The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
“Jesus Christ calls his ministers from the ranks of the incompetent, so that He will show his singular competence through them. He uses earthen vessels to demonstrate his own life in us. He confounds the wisdom of the wise by using the unworthy to demonstrate his worth.”
– Albert Mohler at today’s commencement address at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Diocese of New Westminster and ANiC parishes enter mediation
From the ANiC Newsletter:
“Earlier this year, the ANiC parishes served a “Notice to Mediate” on the Diocese of New Westminster but did not set a date for mediation until after the first batch of affidavits had been delivered by both sides. The parties began a two-day mediation session today and it is scheduled to continue tomorrow, Friday (May 15). The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of BC is acting as the mediator. Please keep the parties and this mediation process in your prayers tonight and tomorrow. …
The trial in New Westminster begins in only 11 days, on May 25.”
Why should Christians be interested in Ethics in Medicine?
Dr Andrew Cole spoke at the recent CASE conference on ‘Medical Ethics: Christian Perspectives on Life and Death’. His topic was Why should Christians be interested in Ethics in Medicine?
The audio of his talk is now online (45 min /5.2MB mp3 direct link) – with details of the other audio coming soon. As always: simple, clear and Biblical. (Photo: ISPRM.)
No, Mr. President
Taken from an address by John Piper in January, this hard-hitting video on the President’s support on abortion is worth watching.
It runs for three and a half minutes – at YouTube. (h/t Justin Taylor.) Original message here.
A grubby little incident
“In a naked display of political power, the American Episcopal Church leadership stopped the Rev Philip Ashey, the clergy representative of the Province of Uganda, from taking his place at the 14th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council held in Jamaica, because he has been among the strongest critics of their pro-homosexual policies. …”
– Over at SydneyAnglicans.net, ACL Chairman Robert Tong writes on ACC-14.
Vancouver: ANiC’s initial legal submission
The Diocese of New Westminster has placed online copies of its initial legal submission and also that of the Anglican Network in Canada – relating to St John’s Shaughnessy and other ANiC parishes in Vancouver.
Both are PDF files (direct links): The ANIC submission. The New Westminister submission. (Thanks to Ed Hird.)
From the ANiC submission –
“The Plaintiffs seek a declaration that the Parish Corporations of each of [these parishes] … hold the Parish property in trust for their congregations for the purpose of ministry consistent with historic, orthodox Anglican doctrine and practice…”
Shine, Perishing Communion
Christian lawyer A S Haley, who blogs at Anglican Curmudgeon, tries to unravel the extraordinary events at the Anglican Consultative Council’s vote on the proposed Anglican Covenant on Friday.
“The philosophy of keeping opposites at the table for discussion as long as possible works only for so long as each side can see that the table is level. If it becomes apparent that it is being tilted to favor one of the two sides, the motive for continuing to stay at the table immediately ceases.”
A long but very interesting post. (h/t Anglican Mainstream.)
See also this from The Anglican Communion Institute –
“Friday’s session of the Anglican Consultative Council is an embarrassment to Anglicans everywhere, and a sad display of procedural confusion. Members were given complex resolutions right before the vote without sufficient time to study them and understand their consequences. Resolutions that had been distributed earlier were replaced by resolutions drafted by a committee largely composed of members from provinces known to be opposed to the Ridley Cambridge Draft. …”
Photo of Abp Rowan Williams at ACC-14: ACNS.
Tipping Point in Jamaica
“The sense that this meeting has become a tipping point for the future of the Anglican Communion is not simply to do with the failure of the Covenant, it is also to do with the way in which it has failed …”
– Charles Raven writes at SPREAD.
Apostasy and deception: Statement on ACC-14 from the Anglican Church League
Statement on the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Jamaica, from the President of the Anglican Church League, Rev. Dr. Mark Thompson:
“We have once again been shown how firmly apostasy and deception is embedded in the international structures of Anglicanism. There is no hope for the future there.”
The reports from the 14th Anglican Consultative Council meeting being held in Jamaica make for depressing reading. ‘Assume incompetence rather than malevolence’, the old saying goes. That is becoming harder and harder to do, even for the optimists amongst us.
The intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury at crucial points to serve the interests of TEC and its presiding bishop and to thwart the attempts to bring real accountability to bear on those who have abandoned the teaching of Scripture and are pursuing the property of faithful Anglicans through the courts, undermines any suggestion that he is providing genuine leadership at this crucial time. The activities of other officials from the Anglican Communion Office were even more openly serving the revisionist agenda.
We have once again been shown how firmly apostasy and deception is embedded in the international structures of Anglicanism. There is no hope for the future there. Generous-hearted faithful Anglicans have been willing to keep trying for a resolution through those structures and once again they have been betrayed at the highest level. The goodwill of faithful men and women has been presumed upon and taken as a sign of weakness or a lack of resolve. We need to pray for those who have been so seriously disillusioned this week.
The future of the gospel mission does not ultimately depend upon the structures of Anglicanism, of course. God’s determination to save men and women will be realised. All over the world men and women are being brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ and confident Christian discipleship in the light of all that he has done. The 14th Anglican Consultative Council meeting is ultimately irrelevant. The prayerful proclamation of Christ and his gospel continues despite the political machinations in Jamaica.
Gospel-minded men and women are banding together in the midst of this Anglican chaos. It is not easy and there are certainly significant hurdles that will need to be negotiated in the future. However, the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans that emerged out of GAFCON is all the more important in the light of recent events. The international chaos has touched the lives of local congregations in other parts of the world. If we do not stand together at this crucial time, that struggle will become the personal experience of more and more faithful Anglicans.
I encourage all members of the ACL to pray for wisdom for the GAFCON primates and for the leaders of our own diocese. Real leadership often means isolation. We need to pray that these faithful men will continue to be prayerful, humble and courageous, dependent upon God’s Spirit and submitting all their thoughts and decisions to the scrutiny of God’s word. The ancient enemy of the gospel will be hard at work to turn us against each other. We should pray that God himself would preserve our unity and give us that proper sense of proportion to know what matters and what does not.
Yet let us learn the lesson from this most recent meeting of the ACC. We cannot afford to pin our hopes on ecclesiastical structures or even on individual leaders. The hope for a vibrant, robust, faithful Anglican witness to the gospel of Christ in this century rests in God and his work to bring about genuine repentance and faith in the lives of men and women.
Mark D Thompson
ACL President
Sydney, 9th May 2009
Being a good pastor of Christ’s flock
Sovereign Grace Ministries in Maryland have posted online downloads from their Pastors Conference held last month.
Both audio files and PDF files of notes of the main sessions and the seminars are freely available at their website.
Strong words of encouragement to all who are entrusted with the ministry of caring for Christ’s flock.
Listening process or Repentance?
“An Anglican council that advises member churches worldwide and works to facilitate cooperative work has announced the continuation of a listening process that seeks to open the ears of Anglicans to the experiences of homosexual persons. …
According to the Rev. Canon Phil Groves … trust must be based on the belief that ‘we’re not going to amend or betray the Gospel…'”
– A rather optimistic report on the ACC meeting from Christian Today.
For a more sober report, see the latest from Philip Ashey in Jamaica –
During his presentation of the Windsor Continuation Group Report and recommendations, Dr Williams spoke to us about a deficit in our Communion life, which he describes as an “ecclesial deficit.” I would like to suggest that a different deficit is at the heart of the Anglican Communion’s malaise. …
– read it all on The American Anglican Council website.
(Photo: Abp Phillip Aspinall, left, at the morning press conference, from the Anglican Communion News Service.)
Even better than forgiven
“The voice that spells forgiveness will say: ‘You may go: you have been let off the penalty which your sin deserves.’
But the verdict which means acceptance [justification] will say: ‘You may come; you who are welcome to all my love and my presence.’”
– Sir Marcus Loane, quoted in John Stott, The Message of Romans. (Thanks to Of First Importance.)
Archbishop Peter Jensen in Ireland
The Evangelical Fellowship of Irish Clergy has posted online the video of two addresses by Archbishop Peter Jensen – given at St. Saviour’s, Dollingstown in Ireland on 20th April 2009. A large crowd of lay people and clergy was on hand to hear Peter speak.
The first message is from Jeremiah 9 (15 minutes), and is a call to repentance.
The second talk, ‘Refresh the Vision’ (49 minutes), is a commentary on the situation in the Anglican Communion and is a strong call to faithfulness, courage and sacrifice. Worth passing on.
Coming to a church meeting near you: Indaba funded from Atlanta, Georgia
Chris Sugden in Jamaica reports on Day 5 of the Anglican Consultative Council’s meeting:
The Lambeth centre continues to impose its hegemony by introducing into all the central meetings of the Communion, Lambeth, the Primates’ Meeting in Egypt and the ACC meeting in Jamaica, the indaba process. This is designed to maintain matters as they are and avoid all discussion and decision about Anglican identity, membership and morality. Worse, this process claims to use a deracinated process that those from the Global South are expected to acknowledge as a tribute to their cultural contribution.
– Via Anglican Mainstream.
See also this report on Day 5 by Robert Lundy, Communications Officer for The American Anglican Council:
On a day when the cloud of litigation surrounding The Episcopal Church grows darker, many couldn’t help but notice it even from the sunny shores of Jamaica. However this litigious church tempest seems to have escaped the sight of the 14th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council and some of the Anglican Communion’s top officials.
Today, a pastor and his wife are being evicted from their home in Colorado Springs. At the same time, the individual members of the vestry of Saint James Newport Beach are being sued by the Diocese of Los Angeles for $500,000 a piece in legal fees for a total of $6 million being sought by the diocese.…
– at The American Anglican Council. (Photo: AAC.)
How BBJ came to Christ
Over at SydneyAnglicans.net, past President of the ACL, Bruce Ballantine-Jones shares how he came to Christ at the 1959 Bill Graham Crusade in Sydney.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…