Christian singing: Why and how? (Ephesians 5:19–20)

“Christian music is one of the most powerful and enduring ways to teach theology. Singing gets under our skin and into our souls. So the words really matter, at a detailed level. We repeat those words again and again and learn to love them. …”

– Lionel Windsor continues on his journey through Ephesians and encourages us to think about what we are doing (and not doing) when we sing in church. Read or listen at Forget the Channel.

The vulnerable pastor — with Peter Adam

In the latest Pastors Heart video, Dominic Steele speaks with Peter Adam in a very personal and encouraging interview. Watch or listen here.

The Draft Religious Discrimination Bill and possible impact on healthcare professionals

Associate Professor Neil Foster presented a paper tonight on the topic “The Draft Religious Discrimination Bill and possible impact on healthcare professionals” at the meeting of the Newcastle University Clinical Unit in Ethics and Health Law.

He has made his paper available for download at Law and Religion Australia.

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.

Churches need to be more like the world?

“I’ve just read Nikki Gemmell’s latest contribution to The Weekend Australian, ‘Why the Anglican church must evolve or die’.

At first, I assumed this must be satire, for the essence of her argument is that for Churches to succeed they need to become more like majority culture!

‘the majority of Australians do support same-sex marriage. It feels like the archbishop is damaging his church and Jesus’s teachings of tolerance, gentleness and inclusivity.’

‘The church has been on the wrong side of public opinion recently on abortion as well as same-sex marriage. It’s slowly killing itself by refusing to open its heart to others.‘ …

Without question, Gemmell’s call to the Anglican Church sounds almost identical to what Jesus says, in a misutopian Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy kind of way…”

– Murray Campbell in Melbourne takes a look at Nikki Gemmell’s Commentary published today.

Photo: Nikki Gemmell courtesy of The Australian.

I support Sydney’s Anglicans

“The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, has been getting some rough treatment of late, aided largely by media coverage that either deliberately or negligently took his words out of context. …

The media portrayal of him as someone who was asking the faithful who struggle with the teaching on marriage and sexuality to leave was unjust and it, too, needs to be called out.”

– Monica Doumit, Director, Public Affairs and Engagement for the Archdiocese of Sydney, writes in The Catholic Weekly.

FREE2BME Religious Freedom Event in Blacktown, Monday 18 November

Mark Tough, Rector of St. Clement’s Lalor Park and Kings Langley, is advertising a Religious Freedom Event on Monday November 18 at 7pm at the Bowman Hall in Blacktown.

He writes, “We have a great line up of speakers – John Steenhof from the Human Rights Law Alliance, Professor Michael Quinlan from the University of Notre Dame Australia, Michelle Rowland MP the Federal Member for Greenway, and the Hon. John Anderson AO, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.

The event is free but people need a ticket in order to gain entry. Tickets can be obtained at https://www.trybooking.com/BFRMK.”

Download the flyer (1.6MB PDF file) with all the details, and be encouraged to share it widely. See also the Free2BMe Facebook page.

Mark Tough has recorded this video to encourage you to come along.

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.

“Who Am I?” A Sydney Anglican Female Perspective

“My favourite moment of my favourite musical comes when Les Miserable’s protagonist breaks into his moment of existential crisis. “Who am I?”, he lyrically wails.

As I read Julia Baird’s latest offering about the caricatured, oppressed, silenced and invisible women of the Sydney Anglican Diocese (“In praise of the oddities and outliers resisting bonkers fundamentalism in Sydney”, SMH Oct 26th), I found myself having my very own Jean Val Jean moment (though, sadly, without the accompanying symphony). Who am I? I’m an ordained member of the Sydney Anglican clergy. But I’m also a woman. …”

– The Australian Church Record has published an expanded version of an article by Dani Treweek which was first published in The Sydney Morning Herald.

What has the Sydney Morning Herald got against Anglican women?

“I love the word bonkers. My mum used to say it all the time, and I just don’t seem to hear it often enough anymore. That was until Julia Baird used it in a piece for The Sydney Morning Herald, to describe the position many Sydney Anglicans hold regarding the role of women in the church. Yet I want to suggest the reason people hold this view isn’t quite as muddled headed as Baird might presume. …”

– Writing at Spectator Australia, Archdeacon Kara Hartley responds to an article in the SMH.

Marriage motions passed as General Synod support questioned

“If we abandon God’s Word we have nothing to offer the world. That is why this motion is before you tonight,” said the Dean of Sydney Kanishka Raffel as he introduced one of the key motions of the 2019 Synod, one which he said he moved ‘with a heavy heart’.

“My heaviness of heart is because the motion before you addresses not a departure from God’s word in the laws of the land but a departure from God’s word that is being promoted by Bishops and Synods in our Church.” Dean Raffel said. “There is one God and Father of us all, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism – but Bishops and Synods in our church nationally, risk rending the fabric of our fellowship by promoting a theology of marriage that is contrary to Scripture.”

The motion followed the Archbishop’s Presidential Address where he spoke of at least two Dioceses pushing to bless same-sex relationships. A ten-point motion, seconded by Bishop Michael Stead, reaffirmed man/woman marriage as the doctrine of scripture and of the Anglican Church, declared that blessings or affirmations of same-sex marriage are contrary to scripture and called for action where the doctrine was not being upheld.…

– Read the full report by Russell Powell at Anglican Media Sydney.

Moore College Spring Carnival, Saturday 26 October

“A day to come along and check out the College, get an insight into Moore’s in-depth theological training, tour our new building, plus have all your questions answered by faculty and students. A presentation overviewing the College is followed by a tour of the new building with lunch to follow. Meals are our shout, but RSVP is essential for catering purposes.”

– Details from Moore College.

The Stingy Religious?

“According to a highly publicised 2015 paper in Current Biology, children who have been brought up religiously are less generous than their religion-free peers.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that only in the last couple of months and some four years after the event, it’s now reported in Psychology Today that the paper has been formally retracted …”

– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Gordon Cheng points us to the Bible’s teaching on generosity.

The Bible and Same-Sex Marriage: An Overview from Ridley College

“Our purpose in writing this brief letter is to support our fellow Anglicans in wrestling with this issue by offering a summary of the scholarly discussion over what the Bible teaches on homosexuality, and an explanation for why we believe the traditional path on marriage and sexuality is the one that Christ is calling us to take.”

– Ridley College, Melbourne, has issued an open letter affirming the Biblical doctrine of marriage.

As David Ould notes, this is a significant contribution to the conversation among Australian Anglicans, especially in the light of the unilateral action of the Diocese of Wangaratta.

The ACL’s Pre-Synod Podcast

Check out the ACL’s 2019 Pre-Synod Briefing Podcast to get a feel for some of the key issues coming up at Sydney Synod.

Produced by the Anglican Church League as a service to members of Synod.

Listen here.

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