More ideas for connecting
Steve McCoy in the US writes, “I’ve noticed in my life and in the life of my family that 5 tools have stood out this summer as helpful for connecting with our neighbours. Here they are for you. …”
– Not everything translates exactly, but there are some good, simple ideas here.
Themelios — July 2009 edition online
The latest edition of Themelios, published by The Gospel Coalition, is available on their website.
It’s a free download in a choice of formats (e.g. a 1.2MB PDF file).
Christian Missions in the Third Millennium
“The impulse of the missionary conviction is drawn from the assurance that God saves sinners, and that He is glorifying Himself by creating a new people through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we have the glad opportunity to glorify God by declaring the Gospel to all the peoples of the earth. …” (emphasis added.)
– Albert Mohler’s comments are a world away from this earlier story.
God’s place in the Dreaming
“The Uniting Church recently became the first major Christian denomination in Australia to commence processes to formally acknowledge, in the Preamble to its Constitution, Australia’s traditional owners and their pre-existing relationship with the Creator God. …”
– from The Uniting Church website – emphasis added.
(Romans 1:16-23 also speaks about everyone’s pre-existing relationship with God.)
See also:
In addition to recognising Aborigines as the first people to settle in Australia, the preamble also acknowledges that the church did not bring God to Australia’s indigenous people.
“They’re saying it’s not Europeans who brought God to this land on a boat,” Reverend Murray Muirhead, from the Aboriginal wing of the Uniting Church in Alice Springs, told ABC radio.
“God had already been here for millennia.”
– report from The Brisbane Times, July 21, 2009.
Canterbury, you’ve missed the point!
“Archbishop Rowan Williams’ Reflections on the 2009 TEC General Convention has so incensed me that I am compelled to respond with a second post for today. …
The row is about the authority of Scripture which declares the practice of homosexuality to be a sin.”
– Bishop Glenn Davies writes at SydneyAnglicans.net. (Photo: Russell Powell.)
Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future – the Archbishop of Canterbury
Reflections on the Episcopal Church’s 2009 General Convention from the Archbishop of Canterbury –
“the question is not a simple one of human rights or human dignity. It is that a certain choice of lifestyle has certain consequences. So long as the Church Catholic, or even the Communion as a whole does not bless same-sex unions, a person living in such a union cannot without serious incongruity have a representative function in a Church whose public teaching is at odds with their lifestyle. …”
– Read the Archbishop’s full comments at the Anglican Communion News Service.
(Photo of Abp Rowan Williams at ACC-14: ACNS.)
Trueman on John Owen
Carl Trueman gives a video introduction to Puritan theologian John Owen. It’s from Westminster Seminary on YouTube and runs for 10 minutes 20 seconds. (h/t Justin Taylor.)
Moratoria dashed
“Sad to say, just one year after the affirmations of Anglican Church unity made at the Lambeth Conference of 2008, the USA Anglicans have decided that one year was enough of a wait.
Their recent decision to affirm same sex relationships will deepen the split in the world-wide communion. All the Lambeth conversation groups (‘indabering’) bought only one year’s reprieve…”
– Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower laments the dashed hopes of Lambeth.
Church of Uganda seeks famine-relief
The Archbishop of Uganda’s secretary for International Relations writes:
“Uganda is experiencing serious drought and famine in northeastern, northern, and northwestern Uganda. People have now started to die. …”
– Read the full report at Anglican Mainstream.
Judge: Property is Episcopalians’
“The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin has prevailed in its initial lawsuit against Anglican Bishop John-David Schofield, who was the first in the nation to lead his diocese away from the Episcopal Church over the interpretation of Scripture and the 2004 ordination of an openly gay bishop.
Thursday, Fresno County Superior Court Judge Adolfo Corona ruled that Bishop Jerry Lamb, not Schofield, is the one true Episcopal bishop of the diocese. …”
– from the Modesto Bee in California.
(Photo: Bishop Jerry Lamb greets TEC Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori – Episcopal Life Online.)
Carson on sermon preparation
Colin Adams at Unashamed Workman points us to an excellent talk given by Don Carson at the Katoomba Centenary Preaching Conference at SMBC in 2003.
Colin has also provided an outline with time markers to the 65MB mp3 file of the talk.
Archbishop Rowan and TEC
“The Archbishop of Canterbury has responded to The Episcopal Church’s statements on gay consecrations and same-sex blessings. He doesn’t see what happened at GenCon09 as schism, or the end of the Communion, but as pointing the way to a two-tier communion of covenanted and non-covenanted provinces.…”
– On her blog, Ruth Gledhill of Times Online writes about the Archbishop of Canterbury’s reaction to the TEC General Convention.
(Photo: Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.)
Moore College Lectures 2009
Dr Ashley Null is delivering this year’s Moore College Lectures. His topic?: Renewing the Power to Love: Repentance in Classical Anglicanism.
Two evening lectures at 8:00pm
Tuesday 4 August: Thomas Cranmer
Thursday 6 August: Richard HookerThree morning lectures at 10:15am
Friday 7 August: William Perkins
Tuesday 11 August: Lancelot Andrewes
Thursday 13 August: John Donne
Details from the Moore College website.
Alan Kerr
“John Stott has saluted Melbourne Anglican Alan Kerr AM with these words, ‘Faithful husband and father, loyal churchman and champion of the laity. Committed to mission and the gospel.’…”
– Anglican Media Melbourne reports on the death of Melbourne Anglican Alan Kerr.
The Church and Schism — Packer at Oak Hill
Dr J I Packer spoke on “The Church and Schism” at the Oak Hill 2009 School of Theology in London.
Thanks to Oak Hill, you can read or watch the lecture here.
Worth watching!
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…