Australian Journal of Law and Religion — Volume 7
From Associate Professor Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia –
“The latest volume of the Australian Journal of Law and Religion has been published (and is freely available online.)
The Table of Contents is below – always worth reading! In particular I would like to commend the prize-winning essay by Jacob Carson, a former student of mine, on the important issues around teaching of religion in public schools.”
– Read about it (and download your copy) here.
Widows in the household of God
From the Priscilla and Aquila Annual Conference 2026 –
“A deep dive into 1 Timothy 5:3-16.
Working closely through the passage, Lionel Windsor addresses key questions and tensions – how it relates to the rest of Scripture, what it means to honour widows, and how the church is to order its life as God’s family.
The talk highlights the importance of honour, responsibility, and care, and challenges the assumptions we often bring to age, family, and independence.
We are reminded that the church is not simply a gathering of individuals, but a household shaped by God’s word – where men and women are called to honour one another and live out the implications of the gospel together.”
Church in Wales — Weighed in the balance and found wanting
“The Governing Body of the Church in Wales faced an important test this week.
It was a test of their commitment to inclusivity and the respect of individual conscience. It was a test which revealed far more about the future for faithful Anglicans in the Church in Wales than the vote that came later.
The challenge came in the form of a procedural motion. It was merely a request that the vote on the Bill to incorporate an order of service of blessing same-sex relationships into their Book of Common Prayer should be taken by ballot, rather than the usual show of hands. For those unfamiliar with the way Governing Body does its business, a counted vote requires individuals to hold their voting card up to be counted. There is no option for electronic voting and no formal record is made of how individuals voted.
It should not have been controversial. …
Faithful Anglicans in Wales are used to putting up with being being scorned and marginalised. They will now need to come to terms with the fact that the much vaunted conscience clause is limited to an individual’s right not to ‘participate in a service.’ It does not stretch to being able to have nothing to do with such services. If asked, clergy must enable a service of blessing to take place by passing the couple on to the diocesan bishop, or ensuring that another member of their team, or a visiting clergy person, offers the service. Lawyers clarified too that clergy, or congregations, cannot refuse to allow their buildings to be used to bless what they believe God cannot bless.”
– Anglican Futures has published this opinion piece on this week’s meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales.
Related:
Evangelicals ‘need prayers’ after Church in Wales votes to make same-sex blessings permanent – Christian Today.
The liturgical shape of authentic Anglicanism
Original published in The Australian Church Record’s Easter 2026 Journal, Andrew Leslie reflects on authentic Anglicanism –
“When you look beyond the Sydney Diocese at national or global Anglicanism—and you can get a glimpse of this within the Sydney Diocese too—you might imagine that the denomination is so diverse in liturgy, in theology, and in practice, that defining ‘Anglican’ could be like asking, how long is a piece of string? And you’d be right.
In the face of that reality, it might be tempting just to sit on your hands, or throw them up in the air, or perhaps even make a virtue of the increasingly fragmented, almost totally amorphous comprehensiveness of global Anglicanism—as if to be authentically Anglican amounts to little more than ‘everyone does as they see fit in their own eyes’, to borrow from the book of Judges!
Forty or fifty years ago, people would often try to solve the riddle by saying that at least the denomination has some kind of global coherence through communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury. But now even that’s no longer a given. …”
Image: Archbishop Thomas Cranmer by Gerlach Flicke.
Judgement of the Unrighteous
From Phillip Jensen –
“1 Corinthians 6 opens with a very challenging issue of disputes within the congregation. The Corinthians seem to have blown up these minor disputes into lawsuits against each other.
This raises for us a plethora of issues about resolving disputes inside the church and when it is appropriate and right to take issues beyond the church into public law courts.
I’m sure you will find this issue as complex as Peter and I discovered in our conversation.”
– Listen to Phillip and Peter discuss – at Two Ways News.
JUST WAR & the US, Israel, Iran and Ukraine – with John McClean, Rob Smith & Grant Dibden
From The Pastor’s Heart –
“How should Christians think about war? How does the Biblical Framework of Just War help us understand how we should react to what is happening in the Ukraine, Iran, Israel and south Lebanon.
We go back to first principles drawing on the work of Augustine of Hippo Thomas Aquinas – asking when is it right to go to war — and how must war be conducted? And how do those principles evaluate what’s happening in today’s conflicts?
Joining us are:
• John McClean, Vice Principal of Christ College Sydney,
• Rob Smith, theologian and ethicist and
• Grant Dibden, Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force.
Together we explore how Just War thinking has shaped Western military ethics and whether it is quietly being sidelined.
Plus we examine what the Just War doctrine says about individuals conduct in war, in light of the controversy surrounding Australian Soldier Ben Roberts-Smith.
And how should Christians respond when the emotional weight of real-world conflict hits close.”
Are you a stalled learner?
At SydneyAnglicans.net, Russell Powell speaks with Col Marshall about his new book, Warriors of the Word –
“The premise of the book is that I observe in my own life, and in others – particularly through those mid-years of being Christian – a stalling that takes place, some stagnation. Having learned a lot as a younger Christian, possibly, been involved in church life, even led in various ways. But feeling like it’s all a bit dry and repetitive and not learning much more.
So I wanted to unpack what causes that stalling and then what to do about it around the theme of learning Christ, seeing that that’s the focus of who we are, knowing our Saviour, knowing our Lord. …”
And you can order the book from Matthias Media.
King’s Birthday Conference 2026 set for Monday 8th June
Save the date – From Two Ways Ministries –
“We are only two months away from our annual King’s Birthday Conference!
As in previous years, KBC 2026 will be held on the public holiday Monday, 8 June, from 1:30 -5:00pm at Moore Theological College.
Mark your calendar and stay tuned for more information about registration.”
Revelation 12 and Easter
Mark Powell at AP, the Australian Presbyterian online journal writes,
“It’s easy to become so familiar with the person and work of Jesus that we fail to appreciate the cosmic significance which it had. In particular, what did Christ’s person and work look like from a heavenly perspective? This is where Revelation 12 is so helpful with its ‘unveiling’ regarding the true spiritual significance of what took place in history approximately 2000 years ago.
While I’m sure not many preachers would choose this particular part of God’s Word to preach on at Easter, Revelation 12 has often been viewed by scholars as ‘the centre and the key to the entire book’. In short, as Greg Beale summarises: ‘As a result of Christ’s victory over the devil God protects the messianic community against the Devil’s wrathful harm’.
That’s a message which surely goes to the heart of what the Gospel is all about! Too many preachers shy away from the book of Revelation, so I would like to exhort us to lean into its contents as a powerful way of preaching the victory of Jesus who is the Christ. …”
One thousand people got baptised in Perth on Good Friday. Why?
Steve McAlpine wants us to notice what is happening –
“Most Easter holidays the Swan River would be filled with the sounds of jet-skis and power-boats. This Good Friday, the sound of singing and prayer. There, against the backdrop of those aforementioned skyscrapers, Jesus was proclaimed, no doubt to many a curious onlooker.
Now this does not mean that across the Western world the Sunday roads are blocked as people race off to worship God.
The churches may not be full, the Quiet Revival data may be flawed, but if you’ve been watching this thing for three decades and only seen a trickle of gospel interest, then suddenly BOOM!, you know for sure that something is happening. This is not wish-fulfilment. …”
How to really change a church? – with Archie Poulos and Kirsty Bucknell
This week from The Pastor’s Heart, plenty of food for thought –
“Tinkering or transformation?
How do you change a church, like really change, not just tweak a program or update a roster, but challenge the whole model?
Kodak missed the shift to digital photography. We’ve seen huge changes in industries impacting newspapers, landline telephones, taxis, bank branches, travel agents, street directories, encyclopedias. For each the world moved on.
But have churches missed a revolution too, and if so, what is it?
Archie Poulos from Moore College’s Centre for Ministry Development says we’ve been tinkering around the edges, changing tactics without changing the operating model, especially when our structures were built for a village world while many relationships today are affinity based.
Kirsty Bucknell outlines a change framework to help us bring people with us.”
– Watch here.
The Arrogance of the Moral
From Phillip Jensen –
“Christians in Western society have had a large say in public morality. When appointed the Dean at our cathedral, I was told by several people that my role was to be the moral conscience of society. I thought I was supposed to preach the gospel, but what is the relationship of the gospel to public morality and of the church to the rest of society? 1 Corinthians 5 raises these issues for us; I hope you enjoy our discussion.”
– Hear Peter and Phillip Jensen”s discussion – at Two Ways News.
Did Josephus really write about Jesus?
Published last year, two fascinating interviews from Tyndale House –
“Peter Williams interviews Dr Tom C. Schmidt about his new book, ‘Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One they Call Christ’.
In this episode they tackle the question of whether Josephus’s writing about Jesus was edited by Christians to sound more like the biblical account, or whether it could in fact have been written by Josephus.
In next week’s episode they will discuss whether Josephus could have known people who were present at Jesus’s trial.”
– Part 1 – and Part 2. Just fascinating – especially Part 2.
Related:
Tom Schmidt: How well connected were Josephus and Jesus? – audio interview with Tony Watkins.
An Archaeological discovery may shed light on the Gospel of Luke.
Three Reflections for Good Friday – from Bishop Mark Calder
Three Reflections for Good Friday – from Bishop of Bathurst Mark Calder – on
1. The courtroom scene: Romans 3:21–26
2. The cross scene: 1 Peter 2:21–24
3. The heart of God scene: 1 John 4:9–11.
– Watch here.
Australian Church Record’s Easter 2026 Journal
From The Australian Church Record –
“In this Easter edition of the ACR Journal, we focus our attention on our gatherings and liturgy. Those who are familiar with the Prayer Book will know that we’ve titled this Easter edition in the words of Psalm 95, which is a core part of the liturgy for the daily service of morning prayer. The Psalm has a focus on hearing (‘Today, if you hear his voice’) and it warns its hearers against hardening their hearts in light of hearing the word of God. …”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…