel of salvation by the cross and resurrection of Jesus, with its call to faith and repentance has been replaced in some quarters by a liberal gospel of universal reconciliation, what some call ‘the gospel of inclusion’…”
TEC reaps the whirlwind
“Well it is now official: The Episcopal Church (TEC), a province of Anglican dioceses in the USA (and some neighbouring countries) has declared that it doesn’t care what the vast majority of the Anglican Communion believes to be the teaching of the Bible concerning sexuality. It simply does not care…”
– Bishop Glenn Davies writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Related: The TEC Diocese of Central New York, which evicted the Church of the Good Shepherd at 74 Conklin Avenue in Binghamton, appears to have found a new use for (at least some of) the empty building. (Earlier posts.)
Do Your friends know what Easter means?
“In Raised With Christ I argue that many have never heard the real gospel of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Today I share with you some research that demonstrates the truth of this.
Quite simply this is strong evidence that we are not speaking about the resurrection enough…”
– Adrian Warnock (in the UK) writes about the latest US research.
Do our Australian friends know what Easter means?