CMS Summer School 2022
Posted on October 18, 2021
Filed under Resources
As many will be aware, due to uncertainties about COVID-19, the NSW CMS 2022 Summer School will be held entirely online, 8–14 January 2022.
Registration, at the reduced rate of $50 per person ($25 concession), is now open.
“In 2022, The Rev Dr Andrew Shead, Moore College’s Head of Old Testament and Hebrew, will be teaching us from the Psalms. It will be a time where we reflect on the journey of our Saviour into glory, and consider what it means to walk in the path of his righteousness – to Walk His Way. We will also be considering our role in going to the nations and teaching others to Walk His Way.”
Summer School is always encouraging and extremely worthwhile.
80% opening date for churches brought forward a week in NSW – with Bishop Michael Stead
Posted on October 17, 2021
Filed under COVID19, Sydney Diocese
“Churches will be free to open for vaccinated and unvaccinated people a week earlier than had been expected in New South Wales.
With 80% of NSW adult population fully vaccinated, a new Public Health Order comes into force from Monday 18 October 2021.
We talk with South Sydney Anglican Bishop Michael Stead about the implications of the new PHO, contradictions between it and the COVID safe plan, and what to do about ventilation.”
– Here’s an extra edition, released this afternoon, of The Pastor’s Heart.
Sunday morning encouragement
Posted on October 17, 2021
Filed under Encouragement
With thanks to Emu Music.
The Final Stone – A Response in Defence of Bishop Rod Chiswell
Posted on October 16, 2021
Filed under Australian dioceses, Culture wars, Opinion
“Last weekend the Australian published a deeply disturbing piece about an Anglican bishop and a revolt against him from one small church in his diocese. …”
– David Robertson at The Wee Flea shares his take on last weekend’s front page story in The Weekend Australian Magazine.
The Question of Our Day
Posted on October 16, 2021
Filed under Opinion
“What is a human being? That is the most important question of our day. If we do not answer that question then our neighbours cannot access the Gospel.
Ignorance of human nature prevents people from understanding the good ends for which we are created, and therefore from understanding actions and habits that destroy those ends, and therefore from understanding sin, and therefore from understanding the Gospel. …
… I pray that my feeble words will help you to understand a small measure of the depths and power of the darkness around us, and that the way out is to run toward the darkest place, the ground where the enemy is even now digging his trenches.”
– In a confronting post at the American Anglican Council, Adam J. MacLeod, Professor of Law at Faulkner University in Alabama, outlines the difficult circumstances in which we must proclaim Christ.
It’s also a reminder that, without Christ, we can do nothing. (John 15:5)
Save the date: Gafcon Australasia Conference 2022
Posted on October 16, 2021
Filed under Australia, GAFCON
Save the date for the Gafcon Australasia Conference 2022: August 15-18 in Canberra.
More details coming soon.
Statement from the GAFCON Chairman on Michael Nazir-Ali
Posted on October 15, 2021
Filed under GAFCON, People
Gafcon Chairman Archbishop Foley Beach has released this statement –
“To the Gafcon faithful,
I am writing to you today to share the news that Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali has joined The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. We are deeply grateful for Bishop Michael’s ministry over the years on behalf of the Gafcon movement. He is a stalwart defender of Christian orthodoxy, and my own faith has been enriched and encouraged by his witness and teaching.
Michael is a gift to the global Church, and he has shared with me his willingness to continue to assist the Gafcon movement in any way that might be suitable. While we are still exploring what this might look like, in the near term we look forward to continuing to partner with him in support of the suffering church. Please continue to keep Gafcon, the Nazir-Alis, and the whole Church in your prayers.
The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach
Chairman, Global Anglican Future Conference
Archbishop and Primate, Anglican Church in North America.”
Source: GAFCON.
Michael Nazir-Ali converts to Roman Catholicism
Posted on October 14, 2021
Filed under Church of England, People
“Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester and one of the best-known Anglican clerics, could be ordained as a Catholic priest as early as next month.
The conversion of such a high-profile intellectual would be an enormous boost for the Catholic Ordinariate, set up by Pope Benedict XVI to receive Anglicans into the Roman church. …”
– via Damian Thompson at The Spectator.
More:
“Bishop Nazir Ali was received into the Catholic faith on September 29, the feast of St Michael and All Angels by Monsignor Keith Newton, the former Anglican who now leads the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham…”
Michael Nazir Ali received into the full communion of the Catholic Church – Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Evangelicals and the end of Christendom
Posted on October 13, 2021
Filed under History, Opinion
From The Pastor’s heart:
“What happened to the idea of Christian Australia – so long and widely held and so quickly abandoned? …
We are diving back to the middle of last century today and thinking about how different leaders of the evangelical faith navigated the end of Christendom with historian Hugh Chilton from Scots College, Sydney.”
D. A. Carson on the Two Jews Talking the Day Before the First Passover
Posted on October 13, 2021
Filed under Good News, Theology
“Picture two Jews, by the name of Smith and Brown. Remarkably Jewish names.
The day before the first Passover they’re having a little discussion in the land of Goshen, and Smith says to Brown, ‘Boy, are you a little nervous about what’s going to happen tonight?’…”
– Justin Taylor shares this wonderful illustration from Don Carson.
Use PrayerMate on an iPhone?
Posted on October 12, 2021
Filed under Resources
If you use PrayerMate on an iPhone running iOS 15, here’s a tip you might find helpful:
“Blocking notifications whilst you pray with iOS 15 Focus mode.”
– From PrayerMate.
Christian schools are staring down the barrel of the religion of sex
Posted on October 11, 2021
Filed under Culture wars
“In the Sexular Age, sexual identity trumps everything. All other identities must be subsumed under sexual identity and to stand up against this now results in censure and legal implications.
This much is clear from the Eternity newspaper article in which the department of the Attorney General of Victoria was questioned over what rights those who held religious identity convictions had when it came to matters such as choosing who can teach at a faith-based school.
The answer was chilling and implacable: None. …”
– Stephen McAlpine urges Christian educators to prepare for a very different future.
See also:
Being the Bad Guys: How to Live for Jesus in a World That Says You Shouldn’t – Stephen McAlpine
Talks from Reachout 2021
Posted on October 10, 2021
Filed under Resources
David Williams, Principal of St. Andrew’s Hall in Melbourne, spoke at the Reachout 2021 missions conference in September.
The theme of the conference was The Sacrifice Factor.
David’s three talks on living in the Pain / Pleasure world have now been made available and are well worth hearing to help us understand the world in which we seek to live for Christ.
(Image courtesy The Pastor’s Heart.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…