David Short shares his Journey of Faith; Leadership and Surviving a Split in the Anglican Church of Canada

“The tectonic plates of global Anglicanism have shifted and are realigning around the theology of Scripture and the gospel.

The shifting surfaced first in our diocese which was strongly theologically liberal. When the bishop announced he would proceed with the blessing of same sex unions, we walked out of Synod and appealed for alternative episcopal oversight from the Canadian house of bishops. The bishop brought charges against us and we then entered years of processes from the national and international church – all under the hostility and threats of the diocese.

It was our view that we had not left anything, but it was in fact the diocese which had abandoned biblical historical orthodoxy. …”

– David Virtue speaks with David Short, Moore College graduate who continues to serve Christ in Vancouver.

Related:

The Good Fight of Faith – Links to a 2022 interview with David and Bronwyn Short by Simon Manchester for Southern Cross magazine – and other relevant pages.

Many other posts on this website.

Image: David during a GAFCON online tribute to J I Packer in 2020.

David Short remembers J I Packer standing for the gospel

As part of an online GAFCON tribute to Dr J I Packer, Canon David Short in Vancouver remembers and gives thanks.

David’s contribution begins here. He goes on to recall the crisis in the Diocese of New Westminster from 32 minutes – but watch it all. Archbishop Ben Kwashi, Dr. Leslie Thyberg and Dr. Joel Scandrett also take part.

David mentions Packer’s essays “Why I walked” and “Speculating in Anglican Futures”.

Most encouraging.

‘Are we stronger than He?’ by David Short

From our archives –

The landscape of Sydney has changed drastically since the ACL was formed over 100 years ago, however the core business of Christian ministry remains the same. We hope these articles ‘from the vault’ will encourage and strengthen your faith and ministry.

This was written by David Short, Moore College Graduate and Rector of St. John’s Vancouver.

This issues addressed by David, back in late 2004, continue to beset the Anglican Communion.

To date, leadership from Lambeth has fudged on these vitally important issues of Biblical authority. They are set to be discussed again at the Primates’ meeting this month (January, 2016).

Please join with us in praying that all Anglicans might renew their confidence and trust in God’s Word.


Dabid Short and J I Packer 2011Are we stronger than He?

In the United States of America a jeweller rents wedding rings. You pay a weekly rental and after 12 months can keep the rings because “Statistically, people change their marriage partner before they change their Miele washing machine.”1

The current crisis of Anglicanism in Canada and the USA reflects a deep and disturbing change in Western culture. We are living through a profound cultural shift in the way men and women enter, leave and re-enter sexual relationships, and in the way we think about child-bearing, nurture and family structure. Cohabitation, for example, has virtually replaced engagement, and increasingly couples have children later, out of marriage, if at all.2

There are four elements in this shift.3

First, in the aftermath of sexual revolution and contraception, the purpose of sex has moved from procreation and relationship to relationship alone. You can see evidence of this shift in the changes to the marriage service from the Canadian Book of Common Prayer (BCP 1962) to the Book of Alternative Services (BAS 1985). The BCP states three purposes of marriage: “for the hallowing of the union betwixt man and woman; for the procreation of children… and for the mutual society, help and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other, in both prosperity and adversity.”

The BAS asserts only two purposes namely: for the couples’ “mutual comfort and help, that they may know each other with delight and tenderness in acts of love [and that they may be blessed in the procreation, care, and upbringing of children].” Notice that the second purpose is bracketed in the service, and that procreation is demoted from being a discrete purpose of God for marriage in itself to being part of the couple’s future experience of blessing. It reflects our culture where children are increasingly optional, accidental and peripheral to sexual relations.

Second, sexual relationships have become radically privatised. If sex is primarily about relationship, it becomes increasingly isolated from any wider dimension of public service or extended family. Sex is part of my personal lifestyle choice. Part of this shift is the whole notion of ‘sexuality’—in itself an individualistic notion cut free from a larger moral ecology of family, society and church.4

Third, sex is for self-fulfilment. If marriage or sex now have no outward goal and if sex is focussed just on my relationship, then sex is for my personal development and fulfilment. Hence I have a moral obligation to divorce my present wife if she can no longer promote my growth and development. Sex is understood as the expression of my inner freedom and gratification.

Fourth, sex becomes my saviour. To be self-fulfilled I must be free to express ‘my sexuality.’ How can I be a fulfilled human being if I cannot express myself sexually? Western culture is implicitly anti-child and sex obsessed with sex portrayed as a deep necessity of life, even a reason for living. It has become a substitute for communion with the living God. The romantic myth preached by Hollywood exalts sex as a metaphysical absolute so that it has become the real sacrament, the one mediator between God and man. Atonement is no longer salvation from sin through Christ’s cross. Rather, it is through sexual release where I express the real me and thus a return to the Canaanite religion.

In response Christian churches have tended to two opposite reactions.

One is to capitulate to culture, to embrace the current worldview, to change fundamental historic teaching in the belief that the Spirit is leading the culture to a new place. The other is to turn inward and adopt a fortress mentality, to separate from the wicked world, to become isolationist and pure—even self-righteous. However, neither of these responses is faithful, helpful or biblical. We need to find a more excellent way.

 

Letter to a church in crisis

In the letter of 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul writes to a church in deep crisis, a crisis which alarmingly echoes our own. Corinth had it all: they fought over leadership, some taught that they would not rise from the dead and they were deeply divided.

More relevant to the current crisis in the Anglican communion, there was open sexual immorality in the church (in a number of forms), not only tolerated but condoned, demonstrating that the Corinthians were puffed up with pride and self-confidence.

It is vital for us to hear what the Apostle wrote to this church in crisis. Parts of this letter are surprising, even shocking, particularly with regard to sexual immorality within the church. Paul raises extremely troubling and uncomfortable questions which Anglicans must face if we are to move forward in a way that exalts the sovereign grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The individual texts of 1 Corinthians must be read within the context of the whole letter, otherwise the apostle’s meaning can be distorted and misapplied. For example in the first chapter Paul writes:

“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” (1 Cor. 1:10)

This text has been liberally used to implore orthodox Anglicans in Canada to fall into line and stop disturbing unity—as the Joker said to Batman, “Why can’t we all just get along?”

But not all forms of unity are biblical. There was an immense unity in the hostility expressed toward God at Babel and the nations rage against the Lord’s Messiah in Psalm 2 with exquisite harmony. There was a form of unity in Corinth which opposed God by ignoring His word and condoning sexual immorality. So in chapter eleven the Apostle writes:

“In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.” (1 Cor. 11:18-19)

Just as Jesus taught so Paul teaches that there are necessary divisions which are part of God’s sovereign work to show who are truly his. The only true unity is unity in the truth of the gospel and the proof of the genuineness of our faith is not ecclesiastical status, or office, or even doctrinal orthodoxy, but behaviour which reflects the gospel. Paul opposes divisions based on the personality of the leader or other trivial issues as well as any unity that seeks to paste over disobedience. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “Where Christ bids me maintain fellowship for the sake of love, I will maintain it. Where his truth enjoins me to dissolve a fellowship for love’s sake, there I will dissolve it, despite all the protests of my human love.”5

Some divisions the Apostle recognised as only inevitable but necessary. It depends on your view of the church and this is where the letter of 1 Corinthians is so important for us today. In chapter three Paul reveals the church’s true nature:

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred [holy], and you are that temple.” (1 Cor. 3:16-17)

The Corinthians’ behaviour showed their false understanding of the church. The Christian congregation of believers is the temple of God’s Spirit; the inner sanctuary where God dwells, not just the outer precincts. The Old Testament promise of God dwelling among his people is now fulfilled through the presence of the Holy Spirit with the people of Christ. God’s people in Corinth were the temple of God, the dwelling place of the living God in Corinth, just as Christian congregations function today in Bombay, Nairobi, London and Toronto.

The crucial factor for us is that the one central feature of that temple is that it is holy. Holiness is the fundamental distinguishing mark of God’s people. Since the God of the Bible is Holy, Holy, Holy, we as his people are meant to be holy; not in a ritual sense but morally and ethically,6 with lives set apart for his purposes.

If we’re puzzled and wonder “what on earth does that mean?” it is fascinating to trace the answer the Apostle gives. In chapters 5–11 Paul spells out what commentators call the New Testament holiness code.7 He begins:

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? (1 Cor. 5:1-2)

The word used for ‘sexual immorality’ is porneia (from which we derive ‘pornography’), widely used in Hellenistic Judaism to cover all extra-marital sexual sins including homosexuality, adultery, incest, bestiality.8 It appears often in the New Testament lists of sins not because the early Christians were uptight about sex but because these sins were so prevalent and accepted in the culture of that time that early converts found it hard to break clear of their former lives.9 The specific form of sexual immorality being tolerated and condoned in Corinth was a form of incest, meaning that a member of the congregation was living in sexual sin.10

Yet what staggers the Apostle in verse 2 is not so much the open sin, but that the Corinthians were proud of it. When Paul writes “And you are proud!” he is not referring to arrogance and pride in general but to the fact that some in Corinth were affirming their right and authority to condone incest and promiscuity (chapter 6:12-20). It had become a cause célèbre. They were loud and proud and trying to give this behaviour a theological basis. One is tempted to say that they were seeking to affirm the integrity and sanctity of open sexual immorality.

The Apostle deals with this situation in a remarkable way. In chapters 5 and 6 he gives very little attention to the specific sins of immorality. What distresses him so deeply is the churches attitude to these open sexual practices. The allowing, condoning and celebrating of this sexual immorality, Paul felt, was a crisis of authority and of the gospel itself. The Corinthians’ failure to deal with the sexual immorality in their midst did not simply represent their low view of sin, what was at stake was the church itself. They were in danger of destroying the temple of God.

This issue is so urgent that the Apostle instructs the Corinthians on it no less than five times.

•    In verse 2 he asks with astonishment:

“Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?”

•    In verse 7 he commands:

“Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast — as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

•    In verse 9 referring to a previous letter addressing this issue he claims:

“I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.”

•    In verse 11 Paul commands:

“you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.”

•    Perhaps most significant is verse 5:

“hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.”

Handing over to Satan means moving the immoral person back out into the world which is Satan’s sphere; something done by the whole community not just one or two.

Wonderfully, the purpose of these actions is ultimately redemptive: that “the sinful nature,” meaning “what is fleshly or carnal in him” might be destroyed so that he might be saved eternally. The discipline of dissociation is remedial. Paul is no separatist but clearly, for this man living in open sexual immorality, there is meant to be an actual separation from fellowship with God’s people, so that ultimately he will repent and rejoin that community.

The separation will do two things: it will protect this man from deceiving himself that he can pretend to call upon the name of the Lord while living in open, unrepentant sexual immorality; and it will protect the temple of God from being becoming contaminated. That is the point of verses 6-8:

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast — as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Cor. 5:6-8)

Left alone, open sin, unrepented of, and when not dealt with by the Christian community, acts like yeast (leaven) infecting the whole body of Christ. Christ has died, not just to win us a ticket to heaven but to create a new humanity where together we express the holy character of God.
The Apostle knows exactly how this sounds so to clear up any misunderstanding he goes on:

I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” (1 Cor. 5:9-13)

Paul urges them forward in two directions: first to continue to immerse themselves in the life of their city, having friendships and associations with non-Christians, irrespective of their morality or lack of it; but secondly to disassociate themselves and not even celebrate the meal with those who call themselves Christian yet insist on their right to continue immoral pagan practices.

His principle is simple: free association outside the church, discipline within. The reason the Apostle gives for this is that God judges those who are outside the church but in Paul’s view the church is meant to judge those who are inside.

We seem to have these two exactly the wrong way round; we are judgmental about those outside the church and tolerate open sin inside the church. There is a great difference between, on the one hand struggling with sin, failing, asking God for forgiveness, beseeching him to grant us true repentance and his Holy Spirit, and on the other hand openly persisting and condoning what is against the will of God and pretending that we are forgiven. God pardons and absolves all who truly repent and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel.

In the New Testament there are two boundary lines for communion, two grounds for restricting fellowship: belief / doctrine, and behaviour / holiness. It is possible to have communion with other Christian believers with whom we honestly disagree, we confess our knowledge is partial and we need to grow in wisdom. However, it is not possible in New Testament terms to have communion and fellowship with those who do not believe the central tenets of the gospel or who believe a different gospel (read, for example, Galatians 1:6-9): this is the ‘belief / doctrine’ boundary line.
Here in 1 Corinthians the Apostle’s concern is with the ‘behaviour / holiness’ boundary to fellowship.

The principle is clear: it is not possible to have communion with those who call themselves Christian but who condone and practice sexual immorality.

Some have tried to argue that the blessing of same sex unions is not sufficient ground for breaking fellowship because it does not involve central or creedal doctrinal issues such as the incarnation, the trinity or the resurrection. The arguments are entirely unpersuasive and even disingenuous, ignoring the fact that those advocating same sex unions do so on the basis of a revisionist understanding of the doctrines of creation, the image of God, the nature of sin, salvation, redemption, the Christian life, the cross and the afterlife.11 However, putting aside whether the blessing of same sex unions does breach central, creedal doctrinal questions (which it does), it certainly violates the ‘behaviour / holiness’ boundary line for Christian fellowship. It is impossible to deny that what is at stake is the holiness of the church, indeed our very understanding of holiness.12

To the Apostle Paul, for a church to bless, condone or even allow open sexual immorality is a crisis for the church and for the gospel, which can only be healed by the church disassociating and separating itself from those promoting the yeast of unholiness. If Paul instructed the Corinthians to disassociate themselves from the immoral man what on earth would he say to a whole congregation that voted to affirm the integrity and sanctity of incest or prostitution? What in heaven’s name would he have written to a group of congregations that did the same?

The truth is that the Apostle goes on in 1 Corinthians to deal with homosexual intercourse (6:9-11) and with prostitution (6:12-20). In chapter 10 he reveals the links between sexual immorality and idolatry. Throughout these chapters Paul’s sustained concern is for the holiness of the fellowship of the temple of God. Both idolatry and immorality provoke the risen Lord to jealousy. “[T]his is the final warning that God’s ‘jealousy’ cannot be challenged with impunity. Those who would put God to the test by insisting on their right to what Paul insists is idolatry are in effect taking God on, challenging him by their actions, daring him to act”13 and he asks with chilling candour in 10:22 “are we stronger than he?”

 

By way of conclusion

There are three things to say by way of conclusion.

The first has to do with grace. Every word of 1 Corinthians is written to people who have failed morally and sexually14—as Paul says in chapter 6, “this is what some of you were.” Therefore there is no room for self-righteousness or superiority on the part of any of us. Woven through the very passages quoted in this article is the heartbreaking grace of God in Jesus Christ, wooing us from our sins, opening our eyes to the beauty of holiness, calling us to be the new creation.

“For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor. 5:7b-8)

The gospel of Christ crucified offers grace to all who fail, it does not matter how far we may have fallen it is not too late for us to turn to Christ for his forgiving grace.

But grace without transformation is cheap grace…

That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sins departs… Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession… Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.15

It is a cruel distortion of grace to say “we are all sinners therefore we dare not deal with open sin in the church.” To hide behind Paul’s word that  “we are all sinners” and use them as an excuse for inaction or silence is nothing more than Corinthian nihilism. Gordon Fee writes: “those who concern themselves with grace without equal concern for behaviour have missed Paul’s own theological urgencies.”16

The second conclusion has to do with ministry. Gospel ministry is not just proclamation, evangelism, and pastoral care; it involves contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. If, at the end of the day, we have maintained Christian orthodoxy but failed to proclaim the gospel, we cannot claim to have pleased Christ nor fulfilled the New Testament ministry. In just the same way, if, at the end of the day we have proclaimed the gospel but failed to maintain Christian orthodoxy, we will have failed Christ.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is a brilliant example of contending for the faith. If the church is the temple of the living God, and if that temple is holy, then tolerance of what God calls unholy will provoke his jealousy. There is an astonishing campaign at present in Canada and the USA to portray the blessing of same sex unions as a little in-house issue for the church, that those opposing this constitutionalisation of sexual immorality are somehow missing the point and being side-tracked from gospel ministry. I received a letter this week from someone in the diocese of New Westminster who referred to the stance of biblically orthodox Anglicans as a “tedious and unnecessary conflict.” If that is the case then 1 Corinthians is a tedious and unnecessary book and the holiness of the people for whom Christ died is also tedious and unnecessary.

We cannot just be pragmatic about this. We cannot believe those who say: “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Christian ministry which pleases Christ and is faithful to the New Testament will involve both gospel proclamation as well as contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

The third conclusion has to do with Jesus himself. We need to ask ourselves: how can we judge (as Paul commands) without being judgmental? How do we insist on holiness without being holier than thou?
I admit the issues are complex. Some denominations exercise swift and harsh discipline and are all too ready to exclude those who do not measure up without having any genuine conversation. As Anglicans we must maintain a godly generosity of spirit and we are rightly slow to discipline or exclude anyone.

But if, as a denomination, we are unwilling to consider discipline as the Apostle does, we cannot hope for a restored Anglicanism and we need to ask if we are really the temple of the living God.

If you are tempted to think that this position is just the opinion of a curmudgeonly Apostle, listen to the risen Jesus as he speaks to the church of Thyatira:

To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling…

Only hold on to what you have until I come. To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations — ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’ — just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Rev. 2:18-29).

This paper was delivered at The National Canadian Anglican Essentials Conference – “The Way Forward” – Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, August 31, 2004, and is reprinted with the author’s kind permission.

 

Footnotes

(Please note that some of the links mentioned below are no longer active.)

1     From Ash, C. Marriage: Sex in the Service of God (Leicester: IVP, 2003), 40.
2     The National Marriage Project, http://marriage.rutgers.edu.
3     I am following the superb and incisive analysis by Ash, 34-59 and 134-156.
4     Ash, 49 quoting Woodhead, L. ‘Sex in a wider context’, in Davies and Loughlin, Sex these Days, 98-120, (Sheffield: Academic Press, 1997), 99, and Bellah, R. Habits of the Heart (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985), 112.
5     Bonhoeffer, D. Life Together (London: SCM, translated by John W. Doberstein, 1954) 22.
6     Fee, G. The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987) 149.
7     E.g. “Here we may discern a parallel with the ‘Holiness Code’ for the people of Israel found in the teachings of Moses in Leviticus (especially chapters 18-21).” Barnett, P. 1 Corinthians: Holiness and Hope of a Rescued People (Ross-shire: Christian Focus Publications, 2000) 77.
8     Fee, 200, Barnett, 78.
9     Fee, ibid.
10     The present tense indicates an ongoing sexual relationship, Barnett, 78.
11     See the excellent articles by J. I. Packer, Why I Walked, (Christianity Today: January 21, 2003, Vol. 47, No. 1 www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/001/6.46.html and P. F. M. Zahl, Last Signal to the Carpathia, (an address delivered at the Episcopal Church Foundation Fellows Forum, “Reconstructing Anglican Comprehensiveness,” 5-6 February 2004, Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham, Alabama www.adventbirmingham.org/articles.asp?ID=1625) where Zahl demonstrates that blessing same sex unions stands opposed to classic Christian doctrine because it undermines the anthropology of the gospel, eviscerates Christian soteriology, Christology and the historic understanding of the trinity, confuses creation with redemption and is therefore implicitly Pelagian and explicitly Arminian.
12     See E. M. Humphries, Holy is as Holy Does, June 2004, (www.anglican.tk/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=593).
13    Fee, 474.
14    The second chapter of Ash’s book is titled ‘Prejudice and Grace,’ and he finishes with three points: that Christian sexual ethics is addressed to moral failures, that the gospel offers grace to moral failures and that the Spirit of God works in us, who are moral failures to change us. Ash, 24-33.
15    Bonhoeffer, D. The Cost of Discipleship (London: SCM, 1948, translated by Kaiser Verlag) 3-4.
Or as the Apostle Paul himself wrote in Titus 2, “For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.”
16    Fee, 248.

acl-news-jan-feb-2005Published in ACL News, January–February 2005.

Available in PDF format.

Photo at top of page: David Short and Dr. J I Packer at St. John’s Vancouver in 2011.

David Short to take a break

Rector of St John’s Shaughnessy (and Honorary Canon of St Andrew’s Cathedral Sydney) David Short is taking a break to recover from the stress of recent months. Please pray for our brother, his family and the church at St John’s.

“This is a strange place for me personally (although not uncommon for clergy I am discovering), and for us as a church, yet this too is from the hand of our heavenly Father. As we await the court decision be certain of God’s continued sustaining grace.”

News via Anglican Essentials Canada blog. (Photo: Joy Gwaltney.)

Apostolic gospel must be at the core, says David Short

David ShortThe priest of the largest Anglican parish in Canada, who is under ecclesiastical siege from revisionist New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham, says his denomination has lost faith in the gospel. This is evidently revealed in the diocesan newspaper, which gives the impression that the gospel is about being nice, being compassionate, recycling, “and we will even bless your pets”.

“The eternal gospel of redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus’ death and the power of his resurrection has been replaced with a gospel which is about approval, affirmation and acceptance. The apostolic gospel of sins forgiven, of rescue from eternal punishment has been smoothed and soothed to be more acceptable and relevant,” said the Rev. Dr. David Short, pastor of St. John’s, Shaughnessy in Vancouver. …

Report from VirtueOnline.

See also the St. John’s website. (Photo of David Short at the Anglican Network in Canada national conference last weekend: Ed Hird.)

David Short, J I Packer face legal action

David ShortEcclesiastical charges have been filed by a Canadian Bishop against former Sydney Anglican, the Rev David Short and one of the world’s top Anglican theologians, Dr J.I. Packer.

Bishop Michael Ingham has launched legal action over the vote by their congregation in Vancouver to seek alternative oversight from a South American bishop. …

The charges not only involve revocation of licence, but also seek to nullify the ordination of Mr Short and Dr Packer. …

Full story by Russell Powell from SydneyAnglicans.net. (updated)

The Good Fight of Faith

In the July–August 2022 issue of Southern Cross magazine Simon Manchester has an insightful interview with David and Bronwyn Short in Vancouver.

They share something of the battles for the truth of God’s Word, and the cost of doing so.

Do take the time to read it all (pages 24-26), and continue to uphold in prayer the Shorts, St. John’s Vancouver, and all of the Anglican Network in Canada.

Simon mentions the recent book The Anglican Church in Canada. Read more about it here.

Long-time readers will be well aware of events in Canada the last twenty years. David’s 2004 article “Are we stronger than He?” is a good place to start.

See also:

St. John’s Vancouver leaves the building, praying for God’s blessing on New Westminster, September 2011.

Posts relating to Vancouver, and Canada.

In the interview David Short says, “Jim Packer wrote a wonderful essay called ‘Why I Walked’ that is well worth reading.”. It certainly is, and is available here as a PDF file on the GAFCON website.

Photo: Bronwyn and David Short via SydneyAnglicans.net.

Gafcon Ireland Conference 2022

Gafcon Ireland’s Conference – What is the Gospel? – was held on Saturday 26 March 2022 at St. Anne’s Cathedral Belfast.

Archbishops Ben Kwashi and Foley Beach spoke, along with the Revd. Dr. Nick Tucker.

You can see the full event here.

If you know someone who wants to understand what has been happening in the Anglican Communion, and why GAFCON is needed, this address by Archbishop Foley Beach is a very clear and helpful introduction. It’s also wonderfully encouraging to see that the Lord has not been left without a witness.

He turns to the Letter to Jude to help us understand the pagan theology which is infiltrating the Anglican Communion.

“For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” – Jude 4.

Archbishop Foley Beach is introduced and answers questions about himself and ACNA here.

His “must see” address begins here. (Note: If GAFCON Ireland later edits the video, these times might not be accurate.)

Related: these items from our Resources section:

New ANiC Bishop Co-Adjutor Elect Announced

“The Anglican Network in Canada is pleased to announce the election at Synod 2021 of the Venerable Daniel Gifford as our Co-Adjutor Bishop.

Archdeacon Dan was elected by our Diocesan Synod on Thursday, November 18, 2021. …

Dan is currently the vicar of St John’s Vancouver Anglican church, serving with David Short who is rector of that parish.”

– From the Anglican Church in North America.

An evangelical Rector quits apostate denomination – with Andrew Pearson

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“The resignation of Rev Andrew Pearson as rector of the 11-hundred strong Advent Cathedral in Birmingham, Alabama has come as a shock.

The conventional wisdom had been that Advent could ride the storms of liberalism surrounding it, despite many other evangelicals being gradually forced out of America’s Episcopal Church over the last decade.

However, the Cathedral’s vestry has recently capitulated to the demands of the new Alabama Episcopal bishop.

Andrew says an ultimatum was put to him by two successive bishops, ‘change or leave the denomination.’

Andrew speaks about how he reluctantly came to realise there was no future for him in the Episcopal denomination, and that he needed to leave.

He speaks about joining the Anglican Church in North America, what it’s like now serving under a bishop he can trust in Foley Beach, and his plans for a new church plant in Birmingham.”

– A very sobering reminder of the choices facing the remaining evangelical pastors in The Episcopal Church and other denominations on a similar trajectory.

He also reminds Australian Anglicans of what the real issues are – but do watch it all, and do pray.

For some of the background:

‘The Advent has changed’: Andrew Pearson on why he left Advent Cathedral – al.com

The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns – by Dr. Mark Thompson, March 2008.

The Sydney Lambeth Decision Briefing – March 2008.

A Crisis in Koinonia: Biblical Perspectives for Anglicans – David Short, May 2004.

Unanimous resolution: The Sydney Standing Committee regarding References to the Appellate Tribunal (Same Sex Blessing) – Wangaratta and Newcastle

Essential reading:

Here is the text of a Motion passed unanimously by the Diocese of Sydney Standing Committee at its meeting on Monday 23 November 2020.

It concerns the Opinion released by the Appellate Tribunal relating to Same Sex Blessing:

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Diocese of Sydney Standing Committee – 23 November 2020
References to the Appellate Tribunal (Same Sex Blessing) – Wangaratta and Newcastle

Motion passed unanimously:

Standing Committee of the Diocese of Sydney entirely rejects the recently released majority opinion of the General Synod Appellate Tribunal. We stand with brothers and sisters all over the world who have resisted the attempt to bless what God does not bless and to ignore the teaching of Scripture on the extreme danger of the behaviour endorsed by the proposed services of blessing. We are deeply saddened that the delivery of this opinion further disturbs the hard-won unity of the church.

Moving speech (The Rev Dr Mark Thompson)

As we’ve heard, on Remembrance Day this year the Appellate Tribunal published its opinions, both a majority opinion and a minority opinion. The bottom line was a majority decision that the Diocese of Wangaratta’s proposed service for the blessing of same sex unions is authorised by the Canon Concerning Services and is not inconsistent with the Fundamental Declarations and Ruling Principles of the Constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia. This despite the fact that the Fundamental Declarations make clear that the canonical scriptures of the Old and New Testaments remain ‘the ultimate rule and standard of faith, given by inspiration of God and containing all things necessary for salvation’.

The long document which unfolds the reasons for this opinion makes very disappointing reading. That’s a mild way of saying it really. The handling of the Bible is irresponsible, regularly throwing dust in the air and suggesting either that the key biblical passages do not say what they appear to say, or that there is diverse and equally weighty opinion about the meaning of key terms or the passage as a whole, so we can’t be sure. That is just not true — on either count. As I’ve said in another place, the tactic of casting doubt on the meaning of a word or a statement in order to persuade a person to reject it, is an old debating tactic. It goes back to the Garden of Eden: ‘did God really say?’

The majority opinion cannot seem to grasp that the seriousness of this matter, which takes it beyond previous disagreements between us, is indicated by Scripture itself: ‘those who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God’. That is actually said twice in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10. Not inheriting the kingdom of God — that makes it a salvation issue. And yes, that is true of sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, theft, greed, drunkenness, reviling and swindling too — and we need to beef up our warnings about those things too if we take this passage seriously — but that list does include ‘anyone practicing homosexuality’ as the Holman Christian Standard Bible puts it, or ‘men who have sex with men’ as the NIV (2011) puts it.

It is an extremely serious matter, which is why we consider the embrace of this behaviour, or the attempt to pronounce God’s blessing on behaviour that is spoken about in these terms in 1 Corinthians 6, as a line in the sand that we must not cross. We cannot bless what God refuses to bless but instead warns us to avoid at all costs.

The other Bible passage that is mishandled is Matthew 19, where in answer to the Pharisees’ question about divorce, Jesus appeals to God’s creational intention: ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”.’ The reason why Jesus answers the Pharisees on divorce the way he does, is because this creational purpose of God, bringing a man and a woman together as one flesh, as a new family unit, still stands. But the Opinion dismisses this as ‘an inference not a command’.

There is more that could be said at this point, including the way an illustrative legal maxim is misquoted in order to make it say the very opposite of what it means in the general construction of legal statutes. The principle that ‘the expression of one is the exclusion of the other’ points to the significance of Jesus speaking first of male and female (echoing Genesis 1:27) and then of ‘a man and his wife’ (quoting Genesis 2:24) and not of any other kind of ‘marriage’. However, once again attempts are made to avoid the straightforward reading of the biblical text in the service of a predetermined conclusion.

But not only is the Bible irresponsibly handled, a series of theological assertions are made which are simply insupportable. First, the constituent elements of marriage as understood in Scripture and in the Anglican formularies are listed as ‘maturity, an intention of permanency, and consent’, neatly ignoring the biblical and BCP language of ‘man and woman’ and ‘forsaking all others’. Second, when the Book of Common Prayer is cited, and its three purposes of marriage quoted — the procreation of children, living a chaste and holy life, and mutual companionship — it is asserted that same sex marriages are capable of meeting all these three desiderata and the scriptural teaching on which they are based. The procreation of children, though, is not the natural outcome of a same sex sexual union. It requires of necessity—in every case—intervention from outside of the marriage, which is a massive difference to the conception of a child through the sexual union of a man and a woman in marriage. Third, an almost absurdly narrow definition of ‘doctrine’, itself a minority opinion of a previous iteration of the Tribunal, allows this Opinion to insist that the statements of Scripture and the Prayer Book about marriage do not fit the definition and so the proposed service and all that is involved in it, does not constitute a breach of doctrine.

There is a great deal of intricate legal argument in the majority opinion which is neatly and persuasively unravelled in the minority opinion of Ms Gillian Davidson. In many ways, given the gravity of the situation and the potential consequences of the their decision, the majority opinion really reads like shoddy work at points. It is very obviously a preconceived conclusion in search of an argument, which it attempts, unsuccessfully, to manufacture. It reveals a fundamentally different doctrine of Scripture and of Christian discipleship.

For these reasons we need to voice the strongest possible rejection of this majority opinion of the Appellate Tribunal. Already, as we have seen, some of the Australian bishops are preparing to act upon it. We need to make clear that we have not moved from where we have always stood. We stand on the authority of Scripture and the teaching of Christ, given to us during his earthly ministry, and through the subsequent ministry of his commissioned spokesmen, the apostles. We are not moving away from the rest of the Anglican church. We haven’t moved at all. Instead, this opinion and the actions proposed to be taken on the basis of it, constitute a walking away from us and the majority of Anglicans worldwide who have risked everything to take their stand on the teaching of Scripture on this issue.

Brothers and sisters, many of our brothers and sisters, Anglicans in other parts of the world, are looking to see how we will respond to what has been done and is about to be done as a result of this Appellate Tribunal opinion. David Short, who, with the congregation of St John’s Shaughnessy, lost their church campus and the house he and his family lived in, who had his license to minister withdrawn — we made him an honorary canon of St Andrews Cathedral in the wake of it all — David is watching. And we want to be able to look David in the eye and say ‘we are with you, we stand with you’. Jay Behan, David Clancey and hundreds of others in Christchurch New Zealand, were compelled to leave their church buildings behind and eventually to form a new diocese because they could not turn a blind eye to their General Synod’s decision to bless same sex unions. Jay, David, Costa and all the rest — they are watching too. And we need to be able to look them in the eyes and say: ‘the test came, and we stood firm with you’.

So I am asking you to pass this motion. It needs to be strong and it needs to be clear.

But one last thing: it is important, as a friend reminded me last night, that we distinguish between those in responsible positions of authority who teach and promote these things, and those who are broken and hurting and need to hear of the possibility of forgiveness, restoration and new life. To those who teach these things and overturn the teaching of Scripture in doing so, we need to speak in the strongest possible terms, as this motion does, as Jesus did to the religious leaders of his day. But without ever backing away from that, we need to keep reaching out in love, compassion and grace to those trapped by the devil’s lies and who live in the midst of a broken world. To people like that Jesus came — to call them to faith and repentance, but also to healing and new life. So remember to whom this motion is addressed: those who published this Opinion and synods of the Anglican Church who will respond to it. For that reason it needs to be strong and clear.

Once again, I commend this motion to you.

Memorial service for J I Packer now online

After some technical problems with the livestream, St. John’s Vancouver has now posted the video recording of the Memorial Service for Dr. J. I. Packer.

Even though, due to COVID-19 restrictions, only a relatively small number of people were present, many around the world continue to thank God for Dr. Packer.

Canon David Short (pictured) delivered the sermon.

Watch here.

A giant of 20th century evangelicalism

“James Innell Packer was one of the three giants of 20th century evangelicalism: the evangelist, Billy Graham; the pastor/Bible teacher, John Stott; the theologian, Jim Packer. His influence on evangelical thought and practice around the globe has been immense.

Here in Australia we owe him an enormous debt. With the brilliant mind with which God endowed him, he was able to answer the dominant liberalism of the mid and late twentieth century and help revive classic reformed theology in the life of the church…”

– Moore College Principal Dr. Mark Thompson gives thanks to God for J I Packer.

Photo: Dan Gifford, David Short and J I Packer chat before the first Sunday service of St. John’s Vancouver in their new location, 25 September 2011.

Anglican Reality Check

GAFCON has launched a new website – Anglican Reality Check – subtitled, “What’s happened since Lambeth 1998?”.

In the midst of PR releases coming from Lambeth Palace, this website is a great help in remembering how far the Anglican Communion has slid since 1998. It would be good to work through the timeline to be clear on why GAFCON is needed.

GAFCON’s Acting Operations Manager, Canon Charles Raven, discusses the new website, and other matters, with Bishop Julian Dobbs at the Living Through The Word podcast.

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Related:

And here is a summary we posted in May 2018:

Every so often, media reports warn that the current situation (whatever it is at the time) might provoke a split among Anglicans. The truth is that this is nothing new – but each ‘crisis’ is no less serious or tragic.

From our archives, here are five articles which are well worth reading. Among other things they provide context for the formation of GAFCON:

– all from our Resources section.

From Dr. Mark Thompson’s paper, The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns:

“The first thing to note about the crisis the Anglican Communion is facing today is that it has been coming for a very long time. …

That background might lead you to ask, ‘So what’s changed now?’ If the denomination has long been compromised in these ways, and evangelicals have always struggled within it, why are we arguing that we have now reached a moment of crisis where decisive action needs to be taken? What is different about what’s happening at the moment? …”

Sharing the Good News in a World of Fake News

“How do Christians move forward in sharing our faith in this environment of fake news, bad news and a general mistrust of claims of truth?”

That’s a question many of us are asking ourselves, and it was the question St. John’s Vancouver, a church in the Anglican Network in Canada, posed to the entire congregation.

“I think every Christian who lives in the West has the sense right now that we are sailing in uncharted waters culturally,” Rev. Canon David Short, the rector of St. John’s, said. “The idea that there might be some sort of truth out there, we [people in our culture] don’t like that idea. And I think the affect for us as Christians has been uncertainty…and some of us, I think, have been silenced.” …

– The Anglican Church in North America points to a helpful initiative at St. John’s Vancouver.

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