Mark Driscoll resigns from Mars Hill
“On Tuesday, October 14, Pastor Mark Driscoll submitted his resignation as an elder and lead pastor of Mars Hill Church.
The Board of Overseers has accepted that resignation and is moving forward with planning for pastoral transition, recognizing the challenge of such a task in a church that has only known one pastor since its founding. We ask for prayer for the journey ahead…”
– from a statement posted on the Mars Hill website.
Hugh Latimer — 16 October 1555
“On the morning of 16 October, 1555, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, both formerly bishops of the Church, were executed for heresy in Oxford.
It was then that Hugh Latimer uttered his famous sermon,
Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as I trust shall never be put out.”
Written by the then Church Society Director David Streater for Crossway in 1996, “Hugh Latimer – Apostolic Preacher” is available in Church Society’s archives as a PDF file.
Take the opportunity today to learn of and to thank the Lord for Bishop Hugh Latimer.
Dr. Ashley Null on Cranmer — article reprint
In September 2001, ACL News spoke with Dr. Ashley Null while he was visiting Moore College. The interview was mentioned in the October 2014 issue of The Australian Church Record. Here is that interview if you’d like to read it…
“Most people don’t realise that the first liturgical change Cranmer made was to insist on good solid biblical preaching in every Sunday church service.
To ensure that, he and others gathered together a set of Homilies that were to be read in course throughout the year. The first six of these sermons explain how one comes to a biblical understanding of having Jesus Christ as your Saviour by faith alone – and the gratitude that one receives from knowing God has saved you, even though you are not able to make yourself worthy of salvation.”
– Read the interview here – in our Resources section.
Mission Property Committee update
This 10 minute update video from the Mission Property Committee was shown at Sydney Synod yesterday (October 13th).
It’s an encouraging overview of the progress made in securing sites in new developments around Sydney. Uploaded by Anglican Media Sydney.
Update: an edited 5 minute version is now also available.
New Bishop for Georges River Region
During his Presidential Address to the Diocese of Sydney’s Synod, Archbishop Glenn Davies today announced a new bishop for the Georges River Region – Peter Lin, Rector of Fairfield with Bossley Park.
– Story and photo from Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Listen to Archbishop Davies’ address, watch it here, or read the text (PDF).
Australian Church Record — October 2014
The latest issue of The Australian Church Record, Number 1914, October 2014, is now out on their website (just in time for Sydney Synod). Here are some excerpts:
From ‘Faith Under Attack‘
“So Protestants should be alarmed at recent trends in scholarship presenting fine-sounding arguments for faith + something else. And Anglicans need to be alarmed at even small additions to their liturgy that confuse those praying it in this same direction.”
From ‘Faith Alone v. Faith at work‘
“The tendency of the human heart to want to boast in its own achievements is all too prevalent. But there is nothing that we do to merit our justification before God. Like our forebears, contemporary Protestantism must continue to work carefully and clearly in defining the place of faith.”
‘ACNA is Anglican’
“The Anglican Church in North America is Anglican and its primate is an archbishop of the Anglican Communion, declared seven archbishops last night.
At the close of the prayer of investitute of the Most Rev. Foley Beach at the Church of the Apostles on 9 Oct 2014, the primates of Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Myanmar, Jerusalem and the Middle East and South America, and bishops representing the primates of the Congo, Sudan and South East Asia laid hands on Archbishop Beach. Giving him their primatial blessing, they also acknowledged him by word and through laying on of hands to be a fellow primate of the Anglican Communion.
The archbishops’ act comes one week after the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby told the Church of Ireland Gazette the ACNA was an ecumenical partner of the Anglican Communion and was not Anglican…”
– George Conger reports at Anglican Ink.
GAFCON primates help celebrate ACNA investiture
“GAFCON Chairman Archbishop Eliud Wabukala joined Deputy Chairman, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, the Global South’s Archbishop Mouneer Anis and clergy and bishops from around the world at the investiture of Archbishop Foley Beach as Primate of the Anglican Church in North America.
The majority of the world’s Anglicans were represented at the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia. Archbishop Wabukala, who was among those who led the service, described the three and a half hour event as very significant…”
– Read the full report from GAFCON.
Related:
- 3 1/2 hour video archived here.
- “A.C.N.A. is a separate church. It’s not part of the Anglican Communion” – Archbishop Justin Welby (Church of Ireland Gazette interview. Direct link to 10.2MB mp3 file. Starting from 2:30.)
- Diocese of North West Australia “recognizes the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) as a member church of the Anglican Communion, in full communion with Diocese of North West Australia”.
(Photos: from the ACNA live video stream. Archbishop Foley Beach at top.)
The View from The Top
“In an age of tolerance poisoned by relativism, inclusive multi-culturalism, and cultural sovereignty which is still coping with the guilt of colonialism, any exclusive claim to truth, salvation or God has to be challenged.
Yet, Jesus said ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6). And the Apostle Peter said ‘there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12). So it has been consistent Christian teaching down the centuries that we have no assurance of salvation for anybody other than those who name Jesus as their Lord, just as we have every assurance for those who do…”
– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column.
Does God really want you to be rich?
“We’ve all heard the phrase ‘worshipping the almighty dollar’. But there are some people who take the phrase literally. To them, the almighty, as in God, is the key to wealth and riches. Serve him well and material wealth will be the reward.
This philosophy is the cornerstone of an American movement called ‘prosperity theology’, and one man who preaches its message to his Australian flock is Hillsong Church leader Brian Houston…”
– in The Australian, Anthony Sharwood links to an excellent video by John Piper (pictured). You may have seen it before – watch it again.
Investiture of new ACNA Archbishop to be streamed live
The Service of Investiture of Dr. Foley Beach as Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America will be streamed live on the web from the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia.
It’s at 7:00pm Thursday 9th October 2014 US Eastern Time – that is, 10:00am AEDT Friday 10th October. If you’re keen, you can watch it here.
Reform calls for ‘decisive intervention’ to save shared conversations on sexuality from collapse
“At its most recent meeting on Wednesday, 1st October 2014, the Reform Council expressed its dismay that the objectives of the ‘shared conversations’ on Scripture, Sexuality and Mission had been changed and that as a result orthodox Anglicans had been in effect excluded. It called on its members not to participate in the conversations under these conditions…”
– A media release from Reform.
Related: Church of England College of Bishops meeting, 17 September 2014.
A sad milestone for marriage and morality
“As of last week, 19 states and the District of Columbia had legalized same-sex marriage by one means or another. The Court’s decision not to take one of the cases from the lower Federal courts means that every one of them stands. Therefore, not only will same-sex marriage be legal in the states that made a direct appeal, but in every state included within the same U.S. Circuit.
That result is that the decision made clear by the Court will lead, automatically, to the fact that 30 states will have legal same-sex marriage within weeks, if not days. The news from the Court means that the vast majority of Americans will live where same-sex marriage is legal, and three fifths of the states will have legalized same-sex marriage…”
– Albert Mohler looks at the implications of the US Supreme Court’s decision to turn down appeals from several states on the issue of same-sex marriage.
And more from The Anglican Curmudgeon.
“So by refusing to exercise its powers of review, the Court has in effect given a green light to same-sex marriage in as many as thirty States, with more sure to follow.”
Sitting at Jesus’ feet — Preaching Matters
In the latest Preaching Matters video from St Helen’s Bishopsgate, William Taylor emphasises the importance of ‘sitting at Jesus’ feet’. Watch it here.
Diocese of NW Australia recognises ACNA as “a member church of the Anglican Communion”
“The Diocese of NW Australia, meeting in synod this weekend, passed the following motion,
That this synod:
- welcomes the impending investiture of the Most Reverend Dr Foley Beach, the Archbishop of The Anglican Church in North America;
- recognizes the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) as a member church of the Anglican Communion, in full communion with Diocese of North West Australia; rejoices that the orthodox faith is proclaimed in word and deed through ACNA and its member churches;
- continues with ACNA to pray for and call for repentance from those churches which have turned to a different gospel;
- calls upon faithful Anglicans around the world to join us in joyful praise to God for the renewal and rebirth evident in ACNA and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. …“
– from David Ould.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…