1 Corinthians 6 and legal proceedings
M E M O R A N D U M
Date: June 4, 2008
From: J.I. Packer
Re: 1 Cor 6 and Legal Proceedings regarding properties maintained, occupied and used for ministry by ANiC congregations
1. At Corinth, for no better reason apparently than litigiousness or greed, or maybe revenge, believers were taking each other to court before pagan judges (vss. 1, 6). Paul rebukes them, saying:
- This dishonours God, flaunting failure in the church by washing dirty Christian linen in public;
- This dishonours the church, implying that none of its members is fit to judge even small cases, when God is in fact equipping them all to judge major matters (involving angels!) one day;
- This dishonours the Christian calling, which requires willingness to be defrauded rather than disrupt fellowship.
This, however, is not the situation ANiC faces. …
– Read the full Memorandum (PDF file – updated link) on the Anglican Network in Canada website. (Photo: Ed Hird.)
The future may rest in Africa
The Lambeth Conference is held every 10 years by Anglicans worldwide to celebrate, pray and work out issues that are bound to arise in any large family. That is, until now. …
At least four Anglican provinces – Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda – are expected to stay away next month because of what they see as the Church’s drifting into permissiveness and sin, especially in North America. Those four national churches not only represent a startling 30 million members – more than a third of the total global membership – but also the region likely to become the new spiritual centre of the faith. The numbers help tell the tale: Canada and the United States are closing churches as membership plummets; in Africa, they cannot build churches fast enough to keep up with demand. …
– Story by Charles Lewis, National Post, Canada.
Anger at Anglican gay ‘wedding’
Traditionalists in the Anglican Church have been angered by reports that two gay clergymen have exchanged vows in a version of a marriage ceremony.
The service, at St Bartholomew the Great Church in the City of London last month, used formal rites and was said to be the first in the Anglican Church. …
– Report from the BBC. See also this story from MailOnline.
Background on GAFCON
GAFCON is the Global Anglican Future Conference being held in Jerusalem from 22nd – 29th June 2008.
There are three purposes:
- To provide an opportunity for fellowship as well as to continue to experience and proclaim the transforming love of Jesus Christ
- To develop a renewed understanding of our identity as Anglican Christians.
- To prepare for an Anglican future in which the Gospel is uncompromised and Christ-centred mission is a top priority. …
– Read the full press release from the Church of Uganda – now on the GAFCON website.
The Tragedy of 1662
Lee Gatiss, Co-ordinator of Reform London, spoke last month about the persecution and ejection of the Puritans from the Church of England in 1662, and the lessons we can learn from those events.
The talk is 35 minutes long (it is preceded by a 6 minute introduction to Reform London). Download it from Reform London at this page. Direct link to the 14.1MB mp3 file.
Also available on the same page is the audio of Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali (at the same meeting) speaking informally on the uniqueness of Christ, GAFCON and the future of the Church of England. Direct link to that 19MB mp3 file here.
Pittsburgh Annual Convention moved forward
Faced with an expected attempt at deposition by TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the TEC House of Bishops, Pittsburgh Bishop Bob Duncan has announced that the Annual Convention of his Diocese has been moved forward by just over a month.
Bishop Duncan’s letter is available here as a PDF file.
See also this earlier story (March 18) and this May 27 statement from the Pittsburgh Standing Committee.
Plan to Plant Conference, Saturday July 26
“You may be an experienced church planter, or someone who really wants to be.
You may want to start new ministries in a sub-culture or in a new way.
You may be a part of a larger team or working by yourself.
You may have no ideas or be full of them… but if you want to be stimulated by others who are currently multiplying Gospel ministry – you need to be here.”
Martin Morgan, from Rouse Hill Anglican Churches in Sydney’s west, invites you to a day for all who want to multiply gospel ministries.
Saturday 26th July 2008 at Rouse Hill. Download a leaflet for details.
GAFCON not about Gays
More than 35 members of the Australian contingent to GAFCON gathered in Sydney to hear Archbishop Peter Jensen declare that the conference is about “facing new realities in the (Anglican) communion and turning them into gospel opportunities”. …
– SydneyAnglicans.net has a helpful story on GAFCON – including interviews with Dr. Karin Sowada and the Rev. Craig Roberts by Russell Powell.
Run to win the Prize – Tom Schreiner
Professor Tom Schreiner from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, spoke at the Oak Hill School of Theology in London last month. His topic? “Run to win the prize – The nature of warnings in New Testament theology”.
Our friends at Oak Hill have generously made the audio files of the talks available – on the Oak Hill website.
New Southern Baptist Convention President
Johnny Hunt, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Georgia, has been elected the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention. …
It’s clear that Hunt is no fan of the growing Calvinist movement within the Southern Baptist Convention. He’s hosting a major conference to refute Calvinism at his church in November. … Things may have gone quite differently had Al Mohler, the Calvinist president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, stayed in the race (he suffered health complications).
– Report by Ted Olsen in the Christianity Today Liveblog.
See also this story from Baptist Press. (Photo: Baptist Press.)
Arctic synod greatly disappointed at same-sex moves
The synod of the diocese of the Arctic, meeting in Iqaluit, Nunavut from May 27 to June 3, passed a motion criticizing decisions by four dioceses of the Anglican Church of Canada that support blessing same-sex unions.
“Synod expressed great disappointment as some diocesan synods have decided to move forward with approving the blessing of same-sex civil marriages, after General Synod 2007 (made) it clear that this would not be allowed until the Lambeth Conference had time to discuss the issues this summer,” said a press release issued by the diocese of the Arctic synod. “This then indicates that Canadians are not serious about unity elements that hold the church together.” …
– Report from the Anglican Journal. See also Diocese of the Arctic website. (Photo: Christopher Patterson.)
The M’Cheyne daily Bible reading calendar
Need encouragement to read the Bible regularly? Ben Edgington has made available Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s daily Bible reading calendar in several formats.
Links to PDF files and an online interactive version are linked from this page at www.edginet.org. (There’s another online version here.)
From the Files: Peter Jensen on GAFCON
In December 2007, shortly after GAFCON was announced, Archbishop Peter Jensen wrote this about the meeting –
“The Anglican Future Conference is not designed to take the place of Lambeth. Some people may well choose to go to both. Its aim is to draw Biblical Anglican Christians together for urgent consultation. It is not a consultation which can take place at Lambeth, because Lambeth has a different agenda and far wider guest list. Unlike Lambeth, the Future Conference is not for Bishops alone – the invitations will go to clergy and lay people also. But it is a meeting which accepts the current reality of a Communion in disarray over fundamental issues of the gospel and biblical authority. …”
Obama’s Abortion Bombshell
Barack Obama, the presumptive pro-abortion nominee of the Democratic Party, has plans to reward the allies that helped him topple Hillary Clinton from her throne by making total unrestricted abortion in the United States his number one priority as President. …
– Report from LifeSite News.
From the Files: The Anglican Debacle
So, who are the schismatics? Over coming weeks, many will seek to portray biblically faithful Anglicans in such a way. It’s not true, of course.
Dr. Mark Thompson’s paper, The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns, delivered at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in March, catalogues the events leading up the GAFCON and Lambeth 2008.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…