Bringing the gospel to the North West

Here’s an encouraging and challenging video from the Diocese of North West Australia. Might you answer the call?

And a message from Bishop Gary Nelson to Christians in the North West –

“The diocese of North West Australia seeks to make disciples of all nations as we centre our church life in the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. As you pray, share your resources and visit, please remember to give God thanks for his unfailing, steadfast love to us. Thank you for your support.”

– Read it all here.

Living in Love and Faith — a Quick Guide

At Church Society’s website George Crowder gives a brief introduction to the Living in Love and Faith process. He encourages everyone to be involved – but will the Bible’s message be heeded by those evaluating the responses?

Related:

The Church of England’s guide to hearing God’s voice through the Bible, according to LLF – Andrew Symes at Anglican Mainstream.

Handling the Bible in Love and Faith – Kirsten Birkett, Church Society.

St Helen’s Bishopsgate announces “Broken Partnership” with House of Bishops – ACL.

Should the church ‘let the world set the agenda’ on ethics and doctrine?

“Paul Bayes, currently the Church of England’s bishop in Liverpool, has made his clearest call yet for the Church to change its understanding of marriage and sexuality, in his address to the MoSAIC group …

He does not disguise the reasons for his views, where he thinks the Church should go, and what that would mean. Along the way, he makes some extraordinary comments for any Christian, let alone for someone appointed as a bishop…”

– Ian Paul at Psephizo takes a look at an address by Bishop Paul Bayes given to the National MOSAIC (Movement of Supporting Anglicans for an Inclusive Church) Conference on the weekend.

See also:

Albert Mohler speaks with Carl Trueman on ‘The Triumph of the Modern Self’

A conversation with Dr. Carl Trueman on the modern self and the sexual revolution.

‘The Marriage Madness in Methodism’

“The annual Conference of the Methodist Church of Great Britain is meeting in Birmingham this week and next, other things it will debate a report entitled ‘God in Love Unites Us’.

The report will be endorsed, unless something spectacular (or miraculous?) happens, as it has already been approved by 29 of the 30 Methodist synods.The report recommends that the Methodist Church approve of cohabitation and extend its understanding of marriage to ‘two people’ rather than ‘a man and a woman’. …

Rather than regard Scripture as authoritative, the report tells us that it relies for ‘authoritative commentary’ on sexuality from the World Health Organisation (WHO) which it naively describes as ‘independent’. And among other things, the report commends ‘queer theology’; tell us that sex is assigned at birth, based on ‘perceptions’ of biology; and that sexual desire is a part of the wider desire for just and loving relationships. …”

– David Robertson writes about the Methodist Conference in the UK.

Related:

Albert Mohler speaks with Carl Trueman on ‘The Triumph of the Modern Self’

A conversation with Dr. Carl Trueman on the modern self and the sexual revolution.

Encouragement from the Archbishop

Archbishop Kanishka Raffel has recorded this message of encouragement for churches.

via SydneyAnglicans.net

Now, it’s a total lockdown

“With just hours before Sunday church services, Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong and the Central Coast have been thrown into a lockdown.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced that Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Central Coast will enter a two-week lockdown as of 6:00pm on the 26th June. …”

– The latest from SydneyAnglicans.net, including links to find churches with online services.

Common Prayer for Homes might be a great help for you

With many unable to meet for church at the moment, you might find Common Prayer for Homes, released last year, to be a great help.

Last year we spoke with Dr Mark Earngey at Moore College about the rationale behind this resource.

‘Hopeless or Hopeful…?’

“Over the last seventeen months millions have watched helplessly as loved ones have died from Covid-19.

For many there has been no comfort or hope.

In recent times our culture has made a habit of setting aside the wisdom of the past, and especially the wisdom of the Bible. But, as we touched on last week, when we are facing catastrophe and are confronted with the realities of the human experience, the words of the Bible come through with immense power and wisdom, truth and compassion. For here there is comfort for the broken-hearted and hope for the bereaved. …”

– John Mason at the Anglican Connection in North America continues to post help editions of Word on Wednesday. In the latest, his topic is ‘Hopeless or Hopeful…?’.

Listen or read here.

Engaging with the Media — A worthwhile endeavour

Recently I decided to enter the fray of letter writing.

It was in response to a piece written by Nikki Gemmell, published in The Weekend Australian, “Why the Anglican church must evolve or die”. (Sorry – link is via subscription)

The thrust of her article was aimed at the Anglican Archbishop of the Sydney Diocese of the time, Glenn Davies (and Anglicans like him), who believe what the Bible and the Lord Jesus teaches about marriage – that it is between a man and a woman. However, according to Gemmell, the church needs to become like the world if it wants to survive and thrive; specifically, it needs to get on board with the pansexual zeitgeist of the modern western age.

Gemmell writes:

“the majority of Australians do support same-sex marriage. It feels like the archbishop is damaging his church and Jesus’s teachings of tolerance, gentleness and inclusivity.”

“The church has been on the wrong side of public opinion recently on abortion as well as same-sex marriage. It’s slowly killing itself by refusing to open its heart to others.”

So in response to her article, I wrote the following:

Ms Gemmell in her article “Archbishop You have Lost me”, writes, “the Bible as we know is open to interpretation – pick and choose at your will”.

To read the Bible in this way is to make the reader the author. There is a significant difference between interpreting the Bible and understanding the Bible.

Understanding the Bible requires a person to listen to what God has said and submit to His authority. When we seek to understand, understanding submits our reason, tradition and contemporary circumstances to God’s Word. When we seek to interpret, interpreting submits God’s word to our reason, traditions and contemporary circumstances. Archbishop Davies is simply issuing a clarion call to fellow Anglican Bishops to do the former instead of the latter, which is what they promised at their ordination.  

It does not matter if the church is on the wrong side of public opinion. If there had been opinion polls in Jesus’ day, the results would have been disastrous. People wanted him dead the moment he was born, he was accused of being a blasphemer, demonic, promoting sin, a law-breaker. Jesus said things that made people hate him, made people want to kill him, made followers leave him, and compelled close friends to deny and betray him, and he was crucified on a Roman Cross.

The Lord Jesus also said that to his followers

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)

The message of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ will never be cool or popular to our world, the Lord Jesus was none of those things.  If the church did what Ms Gemmell suggested, and mirrored the world, the church would be indistinguishable from the world and in essence have nothing to offer.

Although only what is underlined above made it to print, it made it to print.

Thus to have the Christian world view published in a culture that increasingly cares nothing for such a world-view I hope serves as encouragement to more of God’s people that engaging with the secular media is still a worthwhile endeavour.

– Joshua Bovis is the Vicar of St John The Evangelist in Tamworth.

GAFCON Sunday 2021 coming up

GAFCON has posted a number of resources for GAFCON Sunday, 27 June 2021.

Bishop of North Kigezi Diocese, Uganda, ‘succumbs to Covid-19’

“The North Kigezi diocese Bishop Rt Rev Benon Magezi has died a week after he tested positive for Covid-19 before he was admitted at Mbarara regional referral hospital. …”

– News report from NTV, Uganda.

See also this statement from the Church of Uganda.

“Bishop Benon Magezi grew up in a Christian home and attended church regularly with his family. During a Mission Sunday at his local church in 1981, he received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour and was born again. The following year he left teaching and began full-time ministry as a parish youth worker. …”

Restrictions back, congregational singing out

“Churches are back to the four square metre rule and singing by congregations is now longer allowed, according to new restrictions in force from June 23 for one week. …”

– The latest from SydneyAnglicans.net.

Are you more Likely to be Abused as an Anglican?

“The report suggests that ‘Absolutist discourses related to marriage as a lifelong commitment, the submission of the wife to the husband, unconditional forgiveness and suffering for Christ….are harmful for those who experience abuse’.

I would suggest that it is the misunderstanding and misuse of these teachings which causes harm.  Those who misuse these teachings are blaspheming. As are those who reject them.

The key biblical teaching on this is that men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25-27). It’s a level of service, sacrifice and love way beyond anything our secularists could even dream of. And a million miles away from the ‘bible says I can beat you with impunity’ caricature so beloved by those who want to attack our faithful Anglican sisters and brothers. …”

– Published last week on The Australian Presbyterian’s blog, David Robertson takes a look at the report and some of the subsequent commentary and argues that the Word of God is the cure…not the problem.

See also: Responding to Domestic Violence in the Church – with Sandy Grant and Kara Hartley – The Pastor’s Heart.

Rico Tice on Luke 19:1-10

Rico Tice at All Soul’s Langham Place preached on Jesus and Zacchaeus from Luke 19:1-10 on the first day of the Evangelical Ministry Assembly 2021 in London.

Watch here. A great encouragement in so many ways, and well worth sharing.

(Link updated to reflect the edited video uploaded.)

The Great Rescue

“26th May was the anniversary of perhaps one of the greatest rescues of all time.

World War had broken out in September 1939. Into 1940, the Nazi German army was surging across Western Europe with lightning speed and force.

As the month of May progressed over 300,000 troops from the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) along with Belgian, Canadian, and French soldiers, were trapped and encircled at the beach of Dunkirk in France.

A terrible disaster seemed inevitable. …”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, John Lavender has some godly encouragement for you. (Also published in the June 2021 issue of Southern Cross.)

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