ACNA recognised by GAFCON Primates
Communiqué from the GAFCON/FCA Primates’ Council –16 April 2009
In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We meet in the week after Easter, rejoicing again in the power of the risen Lord Jesus to transform lives and situations. We continue to experience his active work in our lives and the lives of our churches and we rejoice in the Gospel of hope. Read more
Funeral and Thanksgiving services for Sir Marcus Loane announced
Anglican Media Sydney reports that a funeral service will be held for Sir Marcus Loane on Tuesday April 21 at St James’, Turramurra at 2:00pm.
A Diocesan thanksgiving service will be held next month — on Wednesday May 13 at St Andrew’s Cathedral at 10:00am. (Photo: SydneyAnglicans.net)
GAFCON Primates meet in London with North American Bishops
Representatives of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) led by Pittsburgh Bishop and Archbishop designate Bob Duncan met Wednesday with the Primates.
All Primates were present.
The Primates Council was established after the GAFCON conference in Jerusalem in 2008 and contains leaders representing about 40 million Anglicans worldwide almost 75 percent of the communion. …
– read the report on the GAFCON website.
NSW mourns Sir Marcus Loane
Press Release from the NSW Council of Churches
“He was a wonderful Bible teacher who expounded the Scriptures and made them clear to us.” – Deaconess Margaret Rodgers.
The NSW Council of Churches extends its condolences to the family of the Most Reverend Marcus Lawrence Loane KBE, former Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, who died on Monday in Sydney, aged 97.
Ordained in 1935, Sir Marcus was the first Australian-born Archbishop of Sydney, serving from 1966 to 1982, and was Primate of Australia from 1978 to 1982. He was vice-principal of Moore Theological College from 1939 to 1953, and Principal from 1954 to 1959. He served as Chaplain to the Australian Imperial Forces in New Guinea from 1942 to 1944. Read more
Photo tribute to Sir Marcus Loane
Christian Photojournalist Ramon Williams has assembled a web album of some of his photos of Sir Marcus Loane. You can see them here.
(Photo: Ramon Willams.)
Marcus Loane: with Christ
It has been announced that Sir Marcus Loane, Archbishop of Sydney from 1966 to 1982, died this afternoon in Sydney after a brief illness.
Sir Marcus had an enormous influence on the Church in Sydney is beloved of generations of Christians for his godly leadership, his edifying books and his keen understanding of history. He was 97.
Archbishop Peter Jensen, who is in London, has released this statement:
“We mourn the passing of Sir Marcus but give thanks for the life of a remarkable leader who served both church and nation.
As the first Australian Archbishop of Sydney and as Primate he was a formative leader in our church.
In national life, he offered leadership which transcended politics. In particular he spoke up for the poor and helped spark the Henderson enquiry of the early 1970s.
He offered distinguished service with our troops in New Guinea during World War II.
He was a prolific author with an international influence and ministry.
But he will be remembered most as one of the key architects of post-war Anglicanism in Sydney.”
Quoting from 2 Samuel 3, “a prince and a great man has fallen this day”, one senior ACL member sent this message, “We thank God for every remembrance of Marcus Loane in all the dimensions of his life and ministry”.
Details of a memorial service will be released later this week. Anglican Media Sydney has more. (Photo: Marcus Loane in 1955, as Principal of Moore College, from his ‘A Centenary History’ of the college.)
Most American Christians don’t believe Satan or the Holy Spirit exist
“A new nationwide survey of adults’ spiritual beliefs, conducted by The Barna Group, suggests that Americans who consider themselves to be Christian have a diverse set of beliefs – but many of those beliefs are contradictory or, at least, inconsistent. …
More than one-fifth (22%) strongly agreed that Jesus Christ sinned when He lived on earth, with an additional 17% agreeing somewhat.”
– Press release from the Barna Research Group.
Some Good Friday experiences with Tasmanian media
“After the Good Friday worship service at the Cathedral I spoke to a TV crew on the meaning of Good Friday. They also interviewed worshippers for their comments.
On watching the TV news that evening the overall reporting on the Christian celebration was positive and I was delighted with the comments of the two worshippers. I was appalled, however, when the TV News cut my own comment to, ‘(Easter) is about relationships’. In the actual interview I had completed the idea, ‘(Easter) is about relationships, our relationship with God and our relationship with our neighbour.’…”
– Bishop of Tasmania, John Harrower, reflects on how local media reported Easter.
Resurrection and Reality
“The secular world has done its best to make a mess of Christmas, but it has largely ignored our celebration of the Resurrection. Where commercialism intrudes, it comes in the forms of eggs and chicks and rabbits — none of which claim any connection with the Resurrection. The fact is, the secular world will attempt to domesticate, commercialize, and tame the babe in the manger — but it will run at breakneck speed from the cross and the empty tomb…”
– Al Mohler on the centrality of the Resurrection. (Photo: Together for the Gospel.)
Leon Morris on worship
“In some quarters today there is a suspicion of doctrine. Men think that religious experience is all-important and put their stress on “the life of the Spirit”. Theologians are held to be dry-as-dust fellows who do their best to fossilize living religion…”
– Forty seven years ago, Churchman published this article on “Christian Worship”, by Leon Morris.
It’s now republished on the web in PDF format (direct link).
A Conversation with Death on Good Friday
Hello, Death, my old enemy. My old slave-master. Have you come to talk to me again? To frighten me?
I am not the person you think I am. I am not the one you used to talk to. Something has happened. …
– from John Piper.
Abp Akinola’s Easter message to Nigeria
“The Resurrection of Jesus the Christ from the dead is a fact of history. The empty tomb, the post resurrection appearances to his disciples, the Ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the total transformation of the apostles, the emergence of the church and its unquenchable faith bear indisputable testimony to this fact. The Resurrection is the manifestation of the power of God for the deliverance and salvation of human kind. It is really worth celebrating. And, on this note, I bid everyone a happy Easter celebration.…”
– Read the full text of Archbishop Peter Akinola’s Easter message at the Church of Nigeria website.
The ministry of reconciliation
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
– 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (ESV)
Shadow Gospel: Revelation in the Theology of Rowan Williams
“it is … vital for the GAFCON movement to have a clear understanding of the Archbishop’s theological commitments. His refusal to exercise effective discipline in the aftermath of Gene Robinson’s consecration as the first actively and openly homosexual bishop in the Anglican Communion led directly to the formation of GAFCON.
Was this simply weakness, or did it stem from theological convictions? Could it possibly still be right for the GAFCON Primates to seek to work with Rowan Williams and the Windsor Covenant process, encouraging him to use his powers through the instruments of unity for the reform of the Communion? Or is that hope now futile…”
– Charles Raven at SPREAD asks why it is so difficult to pin down what the Archbishop of Canterbury really believes. Worth reading.
(Photo of Archbishop Rowan Williams in Alexandria: ACNS.)
The Empty Tomb and the Emptied Urn
“While speaking of the Christian belief in the resurrection of the flesh, I called my hearers to reconsider what their funeral plans testified about their hope for the future. I reiterated a position — long-held in the history of the church — that burial, not cremation, best pictures the imagery of death as a sleep from which one is awakened at the last trumpet.…”
– Russell Moore, Dean of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, writes at Christianity Today.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…