Archbishop Nicholas Okoh elected Primate of Nigeria
Archbishop Nicholas Orogodo Okoh has been elected as the Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion). His election was announced after the Episcopal Synod held in Umuahia, Abia State on 15th September, 2009. The 56 year old Archbishop Okoh is currently the Archbishop of Bendel Province and Bishop of Asaba.
And from a GAFCON press release –
“Archbishop Dr Peter Jensen, general secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) welcomed the news. ‘Nicholas Okoh was present at the foundation of GAFCON and has played a leading part in the movement. Archbishop Okoh has made a significant contribution as the Chairman of the Theological Resource group. He is an able and committed Christian leader and we warmly welcome his appointment.’”
(Photo: Church of Nigeria.)
Anglican Identity and Mission paper
Last month, Bishop Robert Forsyth spoke at the Anglican Identity and Mission Conference in Adelaide.
“We have a crisis in which some Anglicans have removed themselves from the Anglican Churches of their provinces or dioceses, claiming that in doing so they, not the province or diocese, embody Anglican identity. Or at least are still really Anglican despite the breach with their bishop or national church. Are they? How would we go about answering that question?”
The paper he presented is now available here as a PDF file.
As well, the Diocese of Adelaide’s Guardian (PDF file) has a report (pages 4 & 5) on the conference. (With thanks to Rob Forsyth. Photo: The Guardian.)
Which church should I join?
“I’ve gotten into several conversations with friends lately about which church they should join, or how they should advise their friends to evaluate a church…”
– Mark Dever passes on some wisdom from Richard Bewes.
Bioethics and Future Hope lectures online
Audio files of the talks from last week’s New College Lecture Series on Bioethics And Future Hope by Professor John Wyatt are now available, courtesy of New College.
See the New College website to download the files.
At his Just in CASE blog, Trevor Cairney also provides helpful thoughts on the lectures:
Two worldviews: Two views of life and death
Bioethics and Redemption: Understanding pain, suffering and death
Bioethics and Future Hope: An Eschatological View of the Future
(Related: Tom Hargreaves recommends a Firefox plugin called DownThemAll for downloading links from web pages – useful for getting all the audio files linked from a page.)
Large TEC congregation considers leaving
“One of the largest congregations in The Episcopal Church, St. Andrew’s Church of Mt. Pleasant, S.C., may by December become one of the largest congregations to renounce its Episcopal ties. …
‘Since 2003 I have felt compromised by continued association with a denomination that I consider to be apostate,’ Fr. Wood told The Living Church.”
– report from The Living Church. (Image: St. Andrew’s website.)
Top Commentaries
“Over the course of several months, Keith Mathison [of Ligonier Ministries] put together a list of his top 5 commentaries for each book of the Bible…”
– Tim Challies compiled this index page.
Paul Helm at PTC
British philosopher and theologian Paul Helm is giving guest lectures at the Presbyterian Theological Centre in Burwood next week. (He’s also speaking at the Moore College Calvin@500 Conference.)
On Tuesday 15th September, 3:00pm – 5:00pm he’ll be speaking on aspects of the age of reason; the enlightenment ; and the appropriation by Luther and Calvin of 16th century philosophy.
Paul Helm is Professor in History and Philosophy at Kings College, University of London, and holds the J.I. Packer Chair in Theology and Philosophy, Regent College, Canada.
Details: PTC website. Location map.
Mark Thompson on Calvin@500
Academic Dean of Moore College, and ACL President, Dr Mark Thompson, exhorts you to come to the Calvin@500 Conference, 16-17 September 2009.
Brochure and registration info from Moore College (PDF – direct link).
Confess or Die audio
The audio files of the Confess or Die conference held at the Presbyterian Theological College in Sydney last month are now available for download, with thanks to the PTC.
“The contemporary church seems to have amnesia about what it really believes. This two day conference is here to jolt the church’s memory, and give it new life for mission. …”
Carl Trueman – Talk 1, Talk 2, Talk 3
John McClean – Bible and Confessions
Mark Thompson – The 39 Articles and Global Anglicanism
Geoff Tacon – The AFES Doctrinal Basis
Chris Balzer – WCF and Presbyterian Church of Australia (Text only)
Source: Confess or Die website.
The need for GAFCON
“The immediate cause for GAFCON was the invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams to those who had consecrated Gene Robinson as a Bishop to attend the Lambeth Conference. This invitation was sent in July 2007, and the timing was significant as I will show later.
Following this invitation, Archbishop Peter Akinola made a visit in October 2007 at his own expense to London to meet with Archbishop Rowan Williams to ask him most seriously to delay the Lambeth Conference until the issue of the consecration of Gene Robinson by the Episcopal Church could be resolved. When Archbishop Williams proved immovable on this certain things became crystal clear to Archbishop Akinola and his colleagues. …”
– Chris Sugden spoke at last week’s launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Southern Africa. Read the full text at Anglican Mainstream.
Back to Church Sunday
While Anglican Churches in Sydney are involved in Connect09 and Jesus. All About Life, other Anglicans are also seeking to reach out. Nineteen Australian diocese are holding Back to Church Sunday next Sunday.
“On September 13th 2009 thousands of people across Australia will be inviting someone special back to church with them. People lose touch with church for all sorts of reasons but millions would come back with an invitation.”
See the Back to Church Sunday website for details. (See also, e.g., Canberra & Goulburn, Melbourne, Newcastle, Grafton.)
Restitution call puts Dr Adam in spotlight
“The Revd Dr Peter Adam exchanged the lecture room for the uncomfortable glare of the media spotlight last month with his suggestions for restitution that ought to be made to indigenous Australians for the wrongs done to them since European settlement, especially that non-Aboriginal people should leave Australia if asked by the original Australians. …
Reaction to Dr Adam’s speech was swift and, in many prominent quarters, negative. Broadcaster Neil Mitchell on 3AW said it was a reason no one should step inside a church again…”
– Anglican Media Melbourne reports on reactions to Dr Peter Adam’s John Saunders Lecture, ‘Australia – whose land?’.
Book Review — Words from the Fire
“We’ve seen a steady stream of books come from Mohler’s pen in the past couple of years. I have read them all and am quite comfortable saying that this one is the best of the bunch.”
– Tim Challies reviews Albert Mohler’s new book, “Words from the Fire: Hearing the Voice of God in the 10 Commandments”.
John Wycliffe’s Work and Worth
“It was not by accident that Archbishop Arundel chose Oxford for the scene of the prohibition of English Bibles. In his letter to John XXIII in 1412 he describes our Reformer [John Wycliffe] as ‘that wretched and pestilent fellow, of damnable memory, that son of the old serpent, the very herald and child of Antichrist,’ who ‘to fill up the measure of his malice, devised the expedient of a new translation of the Scriptures into the mother tongue.’…”
– In 1933, R. M. Wilson wrote this fascinating article about John Wycliffe, ‘the morning-star of the Reformation’. It was published in Churchman and has just been republished on Church Society’s website (PDF file).
Related: John Wycliffe and the English Bible – by F F Bruce.
New College Lectures 2009 this week
Bioethics And Future Hope: This year’s New College Lectures offer a Christian perspective on the impact of technology on contemporary medical practices.
John Wyatt, Professor of Ethics and Perinatology, University College London, will consider the bioethical issues faced every day as we make decisions about creating, preserving and protecting life.
“Our understanding of the future changes the way we think about our ethical responsibilities in the present. The lectures will outline three different conceptions of the future and their implications for bioethics. The secular perspective derived from the Enlightenment sees the future as a human construct, an artefact created by human ingenuity. In contrast, the neoplatonic future offers the hope of an escape from the material world into the timeless realm of the spirit. The biblical view of the future provides a third radical perspective. …”
The lectures are set for September 8, 9 and 10 and details are available in this PDF file from the New College website.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…