Why the Giggle v Tickle judgement is bad for women’s rights and a risk to religious freedom
“In her recent article, Paula Gerber argued the decision of the Federal Court of Australia in Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd v Tickle was ‘good for trans rights and women’s rights’. With respect, I disagree and would like to explain why.
I believe the decision is bad for women’s rights — especially the rights of women to enjoy single-sex spaces and activities — and may also be bad for the rights of those from religious groups to control their spaces and activities in accordance with their faith commitments. I suspect the decision may also be bad for ‘trans rights’ in the long term. …”
– The ABC’s Religion & Ethics has published this opinion piece by Associate Professor Neil Foster.
Canada steps up its war on the Bible
“The Canadian parliament has passed Bill C-9, known as the Combating Hate Act; it received Royal Assent on June 18 and the provisions come into force on July 18. Mark Carney, the liberal Prime Minister, considers that the legislation is ‘a huge step forward in our mission to build a stronger, safer country’.
Bill C-9 will usher in a ‘dark day’ for Canadians of faith. Conservative MP Brad Redekopp described the Bill as ‘a tool to enforce liberal DEI ideology while leaving fundamental freedoms dangerously exposed’. Such is the danger to the church that the legislation been dubbed the ‘Bible Ban’ Bill. …”
– Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack, retired Presbyterian minister in Scotland, wrote this opinion piece for TCW.
“Theology has consequences” — The Episcopal Church heads for Extinction
“It was over 30 years ago that the Wall Street Journal ran an analysis of the Episcopal Church that had the unforgettable headline, ‘The Episcopalian Goes the Way of the Dodo.’ …
This was a prediction made over three decades ago that the Episcopal Church in the United States would go extinct, and that was simply from a dispassionate look at the statistics…”
– in his The Briefing for 24 June 2026, Albert Mohler comments 0n the planned sale of The Episcopal Church’s headquarters at 815 Second Avenue, New York.
Related:
Presiding bishop authorizes marketing of Episcopal Church Center building in New York City – The Episcopal Church website.
“Celebrate Pride Month with pride resources” – TEC website.
The Church of England’s Problem with Antisemitism
“This week, the Archbishop of Canterbury is visiting Israel/Palestine and meeting with Palestinian Christians there, who have made a plea for churches in the West to support them and campaign for peace in the region.
For reasons I will explain below, I think this visit, like the earlier one by Rachel Treweek, Graham Usher, and Guli Francis-Dehqani (bishops of Gloucester, Norwich, and Chelmsford) are disastrous for the Church of England, for Jews in Britain, and for our relationship with the Jewish community. …”
– At Psephizo, Ian Paul shares his possibly controversial, but very interesting, commentary on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s current overseas trip.
Image: Ian Paul speaking at the Church of England’s General Synod in February 2024.
What is the Church of England for?
Carl Trueman offers a devastating commentary on too much of the Church of England –
“H. Richard Niebuhr famously denounced the liberal church of his day, summarizing its theology in a single withering sentence: ‘A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.’ What he did not note—but perhaps implied—is that such theology typically manifests in worship that is infantile, offering a pastiche of the wider culture’s predilections that would qualify as kitsch, if its purveyors had the wit to see it as such. The progressive church is always a poor imitation of what the world considered cool the day before yesterday.
Walking through the streets of London in early June, I encountered a first-class example of such third-class theological life…”
– Read it all at First Things.
(Thanks to Julian Mann for the link.)
Nothing in my hands…
From the Dean of Sydney, Sandy Grant,
“Dear Friends, sadly, diphtheria has been in the news again, due to the outbreak of this serious bacterial infection interstate. …
Diphtheria was a common cause of death in Australian children until the 1940s. Today, cases are rare due to high vaccination rates. …
The impact of diphtheria was brought closer to my consciousness when I served in the Parish of Kurrajong. The minister’s residence had a cemetery right next door.
The saddest graves were a family plot near the entrance. In it were buried George and Henrietta Jaffray, and four of their children. …”
– From the St. Andrew’s Cathedral Sydney newsletter for 4th June 2026.
In addition, he shares, “P.S. On a different note, here is one of the most helpful articles I’ve read all year… by a tradesman, not an academic.”
Photo: Cemetery of the former Presbyterian Church in Cranbrook, Tasmania.
How the World has Changed since Same-Sex Marriage
Mark Powell writes at AP, the national Australian Presbyterian journal –
“The challenge for Christians today is the same as it was for God’s people when they were in exile in Babylon. Whenever an orchestra of musical instruments were played, the people were told to bow down to the golden image, or else.
This is exactly where we all are again today. Except this time the image has every colour of the rainbow. Whatever is threatened if we don’t, it remains binding that we cannot bow down to their image but must continue to worship God alone. …”
– Read it here.
Macca’s long and winding road
“In a nation in the midst of a social disaster, an 83-old-year British pop star of whose moral influence any sensible person should strongly disapprove has created a masterpiece.
It was a strange experience for a conservative Christian like me to listen to Paul McCartney’s latest album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane. He was one of the evangelists for the permissive society in the 1960s…”
– At TCW, Julian Mann shares some interesting refections on Paul McCartney’s journey. Maybe not to Christ (though you might pray about that), but disillusionment with where he’s been.
Who is really pro-woman?
Dean of Sydney Sandy Grant shares his latest Minister’s Newsletter –
“Dear Friends, here’s a claim to make you sit up and pay attention:
– Post-feminist Australia is anti-woman in a number of problematic ways.
– But Bible-shaped Christianity is pro-woman in regard to dignity and protection.
Let me unpack this… within the confines of an article that I’m trying not to turn into an essay!
Post-feminist Australia is anti-woman in a number of ways. For example, sex-selective abortion is legal in Australia. That means if you discover you’re having a baby girl, but you really wanted a boy, there is nothing stopping you seeking a ‘termination’ of a living, human, pre-born baby for no other reason than sex.
This is not hypothetical. …”
– Read (and, if you wish, take action using the links) at the Cathedral website.
The Most Neglected Element of Church?
From Tim Challies –
“There are some elements of public worship that receive a great deal of attention. These elements are taught, practiced, rehearsed, and perfected until they are as good as they can be. In most churches, this includes the music, of course, and often the preaching. … But either way, some elements receive the lion’s share of attention.
What elements often do not receive nearly as much attention? What elements are often not taught, practiced, rehearsed, and perfected until they are as good as they can be? …”
Related:
Wonderful help for reading the Bible in public.
Giggle v Tickle, the Federal Court Appeal — Two Steps Back
From Associate Professor Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia –
“The Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia has handed down its long-awaited decision in Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd v Tickle [2026] FCAFC 64 (15 May 2026). …
Sadly, it has to be said that this decision of the Full Court might now be seen as ‘two steps back’.
In short, I think this appeal decision is also legally wrong, and I look forward to it being overturned on appeal to the High Court of Australia if that goes ahead. But the decision also strongly points to the need to amend the Sex Discrimination Act 1984…”
– Read his full post which includes some possible implications of the decision.
Analysis: The Abuja “Contradiction” That Isn’t
We didn’t link to the article by Jay Thomas at First Things yesterday, it didn’t seem profitable. However, if you happen to have read it, George Conger at Anglican Ink has published a very clear and helpful rebuttal.
“Jay Thomas’s recent First Things essay ‘Anglicans and the Abuja Contradiction’ purports to expose fatal logical flaws in GAFCON’s Jerusalem Declaration.
In reality, it reveals something far more interesting: how easily appeals to ‘Anglican tradition’ can mask fundamentally un-Anglican premises. Thomas’s argument doesn’t just fail—it fails instructively, demonstrating precisely why orthodox Anglicans found GAFCON necessary in the first place.
Thomas’s thesis is straightforward: GAFCON stands guilty of rank hypocrisy.…”
– Read George’s response here.
Related:
Photo: G26 at Abuja, via SydneyAnglicans.net.
On ‘Worship Nights’
Mikey Lynch at The Gospel Coalition Australia shares some observations –
“I have observed an uptick in stand-alone ‘worship nights’ in Australia in the 2020s—that is, Christian prayer and praise communal singing events. I hear of churches and inter-church conferences hosting special ‘worship nights’; there are even once-off inter-church events, often hosted by informal parachurch groups.
These kinds of events have strong appeal among those under thirty.
In this article, I give some notes on this phenomenon, concluding with words of caution and calls for discernment. …”
– Read here.
Do I choose an old or new church?
“Many words are being written, and the occasional clickbait headline, to debate whether a revival is blowing across the land. The answer (as I’ve been saying for the last few years) is, no. As much as we pray and long for spiritual revival in Melbourne and across Australia, we are not witnessing revival. And yet, I do think there has been a nudge, a gentle opening of the curtains.
Evidence of this nudge is suggested by increased Bible sales and some churches indicating growth in Sunday attendance. There is anecdotal evidence of a slight turn from religious indifference (and animosity) toward curiosity. Dare I suggest, that even among Australia’s major newspapers, their tune toward Christianity has changed a little.
One of the quandaries facing young Aussies as they contemplate visiting a church and investigating Christianity is this: should I go for new or for old? …”
Murray Campbell at Mentone Baptist in Melbourne suggests some diagnostic questions to ask in considering what church to join –
“Do they read the Bible?
Do they teach from the Bible?
Does the preacher’s message match what the Bible teaches?
Do they teach that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone?
Do they believe in heaven and hell?
Do they preach the sufficiency of Jesus’ death on the cross?
Do they practice baptism and the Lord’s Supper in accord with the significance given in Scripture?
Is the church’s sexual ethics in line with the Bible.
Do the people love one another? Jesus tells us ‘the world will know you are my disciples, because you love one another’.
Do they welcome visitors with kindness and grace. Is the church safe for the unbeliever and inquirer?”
Church in Wales — Weighed in the balance and found wanting
“The Governing Body of the Church in Wales faced an important test this week.
It was a test of their commitment to inclusivity and the respect of individual conscience. It was a test which revealed far more about the future for faithful Anglicans in the Church in Wales than the vote that came later.
The challenge came in the form of a procedural motion. It was merely a request that the vote on the Bill to incorporate an order of service of blessing same-sex relationships into their Book of Common Prayer should be taken by ballot, rather than the usual show of hands. For those unfamiliar with the way Governing Body does its business, a counted vote requires individuals to hold their voting card up to be counted. There is no option for electronic voting and no formal record is made of how individuals voted.
It should not have been controversial. …
Faithful Anglicans in Wales are used to putting up with being being scorned and marginalised. They will now need to come to terms with the fact that the much vaunted conscience clause is limited to an individual’s right not to ‘participate in a service.’ It does not stretch to being able to have nothing to do with such services. If asked, clergy must enable a service of blessing to take place by passing the couple on to the diocesan bishop, or ensuring that another member of their team, or a visiting clergy person, offers the service. Lawyers clarified too that clergy, or congregations, cannot refuse to allow their buildings to be used to bless what they believe God cannot bless.”
– Anglican Futures has published this opinion piece on this week’s meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales.
Related:
Evangelicals ‘need prayers’ after Church in Wales votes to make same-sex blessings permanent – Christian Today.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…