Peter Jensen: Why I am still a Christian

“I still remember learning to swear. It was in my first year at secondary school. I was aged 13. My parents never used bad language – at least, not in front of their children. I did hear my father say “bloody” once, but that was when I brought him my final school report. But in order to impress my peers I had to speak their language and so I did.

Not the greatest sin in the book, and the experience of virtually all of us. Not worth remarking on, except for one thing. When, after a while, I tried to rein myself in and stop, I found that I was powerless to do so. It was not the fact of a relatively trivial sin but the power of sin which impressed itself on me. It was as if I had given up my freedom to join a club. When I read the words of Jesus, ‘Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin,’ I understood them at once. …”

– Dr Peter Jensen, now Editor of Churchman, shares his story – at Church Society.

Most encouraging and good to share. (Image from The Pastor’s Heart.)

Corona Crisis — a Five week series from the Bishop of Bathurst

Next Sunday, the Bishop of Bathurst, Mark Calder, begins a 5 week special sermon series addressing issues raised by the crisis.

This weekend, he turns to Psalm 13.

Do pray that this series might be a blessing to many across New South Wales, and further afield.

Protestants and Plagues

“The present pestilence of COVID-19 is often described as ‘unprecedented’ in the modern Western media, and understandably so.

However, the presence of pestilence was a familiar reality throughout early modern Europe. Our Reformation forebears so frequently encountered the plague that it would not be too much to say that the entire course of religious history, at times, hung by the thread of a mere matter of breaths.

Unsurprisingly, though contrary to the popular opinion in the modern blogosphere, our Reformers had a wide variety of responses to the plague. This lecture aims to explore the impact of the plague upon the Reformers, and explain the differences and similarities in their responses. This, of course, will be instructive to our own set of responses to COVID-19 today.”

Watch Dr Mark Earngey’s overview of some of the intellectual, theological, and practical responses to the plague throughout the early period of the Reformation.

Available now at the Moore College website.

Cancel culture is coming for Christianity

“How awake are British Christians to the threat to their freedom of speech and assembly from the virus of cancel culture?

One of its latest victims is a politically incorrect Pentecostal organisation called Destiny Church. Destiny had planned to hold a three-day conference in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall in June. But shortly before the coronavirus lockdown, Edinburgh Council, which owns the venue, cancelled the event. It cited the views of one of the advertised speakers, US preacher Larry Stockstill. Stocksill has said that homosexual behaviour is ‘not accepted by God’…”

– Julian Mann, who left the Church of England after a long incumbency in South Yorkshire, writes at spiked.

What TV professionals want preachers to know about communicating through a camera

“We talk to TV professionals Evan Batten & Paul Richards about how preachers can best use video to effectively share the gospel.

We discuss the similarities and differences of presenting to a full room of people versus to a camera, how to relax and the difference post production can help make in capturing and keeping attention.”

– Watch it all at The Pastor’s Heart. Very helpful.

Good News from the Other Side — Dean of Sydney’s Easter Day sermon 2020

The Dean of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Kanishka Raffel, shares this Easter message. “From the Other Side”.

What is the good news?
Can we believe it?
Does it matter?

“The Resurrection of Jesus is Good News from the Other Side.”

The Bible passages to read are Psalm 118:1-2, 14-29 and 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.

Watch and share widely.

Easter messages of hope, joy and love from Sydney’s religious leaders


“The great news is that God is as close to us as he has ever been. He is not socially distant. What we ­remember at Easter is that Jesus came into a world full of viruses, loneliness and broken relationships.

In his death on the cross and resurrection on Easter Day, he foreshadowed a day when our world would be healed. His promise still stands. …”

– from Archbishop Glenn Davies’ Easter message in The Daily Telegraph.

‘Committing to what really counts’: Easter message of hope

“The Anglican Dean of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel, who will lead a service on the St Andrew’s Cathedral live stream at 9.30am on Good Friday and from 10.30am on Easter Sunday said many people were ‘dipping their toes into online church’ because they had nothing to lose watching it from home.

He said the COVID-19 crisis had challenged people’s trust and security in the material world. …”

– Story by Anna Patty in The Sydney Morning Herald.

The Coronavirus can’t kill Easter

Here is Archbishop Glenn Davies’ 2020 Easter message.

Watch and share.

Nine Network to broadcast Easter Sunday service from St Andrew’s Cathedral on 9Gem

Archbishop Glenn Davies has today written to Rectors in the Diocese with the news that the Nine Network will broadcast the Easter Sunday service recorded at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney.

He writes,

“Throughout the pandemic we have always encouraged Sydney Anglicans to support their local church and to connect with their local livestream (a listing of churches live streaming is available on SydneyAnglicans.net). However, not all churches have the capacity to live stream, and not all parishioners have access to the internet.

Yet a TV service is a great opportunity to reach an audience who would not normally attend our services, as well as those who are unable to do so.

The hour-long service will air on 9Gem [channel 92 in Sydney] at 9am on Sunday. Filmed in the Cathedral, I will lead prayers for health workers in Australia and around the world, Dean Kanishka Raffel will preach and there will be Easter music from Rob Smith and a trimmed-down Cathedral choir, with social distancing.

Even though this service will not air on the main channel, the TV news broadcasts have been reporting our activities including my televised message designed for the news media. I am grateful to the Nine Network for this opportunity. I hope Sydney Anglicans will show their appreciation by supporting it and giving feedback to Channel Nine for its initiative.”

9Gem can also be watched on demand, though a free account is needed.

Image of Rob Smith singing “I heard the voice of Jesus say” courtesy Anglican Media Sydney.

Hot off the press: Resources for Easter

“Today is Maundy Thursday. The Easter weekend this year is going to look very different to what all of us were anticipating, isn’t it?

In my household, there will be plenty of lament as there will be noticeably fewer chocolate eggs as the usual visits with grandparents aren’t able to take place. (Maybe I should do a quick grandparent-style panic-buy of chocolate to supplement our stash so my teenagers can still eat Easter eggs from morning til night across the long weekend…wait. Maybe not…)

Nevertheless, the good news about Jesus’ death and resurrection and what that means for the world is unchanged – even in the face of so much sickness and death. Actually, especially in the face of sickness and death. God’s word to us in these times seems to speak more loudly into our minds, hearts and souls.

On that note, here are two Easter devotional resources for families that were created over the last week or so by students at Moore College, as part of their 2020 Mission Re-imagined …”

– Bronwyn Windsor, on behalf of the team at The Australian Church Record, has some great Easter resources for you.

The decade-old ministry book that envisioned the Pandemic

“Colin Marshall and Tony Payne aren’t prophets or sons of prophets (so they say).

But in their book The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift That Changes Everything (Matthias Media, 2009), they concluded with a mental experiment about a pandemic that sounds eerily close to what we’re currently experiencing …”

– Ivan Mesa writes at The Gospel Coalition.

The Pulse: April 2020

The April 2020 edition of The Pulse, the magazine of the Presbyterian Church of Australia in NSW, is now online.

Resources and encouragement from our Presbyterian friends.

Good news in the COVID-19 season

“This COVID-19 season has been intense. Everything is changing, anxieties are raised, people are suffering and death is having an impact on all of us. And significantly, it is not something that we can escape. In close to the last hundred years, there has not been a single thing that has plagued all of society without bias. COVID-19 does not play favourites or politics; it does not care about the first world or the majority world. There is nowhere on the globe that humanity can escape to where COVID-19 is not having an impact. And if it is not the case already, there will soon be no one who has not been negatively impacted by this disease.

But in this bleak reality, we who know the Lord Jesus Christ and the good news that he brings to a world in need of saving, have a real opportunity. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Ben George has some encouragement for Christian believers.

Easter message from the Bishop of Bathurst

Bishop of Bathurst, Mark Calder, has released this message for Easter 2020:

Anglican Bishop of Bathurst says the Easter message is exactly what we need

This Easter – we’ve all had enough!

Enough of staying home, enough washing our hands, enough of keeping our distance…

Enough of the financial pressure because of loss of work.

Enough of not being able to get away for Easter like we’ve always done.

We grieve what we’ve lost in the space of a few short weeks.

We crave normality – wondering whether we’ll ever see it again.

And of course for some of us – COVID-19 has come all too close – we know someone who is sick… or someone who has tragically died.

The rapid spread of this virus across the globe, shows us how fragile life is and the sheer number of lives lost, confronts with our own mortality.

What hope is there for us?
The Easter message is exactly what we need to hear.
The Bible says that our greatest need is to be forgiven for pushing God out of our lives.

Easter brings the best news ever – that because Jesus died for our rebellion, and rose again in power, we can be forgiven and therefore be confident of living for ever in the new world he’s promised – a world without sickness and death.

And if our most profound need has already been met by God, we can trust him, to be there for us in all our other needs – including all that we’re going through now!

Easter 2020 is a good time reach out to God and find the help you need.

And Easter 2020 is a great opportunity to check out our church services from the comfort of your own home – at https://www.bathurstanglican.org.au . Happy Easter!

Do share widely.

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