Watch NEXUS 2015

The NEXUS 2015 Conference was held today at Ryde, in Sydney. If you missed it, you can watch the recording of the livestream thanks to the organisers.

Simon Manchester, Mark Thompson and Phil Colgan were this year’s main speakers. Very encouraging and worthwhile.

The video begins with Dominic Steele interviewing some of the attendees. The first talk (Simon Manchester on Galatians 6) starts at 64 minutes in.

‘Men Praying for Moore’ Night

“Parallel to the Prayer Support Group (a group of faithful women that meets regularly and has prayed for the College for over 50 years), Moore has created the opportunity for Christian men to support the College in this way…”

– What a good idea! Monday 18th May 2015.

A road trip to remember

“With the help of some long-suffering friends and wonderful work colleagues, who have joined me on and off over various days, I have read through the Bible across the month of April at every mainland parish in the Sydney Diocese, a few of our retirement villages and two of our theological colleges…

After our Bible readings I spoke about Anglican Aid’s Chappo and Hope Partnership to raise funds for bursaries to train young men and women at Bible colleges and schools across Africa.”

– David Mansfield gives thanks for The Flawless Bible Tour – at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Download the Flawless Bible Tour flier, with details of Anglican Aid’s Chappo & Hope Partnership. (1.7MB PDF file.)

Bishop of Tasmania, John Harrower, announces intention to retire

From Bishop Harrower’s blog –

“Today, I have communicated the following to the Diocese of Tasmania. I ask for your prayers for our Anglican Family of Tasmania as we bring a season of leadership to a close and toward a new season. Read more

CEP and SRE publications — further updated

Here’s a statement from Youthworks regarding an inaccurate article in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Update: ‘Three Christian books banned from SRE curriculum in NSW’ – Bible Society.

Update 2, May 8th: Clarification sought on SRE books – SydneyAnglicans.net –

“The Diocese of Sydney has asked for clarification of an Education Department directive on materials in the Special Religious Education curriculum.

This follows a Victorian lobby group’s claim about the publication, Teen Sex by the Book by noted sexual health expert Patricia Weerakoon. …

‘There is significant concern and outrage from within the Anglican Community and the broader Christian community in response to this unprecedented action of the DEC banning SRE books and other Christian resources.’ said the director of the Anglican SRE office Jon Thorpe.

‘The legislation allows approved SRE providers to educate students in the chosen faith of the family.…’.”

Update 3 – Cross-border battle erupts over religious education in school – SBS report, aired May 8th 2015 (video expires May 15.)

Image: SBS.

Safe havens for Christians rapidly diminish in north-eastern Syria

“We are going through a terrible time,” says Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo, who is based in Syria’s north-eastern city of Hassake. “The jihadists of the Islamic State attacked Hassake for two days… We are cut off, like an island, surrounded by jihadists from all sides.”

– Report from Barnabas Fund.

The Forgotten God

The latest Credo Magazine is out and available for download:

“Looking back on the first half of the twentieth century, H. Richard Niebuhr famously described liberal Christianity’s understanding of the gospel like this: ‘A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.’ …

For many people today, Bible stories having to do with divine wrath, anger, or jealousy are embarrassing. And yet, no matter how uncomfortable they make you feel, it is nearly impossible to get through a book (sometimes a chapter!) of the Bible without coming face to face with these forgotten attributes of God.”

Read it here.

Will the American Church be a new Smyrna?

“As Christians brace for official oppression in America, Jesus’ words to Smyrna offer a great hope. Primarily, Jesus declares his sovereignty over such tribulation.”

– Rick Phillips at Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina, writes this reflection at Reformation21.

John Woodhouse on 1 Kings 1 and the Servant King

Former Moore College Principal, Dr. John Woodhouse, was back at college this week, and preached in Chapel for the first time since he retired.

Hear the sermon on 1 Kings 1:1-10 and the Servant King. Most challenging and encouraging.

Reform’s Chairman Rod Thomas to be Bishop of Maidstone

“Reform is delighted that their Chairman, Rev’d Preb Rod Thomas, has been appointed to the revived See of Maidstone. Rod has served as a senior officer of Reform for nearly two decades. In that time he has been unswerving in his commitment to the principles set out in the Reform Covenant. But for Rod’s passionate advocacy of conservative evangelical Anglicanism the Church of England would have been much impoverished.

Rod’s predecessor as Chairman of Reform, Rev’d Canon David Banting, said, ‘Rod’s presence in the College of Bishops will strengthen and enrich the priority of the mission of the gospel to the nation and the centrality of biblical witness in the Church.’…”

– A media statement from Reform.

See the press release from Lambeth Palace…

“The appointment of Rod Thomas follows a meeting of the Dioceses Commission in December at which unanimous agreement was given to a proposal from the Archbishop of Canterbury to fill the see, which has been vacant since 2009, with a bishop who takes a conservative evangelical view on headship.”

And Church Society reaction from their Director, Lee Gatiss –

“Rod is the only complementarian evangelical to be made a bishop since Wallace Benn in 1997. This appointment is part of the package of compromises agreed recently by General Synod, through which women bishops have been introduced into the Church. It is a great pity that despite Synod’s overwhelming approval of the first Pilling Report, Talent & Calling, in 2007, which called for more conservative evangelicals to be considered for such roles, there has been no such appointment until today. …

It may be asked whether a single isolated new bishop is mere tokenism. Surely ‘flourishing’ implies rather more than the reluctant toleration of one among more than a hundred bishops?”

NEXUS 2015 registration last days

It’s less than a week to this year’s NEXUS Conference – at St. Anne’s Ryde on Monday 11th May.

More than a feeling … but the feeling still counts

“Recently I asked a group of young people to jot down the world’s take on romantic relationships. There were no surprises in their responses: ‘Get into a relationship if it feels good and get out of it when it is no longer fun’; ‘It doesn’t have to last, it just has to be fun for both parties’; ‘Do what feels right for you’; ‘It’s about feeling’.

These answers capture so much of our culture. We love experiences. Our feelings really matter. Freedom and fulfilment are found in expressing our desires – having as few boundaries and restraints as possible as long as we don’t hurt anyone else. We are awash with a focus upon ourselves. As another of my respondents put it, sex and relationships are ‘about me’…”

– Positive insights on marriage from Dr. Keith Condie, Dean of Students at Moore College.

Moore College Open Week

Moore College has an Open Week this week.

As well, the college is planning Open Nights, Open Weeks and an Open Day for prospective students to find out about the College.

Details and contact info here.

Nigerian Bishop ‘frees 25 prison inmates’

“The Bishop, Diocese of Kaduna Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Josiah Idowu-fearon, yesterday secured the release of 25 prison inmates from Kaduna Central Prison as part of activities marking his 25th anniversary as Bishop of Anglican Communion…