Our aim is one hundred percent
This week’s Synod was focused on our Diocesan Mission.
There is much to praise God for in the work of the last six years. But there is still a long way to go. There is no sign yet that multitudes of Sydneysiders are beating a path to our door. Nobody promised they would.
A mid-point review gives an opportunity to understand where we are up to in the Mission process, and to make any necessary adjustments to our plans. Two issues are coming to the fore: “the population” and the “ten years”. These are critical issues that we keep trying to ignore but lie at the heart of the Mission.
Most people hearing of the Mission have focused on the wrong part of the aims and goals. The critics and the supporters alike have emphasised the ten percent that we are aiming to reach. Not understanding what it is about.
They tend to think that success or failure will be measured by this ten percent. They fail to notice that the aim is actually one hundred percent…
– Read the whole article from Phillip Jensen, published in the Cathedral newsletter.
A New Anglican Province in a Culture of Death
“I freely admit my intention to describe the abortion industry found on this continent as I believe it really is: an enterprise that is as bad as, and perhaps worse than, the Third Reich’s T4 system of extermination.
While I fully appreciate the gravity of the Episcopal Church’s decision to certify Gene Robinson’s election as a bishop in the Church, I am far more disturbed by the fact that for too many years, the majority of us who cut our teeth on Episcopal Church altar rails failed to speak out against a far more insidious evil, the sin of pre-partum homicide…”
– Dr Briane Turley writes at VirtueOnline. (Photo: West Virginia University)
The Cries of the Helpless
On Thursday, Dr. Russell Moore, Dean of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, pulled no punches in a sermon on Matthew 2:13–23 and the slaughter of the innocents.
His topic? “Joseph of Nazareth Is a Single-Issue Evangelical: The Father of Jesus, the Cries of the Helpless, and Change You Can Believe In”. Hear the 37 minute sermon via this 8.5MB mp3 file. Chilling – but recommended.
(Related: The Abortion Question and the Future.)
Invitation to members of all Anglican Churches globally to sign Vancouver petition
Ahead of expected action by the Diocese of New Westminster against the churches of Good Shepherd and St. John’s Shaughnessy, a new petition has been made avialable, so that members of the Anglican Communion worldwide (and not just C of E members as on the previous petition) can express their support.
This new petition reads,
We, the undersigned, as active clergy and lay members of the Anglican Communion, stand with those parishes in Vancouver that are part of the Anglican Network on Canada, affirming that they are authentically Anglican.
Please consider adding your support. Helpful background here.
Dr Phillip Aspinall re-elected Primate
“The Anglican Church of Australia has re-elected Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall as the Primate of the Church for a further term of six years.
A meeting of the Primate Board of Electors in Sydney today re-elected Dr Aspinall following his election in 2005 for three years…”
– Full press release (PDF) from the General Synod Office.
(Note: The Primate’s main role is to chair meetings of General Synod. Unlike, for example, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church of Australia does not have a ‘head’, other than Christ. Each diocese operates largely independently. Dr. Aspinall is Archbishop of Brisbane.) Photo: General Synod Office.
Joint Statement made at City of London Deanery Synod
The latest from London –
“All of us who sign this statement are sinners and celebrating any of our sins would have just the same serious consequences.”
Joint Statement from the City of London Deanery Synod representatives from St Helen Bishopsgate, St Peter-upon-Cornhill, and St Botolph-without-Aldersgate, made at the Deanery Synod on 16th October 2008.
On 31 May 2008 at The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great the Revd Dr Martin Dudley conducted a service of blessing for the Revd Peter Cowell and the Revd Dr David Lord, subsequent to their civil partnership ceremony. We are grateful that the Bishop of London has called for an investigation, but given that our Deanery Synod meets on Thursday 16th October 2008 for fellowship and prayer we want to explain the degree to which that fellowship has been fractured. Read more
Manitoba parish votes to join ANiC
The congregation of St Bede’s Anglican Church in Kinosota, Manitoba voted overwhelmingly yesterday, October 15, to come under the episcopal oversight of Bishops Donald Harvey and Malcolm Harding of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) and under the Primatial authority of Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. …
– Full press release at the Anglican Network in Canada.
Invitation to CofE members to support Vancouver churches
Members of the Church of England have been invited to express their support for the Anglican Network in Canada parishes, including St. John’s Shaughnessy, where David Short is Rector.
The petition, and background information, is available at this link. The actual petition reads:
We, the undersigned, as active clergy and lay members of the Church of England, stand with those parishes in Vancouver that are part of the Anglican Network in Canada, affirming that they are authentically Anglican.
Australian readers (who therefore cannot sign this petition) are urged to continue in prayer. Formore information, please see the St. John’s website.
(Photo: David Short and James Packer at St. John’s Shaughnessy.)
The ESV Study Bible – A Review
“The ESV team has done an excellent job of generating excitement for the ESV Study Bible and particularly so among the type of person who tends to read my book reviews. So in this review I will try to cut through the hype and, to the best of my ability, judge this new Bible on its own merits.…”
– Tim Challies offers his review of the just-published ESV Study Bible.
Also, learn about the ESV Study Bible Online – the full text of which will be available to owners of the printed version. The site explains –
“Even if you don’t have a registration code, the ESV Online Study Bible offers you several features:
- Create a personal account
- Search the ESV text
- Write personal notes
- Highlight Scripture
Basically, without a registration code you can do everything except access the ESV Study Bible notes and resources. If you buy a print ESV Study Bible later, you can unlock these notes and resources. One of our goals is to make the ESV Online Study Bible useful to you, even if you don’t yet own a print ESV Study Bible.”
The Abortion Question and the Future
In a recent essay, Professor Robert P. George of Princeton University makes the case that Sen. Obama is “the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States.” Further: “He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress”…
Without doubt, we are faced with many urgent and important issues. Nevertheless, every voter must come to terms with what issues matter most in the electoral decision. This is the case with the sanctity of human life. I can understand the fatigue. …
Yet, there is the reality that we face a choice. This is a limited choice. And we cannot evade responsibility for the question of abortion. Our vote will determine whether millions of unborn babies live or die.
– Al Mohler paints a sobering picture of the choice presenting American voters.
He also provides this link to the Freedom of Choice Act which Senator Obama said he will sign as his first priority. On his radio programme, he interviews Professor Robert P. George of Princeton. The segment starts 11 minutes 25 seconds into the programme.
Witnessing to Jehovah’s Witnesses
Last Thursday was a bit curious — I actually had a scheduled visit from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Typically, this had started with the ringing of the doorbell (at an inconvenient moment, but then what moments are convenient for such a visit?) by a young woman with child in tow.…
– John Richardson at The Ugley Vicar has some wise words on sharing the gospel with those who come to our doors.
Reform Conference ‘discusses alternative oversight’
In a report for Times Online on the Reform Conference taking place in London, Ruth Gledhill writes,
“The Rev Rod Thomas, chairman of Reform, the conservative evangelical grouping that represents dozens of Anglican congregations, told parishes they should go ahead and seek alternative oversight, even if the Church of England fails to ‘accommodate’ this solution through its General Synod.”
(Bear in mind, of course, that the issue is not homosexuality per se, but theological liberalism.)
And Martin Beckford in The Telegraph reports,
“The Rev Rod Thomas, chairman of the Reform network of evangelicals, said some clergy and congregations may make the ‘radical’ move of secession from the established church because of the liberal direction in which it is moving on women bishops and homosexuality.
He claimed the differences are now so great that there effectively two religions within the church, one liberal and one conservative, and that at least 25 parishes are already seeking ‘alternative oversight’…”
Sydney affirms women’s ministry
Synod has strongly affirmed the ministry of women in the Diocese after the Rev Chris Albany’s motion calling the Archbishop to consider how different views on women’s involvement in ministry can be “creatively lived out” in the Diocese was lost…
– Full report on yesterday’s Synod debate from SydneyAnglicans.net. (Photo: Anglican Media Sydney.)
Looking for help in evangelism?
If you haven’t looked at the Evangelism Ministries website lately, check out their encouraging and practical notes on these topics –
How to pray for evangelism
How to prepare for an evangelistic event
How to prepare for an evangelistic church service
How to do evangelism on a zero budget
A simple feedback card to use at your evangelistic event
– all on the EM website.
How we define ‘Crisis’
“There is a crisis in the land! And what qualifies as a crisis? The fact that increasing numbers of children grow up in America without fathers? The savage exploitation of women and corrupting of men through legalized pornography? The systematic corruption that is our moneyed political system? The fact that a mother’s womb is the place where the great majority of violent deaths take place in our communities?
Of course not. The crisis is a threat to our money.…”
– Rick Phillips seeks some perspective on the global financial crisis – at Reformation 21.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…