Armidale’s “The Link” – November 2024

Posted on November 7, 2024 
Filed under Australian dioceses, Encouragement

The latest edition (November 2024) of The Link, the magazine of the Diocese of Armidale, is now online.

Download a copy for your edification and your prayers.

Launch 2025 for School Leavers– and ten years of Two Ways Ministries

Posted on November 6, 2024 
Filed under Resources

From Phillip Jensen –

“Join us at Launch 2025!

Launch is the camp for school leavers keen to live for Jesus. It is where you will –

Our leaders are an awesome group of young women and men just a few years ahead of you! They are keen to help you work out what it means to align your priorities to God’s in this next phase of your life whilst having a fantastic time meeting others doing the same thing. Launch camp truly is the best investment you can make to think through how to live for Jesus!…”

– Download a flyer, and secure your spot.

Three nights away at Stanwell Tops – 3rd-6th February 2025.

It’d be good to advertise it at youth groups and church too, before other, less strategic, things are booked to occupy that time!

“The aim of Launch is to work out together what it means to live for Jesus in the transition to post-school life – years that are likely to be the most formative years of life.”

Related:

Two Ways Ministries is ten years old! – See the TWM website to learn more, give thanks, and do pray.

How personality impacts ministry teams

Posted on November 6, 2024 
Filed under Encouragement, Resources

From The Pastor’s Heart –

“I want to be a big hearted encourager like Barnabas. I want to be a reliable assistant like Timothy. I want to be passionate preacher like Apollos.

When you think about the qualifications for Christian ministry in 1 Timothy 3, the significance of personality is pretty much ignored.

What is the relationship between character and personality? Someone is all about structure and someone else is much more ‘loosy-goosy/flexible’.

When there’s conflict in church or in a ministry teams – it’s often put down to personality difference or sometimes even disorder.

What does the Bible say about all this?

Tim Omrod serves with the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) at Griffith University on the Gold Coast and has just finished a study of the co-workers of Paul.”

– Watch or listen here.

BBC Daily service – giving thanks for Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith

Posted on November 5, 2024 
Filed under People

On BBC Radio 4’s Daily Service for 4th November 2024, Pam Rhodes from BBC TV’s Songs of Praise gives thanks for her dear friend Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith, who was called home in August.

The 15 minute programme is available until the end of November.

(Image from a 2020 message from Bishop Dudley-Smith to the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland.)

US election season, politics and the gospel — Ministry Matters from the Church of Confessing Anglicans NZ

Posted on November 5, 2024 
Filed under Resources, Theology

“With the US presidential election well underway … and because we here at Ministry Matters know no fear, we dedicate this issue to a few brief reflections on politics and the gospel.

If you’re over politics, sorry – but let me assure you the emphasis here is very much on the gospel! …”

– Editor of Ministry Matters from the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa NZ, Geoff Robson, introduces the latest issue.

Alistair Begg with Biblical Wisdom for Voting (in the US elections)

Posted on November 4, 2024 
Filed under Resources

“Dear Friend,

I haven’t checked, but I will not be surprised to discover that the content of my letter written four years ago on the threshold of the US election was not dissimilar to this letter, particularly in seeking to declare, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns’ (Rev. 19:6). …

It is imperative that we learn to discipline ourselves to view the world through the prism of God’s Word. In deciding how to vote, I have been helped by being reminded of this quote from Gresham Machen’s book The Christian Faith in the Modern World…”

– At Truth for life, Alistair Begg shares some wisdom from God’s word as the US elections arrive (Wednesday morning Australian time).

Related: 1 Timothy 2:1-4:

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”– ESV.

A reminder of the need for gospel ministry in the country

Posted on November 4, 2024 
Filed under Australian dioceses

This was posted on the Diocese of Bathurst Facebook page:

“Molong? Gilgandra? Canowindra? Bathurst? (assistant role at the Cathedral). Where might you come and experience the blessings of regional ministry? Or perhaps somewhere a little further away? West Wyalong? Coonabarabran?

Keen to talk to men and women open to exploring ministry in central and western NSW.

(Also: Coonamble, Condobolin, Bourke-Brewarrina, Nyngan, Warren, Coolah-Dunedoo, Cumnock, Trundle.)”

– see also the Diocesan website.

AP interview with Tim Chester on ‘Enjoying Jesus’

Posted on November 3, 2024 
Filed under People, Resources, Theology

In the latest podcast from AP, the Australian Presbyterian journal, Mark Powell speaks with Tim Chester about his latest book – Enjoying Jesus.

– Watch here.

From the Archives: Archbishop Sir Marcus Loane remembers the beginnings of the SUEU

Posted on November 2, 2024 
Filed under Australian dioceses, Evangelism, Sydney Diocese

From our archives:

In 1980, Archbishop of Sydney Sir Marcus Loane (1912 – 2009), addressed the Sydney University Evangelical Union’s End of Term Service.

In his 19 minute address, Sir Marcus recalls the beginnings of the Evangelical Union, fifty years previously.

A wonderful encouragement.

Photo: Marcus Loane as Vice Principal of Moore College, 1950.

Gafcon rebukes Archbishop Welby and affirms orthodox Anglicans in England

Posted on November 1, 2024 
Filed under Anglican Communion, Church of England, GAFCON

Here is a Communique from the Gafcon Primates’ Council:

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3)

We, the Gafcon Primates, meeting in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, to celebrate the investiture of Archbishop Steve Wood as the third Primate of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and to welcome him as a Primate of the Anglican Communion, send greetings to the faithful.

We wish we could write to you about our great joy for mission, evangelism, and church planting, but recent statements by the Archbishop of Canterbury require us to yet again address an urgent matter surrounding biblical ethics confronting our beloved Anglican church.

The recent actions of the General Synod of the Church of England, where Archbishop Justin Welby has championed the introduction of same-sex blessings into the life of the Church of England, has galvanised the Gafcon movement in the ongoing reset of the Anglican Communion. However, Archbishop Welby’s recent explicit repudiation of Christian doctrine in his interview on Britain’s podcast, ‘The Rest is Politics,’ has brought us to repeat our serious call for his personal repentance.

In this interview, he publicly states that:

“all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship and whether it’s straight or gay. In other words, we’re not giving up on the idea that sex is within marriage or civil partnership. We’ve put forward a proposal that where people have been through a civil partnership or a same-sex marriage, equal marriage under the 2014 Act, they should be able to come along to their local, to a church, and have a service of prayer and blessing for them in their lives together.”

While he may claim not to have changed the doctrine of marriage, the Archbishop of Canterbury has demonstrably changed the doctrine of sin, by promoting the sanctification of sin by means of a divine blessing.

This is in clear breach of Holy Scripture, which unequivocally teaches that the only proper context for sexual intimacy is in the relationship of a man and woman who have been joined together in marriage. All forms of sexual intimacy outside of this context are condemned as immorality and are behaviors from which the people of God are regularly called to repent (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

It is also in clear breach of Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, which rejected, “homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture,” and which the Archbishop as recently as 2022 declared to be the teaching of the Anglican Communion, including the Church of England.

We are guided by Jesus’ solemn words of warning to the Church of Thyatira, because, “they tolerate the teaching of Jezebel,” which endorses sexual immorality. Only judgment awaits Jezebel and all who follow her, unless they repent (Revelation 2:21-22; 22:15). Any toleration, let alone endorsement, of immorality is liable to God’s judgment.

For this reason, in response to his public comments, we solemnly repeat our call for Archbishop Justin Welby to personally and publicly repent of this denial of his ordination and consecration vows, where he promised to, “teach the doctrine of Christ as the Church of England has received it.”

Gafcon supports all faithful Anglicans, both those who have chosen to leave established provinces where the authority of Scripture has been compromised, as well as those who choose to remain as they seek to reform their province from within.

Therefore, we continue to champion The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) as Gafcon’s authentically-Anglican structural provision for those who cannot by conscience remain within the historic, revisionist structures.

Additionally, we express our support for The Alliance as they seek to stand firm in defense of biblical marriage within the Church of England, and we stand ready to defend, authenticate, and support them.

Finally, we declare afresh to all those in England who, “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to all the saints,” that you are not alone.

Gafcon Primates’ Council.
Reformation Day,
31 October 2024.

– Also published on the GAFCON website.

Lies, flattery, and Artificial Intelligence

Posted on November 1, 2024 
Filed under Resources

“Part of the value of Large Language Models like ChatGPT is their ability to act as a mirror into the human psyche.

Yesterday, I unintentionally discovered how brilliant ChatGPT is at pragmatic barefaced lying and feelgood flattery—masterfully learned from its human overlords. …”

– Moore College lecturer (and ACL Council member) Dr Lionel Windsor discovered that you just can’t believe everything AI chatbots tell you.

Justin Welby and the Continued Erosion of the Faith in the Church of England

Posted on October 31, 2024 
Filed under Anglican Communion, Church of England, Culture wars

“The Australian Church Record (ACR) is deeply grieved by the recent remarks made by the Archbishop of Canterbury in ‘The Rest is Politics’ podcast episode released on 21 October 2024.

In the context of the current turbulence in the Church of England over matters related to human sexuality, Archbishop Justin Welby stated that ‘All sexual activity should be within a committed relationship and whether its straight or gay.’ (51:49).

Despite the subsequent Lambeth Palace statement issued on 22 October 2024 which defended this interview as merely Archbishop Welby’s ‘personal view’, this remark represents a serious and public breach of biblical orthodoxy from the most senior representative of world Anglicanism.…”

— Read the full statement just released by The Australian Church Record.

What Happened on Reformation Day?

Posted on October 31, 2024 
Filed under History, Theology

“On October 31, much of the culture will be focussed on candy and things that go bump in the night. Protestants, however, have something far more significant to celebrate on October 31.

It’s Reformation day, which commemorates what was perhaps the greatest move of God’s Spirit since the days of the Apostles.

But what is the significance of Reformation Day, and how should we consider the events it commemorates? …”

– At Ligonier Ministries, Robert Rothwell writes about the significance of Reformation Day.

Image: Martin Luther in 1532, by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Archbishop Steve Wood — A Primate of Prayer

Posted on October 31, 2024 
Filed under ACNA, GAFCON, People

From GAFCON:

“Meet Archbishop Steve Wood, who will be invested this week as Primate of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), a province established and celebrated by Gafcon.

In this extended interview, Archbishop Steve shares intimate insights into his daily devotional life, his emotional journey through his near-fatal COVID-19 illness, and his personal experience of leaving The Episcopal Church to join the ACNA.

General Secretary Paul Donison speaks with Archbishop Steve, as he candidly describes his deep fellowship within Gafcon, and his personal experiences of becoming Primate.”

– Listen here – or direct link to Spotify.

Very encouraging – and a reminder of what a belessing the Gafcon movement has been to so many.

Related:

One of Archbishop Foley Beach’s Christmas messages (this one from December 2022).

Praying for those in authority — and for the US Elections

Posted on October 30, 2024 
Filed under World news

With the US elections a week away, Christians understand that no human leader can deliver the salvation and security we need.

But we also know that leaders can promote peace, and they can promote strife.

For that reason, do remember, and be encouraged to act on, these words from 1 Timothy 2:1-4:

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” – ESV.

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