The Gateway Drug to Post-Christian Paganism

“I recently revisited a book that I had not read for many years: Robert P. Ericksen’s Theologians Under Hitler.

It is a study of how three intellectuals, Gerhard Kittel, Paul Althaus, and Emanuel Hirsch—scholars of the Old Testament, Luther, and Kierkegaard, respectively—came to support Hitler in 1933 and ultimately be identified with an evil ideology that cost millions of lives, both in the death camps and in the war that German expansionism precipitated. …”

– At First Things, Carl Trueman has a warning for Christians – whatever their political leaning.

Link via Tim Challies.

Hope Beyond Cure

“Friends in Christ, cancer – if all types are grouped together – is the leading cause of death in Australia. (If you take them separately, such as lung, breast, prostate, pancreatic, etc., then heart disease tops them on their own.)

But everyone knows someone who is impacted by cancer. And – to state the obvious – not everyone gets better from a cancer diagnosis.

In that space, Dave McDonald’s book Hope Beyond Cure has become the Christian book I give away more than any other, even ten years after publication. At just 90 pages, his book is clear and gripping. …”

– In the latest Cathedral newsletter, Dean of Sydney Sandy Grant explains why he gives away copies of this book (and he shares where you can get your copy).

The Church of England is losing young people – and fast

“Attendance by children in Church of England churches is plummeting. Might that indicate that the push by revisionist bishops to ditch the Church’s traditional teaching on marriage and sexual morality is not persuading young people to join C of E churches?

Andrew Selous MP, who fields questions about the established Church in the House of Commons as Second Church Estates Commissioner, has revealed that the number of children attending C of E churches on an average Sunday has halved since 2003. …”

– Former CofE vicar Julian Mann reports at Christian Today.

A good reminder to pray for the clear proclamation of the gospel across England.

“Brace Yourselves!“: The Reduction of Public Bible Reading

“It’s quite possible, as a missionary who has just returned from his first term in another country, that the old bugbear of ‘reverse culture shock’ has made me just a little bit tetchy.

On the other hand, as I’ve travelled to our twelve or so supporting churches (of various denominations) who support us in our work, I may have seen something of what many of us are prioritising as we meet week by week.

Usually I’m the guest preacher, and Revelation 7 (with John’s vision of a ‘great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language’) has been my text. And so, as Bible readings before the sermon, I’ve asked for Revelation 7 along with a few short paragraphs from the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. Now, these are not long passages. And they are certainly not boring! Yet, without blushing, one service leader politely asked me if the short Old Testament readings could be done away with, and Revelation 7 itself – not a long chapter! – be chopped in half. …”

– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Mike Fischer notices that something important is missing from some churches.

Bathurst Bishop Mark Calder thanks Sydney church for Kids Club partnership

From the Diocese of Bathurst Facebook page yesterday:

“Bishop Mark was up in Blayney early yesterday to thank the team of 40 people (!) who have come from Norwest Anglican to help run a holiday kids club with Blayney churches.

Pictured here with Pete the minister, Tom the leader and the Rev’d Bec Choi, local convenor. Please pray for their last day today with over 70 local children! Sharing Jesus for LIFE!”

Preaching in tragic times — what will you say on Sunday?

“It is hard to describe the sense of loss pervading London in 1997 following the death of Princess Diana, however, I had been invited to preach at a London church the following Sunday and it was clear that in the midst of such loss and confusion, people were looking for a clear word from God.

It was the same for every preacher, following the Strathfield massacre in 1991 or the September 11 World Trade Centre tragedy in 2001 or the Lindt coffee massacre in Sydney in 2014.

And now the Bondi Junction stabbings. Perhaps it was too late to change the text to be preached the Sunday immediately following those Saturday afternoon murders, but next Sunday people will be coming to church and expecting a clear word from God. …”

– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook has some very helpful words for preachers in these days.

Image: David Cook at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in 2022.

Sydney in shock and grief — Cathedral prayers

“ ‘We have been rocked in a way that we have not experienced for many years,’ Archbishop Kanishka Raffel told a prayer service at St Andrew’s Cathedral on Tuesday night, 16 April, drawing together clergy and members of churches surrounding Bondi Junction as well as members of the public. …”

– A report on last night’s Cathedral prayer service for Bondi – at SydneyAnglicans.net.

We cannot help but speak — ACR Easter 2024

If you haven’t yet seen the latest issue of The Australian Church Record (Easter 2024), do yourself a favour and download your copy. (PDF file.)

The overall theme is “We cannot help but speak”, and Mike Leite’s Editorial has just been published on the website as a standalone post – but do download the entire issue for your encouragement.

Archbishop of Sydney’s statement on Sydney church stabbing

Here’s a statement issued this afternoon by Archbishop Kanishka Raffel –

“Anglican Diocese of Sydney

Archbishop’s statement on Sydney church attack

All of Sydney will be shocked by the attack on Assyrian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and members of his congregation at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Wakeley, Western Sydney. We deplore all acts of violence wherever they take place and whatever their motivation.

I have written to the church community to assure them of our prayers for the recovery of the Bishop and others who were injured, as well as our prayers for the man who committed the attack.

At the same time, we also deplore the violent acts of those who took to the streets and endangered members of the Police and Ambulance services who were seeking to bring relief and safety to those in need. This is unacceptable.

The NSW Police have declared last night’s attack as religiously motivated. Jesus urges his followers to ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’, nor should a whole community be blamed for the acts of a young individual about whom we know very little at this time.

I call on all people of faith and goodwill to maintain respect for our Police and other services, as well as to prayerfully uphold the harmonious, good relations between different communities which has been carefully nurtured in our city over many years.

Archbishop Kanishka Raffel,

April 16, 2024.”

– Source: SydneyAnglicans.net.

We have a problem with Truth

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“We are moving into a post – post-modern world But what does that look like and mean for truth – and us as pastors – as we attempt to communicate with our churches?

Our church members have unconsciously adopted some of the presuppositions of our society in the way we process texts and information.

We are living in a fake news world on social media with a parallel loss of confidence in institutions and authorities. …”

– Dominic Steele speaks with Moore College Lecturer (and ACL Council member) Lionel Windsor.

Lionel has recently published Truth be Told to help us ‘in the task of sharing the truth of the gospel with confidence and conviction’.

Time to remove Canterbury as the guardian of the entrance door to the Anglican Communion?

From Church Society:

Canterbury and the Future of the Anglican Communion

Two crucial Anglican gatherings take place in the next few weeks. First in Rome (29 April to 2 May), a gathering of the Anglican Primates, called together by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Soon afterwards, in Cairo (11 to 15 June), a gathering of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, for their inaugural assembly. High on the agenda at both meetings will be the future structures of the Anglican Communion. But twelve Primates from the Global South Fellowship have already publicly rejected the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as leader of the Communion. It remains to be seen whether any of these twelve will be present in Rome. Several younger Anglican provinces, like Chile (founded in 2018) and Alexandria (founded in 2020), have begun the process of deleting Canterbury from their constitutions. Other Global South provinces will soon follow suit.

Yet in our Anglican polity, to be “in communion with the See of Canterbury” is often viewed as an essential part of Anglican identity. For example, in the controversy over the failed “Anglican Covenant” proposals, the Church Times declared: “Communion with the see of Canterbury has always been the defining feature of what it means to be an Anglican”. Likewise, Paul Avis asserts in his popular textbook, The Identity of Anglicanism: Essentials of Anglican Ecclesiology (2008): “The litmus-test of membership of the Anglican Communion is to be in communion with the See of Canterbury.” Avis goes so far as to call it “the ultimate criterion”.

Almost a century ago, the 1930 Lambeth Conference include the phrase, “in communion with the See of Canterbury”, as part of its famous description of the Anglican Communion (Resolution 49). This idea has cascaded down the generations and still holds sway in the 2020s. But its origins and contested meaning are interrogated in a new article in the Spring 2024 edition of The Global Anglican, written by Andrew Atherstone, an Oxford historian and member of the Anglican Consultative Council (one of the four so-called “instruments of Communion”). He argues that our Anglican textbooks should be re-written, and that the time has come for Canterbury to be removed as the guardian of the entrance door to the Anglican Communion. …

Church Society has made Andrew Atherstone’s article available for free download as a PDF file. Well worth reading and pondering.

(Emphasis added.)

Prayer for Bondi

“A service of solemn prayer for those affected by the tragedy at Bondi Junction will be held at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney on Tuesday, April 16 at 6pm.

The Governor of New South Wales, Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, will attend. …”

— Read more at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Religious Freedom and the NSW Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024

Associate Professor Neil Foster writes at Law and Religion Australia:

“I have prepared a paper exploring the operation of the NSW Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024 in relation to the freedom of churches and other religious groups to continue to provide teaching and guidance based on the tenets of their faith. The Act has received assent but will not commence operation until 3 April 2025.

Overall, the Act contains much better protections for religious freedom and the welfare of vulnerable children and young people than similar legislation elsewhere. But there are some areas where it is not clear, and it will require careful consideration by religious groups, as well those interested in so-called ‘gender transition’ issues even from a non-religious background.”

– Download his paper here.

Sorry, but Christianity must be more than just cultural

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“In 2007, the four men who came to be recognised as the leaders of New Atheism – Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens – met at Hitchens’s apartment in Washington DC to affirm their alliance and explore together the nature of their respective anti-theisms.

Hitchens, ever the contrarian, voiced two heretical views at the meeting: first, that as religion is so deeply engrained in humans due to their evolutionary trajectory, it is unlikely that it will disappear; two, that it is undesirable that religion should disappear since arguing with religious people sharpens sceptics’ polemical skills. Hitchens later stated to Doug Wilson, his debating partner on the ‘God is not Great’ book tour, that for the rest of his life he would never forget the look of hostile incredulity on Dawkins’s face when he said those two things. …”

– At The Conservative Woman, Peter Harris points out that “it is not enough to defend those Christian-based moral values … by calling ourselves cultural Christians”.

Image from Dawkins’ LBC interview two weeks ago.