The Lydia Project: Conversations with Christian Women

“As a young girl, I just loved to talk. I talked all the way through primary school and high school, and when I became a Christian at fourteen, I loved to talk with my Christian friends and leaders about what it meant to follow Jesus.

Thirty (thirty!?) years on, I still love to be a part of these encouraging Christian conversations.  They spur me on to keep standing firm in Christ, and they open my mind and heart to new ways of thinking about the things of God. …”

– At Equal But Different, Moore College graduate Tori Walker introduces her Lydia Project podcasts (hosted by The Gospel Coalition Australia).

St. John’s Cathedral Brisbane ‘celebrating and supporting’ Brisbane Pride Festival

St. John’s Cathedral Brisbane, the ‘mother church’ of the Diocese of Brisbane, has announced it will be “Celebrating Pride and supporting the Brisbane Pride Festival throughout September”.

Announced via the Cathedral’s Facebook page.

Church of England Bishop gives backing to rainbow eucharist

“A Eucharist to celebrate LGBT Pride has taken place in the Diocese of Oxford with the full backing of the local suffragan Bishop and Archdeacon.

After the service on 30th August, well known LGBT activist and lay member of General Synod Jayne Ozanne tweeted a photo the service in Reading Minster (Oxford Diocese), where the Communion table is covered in the rainbow flag …”

– Report from Anglican Mainstream. Photo: Jayne Ozanne.

Banning ‘Conversion’ Therapy, what does it mean?

“Media outlets have renewed a campaign to outlaw gay conversion therapy (GCT). The Age published an article on the weekend with the title, Churches, LGBTI Christians urge crackdown on ‘conversion’ therapy.

The headline is somewhat misleading, for according to the SOCE website (the group who are asking the Federal Government to ban GCT), only four churches have signed their statement along with 3-4 church ministers. No doubt there other supportive Churches, but nothing like the groundswell of ecclesial enthusiasm that the newspaper implies. …

While the SOCE Survivors document is vague at points, a spokesperson from SOCE has this week responded to a friend of mine who was also seeking clarification from them. The spokesperson said,

‘Anything other than the full affirmation of lgbtiq individuals as fully equal (including in the church, with a move toward correcting the poorly translated words currently classed as “homosexual” in the bible) is really unacceptable.’ … ”

– Murray Campbell takes a close look at what proposals to ban ‘conversion therapy’ actually involve. You should read this.

The healing way (Exodus 15:23-26)

“When they came to Marah they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter” (Exodus 15:23). This happened to God’s people, after their redemption from Egypt, when he was leading them.

We may rightly regard the incident as a picture not only of the trials of life, but more particularly of the trials of our Christian pilgrimage. The question of fundamental importance, therefore, was—and still is—what was the attitude of God’s people to such a trial? Or what is our attitude? …

– The Australian Church Record continues to republish Alan Stibbs’ biblical reflections from 1960.

Does the Secular Party know better than a child’s parents?

“An extraordinary claim before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal recently, Secular Party of Australia Inc. v the Department of Education and Training (Human Rights) [2018] VCAT 1321 (27 August 2018), alleged that a child at a public school should be prevented from wearing Islamic religious garb in the child’s own interests!

Thankfully the claim failed, but the fact that the case could even be argued illustrates the pressure that some groups on society are placing on parents and children of faith…”

– Associate Professor Neil Foster writes at Law and Religion Australia.

Have we finally hit peak Attractional?

“As I watch the video announcing the series, I can’t help but feel some pity for the countless thousands of pastors who have been convinced by this model. James Montgomery Boice once warned ‘what you win them with is what you win them to’ and the attractional model bears this out: If you draw people with stunts like Wrastlin’, you’ve got to keep them with other similar or bigger stunts. I feel sorry for the pastor who knows that to keep his congregation, he has to keep coming up with bigger and more shocking ideas. …

Ed Young’s latest desperate attempt to draw a crowd is a good opportunity for us to consider the hallmarks of the attractional church model and to compare it to something far better …”

– Tim Challies on something far better than the latest cringeworthy attempt to fill a church building.

Trusting in God in drought


“Be strong and courageous” sang Colin Buchanan, but the words of one of his most famous kids’ songs were being applied to all ages as St Andrew’s Cathedral filled with people wanting to pray for an end to the worst drought for more than a century.

The singer’s poignant songs about the Australian bush, farmers and faith hit the right note as the congregation was told of the struggles of those living and working in rural and remote areas of New South Wales. …

– Full story from SydneyAnglicans.net.

See also: The Archbishop of Sydney’s Anglican Aid Drought Appeal.

Calling God “Father”: Stumbling block or salve?

“If someone’s relationship with their human parents is negative or non-existent, could the idea of God as Father become unappealing?

As someone who’s always enjoyed healthy relationships with my still-married parents, I know that I’m fortunate. But the more people I meet, the more this seems as rare as it is fortunate. Countless factors cause people to experience parental relationships that range from tricky to traumatic. For those whose understanding of parenthood comes from an absent father or a neglectful mother, it’s perhaps harder to process the fatherhood of God as something fundamentally good. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Lauren Mahaffey considers if we should dispense with the notion of God as Father.

Promoting plagiarism in ministry

“Over the last few weeks there’s been a lot of angst in my denomination’s local circles about evangelism. A visiting friend told us we’re no longer keen on it, and the statistics show that over the last ten years we’ve lost people just as fast as we’ve converted them. …

In the midst of this I thought I’d share what our church is doing. We’re a small, struggling church in the part of Sydney where Anglican churches go to die. We’re not big. We’re not successful. Our senior minister is a bit of an idiot. We haven’t found the evangelism silver bullet. …”

– At GoThereFor.com, Mike Doyle at St. James Berala, reckons you ought to find the best of the best – and “plagiarise the life out of it”.

Related:

Reflections on Sydney Anglicanism: An interview with David Robertson – Australian Church Record.

Have we lost evangelism? with Phil Colgan and Craig Schafer.

When a Muslim village makes a bid for your daughter …

“When Paul writes to Timothy, ‘Continue in what you have learned … because you know those from whom you learned it’, he’s referring to his grandmother and mother. In Timothy’s childhood, it was the faith that first lived in Lois and Eunice that deeply impressed him. Paul reminds him how from infancy he had known the holy Scriptures.

Today, I’ve witnessed how this works firsthand, but in a setting for which I never thought I’d have the privilege. I walked in my friend Moses’ shoes for a day, sat with his ‘Eunice’, heard stories of his ‘Lois’ and discovered how oral tradition passes on the teachings of holy Scripture.

I’ll never be able to read these verses from Timothy in the same way again. …”

– Take the time to read the latest post from Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, John P. Wilson.

← Previous Page