Together for the Gospel Conference 2014
Talks from the 2014 Together for the Gospel conference have now been posted at their website. The theme is The Pastor and Evangelism.
Listen to or watch the talks here.
The Final Days of Jesus: Palm Sunday
Justin Taylor introduces the first of a series of videos to be released this week on the theme of “The Final Days of Jesus”.
Professors Douglas Moo (pictured) and Andreas Köstenberger provide valuable background to the events of Holy Week.
They are an accompaniment to the book “The Final Days of Jesus”. (Availability.)
The Australian Church Record — April 2014
The latest issue of The Australian Church Record, April 2014 (No. 1913!) is now out.
From this edition –
Noah Starts a Deluge for Holy-Wood
“Russell Crowe plays a dark and troubled Noah, in a dark
and troubled film, whose special effects have earned it the description ‘Lord of the Rings meets Transformers’.”
The Danger of Mission Drift
“The danger of mission drift recently came to the fore on the international stage, with the public flip-flop of the American World Vision organisation concerning same-sex marriage. … But despite the significant hullabulloo, one of the key lessons of the sorry saga has been the danger of public Christianity drifting with the cultural tides of the day.”
Grab it from their website.
A Season of Intolerance
“As the leaders and foot soldiers of the gay agenda push forward, they intend eventually to deprive those who won’t sign on to their cause of their jobs and ability to earn a living as well as their freedom of speech and freedom of religion. It is figuratively a picture from the Bible’s book of Revelation when you will need to have the number ‘666’ stamped on your body to buy or sell or conduct everyday life. Will it really get that bad?…”
– Bishop David Anderson, President of the American Anglican Council, writes in his weekly newsletter.
Bullies and Censorship
“The fear of words is rational because words are powerful. But censorship is generally the response of irrational fear by powerful people.
The powerful person who is fearful is the person most to be feared. Out of fear they attack any perceived threat, as they use their power to protect themselves. They fear others and do not understand how powerful they are, or how other people perceive their power or how they are misusing their power in self-interest. Sadly, even Christians have misused power for self-protection.
Censorship is one of the tools of powerful people or groups. History is replete with tyranny-censoring criticism, for censorship is the tool of fear: fear of ideas; fear of truth; fear of words…”
– Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly newsletter for the Cathedral.
‘Australia’s Anglican Archbishops express ‘profound disquiet’ about children held in detention this Easter’
Here’s a media release issued this afternoon –
The Anglican Archbishops in Australia will commence Holy Week with a call for more humane treatment of refugees, particularly children in detention.
The Archbishops have released the following statement deploring the fact that recent figures suggest that around a thousand children will spend Easter in Australian sponsored detention.
“As leaders of the Anglican Church of Australia we wish to put on record our profound disquiet that at the end of February this year there were more than 950 children in detention facilities and alternative places of detention in Australia, and a further 177 children in offshore detention in Nauru. The average time people spend in detention is more than eight months. …”
The Day Death Died — Cathedral Easter Convention 2014
This year’s Easter Convention at the Cathedral is a very worthwhile way to spend Good Friday afternoon.
Phillip Jensen and Mark Thompson are the speakers. Good Friday, 2:00 – 5:00pm. Early Bird Rate $15. ($20 after 13th April.)
See the promo video and book in here.
Christian events & conferences in Australia this year
Steve Kryger at Communicate Jesus has helpfully compiled a list of Christian events and conferences (most of them evangelical in their theology) in Australia during the remainder of 2014.
Leon Morris and the Cross of Christ — Ridley lecture
The Rev. Neil Bach, who is writing a biography of Leon Morris, delivered this lecture at Ridley College Melbourne to mark the Centenary of Morris’ birth.
See also Peter Adam’s words of thanksgiving.
‘Singing in the Rain’
“The dying and rising of Jesus provides us with an overarching vision for working for justice in our country…”
– The struggle for justice is the theme of Bishop Greg Thompson’s first Easter message as Bishop of Newcastle.
News this week from the UK
“The state of things in the UK is primarily then, a theological problem and only the theological antibiotic of the gospel can provide the solution…”
– David Cook, former SMBC Principal and now Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, sends a report from the UK. (Posted 8 April 2014.)
Church Society gives thanks for John Richardson
Church Society’s Director Lee Gatiss has penned this note of thanksgiving for John Richardson.
He includes this detail: “At the National Evangelical Anglican Congress in Blackpool (2003) he famously donned a purple (ish) clerical shirt, and delighted in telling us how he was ushered into all kinds of places as a result!” – Read it here.
And here is a 70 second audio clip (280kb) where John speaks about going to Moore College (from a ‘weekend away’ talk on Marriage and Singleness for St. Peter’s Harold Wood).
Canberra & Goulburn celebrates Sesquicentenary
“The crowd of nearly 300 marchers were ebullient as they walked to St Saviour’s Cathedral, retracing the footsteps of its first bishop, Mesac Thomas… With parish banners fluttering and some members in period costume, it was a fitting climax to the diocese’s 150th anniversary celebrations. …”
Niagara Bishop to get public apology from blogger
“The legal squabble between Niagara Bishop Michael Bird and an Oakville blogger who criticized him is over. The Diocese of Niagara says the pair has reached a settlement. …”
– Story from The Hamilton Spectator.
Apology and Timeline from David Jenkins (Anglican Samizdat).
(Photo of Bishop Michael Bird from the Diocese of Niagara.)
Also from Anglican Samizdat, The Diocese of New Westminster sells a church to make way for a mosque.
“Church of the Triune God” — a review
“…I’m thankful for the recent Church of the Triune God: a book in celebration of the teaching and passion of Robert Doyle, a lecturer from Moore Theological College. Edited by Michael Jensen, it’s a collection of excellent essays on the themes he was so captivated by throughout his teaching career: the Trinity and the church.”
– At The Briefing, Sam Freney reviews Church of the Triune God, published by Aquila Press.
(Authors include Mark Baddeley, Mark D Thompson, John McClean, Ashley Null, Peter G Bolt, Benjamin Dean, Rory Shiner, Andrew JB Cameron, Kanishka Raffel, Chew-Chern Morgan and Greg Anderson.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…