Rome Recreated (AD 320)
At With Meagre Powers, George Athas draws attention to “a stunning animation that recreates the city of Rome as it was in AD 320—the reign of Constantine”.
Roman Catholic Vespers at Henry VIII’s Chapel Royal
“The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, last night led a service of Solemn Vespers in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace in what was the first Roman Catholic act of worship for 450 years in Henry VIII’s chapel, which was the backdrop to much of the English Reformation.
The service, sung mainly in Latin, was a unique event held to mark the 500th anniversary of Hampton Court and was in recognition of the growing relationship between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic church…”
– This report from The Anglican Communion News Service.
Photo: Cardinal Vincent, Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster.
The Blood of the Martyrs is Seed
At the Bethlehem 2016 Conference for Pastors last month, Dr Tim Keesee spoke on “The Blood of the Martyrs is Seed”, with profound reflections from 2 Corinthians 4.
Tim is, of course, the man behind the Dispatches from the Front videos and book.
“You can’t save your own life. You can only spend it. Spend it well.”
Sobering, mightily encouraging, and very much worth watching.
George Whitefield on the Homilies
“If I may be suffered to give my opinion, the dreadful ignorance as to the fundamentals of our holy religion, that almost everywhere abounds amongst the members of our established church, is chiefly owing to our neglect of preaching and putting into their hands the grand doctrines of the Reformation, contained in these Homilies and our other doctrinal articles.”
– Quoting George Whitefield, at the beginning of Lent Church Society introduces a series of daily extracts from The Homilies. Should be worth following.
Update: Here’s the first post – Edward VI’s preface to the “Book of Homilies”.
The Book of Numbers explained with illustrations
Here’s the latest from The Bible Project.
Very well done. (h/t Tim Challies.)
NASA center “bans the word ‘Jesus’.”
“The name of Jesus is not welcome in the Johnson Space Center newsletter, according to a complaint filed on behalf of a group of Christians who work for NASA. …
And NASA’s behavior is quite frankly baffling. On Christmas Eve, 1968 – the crew of Apollo 8 read the Creation story as they orbited the moon. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Frank Borman and Bill Anders took turns reading from the Book of Genesis.”
– Opinion from Fox News. Related: The Apollo 8 crew read from Genesis 1.
‘Freed Australian hostage Jocelyn Elliott vows to continue work’
“An Australian woman who was kidnapped by Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Burkina Faso has returned to the nation’s capital after being freed, and says she hopes to be reunited with her husband so they can continue their medical work in the African nation…”
– ABC News has this report. (Please continue to pray for the release of Jocelyn’s husband, Ken, and for their captors.)
‘New Anglican Dean of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel, installed at St Andrew’s Cathedral’
“The new Anglican Dean of Sydney has made history. Kanishka Raffel, who was officially installed as Dean of Sydney last Thursday, is the first person from a non-European background to hold the role in the church’s history in Australia. …
Born in London to Sri-Lankan parents, Dean Raffel spent the first two decades of his life as a Buddhist before he was given a copy of the Bible while studying law at the University of Sydney.”
– The Sydney Morning Herald has this story about a Buddhist who became a Christian, and is now Dean. (Photo: SydneyAnglicans.net)
Jocelyn Elliot released by kidnappers – husband still held
From ABC News, Sunday 7th February:
“An Australian woman has been freed after she and her husband were kidnapped by an Al Qaeda-affiliated group in Burkina Faso, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirms.
President of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou presented Jocelyn Elliott to journalists at a news conference in Dosso, south-western Niger, and said authorities were intensifying efforts to secure the release of her husband.…”
– Please give thanks for Jocelyn’s release, and continue in prayer for her husband Ken, and for their captors.
Earlier:
Family of kidnapped missionaries in Burkina Faso plead for Ken and Jocelyn Elliot’s release – Bible Society.
‘Cathedral wins Raffel’ — New Dean installed at St. Andrew’s
“After months of waiting, St Andrew’s Cathedral congregation has finally welcomed the new Dean of Sydney.
At an Installation Service at the Cathedral on Thursday, 4th February, the Rev Kanishka de Silva Raffel became the first non-European to hold the post…”
– Russell Powell has the story at SydneyAnglicans.net.
All ACL members will want to join in praying to Almighty God for Kanishka and Cailey in this new sphere of gospel service.
Churches offering sanctuary to asylum seekers — some context
“In a high-profile decision of the High Court of Australia yesterday, Plaintiff M68-2015 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2016] HCA 1 (3 February 2016), a 6-1 majority ruled that the Australian government is entitled to continue its policy of detaining certain asylum seekers off-shore in the Pacific nation of Nauru. …
Today a number of Christian churches went public with an offer of ‘sanctuary’ for those who are supposed to be returned.”
– What is ‘sanctuary’, and does it still apply in Australia today? Here’s some legal context from Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia.
Related:
“The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies, says Anglicans and other Christians in Sydney are concerned by the prospect of 91 asylum seeker children being returned to Nauru following the recent High Court ruling…” – SydneyAnglicans.net
Armidale’s Anglican Bishop urges caution on calls to defy the law to safeguard refugees – ABC News 05 February 2016.
Presbyterians plan to celebrate — with evangelism
To celebrate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the doors of the castle church in Wittenberg, the Presbyterians want to proclaim Christ with a national campaign.
Facing a Task Unfinished
“Getty Music is inviting thousands of churches around the globe to sing the new hymn Facing a Task Unfinished together on Sunday, February 21st, 2016!
We will provide you with the sheet music and demonstration, all you need to do is register! …
First penned by China Inland Mission worker, Frank Houghton, at a time when persecution in China was at its height, ‘Facing a Task Unfinished’ has been a rally cry for missions in the Pacific Rim for many years.
In 1929, the Lord laid a vision on the heart of CIM leaders to see 200 new workers plunge into the darkness and share the light of Christ, knowing that it could well cost them their lives.
As he reflected on Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:14 to bear the torch of the Gospel to all the nations, his heart was broken for the people of China, and he wrote:
Facing a task unfinished, that drives us to our knees.
A need that, undiminished, rebukes our slothful ease.
We, who rejoice to know Thee, renew before Thy throne,
the solemn pledge we owe Thee to go and make Thee known.
By 1932, the last of the 200 missionaries had set sail for China to spread the good news of the Gospel. Since that time, the church of China has grown from an estimated 100,000 who claim Christ as their Lord to millions, and the Lord continues to work in great ways because of the faithfulness of those that gave their lives proclaiming that Jesus died and rose.
We are delighted to introduce this missions hymn to a new generation with the prayer it will be an anthem for rising up to face the unfinished task and going to all the world to proclaim salvation in Jesus’ name.”
– Read more here. h/t David Ould.
Secularisation and the Sexual Revolution: Evangelical Theology and the Cultural Crisis
“In the face of the sexual revolution the Christian church in the West now faces a set of challenges that exceeds anything it has experienced, of a similar magnitude, in the past. This is a revolution of ideas—one that is transforming the entire moral structure of meaning and life…”
– In the first of a four-part series, Albert Mohler argues that the foundations of the sexual revolution were laid almost a century ago.
True Anglicanism: Gospel proclamation, compassionate care, cultural leadership
“Here is the main argument put forward by revisionists for the Church of England to change the historic doctrine of sexuality and marriage: ‘the majority of people believe this, so the church leadership should follow’. Leaving aside the interpretation of statistics, and the question of whether this societal change has happened by chance or as a result of sustained cultural re-education by a secular elite, we need to ask: should the Church accommodate itself to the culture as the revisionists demand, or should it be providing a lead in developing a counter-culture which influences and transforms the values of society?
Or perhaps the church should ignore the surrounding culture and be concerned only with the beliefs and actions of its own members and the small fringe of contacts which it hopes to draw in? This approach may have the strength of an authentically biblical foundation, but is it Anglican?…”
– At Anglican Mainstream, Andrew Symes looks at the way forward for the Church of England.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…