The Anglicans Behind the Bonhoeffer Movie

“When Gafcon emerged to ignite the global Anglican realignment, Emmanuel and Camille Kampouris enthusiastically joined. Recognizing the unique courage of leaders like Peter Akinola, Bob Duncan, and Peter Jensen, they supported the movement every way they could, with Emmanuel taking on a key leadership role.

Around the same time, they also began working on a second passion project, an idea for a movie on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. …”

– From The Anglican Church in North America.

2024 St Antholin Lecture: Evangelicals Before Evangelicalism

Church Society has posted the video of this year’s 2024 St Antholin Lecture.

“In this year’s St Antholin Lecture, Rachel Ciano from Sydney Missionary and Bible College explores the use of the term ‘evangelical’ in the early English Reformation.

This is a fascinating look at how the much-disputed word evangelical first came to be used by enemies of the Reformation, and Rachel Ciano explores what it meant and implied during this formative period in our history.

Can you guess who was the first English person to describe people as evangelical?

The lecture is followed by a time of Q & A with Dr Lee Gatiss and Dr Mark Burkill (Trustees of the St Antholin Lectures), from the livestream of the lecture on the day.”

Watch here.

Eternity: The Power of a Word

“Arthur Malcolm Stace (1885-1967) was a returned Australian soldier who served in in World War I and later became known as ‘Mr Eternity’.

Stace grew up in an impoverished and broken family. His mother handed him over to foster care at the age of seven, and his sisters would end up working as prostitutes.

By the age of 14, Stace was an alcoholic. He would turn to booze to escape his pain and misery. However, all it did was increase the sorrow of his heart. …”

– In this brief sketch at AP, James Jeffery reminds us of the wonderful discovery made by Arthur Stace – and calls us all to live in the light of eternity.

Image: at left, Photo of Arthur Stace by Les Nixon. at right, The Eternity memorial at the waterfall in Sydney Arcade between Town Hall and St. Andrew’s Cathedral.

What Happened on Reformation Day?

“On October 31, much of the culture will be focussed on candy and things that go bump in the night. Protestants, however, have something far more significant to celebrate on October 31.

It’s Reformation day, which commemorates what was perhaps the greatest move of God’s Spirit since the days of the Apostles.

But what is the significance of Reformation Day, and how should we consider the events it commemorates? …”

– At Ligonier Ministries, Robert Rothwell writes about the significance of Reformation Day.

Image: Martin Luther in 1532, by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

J. C. Ryle’s Revival Lessons — Andrew Atherstone

From Church Society’s Fellowship of Word and Spirit Conference –

“Andrew Atherstone examines the lessons on revival to be learned from J. C. Ryle’s writings and ministry–  at the 2024 FWS Conference.”

Fascinating, encouraging and well worth hearing as we seek to reach Sydney for Christ.

– Listen here.

John Newton to William Wilberforce, 15th November 1786

At St. Thomas’ North Sydney yesterday, King Charles and Queen Camilla signed the The First Fleet Bible and the Book of Common Prayer which were carried here by the Rev. Richard Johnson, the first Chaplain to the Colony. Those books are tangible reminders of the commitment of Johnson and those who sent him to bring Good News to these distant shores.

Not long before the Fleet sailed, John Newton wrote to his friend William Wilberforce of their hopes in sending a Chaplain –

“Who can tell what important consequences may depend upon Mr Johnson’s going to New Hollands! It may seem but a small event at present. So a foundation stone, when laid, is small compared with the building to be erected upon it; but it is the beginning and the earnest of the whole.

This small beginning, may be like the dawn, which advances to a bright day, and lead on to the happy time, when many nations, which now sit in darkness, and in the region of the shadow of death, shall rejoice in the light of the Sun of Righteousness.” [Referring to Isaiah 9:2 and Malachi 4:2.]

– From a letter from John Newton to William Wilberforce, 15 November 1786.

(With thanks to Marylynn Rouse – who has more here – at The John Newton Project.)

Video screenshot with thanks to St. Thomas’ North Sydney.

A Cloud of Witnesses: Australian Anglicans in Tanzania – Rev Dr Colin Reed

“The Letter to the Hebrews encourages us with the account of the great cloud of witnesses in the Old Testament – people who lived by faith looking forward to Jesus. The Moore College Archives encourage us with some of the witness of people of more modern times who have stepped out in faith looking to Jesus as they went to serve God in Tanzania. How do they encourage and challenge us today? What shaped their faith? What shaped their passions? What were their aims in mission? How do they ‘strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees’?”

Colin Reed spoke at a Moore College Library Lecture earlier this month. His fascinating lecture will be of great interest to anyone wanting to know more of the history of CMS in East Africa, and many people he mentions will likely be familiar to our readers.

Rev Dr Colin Reed grew up in Africa and (along with his wife Wendy) served with CMS as a missionary in Tanzania, on staff of the NSW & ACT Branch, and as Principal of St Andrew’s Hall.

Over many years, Colin has studied and written on the history of the Church in East Africa.

Watch here.

And on YouTube, there are timestamped links to topics mentioned in the lecture.

Masterful exploration of New Testament context

“For several decades, Dr Paul Barnett delivered lectures on the background to the New Testament to first-year students at Moore College. Generations of future ministers have thereby been exposed to his masterful examination of the geopolitical context in which the New Testament came into being.

Now, with the publication of his latest book, The Trials of Jesus: Evidence, Conclusions, and Aftermath, the fruit of his study of the sociopolitical background to the trials and subsequent crucifixion of Jesus is available for all. …”

– Bishop Glenn Davies reviews Paul Barnett’s latest book – at SydneyAnglicans.net. Anything Paul Barnett publishes is worth reading.

Church Society’s St Antholin Lecture 2024 set for 7th November

“This year’s St Antholin Lecture on Puritan Divinity will be delivered live on the Church Society Facebook page by Dr Rachel Ciano, who is the Dean of Academic Development at Mary Andrews College and lecturer in Christianity in History at Sydney Missionary and Bible College in Australia.

Recently, she was a 2023 Anglican Deaconess Ministries Senior Fellow. She speaks locally and internationally on the intersection between history, theology, and everyday life. Her research and publications are wide-ranging and particularly focus on the sixteenth-century Reformation period.

The subject of this year’s lecture is ‘Evangelicals before Evangelicalism: The use of evangelical in the early English Reformation.’ This is a fascinating topic on how the much-disputed word evangelical first came to be used by enemies of the Reformation, and Dr Ciano will explore what it meant and implied during this formative period in our history. Can you guess who was the first English person to describe people as evangelical? …”

– Details at Church Society.

Books of the Reformation: a Sydney Rare Book Week event

“Printing played a pivotal role in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. The development of the printing press enabled the mass production of written materials, which made it possible to disseminate ideas and religious texts rapidly and widely throughout Europe. The easy access to printed materials allowed people to share theological ideas, which sparked a transformative era in European history.

Take a closer look at early editions of key Reformation texts in Moore Theological College Library with Moore College’s Principal Rev Dr Mark Thompson and Head of Church History Rev Dr Mark Earngey.

Due to its interactive nature, this event will not be livestreamed.”

– from Moore College.

A Cloud of Witnesses: Australian Anglicans in Tanzania

Coming up at Moore College:

“The Letter to the Hebrews encourages us with the account of the great cloud of witnesses in the Old Testament – people who lived by faith looking forward to Jesus.

The Moore College Archives encourage us with some of the witness of people of more modern times who have stepped out in faith looking to Jesus as they went to serve God in Tanzania. How do they encourage and challenge us today? What shaped their faith? What shaped their passions? What were their aims in mission? How do they ‘strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees’?

Speaker – Rev Dr Colin Reed, former CMS missionary.

Colin Reed grew up in Africa. He has served with CMS as a missionary in Tanzania (along with his wife Wendy), on staff of the NSW & ACT Branch, and as Principal of St Andrew’s Hall. Over many years, Colin has studied and written on the history of the Church in East Africa. …”

– Details and registration (free!) at the College website.

Review – Darkness: The Conversion of Anglican Armidale

Presbyterian Minister Graham Barnes reviews Darkness: The Conversion of Anglican Armidale, 1960-2019, by Thomas Fudge.

“Darkness is Professor Fudge’s ‘accidental (p.1)’ book on the history of the Anglican Diocese of Armidale from 1960 to 2019, and the battles between theological liberalism and evangelicalism. The book is thirteen chapters long, 800+ pages, and for the most part theology and history are interwoven.

For Fudge, the watershed moment was the 1964 Election Synod where the evangelical Clive Kerle was elected Bishop of the Diocese. …

Not being an Anglican, and not knowing the individuals nor the events that Fudge seeks to describe, I will try limit this review more to Fudge’s theology, focusing on the earlier and later parts of his book. In truth, many of his comments, in particular about individuals, were poor to say the least.”

– Read the full review at AP.

Related:

Responses to a new book about the recent history of the Diocese of Armidale – 09 April 2024.

“John Chapman led a diocese to go evangelical, and outrage lingers still” – 17 June 2023.

Chappo’s contribution to the Anglican Diocese of Armidale – Tim Stevens, 2014.

John Chapman touched on his time in Armidale several times in this 2012 interview with Richard Chin (on Vimeo). If you only have time for one segment, you may want to jump to 1:13:27. (He recalls events around the 1959 Billy Graham Crusade.)

A Short History of Linking Jesus and Dionysus

“Controversy was stirred by a tableau vivant (‘living picture’) in the Paris Olympic Games Opening Ceremony that performed (or parodied) da Vinci’s The Last Supper. The scene was enacted by a cast of drag queens and a peculiar near-naked man painted head to toe in blue. Enough has been said about the event itself; I want to talk about that man in blue.

The Opening Ceremony’s creative director has since explained that this man represented none other than the Greek god of wine, Dionysus. It raised the question, what was this scene? A mockery of the sacred, or a celebration of the pagan?

I find myself oddly well placed to talk about this.

Two years ago, I completed my doctorate at Cambridge University. My thesis? A contrast between the Gospel of John and the portrayal of Dionysus’s opponents in Euripides’ tragedy, The Bacchae. For three years I immersed myself in this play and took as many classes as I could on Dionysus. And now I discover that my thesis on Greek poetry has real-world application! It’s every doctoral student’s dream come true!…’

– Moore College’s Tom Habib writes at The Gospel Coalition Australia.

It just might be something you could use in conversation.

He notes:

“Two millennia ago, the ancient world began to exchange Dionysus for Jesus. And it seems as though the world now wants to swap back. The tableau vivant at the Opening Ceremony was indeed a living picture of our world today.”

Eric Liddell: The Olympic Champion who ran God’s Race in the Internment Camp

“With the approaching of the 33rd Summer Olympics in Paris on July 26, many people especially Christians are remembering Eric Liddell (1902-1945).

Powerfully depicted in the 1981 Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire as the “Flying Scotsman”, Liddell demonstrated to the world a strong Christian conviction. Appreciated or criticised, he refused to run any race on any Sunday, even at the cost of gold medals. However, his missionary work in war-torn China from 1925 to 1945 is less known, and even less known is his Christ-like living in the Japanese concentration camp in China. …”

– At AP, Sonia Liang reminds us of the often-overlooked story of Eric Liddell.

Photo: Eric Liddell at the British Empire vs. USA (Relays) meeting held at Stamford Bridge, London on Saturday 19 July 1924. Public domain, via Wikipedia.

Fact-Checking a popular story of Christian origins

“The latest book by bestselling author and controversial Australian feminist Clementine Ford is I Don’t: The Case Against Marriage (Allen & Unwin, 2023).

She wants this book to not only dissuade people from getting married but also ‘to end marriages’, because of the harm they bring to women.

This article isn’t about her main thesis, but the striking way she begins her case against marriage. The very first step Ford takes is to outline the history of Christianity and so discount the moral authority of the church. …”

– Robert Martin at Northcote Baptist Church in Melbourne does a spot of fact-checking for The Gospel Coalition Australia. This could be helpful if you have friends who are reading the book.

Related:

Who will champion marriage? – Marriage Foundation via Anglican Mainstream. The linked story includes some interesting charts.

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