For Archbishop of Canterbury, Heading Anglican Church Is ‘High-Wire Act’

“When the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, welcomed friends to sing Christmas carols at his London residence last week, his remarks ran, as they often do, to his coronation of King Charles III in May. …”

– The New York Times has this piece on Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

It tells us,“he is keenly aware of the limits on what he can accomplish before he hands over to the next archbishop in 2026. A bitter, yearslong debate over how the Church of England should treat same-sex marriage will not be resolved during his term, he said in an interview at Lambeth Palace…”

That You May Believe

“I feel so strongly that among those of us who have grown up in church and who can recite the great doctrines of our faith in our sleep, and yet who can yawn through the Apostles’ Creed — that among us something must be done to help us once more feel the awe, the fear, the astonishment, the wonder of the Son of God, begotten by the Father from all eternity, reflecting all the glory of God, being the very image of his person, through whom all things were created, upholding the universe by the word of his power. …”

– In this Advent devotional, John Piper prays that all Christians will be overcome with wonder by the gospel.

Image: JWST.

Course: Talking with Catholics about Jesus

Lionel Windsor draws attention to a very helpful course:

“An opportunity to understand Catholics and have great conversations together about Christ.

A new resource by Certainty4Eternity, distributed by Matthias Media. A course to consider for your church or small group 2024!”

Be better equipped to love your Catholic friends.

Image: Mark Gilbert.

Relationships, Results and Rhythms of Ministry Teams – with Grahame Fuller and Jo Gibbs

This week from The Pastor’s Heart:

“As we head to 2024 most of us are recasting ministry teams for the new year.

But how can we do this without making some of the mistakes that we have made in 2023?

How do we do better with staff teams  and all the various volunteer ministry teams across our church?

And even in the best places – there’s an inertia that we will slip back to functioning as rosters… How do we fix that?

Grahame Fuller is a long term senior leader at EV Church on the Central Coast.  Jo Gibbs is the Effective Teams consultant for Reach Australia.”

– Watch or listen here.

Kanishka Raffel: We must not lose sight of this simple Christmas message

Archbishop Kanishka Raffel has written this editorial which was published in The Daily Telegraph today.

What can we say when people come face to face with evil? How can we make sense of this desperate world? We need a word from God, which is exactly what Christmas is. God has spoken through his Son, Jesus.

Full text below:

The beginning of this year seemed to offer a ‘fresh start’ as we came out of COVID. Yet, as 2023 unfolded, the cost of living rose beyond the means of many, we witnessed with grief and horror, man-made calamity in war and conflict, as well as natural disasters, tragic accidents, and terrible crimes. 

We in Australia were not isolated from the international conflicts. Many have family and friends in war-torn areas and watch helpless as the television news brings the horrors into our lounge rooms. In Gaza, Israeli hostages are held by the terrorists while civilians have been tragically killed or displaced. The salt in mothers’ tears is the same, whether they are in Ukraine, Sudan or the Middle East. In far too many places around the world, children suffer in wars and conflicts not of their own making. 

Neither have we been insulated from rising inflation and the consequent effect on interest rates. The price of grocery items soared as home-owners were hit by five increases in interest rates this year. According to the research by Anglicare in its Rental Affordability Snapshot, the crisis in housing security has deepened for those in low-income households and the most vulnerable family groups. Basic affordable housing is beyond the reach of single parents, or single people, on any of the various welfare payments. The crisis in affordability has been made worse by rental availability plunging to levels not seen for more than a decade.

During COVID, there was a rise in domestic violence and we continue to see cases resulting in the death of women of all ages. I am told that younger women, between the ages of 18 to 34 years, are at greatest risk. These are terrible statistics and I commend the work of services such as 1800 Respect (1800 737 732). No women should have to suffer any form of abuse or coercive control. This is not God’s way for our families.

The introduction, last month, of the Voluntary Assisted Dying laws is a backward step for our society. Although introduced with what many consider to be the strictest protocols, I believe this will create pressure on already under resourced palliative care and diminish our commitment to protecting and valuing every human life. 

We have seen this play out in Canada, a country not unlike our own. While euthanasia was introduced in 2016, initially only for the terminally ill, it now accounts for 4 percent of all deaths in that country. New measures next year will extend the availability of assisted suicide in Canada to situations where a person’s sole medical condition is a mental illness.

The idea that all human life is inherently precious was not generally affirmed in the world into which Jesus Christ was born (although it was a tenet of Judaism). It spread with the growth of early Christianity and finds expression today in the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Laws create culture. Practices shape values and community expectations. For two thousand years, Christian teaching has asserted the inestimable value of the individual created in the image of God and precious by virtue of life’s sanctity, not merely life’s utility or quality.  We abandon that principle at our peril. 

The horrors we see overseas, reach deep into our society too, as the Middle East conflict has brought a rise in anti-semitic sentiment. Flag burnings and aggressive verbal incitements to violence against Jewish people have shocked and repulsed our city. The sin of antisemitism has a long and shameful history. It must be repudiated in the strongest terms, so in October, I joined other faith leaders in calling for national unity and harmony so that our multi-cultural, multi-faith community may continue to thrive without hate or violence.

What can we say when people come face to face with evil? How can we make sense of this desperate world? We need a word from God, which is exactly what Christmas is. God has spoken through his Son, Jesus. The Bible describes Jesus as the Word of God – he is God’s word to us in good times and in bad.

When God came into the world he came in the vulnerability of childhood. He was born, amidst whispers of scandal, to an unwed mother. His parents searched fruitlessly for a place to stay. The secular power of the day sought his death and propelled his family to flee their home. He was born, unmistakeably, into this world with all its threats and insecurities, especially for children and the poor.

Yet, Jesus came to bring a word from God. To those who received him he gave the right to become children of God, St John says in the majestic opening to his Gospel. To a world wearied by war, human wickedness, death and decay – Jesus speaks a word of life, light, hope and adoption into God’s family.

Rising costs may have forced a stripped-down Christmas this year yet when you strip away the tinsel you have the simple message of Christmas, so simple a child can believe and yet so substantial that its wonders and glories can fill our hearts and sustain us through life’s challenges. At its heart the message of Christmas is nothing other than Jesus, and nothing better than Jesus.

May I wish you and those you love a very happy Christmas.

____________________________

– See also the Archbishop’s shorter Christmas video.

(With thanks to Russell Powell for the text. Image: SydneyAnglicans.net)

What is the Good News? A Response to Jayne Ozanne’s Reinterpretation

“I was astonished last week to see that Premier Christianity published what to be frank was just a heretical article from Jayne Ozanne…even more so after my own experience of being cancelled by them lest I upset some people (Why was I Cancelled and Repented for by Premier Christianity?)

They seem to have little difficulty in upsetting biblical Christians! I was not going to respond and then I came across a couple of other Christians who were influenced by Ozanne and did not see a major problem with what she said – so I wrote this piece  – which Christian Today have thankfully published. …

‘But what is this Good News? The Church of England, as the Church of Scotland and much of the rapidly declining mainstream denominations in the West, seem greatly confused. I recall a group of Scottish politicians who had asked a group of “representative” clergy to give advice and how confused they were. ‘You seem to believe in two different religions’ was their accurate observation. Indeed the trumpet has been giving an uncertain sound for many years.

Jayne Ozanne, the former evangelical, who once believed the Good News, has now come to agree with this view that there are two different versions of Christianity which are incompatible with one another. She wrote of this in a revealing article earlier this month. …’

– David Robertson responds in his usual helpful way – by drawing us back to the word of God. At The Wee Flea.

A word from God to a desperate world

Archbishop Kanishka Raffel has released his Christmas video for 2023.

Great to share.

Posted, with some background, at SydneyAnglicans.net.

See also: Kanishka Raffel: We must not lose sight of this simple Christmas message.

Diocese of Bathurst Bishops’ Newsletter — Christmas 2023 edition

The Christmas 2023 edition of the Bishop of Bathurst’s newsletter is now available.

Download your copy (PDF file) to be better informed, so you pray for – and seek to encourage – those who hold out the word of Life in this vast area of NSW.

A Harmony of the Birth of Jesus: Matthew and Luke

From Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition:

“Here is a simple chronology to show how the events of Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2 fit together and what each of the gospel authors emphasize.

Matthew tells things more through the eyes of Joseph and Luke (who perhaps interviewed Mary) tells the events largely through her eyes.”

– See it here.

Did Pope Francis Really Give Blessing to Same-Sex Couples? The Complicated Disaster of the News Coming Out of the Vatican

In his The Briefing for Tuesday 19th December 2023, Dr Albert Mohler takes a look at the latest statement from the Vatican.

“I think this is an indefensible statement.”

– Listen here.

Vale: David Chislett

Anglican.ink relays the news of the death, in the UK, of David Chislett, sometime Rector of the Parish of All Saints’ Wickham Place, Brisbane. At the time of his death, he was Vicar of All Saints’, Benhilton, in the Diocese of Southwark.

A convinced Anglo-Catholic, David differed sharply with the theologically liberal direction of the Diocese of Brisbane and the then Archbishop Dr Phillip Aspinall – especially over the latter’s support for the ordination of women to the priesthood.

In 2005, he was consecrated in Philadelphia as a Bishop in the Traditional Anglican Communion and served for some time as a ‘flying bishop’ to support TAC and Forward in Faith parishes across Australia. (Further background here.)

His consecration led to his removal from his position in Brisbane Diocese that year. (Link to the old section of our website – apologies for the horrible formatting.)

Despite his non-trivial theological differences with the Diocese of Sydney, David spoke gratefully of the stand taken by Sydney on the authority of Scripture, and was happy to be identified with the Anglican Church League (!).

In 1998 we published this article by David (also in the old section of our website).

“The strongest and, many would say, the most spiritually vital body within Australian Anglicanism, is the Diocese of Sydney.

Overwhelmingly and uniquely Calvinist and Reformed, mainstream Sydney Anglicanism is passionately evangelical, though not, as some suppose, fundamentalist. It is inherently suspicious of those who seem less biblical in their priorities.

In past decades, Sydney Anglicans tended to see anglo-catholicism as the great enemy. Today, however, Sydney and the anglo-catholics (the Dioceses of Ballarat, Wangaratta, The Murray, and a small sprinkling of priests and lay people from other places) join forces on an increasing number of issues. It is becoming clear that despite their very real differences, the so-called extremes of Anglicanism have a lot more in common than either has with the liberals in the middle. Most importantly, they contrast their adherence to a revealed religion with the modernist idea of contemporary culture as the ultimate authority in matters of faith.”

The article is worth reading in full.

Fr. David Chislett was ordained in the Diocese of Ballarat, and served in a number of Ballarat parishes before moving to All Saints’ Wickham Terrace, the well known anglo-catholic parish in the heart of Brisbane in 1995. He was Rector there until his removal in 2005, and has, most recently, been serving in the United Kingdom.

Many will remember David Chislett with thanksgiving to God.

See also his 2007 article, “How many CHURCHGOING Anglicans does Lambeth represent?”

Photo: Bishop David Chislett’s consecration in the USA in 2005.

Southern Cross magazine Dec 2023 — Jan 2024

The latest issues of Southern Cross magazine from the Diocese of Sydney is out now.

Copies should be available in churches, and it can also be viewed online or downloaded.

Do take the time to read your copy. Much encouragement.

Is this the man the church needs to stay relevant?

From The Australian:

“The new Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane is wearing black jeans and desert boots, a harbinger of the informal style he plans to bring to the role. Jeremy Greaves may be just the man the churches need to stay relevant in an increasingly challenging world.

Or he could be an agent of their destruction …

Greaves is the personification of a progressive church leader. If asked, he will allow Anglican priests in the sprawling Brisbane Diocese to perform same-sex marriage blessings and he’s in favour of ordaining gay priests.”

– Read here (subscription).

Alternatives:

Churches of the Diocese of the Southern Cross.

Same-sex couples receive blessings for first time in Church of England

“Same-sex couples began receiving blessings in the Church of England on Dec. 17 …

Among the first couples to receive the blessings were the Rev. Catherine Bond and the Rev. Jane Pearce, both associate priests, during Holy Eucharist on Dec. 17 at St. John the Baptist Church in Suffolk. …

A day later, on Dec. 18, Pope Francis broke similar ground in the Roman Catholic Church by allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples, the Vatican announced…”

– Story from The Episcopal News Service.

As might be expected, the media were on hand at St John the Baptist, Felixstowe.

Update on the Vatican component of the story – from NotThe Bee, explaining that what was said was a little more nuanced:

“The Vatican is saying that this is not a blessing of the sin they are living in, but a blessing for those who ‘recognize themselves to be destitute and in need of his help’ that will pray before the throne of God for ‘all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and in their relationships’ to be healed and guided by the Spirit.”

Image from the February 2023 Church of England’s General Synod.

Bathurst Christmas Reflection – Bishop Mark Calder on Finding Permanence in a World of Change

Bishop Mark Calder’s Christmas message for 2023:

“In a world where everything bears the label ‘temporary,’ the Christmas season invites us to discover the enduring permanence found in Jesus Christ.

Imagine labelling the items in your life – microwaves, cars, homes – as either ‘temporary’ or ‘permanent.’ The result is confronting: almost everything is temporary, except for Jesus.

As we celebrate his birth, we’re not just commemorating God stepping into our world as one of us; we’re affirming the timeless reign of a permanent King. Jesus is the exception in a world of transience, offering reliability, dependability, and lasting hope.

This Christmas, amidst the chaos of life, run to Jesus. In him, find not only help but a source of unwavering hope, strength, and inner transformation. Amidst the temporary, Jesus stands as the permanent promise of a Kingdom that never ends.

May this Christmas be a reminder that, in Jesus, we discover hope and help and strength in the face of our world – and our lives – which are often confusing and uncertain.

Bishop Mark Calder
Anglican Diocese of Bathurst, covering central and western NSW.”

See the video version here.

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