‘Worship in the woods’
“Churches destroyed a year ago by Islamic extremists and police in Aceh Singkil – a rural ‘regency’ in Indonesia’s only Sharia-ruled province – have still not been rebuilt because of discrimination against Christians by local authorities, say church leaders. However, despite the troubles, church membership is climbing. …”
– This report from World Watch Monitor.
(By complete contrast: Nature’s dome is Church of the Wood’s only chapel, Episcopal News Service.)
GAFCON website updated
GAFCON has a revamped website.
Cornhill Sydney moves to Moore
“In what is great news for the training of preachers and Bible teachers in Sydney and beyond, Cornhill Sydney will relocate to the Newtown campus of Moore College from the start of 2017. This new location will facilitate closer partnership, with the common goal of better equipping men and women in Bible exposition, and especially those who are charged with the critical role of preaching…” – More good news from Moore College.
Understanding the electoral forces behind a stunning victory
In his daily broadcast, The Briefing, Albert Mohler turns to the news of the day – the election of Donald Trump as US President.
How Cornhill began
From The Proclamation Trust:
“Over the next few days we’ll be posting video highlights from the service of thanksgiving for the 25th anniversary of the Cornhill Training Course, held last week.
First, here’s a brief interview with Dick Lucas on how it all began.”
The Remarkable Mr. Graham
Billy Graham turned 98 yesterday. Christianity Today gives thanks.
(Photo: Billy Graham with Archbishop Marcus Loane in Sydney in 1979 — courtesy Ramon Williams.)
Keys to the new Moore College building handed over
“There was great joy at Moore College yesterday as the keys to the new building were handed to the Principal, Dr Mark Thompson. ‘This is a significant milestone’, Dr Thompson said. ‘In one way or another a building has been planned on this site for 50 years and now in God’s goodness it is here.’
Though there is still much to be done to get the building ready for its official opening on 11 February, 2017, there is excitement as staff, students, faculty and of course the library, plan to move into the new building. …”
– Good news from Moore College.
See also: Moore remembers its longest serving Principal. (Broughton Knox worked hard to consolidate the College’s property holdings, for the service of Christ.)
The shocking, abysmal, and embarrassing failure of churches to Pray
“This Sunday, a vast majority of evangelical churches will gather for singing and preaching and reading Scripture and perhaps even a few baptisms and the Lord’s Supper. There will also be some praying.
In comparison to everything else, though, there will be just a little bit of prayer—a transition as a few musicians scurry off-stage, a quick ‘thank-you’ to God after collecting the offerings, a prayer for God’s Spirit to work on the hearers of the sermon.
All in all, you might pray for a few minutes, almost always as a passive observer. …”
– Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman talk about what passes for prayer in many church services. What should we be like? How can our church gatherings be more clearly examples of dependence on the Lord? A great encouragement to be more intentional in our praying.
Same-sex marriage plebiscite bill blocked by Senate
“The Federal Government’s bid to hold a plebiscite on whether to legalise same sex marriage has been defeated in the Senate.
The proposal was voted down a short time ago in the Upper House 33 votes to 29.”
– report from ABC News.
Can we talk about same-sex marriage? videos
The talks from the recent ‘Can we talk about same-sex marriage?’ evening at Moore College’s Centre for Christian Living are now available to view online:
CCL Director Tony Payne introduces the topic.
Talk 1: Michael Kellahan – ‘Can we talk publicly about same-sex marriage?‘
Talk 2: Tony Payne – ‘Can we talk personally about same-sex marriage?‘
D.C. gives initial OK to assisted suicide
“Physician-assisted suicide in America’s capital city has gained first approval, and Southern Baptist leaders locally and nationally are warning about the consequences.
The Council of the District of Columbia voted 11-2 Tuesday … for legislation that would empower doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to people who have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses and supposedly have less than six months to live. …
Mark Dever, a Southern Baptist pastor in D.C., warned the council’s effort to end suffering will only produce more suffering. …
‘The council may have acted with the best of intentions, but this will spawn a thousand private nightmares that we will never hear of, and will rob us of stewardships of the weak and vulnerable that God has given to us.
It is not good when societies learn to dispose of anyone.’…”
– Report from Baptist Press. (Photo: Mark Dever, courtesy christianity.com.)
Love your neighbour enough to speak truth
“If this were 1999—the year that I was converted and walked away from the woman and lesbian community I loved—instead of 2016, Jen Hatmaker’s words about the holiness of LGBT relationships would have flooded into my world like a balm of Gilead. …”
– At The Gospel Coalition, Rosaria Butterfield responds to some comments by a ‘best selling author’ (whose books have just been pulled from LifeWay Christian bookshops).
Make the time to read Rosaria Butterfield’s observations about the nature of sin and the Christian life. (Image: Desiring God.)
‘Pride Mass’ at Branxton, Newcastle Diocese
In last week’s “This Week Around the Diocese”, photos of a “Pride Mass” held on Sunday October 23 at Branxton in the Hunter Valley in the Diocese of Newcastle are featured.
Archdeacon of the Central Coast, Rod Bower, evidently took part in the service.
Being There: Wittenberg
“I have valued the experience of being in important places because it brings history to life.
A long time love of the history of the New Testament has taken me many times to Jordan, Israel, Turkey and Greece. The landscape, remains of buildings, even the climate, adds value to the written word. Being there also raises questions of chronology. What happened when, and how long was it before b followed a?
I had not visited the places that figured in Martin Luther’s life story until 2014, and more recently in 2016. Many buildings are being restored in anticipation of big crowds in 2017, the 500th anniversary of Luther’s ninety-five theses being nailed to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg. …”
– Bishop Paul Barnett reminds us that the events of the Reformation happened in real places which you can visit today.
GAFCON Chairman’s Letter October 2016
Archbishop Nicholas D. Okoh, Primate of All Nigeria and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council, has released this Pastoral Letter, reflecting on developments in October 2016 –
“The call to be peacemakers is also a call to evangelism because peace with one another cannot be separated from peace with God, and peace with God cannot be separated from faithfulness to the biblical and apostolic gospel of God. I therefore warmly commend the Global South Chairman, Bishop Mouneer Anis, for his bold warning about the ‘ideological slavery’ which some Western Churches seek to impose on the Global South by using their money and influence to promote teachings which overturn the bible and offer a false gospel.
Many of us were therefore deeply disturbed that the Presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church (TEC), Michael Curry, was a prominent member of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s delegation in Rome, despite the fact that the Canterbury meeting of Primates in January this year had resolved that, among other things, TEC should not be involved in representing the Anglican Communion in ecumenical or interfaith relations.
This incident is just the most recent of many failures which the Cairo Communiqué describes as ‘the inability of the existing Communion instruments to discern truth and error and take binding ecclesiastical action’. We need alternatives. …”
– Read it all on the GAFCON website.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…