The English Reformers’ teaching on Salvation
Church Society has posted a talk given by Donald Allister, now Bishop of Peterborough, at the 1991 Church Society Conference. (At the time, Bishop Allister was Rector of St. Mary’s Cheadle, near Manchester.)
How can you be right with God? Hear the “joyful and liberating truth” Bilney, Tyndale, Cranmer, Latimer and other English Reformers discovered.
60 minute talk – it’s a 30MB mp3 file. Take the time to listen – a very good way to start the new year.
Christmas Massacre — and a call for prayer
“It was good to remember our Saviour on the day we call his birthday. But sadly this year it was not a good day for vulnerable Christians in difficult places around the world.
‘We see injustice in the ever more seriously threatened Christian communities of the Middle East,’ Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury… preached in his Christmas sermon. ‘They are attacked and massacred, driven into exile from a region in which their presence has always been essential.’
… On Christmas day, Welby’s prediction of threat came true.”
– from Eternity Newspaper.
Archbishop Akinola kidnapped, later rescued — reports
“A former Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Archbishop Peter Jasper Akinola, was kidnapped yesterday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
… Akinola was waylaid at about 3pm by gunmen … and driven away in his Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) along with his daughter and driver.
However, their ordeal was short-lived as the trio was rescued by officers and men of the Ogun State Police Command at about 8pm. …”
– from This Day Live, Nigeria. More from PM News.
Update: “My ordeal in the hands of kidnappers”
Archbishop Glenn Davies’ Christmas message 2013
The first Christmas message from Dr Glenn Davies as Archbishop of Sydney.
Read it below – or download the text as a PDF file (2 x A5 format suitable for copying) here.
What is it about our society that ‘selfie’ is the landmark word for 2013?
Many of us cringe at the self-centredness of these self-portraits, as much as the bad photography, but many ‘selfies’ will be taken over the Christmas period and inflicted upon others, along with the usual array of awkward family photos.
But at Christmas time we should remember that there is an ultimate self-image, the image of God, which far outweighs the supercilious picture of a face filling our screen. We are all stamped with the image of God and it is this image that makes us precious in his sight.
Incarnation is the theological word which describes God’s coming to earth as a human being, with all the vulnerabilities associated with being born as a baby in that Bethlehem crib.
But so often we tend to leave Jesus as a baby in a stall, cute and inoffensive, and forget that he grew up as a fully developed adult, so that he might live the life we could not live and die the death that we deserve.
Christmas without Easter is not the full story. We fail to appreciate Christmas if we fail to appreciate the reason why he came – to suffer death upon a cross on Good Friday, rise again on Easter Day so that the bonds of death may be broken and new life become a reality for all who put their trust in him.
As you look at the pictures you take this Christmas, some will be joyful and some scenes may be sad, but you will look at faces that have the self-image of God – those for whom Jesus came to offer new life.
What shall we give him in return?
We can give him nothing, but we owe him everything.
Happy Christmas.
Dr Glenn N Davies
Archbishop of Sydney
Christmas 2013
Source: SydneyAnglicans.net
Vale Ron Patfield
“We note with sadness the death of Ron Patfield on Friday December 20, 2013. Ron graduated from the College in 1948. He then was used by the Lord in a succession of ministries at Wahroonga, Normanhurst, Annandale, Wentworthville, Seaforth and too many positions as locum to mention.”
– from Moore Theological College.
Santa vs Jesus
Glen Scrivener in the UK has released an updated version of his video contrasting Santa and Jesus. Perhaps you could use it this Christmas. Download it here (173MB mp4 / 1080p).
Live stream on Christmas Eve from Sydney Cathedral
St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, will live stream this year’s Christmas Eve service so friends in Australia and around the world can watch.
From 8:00pm AEDT on Christmas Eve. The theme is “The Romance and the Reality of Christmas”. The video stream should start around 7:50pm.
Watch it at new.livestream.com/audioadvice/christmas. (The time shown on the Livestream page is US East Coast time.)
Kirsty Birkett on The Pilling Report
Dr Kirsty Birkett, at Oak Hill College in London, takes a look at The Pilling Report’s approach to Scripture –
“The majority of those writing the Pilling report felt unable to articulate what scripture actually says on the issue of homosexual activity.”
2. What if scripture really is unclear?
“‘But we do not all believe that the evidence of scripture points to only one set of ethical conclusions. In short, Christians who share an equal commitment to scripture do not agree on the implications of scripture for same sex relationships’ (The Pilling Report, 235).
This is one of many statements that the Pilling Report makes to the effect that it was impossible for the group to come to one mind on the meaning of scripture as regards homosexual relationships.”
Mike Ovey on The Pilling Report
Principal of Oak Hill College, Dr Mike Ovey, has now posted eight responses to the Pilling Report (“the Report of the House of Bishops Working Group on Human Sexuality’).
1. God’s work versus God’s will?
“ultimately in practice, it prefers our judgment of what we think good to God’s judgment expressed in the scriptures of what is good.”
2. Does sincerity grant a veto?
“This creates the bizarre situation of an explicit submission to the authority of scripture, while not in fact applying what scripture says, either against same-sex marriages, or in favour.”
3. Groundhog Day: ‘scripture’s lack of clarity’
“As we have seen, judgments about the obscurity of scripture have been made before, notably in Roman Catholic responses to the Reformation.”
4. How common is the common ground?
“Like an iceberg, the most significant parts of the Pilling Report lie beneath the surface.”
“They have talked at length, listened at length and have had both clerical and expert help in all their deliberations. They have listened both to each other and to a wide range of witnesses. But this process has not enabled them to reach a collective conclusion as to whether or not same-sex sexual relations in the context of a faithful long-term commitment are right or wrong.”
6. Common grace and stolen fruit
“After noting that the tradition of the church for 2,000 years and indeed worldwide at the moment is against recognition of same-sex marriages and relationships, the report nevertheless goes on to speak in laudatory terms about the same-sex couples who have testified before it.”
“If we want a biblical precedent for a hermeneutics of suspicion where the hermeneutics of suspicion is wrongly placed, then we need look no further than Genesis 3:1ff.”
“Churches can get things wrong. One of the more disturbing moments in the Thirty-Nine Articles comes in Article 19 which deals with the doctrine of the church.”
Do you want more this Christmas?
We are a society that wants more. More money, more gadgets, more food, more fun. But strangely, wanting more often leaves us feeling dissatisfied. We finally get the thing we longed for, and yet all too soon it is broken, or the batteries have run down or it isn’t as good as we hoped. Read more
Christmas messages 2013
As we spot Christmas messages, we’ll post them here. So far…
From around Australia —
John Harrower, Bishop of Tasmania.
Philip Freier, Archbishop of Melbourne.
John Parkes, Bishop of Wangaratta.
Ian Lambert, Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force.
Stuart Robinson, Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn.
Peter Stuart, Bishop Administrator of Newcastle.
Bill Ray, Bishop of North Queensland.
And from further afield –
Hundreds of talks from St Matthias and University Ministries
From the Administrator of Phillip Jensen’s website –
“Phillip has been preaching God’s word for over forty years. It has been his aim to preach the gospel by prayerfully expounding the Bible to the people God has given him to love.
As talks given prior to 2003 are currently being added to the website it is hoped that listeners will be enriched, refreshed and challenged by these talks.”
– An amazing resource. Thank you! (Photo: Matthias Press 1996.)
18 ways to make the most of your non-Christian family Christmas
“We asked Christians surrounded by non-Christian family at Christmas for their tips. This is what they said. …”
– from Eternity Newspaper.
Jars of Clay
“Clay speaks the truth that we who are made in the image of God are also made of the dust of the ground. Clay speaks of being in the hands of the master potter who is shaping us to His own ends. It speaks – as it does here – of the homely and ordinary; of the everyday domestic vessels whose myriad shards are scattered across every field in the Middle East.
Why has God made His servants of this clay? The reason is clear: to show that the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
– Dean of Armidale, Stephen Williams, delivered this address at the funeral of Bishop Peter Chiswell last week, and Peter’s son Graeme gave the Eulogy.
Global South Statement in response to the Pilling Report
“The Global South considers forward movement on the Pilling Report’s recommendations as equal to what the North American churches did ten years ago which caused much confusion in the Communion.
This reminds us of Eli the High Priest who turned a blind eye to the wrongdoings of his sons which led to a period of spiritual dryness when the Spirit of God departed from the midst of His people (Ichabod).”
– Archbishop Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis, Chairman of the Global South of the Anglican Communion, and Archbishop Ian Ernest, Hon. General Secretary, have issued this Statement – read it via Anglican Mainstream (PDF file).
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…