Southern Cross magazine, February 2022

Anglican Media Sydney has just released Southern Cross magazine for February 2022.

Printed copies will be available in parishes from this weekend, but you can download a PDF version now at magazine.sydneyanglicans.net.

How the Black Summer of 2019/2020 prepared me for the pandemic

“It was October, November, and I was anxious. I was trying to do several things at the same time – plan my move to Sydney for College, finish up a ministry apprenticeship, hand over my ministry responsibilities and begin to think about saying goodbye well, and several times an hour, I’d open the Fires Near Me NSW app to tell me where the fire had spread to.

I lived in Newcastle, but the place I grew up in was burning. Crowdy Head was alight, and the Lake Innes fire, which had begun near Port Macquarie, was starting to make its way south. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Brooke Hazelgrove reminds us where our trust must be.

Sunday morning encouragement

With thanks to Rob Smith and St. Andrew’s Cathedral Sydney.

Performance & Conflict Management and Servant Leadership – with Vikki Napier

This week on The Pastor’s Heart:

“We address the big HR questions faced by senior pastors in leading our ministry teams?

How can we do performance management best among our varied team members?

What is the difference between conflict and bullying and abuse?

Is it possible for a senior minister to be too conflict averse and not give needed ‘tough love’? Conversely where do senior ministers get this wrong?

What difference does it make if one is an ‘office holder’ vs a ‘fair work employee’?

What does Jesus’ teaching on servant leadership mean for staff management?

Vikki Napier is the Sydney Anglican Human Resources Parish Partner.  She advises senior pastors and parish councils on how to manage clergy and other ministry staff.”

– Watch or listen here.

‘The divide between two different Christianities’

“One of the most influential books in the 20th Century Church was J Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism.

Machen was prophetic in his analysis of the crisis facing the Church in the US in the first half of the century – some would argue that it was because of his (and others’) stance that the US Church did not go down the path of decline that Churches in most other Western countries did.

In his prophetic book he warned:

‘A terrible crisis unquestionably has arisen in the Church. In the ministry of evangelical churches are to be found hosts of those who reject the gospel of Christ. By the equivocal use of traditional phrases, by the representation of differences of opinion as though they were only differences about the interpretation of the Bible, entrance into the Church was secured for those who are hostile to the very foundations of the faith.’

These words came to mind as I listened to the latest debate on conversion therapy on Premier’s Unbelievable, between Jayne Ozanne, the chair of Ban Conversion Therapy, and Peter Lynas of the Evangelical Alliance. …”

– At The Wee Flea, David Robertson reposts an article he wrote for Christian Today.

Australia Day Honours 2022

“The foundation headmaster of Penrith Anglican College and the former Principal of St Luke’s Grammar School are among Sydney Anglicans recognised in the list of Australia Day honours. …”

– Australia Day news from SydneyAnglicans.net.

Richard Johnson to the inhabitants of New South Wales

In 1792, Chaplain to the Colony, the Rev. Richard Johnson, penned an evangelistic booklet which was thus addressed –

“To the British and other European Inhabitants of NEW SOUTH WALES and NORFOLK ISLAND.

My Beloved, I do not think it necessary to make an apology for putting this Address into your hands; or to enter into a long detail of the reasons which induced me to write it.

One reason may suffice. I find I cannot express my regard for you, so often, or so fully, as I wish, in any other way.

On our first arrival in this distant part of the world, and for some time afterwards, our numbers were comparatively small; and while they resided nearly upon one spot, I could not only preach to them on the Lord’s day, but also converse with them, and admonish them, more privately.

But since that period, we have gradually increased in number every year…”

– Read it all here (PDF file).

(Photo: Richard Johnson’s Address – copy held by Moore College.)

Related posts here.

Please pray for 2022 Ordinands

A Media Release from the Diocese of Sydney names those who are scheduled to be ordained on Saturday 19th February.

Fuel for your prayers.

World Watch List for 2022

Open Doors has released their list of the countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian.

Fuel for prayer.

The Criminalization of Christianity in Finland

“In a foreshadowing of America’s future under coercive secularism, a Finnish politician and Finnish bishop will go on criminal trial next week for merely upholding historic Christian teaching on sexual morality.

The trial is a telling measure of the erosion of Christianity in Europe.

Juhana Pohjola, a Lutheran bishop, and Päivi Räsänen, a member of Finland’s Parliament, stand accused of an act increasingly forbidden in the de-Christianized West: quoting the Bible. …

After Räsänen quoted from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans in a tweet, she found herself under police interrogation for 13 hours.”

– The American Spectator.

Sunday morning encouragement

With thanks to Emu Music.

Gary Millar’s “Read This First”

“As our culture continues to become less ‘Christian’, more and more people are becoming less and less familiar with the Bible – in some cases, they have never actually seen a Bible, let alone read it. I’m convinced that we can do a better job at helping people to get started.

Personally, I’ve often wanted to be able to hand something to people which helps them to get into the Bible, rather than just giving them a gospel (or a whole Bible) and expecting them to make sense of it. This is a very simple ‘primer’ to help people do just that. …”

– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Jacob York asks Gary Millar about his new book, Read This First.

Anglican Aid — Tonga: Volcano Emergency Response

From Anglican Aid:

“Anglican Aid and the Anglican Relief and Development Fund Australia have partnered with the Evangelical Wesleyan Church in Tonga to distribute urgently needed relief to the people impacted by the recent volcanic eruption.

We are also working with Missions New Zealand to provide supplies to four Anglican Churches in the capital, Nuku’alofa, to distribute among their local communities.”

– Details of the appeal here.

Resources for churches to publicise the appeal. Top image: JMA.

Three Simple Ways to Flatten your Neighbour

“As our society becomes increasingly post-Christian, it’s no surprise to see the vanishing of a Christian view of humanity—an understanding that allows for complexity, even expects it.

Instead, we give in to the impulse to divide everyone into categories of ‘bad’ or ‘good,’ and then treat them accordingly.

The result? Fewer and fewer people, even in the church (and we ought to know better!), who are able to distinguish what’s good and bad in the same person, or truth and falsehood in particular causes. …”

– Wise observations from Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.

Synod cancelled

“The next Synod, or church parliament, of the Diocese of Sydney will not go ahead in February as planned.

The special session, planned for 26 February to 2 March, was to have begun with an historic ‘Synod in the Greenfields’ day in which Synod delegates would have toured new areas of Sydney’s outer suburbs and the Archbishop was to give his Presidential Address in the new suburb of Oran Park. …”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Russell Powell reports on the decision to cancel February’s Synod due to Covid.

Next Page →