Government trial decimates SRE

“If ethics classes compete directly with SRE next year as planned, then Scripture enrolments will be slashed by up to 60 percent, the NSW Government’s own trial demonstrates.

Across the ten trial schools, Anglican and Anglican-Protestant scripture classes lost 123 students or 47 percent of those enrolled“”

– Jeremy Halcrow reports at SydneyAnglicans.net

Related: Save our Scripture.

J.C. Ryle on Success, Humility and Ministry

J.C. Ryle, meditating on Luke 10:17-24:

“We learn, from this passage, how ready Christians are to be puffed up with success. It is written, that the seventy returned from their first mission with joy, “saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through your name.” There was much false fire in that joy…”

– read the full quote, posted by Ligon Duncan, at Reformation21.

Related:

“Even though many of his books are still in print, Ryle seems no longer to be in fashion. This is a pity because his kind of teaching is the answer to the superficial atmosphere in which we live, and in which many who call themselves Evangelicals are hardly distinguishable from those who deny the foundation truths of the Gospel.”

– ‘Bishop Ryle and me’ – David Phipps in Cross†Way (PDF file).

FCA General Secretary responds to the Global South to South Encounter

Archbishop Peter Jensen:

“In my judgment, the assembly was unresponsive to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s video greetings. I don’t think that what he said was obscure. It just seemed to be from another age, another world. His plea for patience misjudged the situation by several years… He seemed to suggest that the consecration of a partnered lesbian Bishop will create a crisis. In fact the crisis itself has passed. We are now on the further side of the critical moment; the decisions have all been made; we are already living with the consequences.”   (Read it all.)

The Fourth Blast of the Trumpet

The image of the trumpet blast seems to be an over-dramatic description of the communiqué issued from the latest Global South Encounter. In fact, the response to it has been somewhat muted. But as a guest at the conference, I believe that it fully deserves the title ‘trumpet’ and will in time be regarded as an historic statement.

One reason why it fails to create a strong reaction is that it simply confirms the obvious. The crisis moment has now passed. Many of the Global South provinces have given up on the official North American Anglicans (TEC and the Canadian Church) and regard themselves as being out of communion with them. They renew the call for repentance but can see that, failing something like the Great Awakening, it will not occur. The positive side to this is that they are committed to achieving self-sufficiency so that they will cease to rely on the Western churches for aid. That is something the Global South has been working on for some time, with success.

In my judgment, the assembly was unresponsive to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s video greetings. I don’t think that what he said was obscure. It just seemed to be from another age, another world. His plea for patience misjudged the situation by several years and his talk of the Anglican covenant was not where the actual conference was at. He seemed to suggest that the consecration of a partnered lesbian Bishop will create a crisis. In fact the crisis itself has passed. We are now on the further side of the critical moment; the decisions have all been made; we are already living with the consequences. And it was in working out the consequences that the communiqué may eventually be seen to be historic.   Read more

N. T. Wright to leave Durham

“The Bishop of Durham, Dr N. T. Wright, has announced that he will be retiring from the See of Durham on August 31 …  and will take up a new appointment as Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews in Scotland…”

– from the Diocese of Durham and also the University of St. Andrews.

(Photo: Diocese of Durham.)

‘Why we always lose this debate’

“I’m convinced that we continue to lose the argument about homosexuality and Christianity because the traditionalist almost always makes his case within a conversation that has been framed by the opposing viewpoint. The Christian doesn’t lose the argument at the micro-level. The argument is lost from the beginning because of how the discussion is framed…”

– Trevin Wax, author of Holy Subversion, reflects on an appearance on Larry King Live on CNN last week. (h/t Tim Challies.)

Page CXVI album free download this week

The US-based Christian band Page CXVI has just released a new album of Hymns (called Hymns II) – and to help publicise it, they are making their first album (not surprisingly called Hymns) available as a free download this week.

You can preview their albums before you buy / download. See their website here.

New Bishop of Bunbury

“On Saturday, 17th April 2010 Anglicans from around the South West and Great Southern gathered together in Bunbury and elected The Rt. Revd. Allan Ewing to be the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Bunbury. Currently Bishop Allan is serving in the Diocese of Canberra/Goulburn.”

– from the Diocese of Bunbury website.

Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild

“This is a wonderful book with amazing insight into the hearts of women (and men!) who feel pressured by today’s ‘wild’ culture – and also deep, spiritual insight into the Bible’s wisdom regarding the beauty of true womanhood as God created it to be.”

—Wayne Grudem on Mary Kassian’s new book, Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild.

More endorsements at Between Two Worlds. Available from Moore Books.

Reaching the unreached

Tim Chester, in Sheffield, writes –

“Last year I ran some posts on the Reaching the Unreached conference organised by the South-East Gospel Partnership at St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, London with a view to raising the profile of mission to the council estates and disadvantages areas in the UK…”

There are also links to last year’s conference audio, and info on this year”s conference. (Melvin Tinkler’s talk is very challenging.)

ANZAC Day message from Peter Jensen

The video of Archbishop Peter Jensen’s ANZAC Day message is available from SydneyAnglicans.net.

Fourth Trumpet — from GSE4

The Fourth Anglican Global South to South Encounter (meeting at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Singapore, 19th – 23rd April 2010), has issued this Communique.

Here are some excerpts.

“We welcomed the election of the Most Rev’d John Chew as the new Chairman, the Most Rev’d Henry Orombi as Vice-Chairman, The Most Rev’d Mouneer Anis as Secretary, the Most Rev’d Nicholas Okoh as Treasurer …

15. As a sign of our fellowship and an encouragement to our purpose, at the beginning of our assembly God sent into our midst two Nepalese Anglicans, members of the new Anglican Church in this principally Hindu and Buddhist nation. … We rejoice with them in their newfound faith and their determination to be obedient to the Word of God in a setting where such obedience is very costly. …

16. In contrast, we continue to grieve over the life of The Episcopal Church USA (TEC) and the Anglican Church of Canada and all those churches that have rejected the Way of the Lord as expressed in Holy Scripture. …

17. We uphold the courageous actions taken by Archbishops Mouneer Anis (Jerusalem and the Middle East), Henry Orombi (Uganda) and Ian Ernest (Indian Ocean) and are encouraged by their decision not to participate in meetings of the various Instruments of Communion at which representatives of The Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada are present. …

19. We were pleased to welcome two Communion Partner bishops from The Episcopal Church USA (TEC) and acknowledge that with them there are many within TEC who do not accept their church’s innovations. We assure them of our loving and prayerful support. …

Read it all.

GSE4 Day 3 — 21st April 2010

“What does it mean for the Churches in the Global South to be a ‘Light for the Nations?’

The day started with Archbishop Robert Duncan presiding at Holy Communion. In his homily, Abp Peter Jensen reminded us that we, who are “deeply, truly and permanently loved” are truly free. We do not “go our own way” to find freedom, but we come to Jesus, the bread of life…”

– The report on Day 3 of the fourth Global South-to-South Encounter, in Singapore, from the Global South website. (Photo: Global South Anglican.)

Singapore: Shadow and Substance

Charles Raven writes on the significance of GSE4 – at SPREAD.

“Although not attended by great fanfare and ceremony, something quite remarkable seems to be happening in Singapore at the fourth Global South to South Encounter. We are seeing the emergence of a global Anglicanism of substance, displacing the shadow Anglicanism of institutional pragmatism.

Institutions which until recently had the appearance of substance – the Anglican Consultative Council, the Lambeth Conference, the Primates meeting and the Archbishop of Canterbury himself – are now taking on an unreal quality as shadows of a discredited past while the GAFCON movement, dismissed by many at its inception in 2008, is turning out to have foreshadowed a fundamental realignment which is now beginning to express itself in new structures…” (more.)

(Note: Charles Raven has updated the text of his commentary slightly on his website.)

Themelios April 2010

Themelios is out and, as usual, is packed with worthwhile articles. The main index is here.

Among the many book reviews are –

Paul Barnett’s review of James D. G. Dunn’s Beginning from Jerusalem, and

Con Campbell’s review of Daniel B. Wallace’s book Granville Sharp’s Canon and Its Kin: Semantics and Significance (“Rarely is a book on Greek syntax enthralling, let alone immensely significant. Daniel Wallace’s new book on the Greek article is both.”).

Episcopal diocese sues to get church back

“The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin filed a lawsuit last week against St. James Anglican — the historic Red Church — in Sonora. It was news to St. James’ priest, the Rev. Wolfgang Krismanits, on Monday afternoon.

“We’ve had no word whatsoever,” he said. “I’ve seen nothing yet. I didn’t get an e-mail. I didn’t get a phone call.”…

– full story from The Modesto Bee in California.

And in another parish: St. John the Evangelist, Stockton, California.

(Photo: The Red Church.)

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