Hopeful signs

This morning, Archbishop Glenn Davies tweets,

“I met with Minister Brad Hazzard yesterday. I assured him of our prayers as we all work together to stop COVID-19. We spoke about inconsistencies in current rules and he assured me that an announcement tomorrow will help churches better serve our communities.”

Update, 21 October 2020:

“From this Friday, the number of people who can attend religious gatherings will be lifted from 100 to 300, subject to the 4–square-metre rule.”

– ABC News.

Sydney Preaching Clubs Reopening in 2021!

News from David Cook and The Expository Preaching Trust –

“The Trust’s preaching clubs will reopen in Term 1, 2021. They meet four times each year, once each school term, in Abbotsford on a Thursday and at Cronulla on a Friday.

Membership of each club is free…”

– Learn more about this invaluable resource here.

Victoria: Churches locked out of Andrews pathway from lockdown

Here’s a media release from The Australian Christian Lobby:

Churches locked out of Andrews pathway from lockdown

19 October 2020

Victorians are relieved to see lockdown restrictions easing, but whilst retail and hospitality sectors can open from 2 November, churches and other faith communities remain in the dark about their future.

“From midnight 1 November, metropolitan hospitality venues can host 20 people indoors and regional venues 40,” ACL spokesperson Jasmine Yuen observed, “Yet church communities can not hold an indoor gathering.”

“In today’s daily press conference Premier Andrews justified the disparity by saying hospitality venues were heavily regulated. Allowing up to 40 strangers in a pub but zero members of a church community inside their own building is nonsensical and unjustifiable.

“The longer this trampling of freedom of worship goes on without making the specific epidemiological justifications public, the more it highlights how desperately religious freedom reform is needed.

“The sentiment of faith groups is clear, from a joint petition of 10,000 people of Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Presbyterian, Muslim and Hindu faiths, to 300 pastors and leaders who wrote to the Premier, all urging him to allow them to open. Faith groups provide an essential service for community health and mental wellbeing.

“Indoor church services with COVID-Safe Plans and contact tracing are safer than gatherings in public places. Churches have cooperated with the government for a long time to comply with the various protocols on food, hygiene, child safety, fire safety & emergency management et cetera. There is no reason why they can’t open in a COVID-Safe way just like restaurants and pubs.

“COVID-Safe church opening now is vitally important, particularly when people have been so lonely and isolated.

– ENDS.

Related:

295 church leaders urge Premier to open churches – 08 October 2020.

New Bishop of Singapore installed

“In a ceremony steeped in tradition, the Reverend Canon Dr Titus Chung was installed as the new bishop of the Anglican Church in Singapore yesterday evening. …

The 55-year-old was previously priest-in-charge of St Andrew’s Cathedral’s Mandarin congregation and takes over as bishop from Right Reverend Rennis Ponniah, 65, who retired last month.”

– Report from The Straits Times. Photo: Diocese of Singapore.

A place of hope opens in Sydney’s West

“’To the Glory of God and the growth of His Kingdom’ – so says the plaque unveiled at the official opening of Sydney’s latest Anglican church building.

The 21st-century design of the Stanhope Anglican Church was projected on the screen in the auditorium as Archbishop Glenn Davies joined the church’s pastor, Steve Reimer, members of the church and invited guests in opening the building. …”

– Good news from Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Staying fresh as a Rector

“Even before COVID-19, every rector was aware of the growing pressure of the role: the demands of compliance, managing expectations and criticisms from the congregation, tensions within parish council, the demands of meeting the budget, keeping the staff aligned with a common vision, and the challenges to see both church and gospel growth.

COVID-19 has simply escalated that stress by requiring so many decisions on an ever-changing treadmill. The result is that we can be left feeling tired and uninspired with a gnawing sense of failure as we count the days to our resignation or retirement.

At different stages of my ministry I found refreshment in the following…”

– Encouragement from Ray Galea, at The Australian Church Record.

Jo Gibbs to be new CEO of Anglican Deaconess Ministries

“ADM is pleased to announce the appointment of Jo Gibbs as its new CEO, effective 17 November 2020.

Jo Gibbs joins ADM from St Pauls Castle Hill, where she has been the Care and Assistant Discipleship Minister. Prior to this, Jo spearheaded work in international and cross-cultural settings. …”

– Announcement from Anglican Deaconess Ministries.

See also:

Congratulations to the new CEO of Anglican Deaconess Ministries – Moore College.

“Jo is known to many of us as a godly woman and a gifted fellow-worker in the gospel.”

GAFCON Chairman’s October 2020 Letter

“Greetings in the Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

As I write to you, my brothers and sisters, it is the fall season here in North America.  Like you, we are being challenged by the onslaught of the pandemic, but we have not lost hope and we are confident in the faithfulness of the Lord that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 10:35), and that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

Please continue to pray for the Lord to relieve the world of this pandemic, guide the medical and health officials and the politicians in their decisions, and bring healing to those who have the coronavirus. …”

– GAFCON Primates Council Chairman, Archbishop Foley Beach, calls for continued prayer – including for Archbishop Ben Kwashi – in his October Letter.

Why we should say Yes to Sydney and Anglican!

“Twenty-five years into formal Anglican ministry in the Diocese of Sydney, I am still here because I want to be an Anglican clergyman.

Sure, I’d be equally content serving the Lord Jesus in a different type of work, but there is something marvellously compelling about wearing the badge that says both Sydney and Anglican.

I have identified five distinctive elements that have shaped both me and the church I serve that make it both something to be thankful for and a ministry worth unashamedly embracing for a lifetime. …”

– Nigel Fortescue writes at The Australian Church Record. First published in the ACR’s Winter Journal.

(Image: Christ Church St. Ives.)

Transgender and Sport

“I am not sure that the women I know are looking forward to being unrepresented at an elite level in the sports of their choice. For all those men who are not fans of women’s sport (their loss), you may be able to rejoice that women’s sport will soon be the domain of men. That sounds confusing, and it is, because it is confusing. …”

– Rick Lewers, Bishop of Armidale, shares some engaging thoughts in his latest column.

Men Meeting The Challenge Conference 2020

This year’s Men Meeting the Challenge Conference, not surprisingly, will be an online conference. Keynote speakers are Al Stewart and Ross Ciano.

From the organisers:

Why not join us at Men Meeting the Challenge this year, online, on Saturday 7 November 2020, for some real encouragement and inspiration. Gather a group of men today and go online at menforchrist.asn.au and register for a conference that will really make a difference!

And you can watch the promo video here.

Capitol Hill Baptist case — COVID restrictions on gatherings unlawful

“Most of us are chafing under restrictions on gatherings imposed by COVID-19 laws.

Getting the balance right here is hard, and we want to give the government as much leeway as possible; but the restrictions have been very difficult for churches, and the rules adopted in some jurisdictions seem to discriminate against church meetings in comparison to other activities which are now allowed.

These were the issues at stake in the recent decision of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Capitol Hill Baptist Church v Bowser (Case No. 20-cv-02710 (TNM), McFadden USDJ, Oct 9, 2020). …”

– Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia comments on the Capitol Hill Baptist Church case, and also notes the current circumstances in New South Wales.

The DC Mayor Doesn’t Get to Define Church

“Since the spring, Christian commentary on COVID-19 restrictions and church closures has focused on the authority of government. Do we as Christians believe the Bible gives Caesar the authority to ask churches to cease gathering in times of emergency?

That’s a conversation worth having. Yet an equally important theological question has quietly lurked in the shadows, which many Christians have missed: What is a church? More specifically, must the members of a church gather on a weekly basis to be a church?…”

– Jonathan Leeman writes at Christianity Today about the nature of “church”. It’s a good question to consider as we seek to encourage Christians to gather.

(Photo: Capitol Hill Baptist Church.)

@HomewithColin One-Off online show — Saturday night

The Gospel Coalition Australia is partnering with Colin Buchanan for a special one-off Saturday online @HomewithColin concert.

It will include a bunch of Colin’s Christian kid’s favourites – plus a few surprises!

@HomewithColin One-Off is streaming this Saturday 10th October, from 5:00 pm AEST on Colin’s Facebook Page.

Sydney Archbishop: Indian MP must retract false statements about Graham Staines

“The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies has demanded an apology and a retraction of statements made by an MP during a debate in the Indian Parliament which accused murdered missionary Graham Staines of child abuse. The Archbishop called the statement ‘slanderous’…”

– Story from Indian Link via SydneyAnglicans.net.

See also the Diocese of Sydney Media Release, 08 October 2020.

Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney
Media Statement

Call for retraction of false statements about murdered missionary    

Archbishop Glenn Davies has called for an apology and the retraction of a slanderous accusation by an MP during debate in the Indian Parliament in which murdered missionary Graham Staines was accused of child abuse.

Mr Staines was an Australian missionary who worked tirelessly and selflessly with leprosy patients in India for more than 30 years. Along with his two sons, Timothy (aged 8) and Philip (aged 10), he was burned to death in an attack by Hindu extremists in Uttar Pradesh in 1999.

During Parliamentary debate in September, a member of the ruling BJP party and a representative of Uttar Pradesh state, Satya Pal Singh, accused Mr Staines and other Christians of molesting 30 girls belonging to local tribes in Odisha and converting them to Christianity. He cited this as the main reason for the murders and as justification for stringent amendments to the law on the basis ‘forced conversions’ are still being perpetrated by Christian missionaries.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies called the comments ‘reprehensible’.

“The murder of Graham Staines and his sons was a stain on the history of India. The then President K.R. Narayanan was right to describe it as ‘a monumental aberration of time-tested tolerance and harmony’ and that the murders belonged to ‘the world’s inventory of black deeds’. For the MP to now use parliamentary privilege to bring such baseless accusations for political purposes deserves the strongest condemnation. A retraction and full apology should be issued for the sake of truth and as a bulwark against religious intolerance.”

The Archbishop said many Sydney Anglicans have travelled to India in recent years and been welcomed, along with the help they bring to the population. “I would like to think that the Government and others from Mr Singh’s party would not sit idly by while such comments are made. They should be repudiated in the strongest possible terms.”

Archbishop Glenn Davies
8 October 2020

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