GAFCON devotions with Bp Michael Nazir Ali
For the month of July 2020, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali is writing and recording daily devotions (“Lift up your hearts”) for GAFCON.
Read/listen or subscribe here.
“Eternity to be proclaimed above Sydney Harbour” — Friday 5th June
Here’s a media release relating to a planned documentary on Arthur Stace:
“20 years after ETERNITY was shared with the world at the Sydney Millennium Fireworks and in the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the one-word sermon will appear above the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Friday 5 June at 8.30am. (and again at 3:00pm)
John Chapman: Encouragement for Evangelism
“Do you really believe the gospel can convert your friends?”
[We posted this in February 2020. The pandemic is an excellent time to be reminded of this encouragement.]
In June and July 1977, the Sydney University Evangelical Union ran a major campus-wide mission. It was a big undertaking for the members of the SUEU, and a great blessing to many at the university.
John Chapman (Director of the Department of Evangelism in Sydney Diocese from 1969) and Paul Barnett (Rector of Holy Trinity Adelaide since 1973, and previously Rector of St. Barnabas Broadway) were the missioners.
Several months before the Mission, SUEU President Adrian Lane asked Chappo to record some words of encouragement for SUEU members. This 6 minute and 34 second tape is the result. We hope you find it a real encouragement.
Or right click on this link to download the 3.2MB mp3 file.
Related:
Phillip Jensen on Chappo, March 2013. – The Briefing, Matthias Media.
The preaching of John Chapman – Simon Manchester, The Briefing.
John Chapman – a personal reflection from Mark Thompson.
John Charles Chapman (Chappo) – by David Cook.
Chappo’s contribution to the Anglican Diocese of Armidale – Tim Stevens.
Archbishop Sir Marcus Loane remembers the beginnings of the SUEU – ACL.
(1980 photo: AFES.)
Dick Lucas and The Proclamation Trust
Here’s an encouraging and enlightening video about the origins of The Proclamation Trust.
The Culture of Death Reclaims Ground in Germany: A Renewed Threat to Human Life
“When suicide becomes an option, it will not just be one option among others. We can easily see the deathly logic inherent in the loss of human dignity as a pillar of society. The most vulnerable and aging will be told, at some point, ‘You have simply become too expensive. Healthcare resources are wasted on you because you have no hope of recovery. You need to get out of the way in order to free up needed medical funds and resources for others.’
It won’t be said exactly in those words – that would be too intellectually honest for this worldview. But make no mistake, that is indeed the internal reasoning of a worldview system that utterly rejects human dignity and the sanctity of life. …”
– Albert Mohler writes bluntly about the past and the future of the Culture of Death. Well worth reading.
Archbishop Sir Marcus Loane remembers the beginnings of the Sydney University Evangelical Union
Forty years ago, members of the Sydney University Evangelical Union were thanking God as they remembered the founding of the SUEU in 1930.
They marked the jubilee by proclaiming Christ in ‘The Jubilee Mission’.
As part of the preparations, on 30 April 1980, then Archbishop of Sydney, Sir Marcus Loane spoke at the SUEU’s End of Term Service.
In his 19 minute address, Sir Marcus recalls the beginnings of the Evangelical Union, fifty years earlier.
Listen on this page in our Resources section.
Most encouraging.
Giving thanks for Richard Johnson
This Australia Day long weekend, pause to give thanks to the Lord for the Rev. Richard Johnson, Chaplain to the First Fleet and first Chaplain to the Colony of New South Wales.
232 years ago this weekend, the First Fleet arrived at Farm Cove. 232 years ago next weekend, Johnson preached at the first church service at Farm Cove.
Read about Richard Johnson and pray that the Lord will call many into the service of Christ’s gospel in our land.
Spiritual Formation: the rise of a tradition
“Spiritual formation” seems to be an innocuous phrase, for Christians; a good thing to do, what we would want for ourselves and others. It is in use in general church circles, and in more formal literature. In particular, if one investigates developments concerning theological education, it is very clear that spiritual formation is what theological education should be about. …
“Spiritual formation” seems a reasonable thing for Christians to do, but what exactly does it mean, and why is it seen as the main purpose of theological education? …
– Church Society has published some excerpts from an article by Kirsty Birkett in the current issue of Churchman.
On Preaching, the Supper, and the Unity of the Church
“Recently, the well-known pastor and author Francis Chan made some alarming comments about preaching, the Lord’s Supper, and the unity of the church.
In this episode of Pastors’ Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever, Bobby Jamieson, and Mark Feather about Chan’s comments in particular and the topics of preaching, the Supper, and unity more generally.”
– Listen here.
Attending to the National Soul: Book launch Thursday 12 December
Here’s an invitation to all ACL members and others interested in Australian history:
Attending to the National Soul – Evangelical Christians in Australian History 1914 – 2014 by Stuart Piggin and Robert D. Linder follows the highly awarded book The Fountain of Public Prosperity – Evangelical Christians in Australian History 1740–1914, which was published in 2018.
Both volumes are the result of thirty years’ research and writing. Read more
Reformation Day 2019 Acquisition for Moore College
“To mark Reformation Day this year (2019), Moore Theological College is pleased to announce the acquisition of an important Martin Luther volume. This particular book is the sixth part of the great Wittenberg Reformer’s Books and Writings published in 1557. …”
– Read the news at the Moore College website.
Remembering the Reformation
“As one who loves to read history, I have never quite shared the desire to keep anniversaries. It often seems that the louder the celebration, the more distorted the message, and history gets replaced by lessons in civics. But October is Reformation month, and 31 October 1517 is as convincing a date as any to remember as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. …”
– Presbyterian Moderator-General Peter Barnes encourages us to remember the Reformation.
Books of the Reformation: An Interactive Exhibition
On Monday, 28 October 20129, from 6:30 pm, Moore College is running a free event as part of the NSW State Library’s Sydney Rare Book Week.
Seeing God at Ground Zero: an Aussie’s testimony from 9/11
“A meteorologist would tell you there were sprawling areas of high pressure, but to me it was simply a picture-perfect day for my last full day in New York, and an opportunity to explore the tourist hot spots.
First on the list was the viewing observatory inside the World Trade Center’s South Tower. It was Tuesday, September 11, 2001. …”
– At The Australian Church Record, Anthony Phillips reflects on his experience, and the lessons he learned from that day in New York.
Donald Robinson on the Origins of the Anglican Church League
by Lionel Windsor
History matters. It makes us question things we take for granted, it helps us to understand who we are, and it gives us a broader perspective on the issues we face today. One example – relevant for evangelical Anglicans, especially in Sydney – is an essay in Donald Robinson Selected Works, volume 4 (recently published by the Australian Church Record and Moore College).
The essay is called “The Origins of the Anglican Church League” (pp. 125–52). It’s a republication of a paper given in 1976 by Donald Robinson (1922–2018), former Moore College Vice-Principal and later Archbishop of Sydney. In the paper, Robinson traces some of the currents and issues that led to the formation of the Anglican Church League in the early twentieth century. The essay is classic Donald Robinson: full of surprises, yet definitely still worth reading today to help us gain perspective on issues for evangelical Anglicans past and present.
One surprise in the essay is that Robinson doesn’t say very much about the Anglican Church League itself! That’s because he’s not too sure about how it started. About two thirds of the way through the paper, after describing in some detail several predecessors to the ACL, he notes:
You will be wondering what has happened to my subject, the Origins of the Anglican Church League. To tell the truth, I am at a loss to give a clear explanation of its origins, or to trace the steps by which it was organised. (144)
So if you’re looking for a detailed history of the ACL over the twentieth century, this essay is probably not for you.[1] But if you’re looking for some key insights into issues that evangelical Anglicans faced in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and some helpful perspectives on where we’re at today, this essay is certainly worth delving into!
1. Issues leading to the ACL’s Formation
At the turn of the twentieth century, evangelical Anglicans were deeply concerned by two issues: an alarming increase in “ritualism”, and a (related) alarming increase in the authority of bishops. This might seem surprising to us today. When we look around at worldwide Anglicanism, we can take for granted that there is a lot of ritual, and that bishops have quite a lot of power. But it wasn’t always so – and in the nineteenth century, these things weren’t a “given”. Nevertheless, they were on the rise, and evangelicals were trying to stop them. Robinson mentions, for example, the Churchman’s Alliance, which was formed in 1893 as a response to increasing “ritualism” and as a counterpoint to societies that had formed to promote Anglo-Catholicism (133–35). The purpose of the Church Alliance was “To maintain and diffuse abroad the principles Catholic and Protestant of our holy religion” (134).
Robinson devotes much of his paper to a group called the Protestant Church of England Union (PCEU), which owed much to the efforts of Canon Mervyn Archdall (135–39). Significant for the PCEU was promotion of Reformation preaching, and regular prayer meetings were a core of their work (139, 142). The key issues the PCEU faced and sought to address were (140):
- The Lambeth Conference in England which had begun to claim too much authority for bishops in being able to change the liturgy of the church.
- The fact that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York had taken on themselves authority to speak for the whole Anglican communion.
As I mentioned above, we might feel these things are a “given” for today’s Anglican Communion. But at the time, Lambeth and the power of Canterbury weren’t so central for Anglicanism. And evangelicals saw the increasing power of Lambeth and Canterbury as a real problem. The object of the new PCEU (1898) was:
to maintain and extend the efficiency of the Church of England as the original representative of evangelical truth and apostolic order in our country, and as a witness to the principles of the Reformation. (141–42)
So the PCEU promoted constitutional government over against the authority of bishops (144).
2. The ACL’s Formation
What of the ACL itself? According to Robinson, it was founded at some point between 1909–1912, around the election of Archbishop Wright, though the exact circumstances weren’t easy for Robinson to discern (145). Constitutionally, the ACL was affiliated with the English National Church League (NCL), who saw prayer book revision and ritualism as key issues that needed to be addressed (146). It appears that the ACL started as a group that was a little more “centrist” than the PCEU. Robinson writes:
In 1914 we find Canon Gerard D’Arcy Irvine saying that the ACL “stood for central churchmanship, which implied spiritual, strong, and scholarly churchmanship, and fought for the principles of the Reformation upon which the character of future generations depended”… His use of the term “central churchmanship”… reflected the view of the evangelicals that their position was not a partisan position, but was true to the central and authentic character of the Church of England as “catholic, apostolic, protestant, and reformed”. (148)
However, as time went on, conservative evangelicals realised the need for the ACL to be even stronger on Reformation principles against a growing trend of liberalism. Thus, by 1933 the ACL had come to a place where it was opposing not only ritualism, but also liberalism (149).
Even though the ACL was (and still is) constituted as a national body, Robinson notes that the ACL’s main influence has always been within Sydney:
It does not seem to have succeeded to any extent as a national body, though it promoted consultation and offered advice in connection with some elections of country bishops in NSW. Without doubt it consolidated the strength of evangelicals in Sydney, and almost all diocesan leaders have been associated with it at some time or other. (151)
3. What can we learn?
Robinson’s paper is not a comprehensive historical treatise, but it is a fascinating historical reflection. What can we learn from this history?
Firstly, we can gain some worthwhile historical perspective. Ritualism, the authority of bishops, and liberalism are not simply “givens” for Anglicanism! They do not define historic Anglicanism; in fact, not too long ago, they were innovations that needed to be protected against. This perspective can give us renewed courage to continue to defend, promote, and maintain historic, evangelical, reformed Anglicanism.
Secondly, this history reminds us that constitutional, rather than episcopal, government, is definitely worth maintaining and promoting. In our own situation in Sydney, where historically the bishops have by and large been friendly to the evangelical faith, we could feel we can relax and hand more power over to the bishops for the sake of efficiency. But bishops, like all of us, are fallible human beings. Increasing episcopal power is something to continue to watch, and we should be alert to the need to maintain constitutional government.
How do we do that? By all of us (clergy and laity) getting in there, doing the work of governance, finding people for committees to help make decisions for the good of the gospel in the Diocese, and not leaving it all up to the bishops. Robinson’s paper reminds us that the work of the ACL continues to be a significant one for the cause of the gospel and the salvation of men and women, in our own city and diocese, and beyond.
The Rev Dr Lionel Windsor
ACL Council Member and Moore College Lecturer.
Endnotes:
[1] Some further research on these matters has been done by others. For a general history of the ACL, see Ed Loane’s talk at the ACL Centenary dinner in 2009. See also Judd & Cable, Sydney Anglicans, Sydney: AIO, 2000 (Stephen Judd’s PhD was on the ACL).
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…