J. I. Packer’s rare Puritan library digitised and available online
In one of the sad attempts to deal with faithful, Bible-believing clergy, in 2008, the then Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster issued a ‘notice of presumption of abandonment of the exercise of ministry’ to Dr J.I. Packer, and others.
As well as being a much-loved and respected theologian and preacher, Dr. Packer is a foremost Puritan historian.
“The John Richard Allison Library in Vancouver—which hosts the joint collections of Regent College and Carey Theological College—has now made available their entire rare Puritan collection to be read online for free. What a gift of modern technology to help us recover these gifts from the church of the past.
There are currently 80 Puritan authors in their collection, many of whose works were digitized from J. I. Packer’s private library.”
– Justin Taylor at the Gospel Coalition has a list of the titles and links to the digitised versions.
‘Day 2 – The facade begins to crumble’
“As we reported yesterday, all the GAFCON and some Global South (GS) Primates declined to attend Communion in the morning.
We have little details of discussions during the day but the most dramatic moment was evensong at 5.30pm when it very quickly became apparent that a large number of Primates were missing, not even attending as they had done on Monday…”
– At StandFirm, David Ould has some reports on the Primates’ meeting, Day 2. Please be very much in prayer for all involved.
“Dear Prayer Supporters,
The discussions at Canterbury are at a crucial stage and we know that God is sovereign, hence we ask you to pray with us:
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
We turn once more to you in faith,
Interceding for the Primates of the Anglican Communion as they meet in Canterbury.
Please use their endeavors to hallow your great name;
May your kingdom come;
May your will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Uphold your word in the church we pray, so guiding us to live godly and obedient lives, not compromising with this world, but holding forth the gospel of salvation without fear,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. AmenYours in Christ Service
Peter Jensen
GAFCON General Secretary.”
Update: Evening of Day 3 (Wednesday), UK time.
(Photo: Canterbury Cathedral via Primates2016.)
Message from Peter Jensen to GAFCON supporters after Day 1 of the Primates’ Gathering
from GAFCON.
Related:
- Primates Meeting – Little Progress and a Very Little Procession – David Ould.
- “Fears the first day would see a walkout did not come to pass — to the chagrin of the crew of a BBC video truck parked outside the cathedral in the rain awaiting the capture on film of the departure of the conservatives.” – George Conger.
Schism would be a failure, but not disaster – Welby
“The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said this morning that a formal schism in the Anglican Communion would be a failure; but he told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme that such a scenario “would not be a disaster” because “God is bigger than our failures.”
Archbishop Welby made his comments during a live interview on the UK’s national flagship radio news programme ahead of the meeting of Anglican Primates which gets underway today at Canterbury Cathedral…”
– from the Anglican Communion News Service. Includes a transcript of the interview.
See also: Wet, cold start to primates gathering in Canterbury – Anglican Ink. (Image: ABC Radio.)
Prohibiting offensive Sermons
“A recent decision in Northern Ireland, where an evangelical preacher was acquitted after being criminally charged in relation to a sermon attacking Islam, raises a number of important issues about free speech in a religious setting…”
– At Law and Religion Australia, Neil Foster takes a close look at what the UK case was – and wasn’t – about, as well as asking how free speech and freedom of religion might be protected here in Australia.
Prayer for the Primates’ Gathering
A good prayer to pray –
“Almighty God
to whom all will someday give an account;instil, we pray,
within the hearts of all Primates of the Anglican Communion,
a holy fear
that they may love you and your Word
more than the approval of men;this we ask through our only Mediator and Head of the Church,
Jesus Christ,
who evermore lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit.Amen.”
– from GAFCON.
GAFCON preview of the Primates’ Meeting
“Archbishop Justin Welby has called the Primates of the Anglican Communion to meet in Canterbury 11th-16th January to find a way to resolve the spiritual and moral crisis that has beset the Communion throughout the opening years of the twenty first century.
This is a courageous initiative and the GAFCON Primates will attend in the hope that Archbishop Welby will, like them, stand firm to guard the gospel we love, knowing that we cannot rewrite the Bible to suit the spirit of a secular age.
Many orthodox Primates did not attend the last Primates Meeting in 2011 under the chairmanship of his predecessor, Rowan Williams. They were not prepared to share in fellowship with provinces like The Episcopal Church of the United States (TEC) which had rejected the clear teaching of Scripture and the collegial mind of previous Primates Meetings and the Lambeth Conference 1998 by pressing ahead with the blessing of same sex unions and ordaining those in such relationships.
This time, GAFCON and the other orthodox Primates are willing to attend, but they know that after many years of debate, action is needed to restore the spiritual and doctrinal integrity of the Communion they care for so deeply. They are clear that their continued presence will depend upon action by the Archbishop of Canterbury and a majority of the Primates to ensure that participation in the Anglican Communion is governed by robust commitments to biblical teaching and morality.
It has been suggested that the way forward is for the Anglican Communion to abandon the idea that there should be mutual recognition between the provinces and that it should instead find its unity simply in a common relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
This is not historic Anglicanism; the See of Canterbury is honoured and respected as the Mother Church of the Communion, but the unity of the Communion does not depend upon the Archbishop of Canterbury. Rather, it depends upon the various provinces being able to recognize each other, with all their differences of culture, as truly apostolic and committed to the faith as it has been received. Tragically, that recognition has now broken down and affection for Canterbury is no substitute. As the GAFCON movement affirmed in the Jerusalem Declaration of 2008,
‘While acknowledging the nature of Canterbury as an historic see, we do not accept that Anglican identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury’.
The Anglican Communion is in danger of losing the gospel of God’s costly grace to us sinners for the poor substitute of cheap grace which makes us comfortable but can neither save nor transform. The choice before the Primates as they gather in Canterbury is whether they will recognize this reality and take the difficult but necessary action to restore the bible to its central place in the life of the Communion, or whether they will accept a merely cosmetic solution which will see it increasingly taken captive by the dominant secular culture of the West.”
– From the GAFCON website.
‘The spinning has started against orthodox Anglican archbishops’
“…there is a danger that if the Archbishop of Canterbury’s meeting of global Anglican archbishops next week goes south, orthodox leaders could find themselves on the end of some New Labour-style spinning.
It appears to have already started…”
– The Rev. Julian Mann writes at The Conservative Woman. Let’s hope this is not so. Thanks to Anglican Mainstream for the link.
Possibly related: What can we learn from Jesus’s hospitality? – on the Primates 2016 website. (Logo courtesy of the Anglican Communion Office.)
‘Church ‘should repent’ over treatment of gay Anglicans’
“More than 100 senior Anglicans have signed an open letter calling on the Church of England to repent on its treatment of lesbian, gay and bisexual Christians.”
– More pressure on Archbishop Welby ahead of the Primates’ Meeting. And even more reason to pray for all at that gathering. Report from BBC News. (Image: BBC.)
A reminder of what is at stake at the Primates’ meeting
In March 2015, GAFCON General Secretary Archbishop Peter Jensen gave the Richard B. Gaffin Lecture at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
His topic was “Beginning in Jerusalem: The Theological Significance of the 2008 Global Anglican Future Conference”. You can watch it on Vimeo.
Dr. Jensen explains the reasons for the formation of GAFCON, giving a glimpse of the pain involved, and the strong gospel hope for the future.
This is a sobering encouragement to watch, and is very helpful background for understanding why the GAFCON Primates are not likely to compromise at next week’s meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
See also:
GAFCON Final Statement and the Jerusalem Declaration – 29 June 2008.
The Jerusalem Declaration formatted as a PDF file.
The Anglican Communion is at a Crossroads– GAFCON website.
Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, Primate of Uganda, Pastoral Message – January 2016.
Canadian Primate calls for prayer and talks up unity
“The primates need to address openly and honestly the tensions in our common life. We need to confess any and all ‘…uncharitable thoughts towards our neighbours and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us’ (Litany of Penitence for Ash Wednesday, p 284, Book of Alternative Services).
We need to hear afresh St. Paul’s appeal to be reconciled in Christ and to devote ourselves to that work however hard it may be, and however long it may take. We need to be eager in renewing the bonds of affection that draw us together in mission.”
– Primate of Canada, Fred Hiltz, is talking up ‘unity’ when it is the Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church of the USA which have torn the fabric of the Anglican Communion. (e.g see The Episcopal Church: Tearing the Fabric of Communion to Shreds, 2012 edition – PDF file.) And observers may ask which mission is on view in the Archbishop’s call.
The Anglican Communion Office’s new Primates 2016 website revieals Roman Catholic philosopher and advocate, Jean Vanier has been invited to address the Primates’ meeting.
This is in addition to a sixth century artefact being sent from Rome for the gathering.
Remembering John Reid
Phillip Jensen, former Dean of Sydney, writes to give thanks for Bishop John Reid, “a great man of God who faithfully and lovingly stood for the truth of the Gospel”.
Here’s a taste –
- “He consistently upheld the great truths of the gospel, always graciously pointing to the Saviour by expounding God’s word. He was committed to the truths expounded in the Reformation, while diplomatically developing relationships with those who did not share them.
- He was his own man, (or rather Christ’s man) but he was a great admirer of John Stott and Marcus Loane, and ministered with the same kind of intelligent care in the use of words as those two giants.
- He was humble, generous and hospitable – always the first to wash up or put people at their ease. He never played the Bishop card, as if he were something special and above the ordinary.”
(Bishop Reid’s funeral will be held at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, at 10:00am on Thursday 14th January.)
ACNA Archbishop sees ‘no easy answers without repentance and Gospel Truth’
Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, Dr. Foley Beach, writes asking for prayers ahead of the crucial Primates’ Meeting in Canterbury next week –
“I see no easy answers without repentance and Gospel Truth. Pray for wisdom. Pray for confidence in the Truth of God. Pray for boldness. Pray for humility. Pray for repentance. Pray for healing.
What is at stake? It is really not about me or about the Anglican Church in North America. It is the reputation of Jesus Christ. It is the souls of millions of people who are being taught a false Gospel and are being led into spiritual and sexual bondage under the pretense of the Christian Faith.”
Seven reasons not to gamble
“Managers don’t gamble with their Master’s money. All you have belongs to God. All of it. Faithful trustees may not gamble with a trust fund. They have no right.”
– at Desiring God, John Piper gives seven reasons Christians shouldn’t play the lotteries.
His reasons apply just as well to other forms of gambling – and to Australian Christians every bit as much as to our American friends.
See also:
“Buried in last week’s national accounts was the startling statistic that Australian punters bet a record $6.5 billion in the September quarter, equating to $1000 a year for every Australian.”
– Sydney Morning Herald, 07 December 2015.
“Looks like Australia is the gambling capital of the world, again.”
– Business Spectator, 07 February 2014.
Crisis in the Anglican Communion: recent history and potential outcomes
“GAFCON presents itself not as an alternative, breakaway Anglican Communion, but as the majority of the Anglican Communion, committed to renewing worldwide Anglicanism based on united confession of Christ and adherence to the Bible and the historic formularies, and necessarily rejecting revisionist doctrine and practice.
They are calling on Archbishop Justin to exercise leadership, and re-commit the Anglican Communion to a clear orthodox theology and practice as a basis for united mission in the world…”
– Anglican Mainstream’s Andrew Symes pens an overview of where the Anglican Communion stands, how we came to this point, and possible outcomes to next week’s Primates’ Meeting called by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Background reading:
- When to make a stand – Dr Mark Thompson (PDF, 2015)
- The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns – Dr Mark Thompson (2008)
- The Limits of Fellowship – Phillip Jensen (2008)
- A Crisis in Koinonia – David Short, Rector of St. John’s Vancouver (2004)
– all from our Resources section.
We urge all our readers to pray for a Christ-honouring outcome to the Primates’ Meeting.
And from The Anglican Mission in England:
“AMiE would like to welcome the GAFCON Primates to England for the Primates’ meetings in Canterbury, 11-15 January, and assure them (and the other Primates) of our prayers for this significant meeting.
We are grateful to the GAFCON Primates for their support of our work in England as well as recognising the Anglican Mission in England ‘as an authentic expression of authentic Anglicanism both for those within and outside the Church of England‘ (Nairobi Commitment 5).
Along with others we are encouraging all AMiE supporters to pray for Archbishop Justin Welby, the Primates and for a God-glorifying outcome to their meetings.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…