Less than two days to #Gafcon2018 !

Less than two days to #Gafcon2018 ! from GAFCON Official on Vimeo.

In this pre-GAFCON2018 video, Dominic Steele speaks with Charles Raven in Jerusalem.

“The Gafcon Jerusalem 2018 conference starts Monday morning at 8:30am Jerusalem time. Delegates are arriving in Jerusalem from 50 countries around the world.

Charles Raven is Membership Development Secretary for Gafcon and is speaking here with Dominic Steele about the hopes and dreams for this week in Jerusalem.

Livestream the conference from Monday at gafcon.org/live or fb.me/gafconference.

For posts related to Gafcon’s 2018 Jerusalem conference please use the hashtag, #gafcon2018”

Catch the action from Monday, 7:00am Jerusalem time = 2:00pm AEST.

Supreme Court of Canada strikes a blow against religious freedom

“The Supreme Court of Canada struck a brave blow on Friday for LGBTQ students who would be compelled to attend a proposed law school at Trinity Western University – a small, private, evangelical Christian school in Langley, B.C., whose ‘community covenant’ prohibits sexual relations except among married men and women.

That is to say, they struck a blow for nobody. …”

– Read the full article at Canada’s National Post.

From Trinity Western University:

“Until now, Canada has encouraged the rich mosaic created by the diversity of views, race, gender, and belief systems.

Sadly, the Supreme Court has decided that this does not extend to a law school at Trinity Western University.”

What is the Community Covenant? Read it here (PDF).

Then read this summary of the background to the legal case.

Image: Trinity Western University website.

‘Belonging and renewal in our Anglican Communion’

“… I sometimes encounter confusion about who is and isn’t in the Anglican Communion.

This was something that Archbishop Justin spoke about during the CAPA meeting. Let me make this clear: there are 39 provinces around the world which are part of the Anglican Communion. The latest to be added to our global family was Sudan in July 2017.

The Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) is not a province of the Communion. And nor is the newly-formed Anglican Church in Brazil (ACB). Why? The answer is very simple: it is necessary to be in communion with the See of Canterbury in order to be part of the Anglican Communion. …”

– On the eve of GAFCON 2018, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, ‘Secretary General of the Anglican Communion], makes clear who is, and who is not, a part of the Anglican Communion, in his understanding. The leaders of GAFCON, representing something like 80 percent of church-attending Anglicans worldwide, would doubtless beg to differ.

Related:

GAFCON General Secretary Archbishop Dr Peter Jensen interviewed by Anglican TV’s Kevin Kallsen.

The Anglican Church in Brazil and the Anglican Communion – Dr. Peter Jensen:

“… Of course the new Anglican Church in Brazil is an authentic part of the Anglican Communion. It is not a matter of recognition by Canterbury. But, like the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), the Brazilians invite Canterbury to recognise spiritual reality, and to use its influence to help align the old instrument of the Anglican Communion with the spiritual reality and new growth of the Communion. Will this happen?”

The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil changes its canons to permit same-sex marriage – Anglican Communion News Service, referring to the liberal denomination which is ‘in communion with the See of Canterbury’.

Single Minded Conference

Read about the Single Minded Conference coming up in September with Sam Allbery.

It’s ‘a conference about singleness … but for everyone”.

Pray for GAFCON 2018 Jerusalem

From GAFCON, a request for prayer to our heavenly Father –

“Please pray with Gafcon for our Jerusalem 2018 Conference between 17-22 June.

Please set aside time to pray for each daily need if you can.   Read more

Anglican Unscripted – Interview with Archbishop Peter Jensen, June 2018

Anglican TV’s Kevin Kallsen interviewed GAFCON General Secretary Archbishop Dr Peter Jensen about GAFCON 2018 and the future of the GAFCON movement.

Embedded above – or watch here. Most encouraging.

J. D. Greear elected President of the Southern Baptist Convention

“This afternoon the Southern Baptist Convention—the largest Protestant body in the United States and the largest Baptist denomination in the world—elected 45-year-old pastor J. D. Greear as its 62nd president, the youngest man to hold the office in 38 years. …”

– Justin Taylor has some background at The Gospel Coalition.

Proclaiming Christ to the nations

“This year marks the 20th anniversary of the momentous resolution concerning human sexuality adopted by the 1998 Lambeth Conference of bishops from around the Anglican Communion.

In essence, Resolution I.10 reiterated our long-held doctrine that only marriage is the God-ordained place for sexual relations. Hence one of the opening paragraphs of Resolution I.10 states:

[This conference], in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage;

The phrase “in view of the teaching of Scripture” is critical. It is the teaching of God’s word that must direct our lives, and despite its counter-cultural perspective in today’s society …”

– Archbishop Glenn Davies writes on the eve of GAFCON 2018 – at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Preparing for GAFCON in seven contentions

In the run up to GAFCON 2018 this week, Dr. Stephen Noll makes a clear case:

“…Lambeth 1998 was the last true Lambeth Conference, with Gafcon as its successor, and … the 2007 Primates’ Meeting at Dar es Salaam was the last true Primates’ meeting convened by Canterbury …”

Read his introduction below –

“I have been preparing for Gafcon for a long time – a quarter century at least, although I did not know it at the time. Last year I began to assemble and edit my writings in a book, The Global Anglican Communion: Contending for Anglicanism 1993-2018.

Then about eight weeks ago, I took up blogging, which was something of a challenge for a digital dinosaur like myself. Among my blog posts, I have labeled seven Contentions. As I pack bags to leave for Jerusalem, I would like to sum up the logic of these Contentions.

I am going to begin at the end with Contention 7: Lambeth Speaks Plainly (That Was Then). I have been privileged to attend three major Conferences in 2013, 2008 and 1998. And the Lambeth Conference in 1998 is where it all began. Passage of Lambeth Resolution I.10 on Human Sexuality was an historic event in three ways:

1. It articulated a clear moral case on the pressing issue of homosexual practice by stating that God ordained two and only two ways of faithful sexual relationships: marriage of one man and one woman and abstinence for those not married. This moral stance was based on the authority of the Bible and hence homosexual practice, gay ordinations, and same-sex “unions” are “incompatible with Scripture” and could not be advised.

2. It was a Resolution written and promoted by the bishops of the majority Global South churches, who overcame the machinations of the Communion bureaucracy. For these churches, Lambeth I.10 continues to be a non-negotiable statement of Anglican orthodoxy, even as the Lambeth Establishment has tried to insert “faithful same-sex partnerships” as a third alternative.

3. It was the culmination of “enhanced” conciliar governance by the Primates, who were authorized to monitor the response of the Episcopal Church and others who defied the Resolution. When the Archbishop of Canterbury reneged on the Primates’ resolutions in 2007, the Global Anglican Future Conference resulted, led by a Gafcon Primates’ Council.

For this reason, I have argued that Lambeth 1998 was the last true Lambeth Conference, with Gafcon as its successor, and that the 2007 Primates’ Meeting at Dar es Salaam was the last true Primates’ meeting convened by Canterbury, which has been succeeded by the Gafcon Primates. …”

– Read the full post by Dr. Stephen Noll, in which he summarises the contentions he has articulated these last two months. (Also in his new book.)

New Archbishop of Toronto

While the soon-to-retire Archbishop of Toronto, Colin Johnson, is “personally opposed to assisted death on theological and religious grounds”, his newly elected successor, Dean Andrew Asbil, apparently has a somewhat different view.

From Canada’s The Globe and Mail back in April 2018, a story on a couple who availed themselves of Canada’s provisions:

“The Brickendens are at the vanguard of patients and families who are creating new rituals around dying in Canada – the kind of rituals that are only possible when death comes at a previously appointed hour. …

Dean Asbil prayed, while Mozart, Bach and Scottish folk songs wafted through the room. …”

Globe & Mail link via the Anglican Samizdat.

Photo courtesy St. James’ Cathedral, Toronto.

Lambeth speaks plainly (that was then)

“The year 1998 was the last time the Lambeth Conference spoke plainly. That it did so was something of a miracle.

The Communion Establishment had carefully prepared an agenda whereby the innovations of homosexual ordinations and same-sex ‘blessings’ in the Episcopal Church would be received with ‘good disagreement’ from those in the Global South who were, frankly, unaware of the ‘development’” of doctrine and practice in the West. These plans were foiled by an alliance of Western conservatives who had seen where the sexuality agenda was leading and courageous Global South leaders who stood up and said No.

I was present at Lambeth 1998 and wrote this evaluation of its key Resolution I.10 shortly thereafter. …”

– At his new blog, Contending Anglican, Dr. Stephen Noll takes us back to Lambeth 1998.
Update – Dr Stephen Noll’s website has moved – here’s the new link.

Related:

Dr. Paul Barnett, then Bishop of North Sydney, was also a participant at Lambeth 1998. He  shared his personal reflections of Lambeth at the ACL Synod Dinner that October, and made the text available for our website.

His contemporary account of the Lambeth meeting makes fascinating and sober reading –

“…the Third World is now where most of the world’s Anglicans are. By a country mile. And it is certainly where most of the Bible-loving, creed-believing Anglicans are. Many of the Europeans did not seem to know what they believed, while quite a few were radical liberals. One eloquent African chided us Europeans at the tension-filled plenary on sexuality: ‘You sent us missionaries, but you no longer believe yourselves what your missionaries taught us.’

Compared with the contingent from Britain, the US, Canada and Australia-NZ, how impressive those Africans were. … I want to say, they shone like stars in the night. … But they see the essentials of the faith with a crystal clarity which few in the west have. …

When we came to the Plenary Session in the last few days, which was brilliantly chaired by Robin Eames [Bishop of Armagh], our resolution was pointedly and cleverly amended by a number of African bishops. Harry Goodhew made an excellent speech, pointing to sinners like Zacchaeus and the woman taken in adultery who were shown mercy by Jesus, but who changed their behaviour. George Carey was on the platform, but not as chairman. He very visibly raised his hand at all the critical amendments, which I believe he had helped draft. Before the final vote was taken on the amended resolution he rose and made a strong speech. The now-amended resolution passed with a 7 to 1 landslide majority. I am glad that the final statement expressed the need for loving and compassionate ministry to those caught in the homosexual web. …

We give glory to God for answered prayer in the Lambeth decision which could not have been predicted during the conference. But what were the human factors? …”

– Read it all here. (in the older section of our website)

Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1.10.

The Kuala Lumpur Statement, 1997. (in the older section of our website)

Holding on to the gospel is an antidote to today’s spiritual disaster

“Here’s an imaginary scenario – the story of a local church over a hundred-year period.

At the start of this time, the church is made up of real born-again Christians, people who have genuinely believed God’s saving good news, his gospel of eternal salvation from sin and death through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the evidence that they are real born-again Christians is that they are godly people. They’re not perfect but they are leading God-pleasing lives which marks them out from the non-Christian world around them.

But as this generation grows old and dies off, a new generation takes over the church…”

– Julian Mann, Vicar of Oughtibridge in South Yorkshire, tells a familiar story  – and shares the antidote to spiritual diasater.

When the Content Police came for the Babylon Bee

“Facebook has always been the main source of traffic to my websites. When I started out, I was just excited that so many people were reading my stuff – I wasn’t worried about the implications of it all.

The first hint I got that something troubling was afoot was in November 2015 …“

– Adam Ford, who has just sold The Babylon Bee to focus on his new website, Christian Daily Reporter, says “it’s time to push back”.

North West Network, June 2018

The latest edition (June 2018) of North West Network, the newsletter of the Diocese of Northwest Australia (the largest diocese in Australia — by geographical size) is now available.

Download the PDF file and use it to inform your prayers on behalf of the people of the North West.

Here’s a snippet from the latest issue –

“Meet Ross, a visitor to the North West. In August 2017 he left Perth needing a break from caring for elderly parents and looking for direction in his wayward life.

Ross stopped in Geraldton and went to the Bluff Point Anglican Church. That Sunday he heard God speak to him from 1 Peter 2:13-16,

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Ross realised he wasn’t holy. He was cut off from God because of his sin. A church family invited him to lunch and over the course of three days Ross became a Christian. He went from spiritual death to life knowing that God’s love and forgiveness came to him through Jesus Christ. This was life changing for Ross.

But that’s not the end. …”

– Read the rest of the story on page 2 of the June 2018 NWN.

John Piper interviewed at Dundonald Church

John Piper spoke at Dundonald Church in London last Sunday (03 June 2018).

Before the sermon, he chatted with Richard Coekin in this encouraging 13 minute video.

You can also listen to his sermon that day, “Enjoying God”.

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