Reformation 500 Sunday at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, 29 October

From St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney:

“As the world celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, St Andrew’s Cathedral marks this extraordinary day on Reformation Sunday – 29th October – the day the church marks 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door.

During our 10.30 service the Cathedral Choir of boys and men, and international soloists, Penelope Mills: soprano, Jonathan Borg, countertenor, Michael Butchard: tenor, and Christopher Richardson: bass, will join with our historical-instrument orchestra in bring JS Bach’s monumental celebration cantata no. 80: ‘A Mighty Fortress’ written for Reformation Sunday itself, with words by Martin Luther.

The sermon will be given by Australia’s foremost expert on the Reformation, the Rev. Dr Mark Thompson, Principal of Moore College, Sydney.

A feast for the heart and for the mind, and within the context of our morning service. All welcome!”

New book equips Christians under pressure in the UK

“This is an unusual book for unusual times.

Reading the timeline the author has constructed connects many events most Christians are already aware of and puts them in a format that allows a proper assessment of the flow of history in our time.

The scenarios the book presents are a clarion call to wake up to the situation we face and a reminder that our sovereign Lord is at work in all that happens. Julian Mann is assisted by contributions from journalist and author Peter Hitchens, and Andrew Symes of Anglican Mainstream.”

– Read about Julian Mann’s Christians in the Community of the Dome at Anglican Mainstream. The book is published by Evangelical Press.

Purposefully porn-free

“The Archbishop’s Taskforce for Resisting Pornography is preparing an information website for those in the Diocese and further afield who need tools to help support the rejection of porn.

“Many Christian leaders today are declaring that pornography is the single greatest issue confronting the church,” the Rev Marshall Ballantine-Jones (pictured) told members of Synod. …”

– Story from SydneyAnglicans.net.

Before we allow Euthanasia, look who the Dutch have killed

“Have Victoria’s politicians, half way to legalising euthanasia, looked at what’s happened in Holland?

Here are some very troubling cases – plus interviews with the brother of an alcoholic who had himself killed, and  a woman with tinnitus who also had herself killed just three weeks later. …”

– Last night’s Bolt Report on Sky News Australia looked at the disturbing Dutch experience of ‘euthanasia’. via The Herald Sun.

Provoking Discrimination

“Words come and go depending on the times. Recently I heard a man say that he thought with the fall of the Berlin Wall the word ‘Marxists’ would not be heard again. ‘Anarchist’, ‘anarchy’ are words we are familiar with but I am surprised to see a growing trend of wearing it as a badge of honour. And it is these kinds of words that help me appreciate a word like ‘discriminating’, ‘discriminate’ and ‘discrimination’. …”

– Bishop of Armidale Rick Lewers looks at the use of a loaded word.

Coalition for Marriage ad quoting Safe Schools program ‘deemed too sexually explicit’

“Material included in radical LGBTIQ sex and gender education programs aimed at kids aged 11-13 years old has been rated MA15+ and deemed too sexually explicit to be shown on television before 8.30pm.…”

– A media release from Coalition for Marriage.

Archbishop Davies on Q@A tonight, 23 October

Archbishop Glenn Davies will be on the panel of Q&A tonight on ABC television –

“Joining Tony Jones for the Q&A Same-Sex Marriage debate: actress and author Magda Szubanski; Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies; Jesuit priest and law professor Frank Brennan; ‘No campaign’ spokesperson Karina Okotel.

Monday 23 Oct 2017, 9:34pm.”

Remembering Martin Bucer

“On the right-hand side of the chancel floor of Great St Mary’s Church, in the centre of Cambridge, lies a small brass plaque.

The Latin inscription, its obscure location and small size do not make it a very accessible tourist attraction. However, as X marks the spot for pirates’ treasure, so this plaque commemorates one of the most influential sixteenth-century reformers: Martin Bucer. …

Perhaps the most prominent way Bucer influenced the English Reformation was via liturgical reform. He spent 1550, among other projects and lecturing responsibilities, reviewing the 1549 Book of Common Prayer. Bucer’s Censura was a thorough critique of Cranmer’s first attempt to revise the Prayer Book. The result was a much more conspicuously evangelical liturgy in the 1552 edition. ”

– Steve Tong, who is studying at Cambridge, is thankful for Martin Bucer and his legacy. At The Australian Church Record.

See also: Celebrating the Reformation: Its Legacy And Continuing Relevance, edited by Mark D. Thompson, Edward Loane and Colin Bale.

The beauty of normal boring liturgy

“A visitor to our church came up to me at the end of the meeting last Sunday and said to me, ‘That was great, where I go to church we don’t normally do that.’

‘Normally do what?’

I asked, casting my mind over what element of the church service was out of left field or could be considered something unconsidered.

‘Read the Bible. Longer bits of it.’

‘You mean the Bible readings?’

‘Yes. Where I go, they don’t do that.’…”

– Stephen McAlpine has a challenge for your church.

The ‘Good Fellows’ Myth

“The ancient Egyptian, so I have read somewhere, did not think of sin as rebellion against God, but simply as an understandable aberration. The ancient Greeks had no idea of the wrath of God, but conceived of their various deities as passionless beings, above being concerned with what man does. The modern Australian accepts both heresies. …”

– Leon Morris addresses our inbuilt tendency to assume that we’re all OK. From the vaults of The Australian Church Record, 19 January 1956.

British PM: Gay marriage is not enough

“School children should learn about LGBT issues in sex education classes, Theresa May has said, as she declared there is ‘much more to do’ after introducing same-sex marriage.

The Prime Minister also reiterated plans to make it easier for people to ‘change sex’ at an LGBT awards dinner last night.

And she challenged countries that did not share the same views on LGBT issues. …”

– Story from The Christian Institute. Image: tmay.co.uk.

Freedom to provide religious instruction in Australian schools

Associate Professor Neil Foster writes,

“I am presenting a paper on this topic at the University of Notre Dame (Sydney) Law School’s Second Annual Religious Freedom Conference, “Freedom of Belief, Freedom of Action”.

The paper is linked here: Freedom to Provide Religious Instruction paper, for those who would like to read it. It surveys recent challenges to the provision of special religious education in public schools, from a religious freedom perspective.”

– from Law and Religion Australia.

Euthanasia: Bill passes Victoria’s Lower House after 24-hour debate

“Victoria’s controversial voluntary euthanasia legislation has been passed in the Lower House of Parliament after a marathon debate that lasted more than 24 hours. …

The bill will now go to the 40-member Upper House, where the numbers are also tight, for debate in a fortnight.

If it gets through the Upper House, terminally ill people over the age of 18, in severe pain and with only a year to live will be able to access lethal drugs.”

– Story from ABC News.

Please reject euthanasia: Church to Victorian Parliament

Here’s a media release from the Diocese of Melbourne:

October 20 2017

Please reject euthanasia: Church to Victorian Parliament

Melbourne Anglicans have pleaded with the Victorian Government not legalise medically assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.

The church’s synod discussed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill last night at their annual synod at St Paul’s Cathedral as a few blocks away Victorian MPs debated the bill in State Parliament.

Medical ethicist Denise Cooper-Clarke told the synod the bill’s proposed safeguards were inadequate, that it was inherently discriminatory, and that improved palliative care was a much safer and more compassionate way to address “bad deaths”.

She said the bill would fundamentally change attitudes to suicide at a time when the Government was trying to reduce youth suicide

Social Responsibilities Commission chairman Gordon Preece noted that media coverage advocating euthanasia was usually accompanied by links to BeyondBlue and Lifeline – an odd contradiction.

The synod voted to urge the Government to better resource palliative care, especially in regional and remote communities, Aboriginal communities and nursing homes, and to provide more palliative care training for health professionals. It resolved to oppose introducing a legal framework for “assisted dying”.

Dr Cooper-Clarke said the legislation would not cover only the small number of extreme cases but a much broader range of circumstances, where the suffering of the patients may not involve severe pain or physical symptoms at all. Overseas studies had shown pain was not the primary reason for requests for assisted dying but psychological factors: depression, hopelessness, being tired of life, loss of control and loss of dignity

“Elderly, frail and sick patients are especially vulnerable to implied or explicit messages from relatives that they are a burden and that they would be ‘better off dead’. It is naïve to assume that people always have the best interests of their relatives at heart. Elder abuse is prevalent in our society,” she said.

“Many people support assisted dying because they believe it is a compassionate response to suffering. But how is it compassionate to agree with someone who is so distressed that they wish to end their life that yes, their life is not worth living, and yes they would be better off dead?”

Don’t do it: Paul Keating in 11th hour bid to stop euthanasia laws

“Paul Keating has made a dramatic last-minute bid to stop Victoria’s Parliament from approving voluntary euthanasia laws as state MPs prepare for their third late-night debate before a vote he characterised as ‘a threshold moment’ for the entire country.

The 73-year-old, who was Australia’s 24th prime minister and has virtually unrivalled status within the Labor Party, slammed the ‘bald utopianism’ underlying the case for change, which assumed rules would never be bent by doctors and families when it becomes more convenient for carers or financial beneficiaries to see a gravely ill person die sooner. …”

– Story from Mark Kenny in The Sydney Morning Herald.

See also: Paul Keating: Voluntary euthanasia is a threshold moment for Australia, and one we should not cross. – SMH.

“No matter what justifications are offered for the bill, it constitutes an unacceptable departure in our approach to human existence and the irrevocable sanctity that should govern our understanding of what it means to be human. …

Once this bill is passed the expectations of patients and families will change. The culture of dying, despite certain and intense resistance, will gradually permeate into our medical, health, social and institutional arrangements. It stands for everything a truly civil society should stand against.”

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