“We want your thoughts on the next Anglican Communion Secretary General”
“Anglicans and Episcopalians from Communion provinces worldwide are being invited to share their thoughts on the ministry priorities and qualities of the next Secretary General of the Anglican Communion. …”
– Any thoughts? The deadline is 27 November 2014.
Is God a Religious Pluralist?
In a recent issue of The White Horse Inn broadcast, apologetics specialist Greg Koukl spoke on ‘How are we to deal with the exclusive claims of Jesus in our pluralistic age?’.
Woman speaks out at Muslim prayer service in Washington National Cathedral
“It was supposed to be a shining moment for proponents of the interfaith movement.
The Islamic “jummah,” or Friday call to prayer, would be held on America’s grandest Christian stage – the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
It was a bold move that had never been tried. Leaders of the Episcopal cathedral said sending prayers up to Allah from a Christian church would show the world that two religions at odds with each other for centuries could “approach the same God” as one body of believers.
The stage was set. The prayer rugs were neatly arranged facing Mecca. The lights shone down on the imam for his opening remarks.
Not so fast…”
– Christian booted from National Cathedral speaks out.
See also:
- About the Muslim Friday Services (Jumu’ah) at the Episcopal Cathedral.
- Watch the service (minus the interjection) here. (Can be slow to load.)
Image from the video feed.
Moore College ends academic year
“Dr Thompson encouraged the graduating students to hold on to Jesus as they go through changes in their lives,
‘When people go climbing, seriously climbing, they often use rope. But those ropes need to be tied to something: something that will not move, something that will still be there when they get to the top… There is only one properly unchanging thing in all the universe. Lash your rope to Christ and know he is the same, yesterday, today and forever.’…”
Read the Principal’s Graduating Students’ Dinner Address.
Archbishop Welby: the Communion’s challenges
In his Presidential address to the Church of England’s General Synod, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby spoke about the issues faced by the Anglican Communion and possible ways forward.
While emphasising that “the Anglican Communion exists and is flourishing in roughly 165 countries”, he also conceded,
“There are enormous problems. We have deep divisions in many areas, not only sexuality. There are areas of corruption, other areas where the power of the surrounding culture seems to overwhelm almost everyone at one point or another.
Our divisions may be too much to manage.
In many parts of the Communion, including here, there is a belief that opponents are either faithless to the tradition, or by contrast that they are cruel, judgemental, inhuman. I have to say that we are in a state so delicate that without prayer and repentance, it is hard to see how we can avoid some serious fractures.”
Album: Masterplan – Ben Pakula
Earlier in the year, Lionel Windsor reviewed Ben Pakula’s album –
“Ben Pakula’s new album – Masterplan – is available on iTunes and at the CEP Store. I love Ben’s work, and so do our kids. It’s a powerful rock style combined with words that teach profound truths about God, Jesus, humanity and the world. Often, when our kids ask us questions about Jesus or something in the Bible, we find ourselves answering simply with a quote from one of Ben’s songs. As soon as we quote Ben, the kids go, “ah, right, I get it”!
Ben’s latest album, Masterplan, is a “biblical-theology concept album” – i.e. “a musical presentation of the whole story of the Bible, focusing on the centrality of Jesus.” It’s especially good for early high schoolers, but it works for everyone. Here are some highlights for me…”
– Read the full review (with links to song previews) at Forget the Channel.
Starting small: Phillip Jensen on starting The Briefing
Tony Payne asks Phillip Jensen about how The Briefing was started.
Bishop Ken Short obituary in SMH
“Bishop Ken Short had a number of significant roles in his lifetime and made a deep impact in each of them. He served as Dean of Sydney and Bishop of Wollongong and Parramatta, but was probably best known as Chaplain-General of the army and first bishop to the armed forces, which he became in 1979.
Despite his name, Kenneth Herbert Short was a tall man with a big smile, handshake and voice…”
– The Sydney Morning Herald has published this Obituary for Bishop Ken Short, written by Simon Manchester. (Photo: Ramon Williams.)
Simon Gillham to be Head of Mission at Moore College
“The Governing Board of the College has approved the Principal’s nomination of Rev Simon Gillham to join the faculty as Head of Department of Mission from 1 January 2016. Simon is a graduate of the College who is currently serving with CMS as Acting Principal of Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary (NETS)…”
– Read the full announcement from Moore College. And SydneyAnglicans.net.
It’s not ‘Lost’, it’s not a ‘Gospel’
“Today the British Library plays host to the launch of a book by Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson provocatively entitled ‘The Lost Gospel – Decoding the Sacred Text that reveals Jesus’ Marriage to Mary Magdalene.’
According to reports in the Sunday Times last weekend the book – which is described as historical – claims that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and fathered two children with her. It also claims that there was a previously unknown plot on Jesus’s life when he was 20 and an assassination attempt on Mary and her children.
Diarmaid MacCulloch, professor of the history of the church at Oxford University summed up his view of the book succinctly to the Sunday Times saying: ‘It sounds like the deepest bilge.’…”
– The Church of England responds to what seems to be the marketing campaign for a book and TV special.
Washington National Cathedral to host Friday Muslim prayer service
“Washington National Cathedral, known for presidential funerals and other major spiritual services, will host a Muslim prayer service for the first time Friday…”
– Story from The Washington Post.
47 killed at Christian school, while Christians forced to flee captured city
“A suicide bomb attack in a Christian secondary school in … north-eastern Nigeria, has killed at least 47 people on Monday (10 November) as the students gathered for morning assembly. …
In a separate incident, trapped residents from the predominantly Christian city of Mubi in Adamawa state report that Christians have been tortured and killed after the Islamist group Boko Haram took control of the town on 29 October.”
– Barnabas Fund has this report in attacks on Christians in NE Nigeria.
To End All Wars
Here’s Glen Scrivener’s throught-provoking contribution to Remembrance Day.
Four ways to God
Tony Payne writes, “I suppose it’s like looking at old baby photos, but over the past month or so I’ve been browsing through some of the classic early articles in The Briefing.
… I couldn’t help returning to an article that I also highlighted in the special edition that marked our 21st birthday back in 2009 — ‘Four ways to live’, which appeared in Briefing #3, in May 1988. This foundational article discussed four competing sources of religious authority (the ‘authority quadrilateral’), and how the Christian is to view each one.”
– It was a good article in the days when they produced The Briefing using a Mac Plus and a LaserWriter, and it still is. Read the extract here.
Chappo’s contribution to the Anglican Diocese of Armidale
“This weekend (8/11/2014) the good people of the Anglican Diocese of Armidale are celebrating their centenary.
Before 1914, the Armidale Diocese existed as the Diocese of Grafton and Armidale, which covered a huge amount of New South Wales from 1867 till 1914. Over the past 100 years the Diocese has undergone massive change, and as part of my 4th year program at Moore Theological College I had the opportunity to do a large research project on the diocese.
Specifically, I wanted to look into Chappo’s time in the diocese as I had hardly heard anything about his work there. What I found was deeply encouraging for my life and ministry. As the Armidale Diocese celebrates this weekend, feel free to get acquainted with our brothers and sisters of the north…”
– Tim Stevens writes on someone close to the heart of many in Australia and around the world.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…