Indigenous Australians and the Christian Gospel – with Michael Duckett
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“As we approach ‘Aboriginal Sunday’ (19 January) we focus on the progress of the gospel among the indigenous in Australia.
What are the cultural changes and what openness to Jesus Christ among Indigenous Australians?
Where are we seeing growth? What are the roadblocks and opportunities for the growth of the gospel among the indigenous communities? How much has to do with the soil. How much has to do with things that we can change?
Michael Duckett leads the Anglican Indigenous Ministry at Macarthur/Campbelltown in the far south west of Sydney and Chairs the Sydney Anglican Indigenous Ministry Committee.”
– Watch or listen here. Food for your prayers!
Related:
William Cooper – Wikipedia article.
Anglican Aid’s 2025 Prayer Diary
Anglican Aid have published their 2025 Prayer Diary as a PDF file on their website.
If you don’t receive a printed copy at church, this is a great alternative.
And don’t forget that you can also subscribe to Anglican Aid’s feed in the PrayerMate app for the content from the Prayer Diary.
Justin Welby: a professional obituary
“Monday 6 January marked the last working day of Justin Welby as Archbishop Canterbury.
His resignation was forced on him after his failure to act competently in the oversight of a devastating sexual abuse scandal. But it would be unfair to take that single act of incompetence and use it as a lens to judge his entire performance as Archbishop. Tragic though the end of his tenure was, we need to look at the other elements of the way he held office in order to assess it fairly. …”
– Gavin Ashenden – former Anglo-Catholic bishop and now member of the Roman Catholic Church – shares his personal evaluation of Justin Welby’s tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury. At Christian Today.
Photo: Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.
Dyslexia-Friendly Bibles now available in ESV & CSB
This video from Tim Wildsmith (who makes videos about Bible design) highlights the arrival of “Dyslexia-Friendly Bibles”.
These are typeset by 2K/DENMARK, who are well-known for their experience in Bible typesetting.
Here’s a promotional video from Crossway about their ESV Holy Bible: Dyslexia-Friendly Edition, due to be published in March 2025. (It can be pre-ordered from Reformers in Sydney, and, doubtless, other Christian bookshops.)
From Crossway:
“Approximately 17 percent of the global population has dyslexia, yet many do not have the proper resources to easily read God’s Word. The ESV Holy Bible: Dyslexia-Friendly Edition features a specialized typeface and typesetting to help those with dyslexia read the Bible with more clarity and comfort.”
(No, this is not an advertisement. Many people will benefit from these Bibles.)
‘The Woke Will Regroup’ — Albert Mohler interviewed on Dual Citizens
In the latest Dual Citizens podcast from David Ould and Stephen McAlpine –
“Steve and Dave speak with Dr. Albert Mohler to explore the implications of Trump’s re-election on American Christianity. He candidly shares his evolving stance on Trump, the persistence of ‘woke’ ideology, and the role of American evangelicals during a time of societal upheaval. He navigates the complexities of faith in a politically charged era, offering a beacon for Evangelicals in a changing landscape.
Dr. Mohler also engages with Christian nationalism, examining how faith and national identity can coexist without overshadowing the Gospel’s universal message. He invites us to ponder our dual citizenship, emphasising the eternal over the temporal.”
Growth and Change and Preaching (Part 2)
“Heard raises a valid concern—that a ‘just be faithful’ ministry mindset for preachers and church leaders might excuse some preachers for sermons that are poorly prepared and regularly fail to connect with the lives, hearts and wills of their congregations.
To address this in ministry more broadly, Heard points to the creational norms expressed in wisdom literature which operate outside and inside the church. For example…”
– The Expository Preaching Trust has published Part 2 of David Burge’s reflections from Andrew Heard’s book Growth and Change (Matthias Media, 2024).
See Part 1 here.
2025 Summer Reading Guide
From SydneyAnglicans.net –
“Sunshine, salty air and waves crashing – we’re diving into summer! Here’s a list of books we’ve reviewed over the past year you could read on those lazy days by the water (or hot afternoons hiding inside with air conditioning!). …”
Reflections on Preaching at a funeral
“In 2024 I attended some evangelical Christian funeral services; an unevangelical Christian funeral service; a Greek Orthodox funeral service; a secular funeral service.
There is no doubt that the blessings of our faith are most obvious at our funeral services.
In a previous blog I have written about planning for one’s own funeral, but now I want to address the subject of the funeral sermon. …”
– Here’s some help and encouragement from David Cook at The Expository Preaching Trust.
(Photo: Funeral procession in Queen Street, Chippendale, late 19th Century.)
1700 Years after Nicaea — Credo Magazine
A new issue of Credo magazine is out, with a focus on the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity:
“Without the doctrine of the Trinity we have no Christianity. So, something is fundamentally wrong when countless churchgoers and churches today never say the Nicene Creed together on a Sunday morning. In fact, some have never heard of the Nicene Creed at all.
The year 2025 is the anniversary of the Nicene Creed, meaning this year is a strategic opportunity for pastors everywhere to put the creed back in the church where it belongs. In this new issue of Credo Magazine, we explain why the creed should not only inform the doctrine of the church but its worship, pervading its liturgy. No longer can the church afford to go without that creed which brings us into fellowship with the communion of the saints and summons us into communion with the holy Trinity. …”
– Worth reflecting on the first three sentences – and reading through some of the articles in this issue.
From the first featured article, A Map to Organise Wonder:
“The Nicene Creed, written in 325 years then ratified and expanded in 381 at the Council of Constantinople, represents a doctrinal map seeking to organize the greatest Wonder within all the cosmos: the Triune God. It is not a replacement for the Wonder itself but helps pilgrims on the journey towards the Celestial City. The Creed prompts us to marvel at True Wonder as we progressively encounter his beauty before reaching him in glory. Thus, without the Nicene Creed, Christians are in danger of being lost in a sea of doctrinal and moral confusion. Whether evangelical Christians recite the Creed in gathered worship or not, we are indebted to the theological luminaries of the fourth century. To jettison the Creed is like disabling a GPS in an unknown territory.”
The Lost Coin
“In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of a woman who has lost a coin and sweeps her entire house looking for it. It’s clearly not a large coin. It’s clearly not laying in the middle of the floor. It’s probably a smaller coin – somewhere in a corner.
Reflecting on that lost coin, I am left wondering about the lost souls in the world today. Particularly those whom none of us are trying to reach. …”
– 9Marks has republished this article by Mark Dever which encourages us to think about how we might reach those in minority language groups.
Related:
A very useful resource – the 5Fish app – from Global Recordings Network.
After 150 years of Christian compassion Leprosy is nearly defeated
“In November, people from nearly thirty countries gathered in New Delhi for the 150th anniversary of The Leprosy Mission. they thanked God for amazing progress in treating the disease and committed to strive for a world without leprosy by 2035. A world without leprosy is within sight. With improved preventative medication, diagnostic tests, and even vaccines, the tools and knowledge needed to end leprosy are in our grasp.
‘It was a marvellous time of celebrating the progress we’ve made, but also longing to finish the job,’ said Greg Clarke, the CEO of The Leprosy Mission Australia (TLMA).…”
– This article by Anne Lim at The Gospel Coalition Australia is a great encouragement. It’s also a reminder of the key work of Australian doctors such as Grace Warren.
Photo: Dr Grace Warren meeting Diana, Princess of Wales, Anandaban Hospital, Nepal, 1993. From Leprosy Mission Australia.
The new Federal privacy tort and religious freedom
Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia alerts churches to a possible legal complication:
“In the closing Parliamentary days of 2024, the Australian Federal Parliament created a new statutory privacy tort action, which may have a significant impact on churches and other religious groups. In the context of a possible disciplinary action against someone who has behaved contrary to the principles of a religious group to which they belong, it may be necessary to inform other members of the group about the person’s behaviour. In doing so the group will be in danger of breaching a right of privacy set up by the new law. The tort action (which will probably come into operation on 11 June 2025) seems to cut across important rights of religious freedom, and the exemptions under the law do not take this into account.
In this post I aim to outline some aspects of the operation of the new law, and recommend that before it commences Parliament provide specific recognition of religious freedom as an exemption to the availability of the action. …”
Image: Associate Professor Neil Foster speaking at a Diocese of Sydney Safe Ministry conference.
A Primer on Roman Catholic Apologetics Targeting Evangelicals
“In the late 19th century, liberal theology predicted the end of apologetics as the child of an entrenched, defensive, and doctrinaire faith. It was wrong. Apologetics is alive and well, especially on the web, where initiatives aimed at comparing different interpretations of the gospel (e.g. Roman Catholic, Orthodox, evangelical) flourish.
It can be said that YouTube has become the encyclopedia where one can find apologetic comparisons and confrontations of all kinds. The field that is emerging as a growing reality is that of Roman Catholic apologetics, especially targeting evangelicals. This seems to be primarily a North American phenomenon where religious discourse has always been characterized by religious pluralism, strong passions associated with religion, and multiple changes of religious affiliation in people’s lives.
Traditionally, American evangelicals have been proactive in evangelizing Catholics with a specific intentionality. The result is that so many American evangelicals were born Catholic and became evangelicals later in life, thanks to Billy Graham’s campaigns and the many parachurch initiatives dedicated to evangelism in universities, for example.
This is no longer the case. …”
– At Vatican Files, Leonardo De Chirico alerts evangelical Christians of something relatively new.
Related:
Same words. Different worlds. Reaching Roman Catholics. – On the Pastor’s Heart, Dominic Steele speaks with Leonardo De Chirico and Rachel Ciano on understanding our Roman Catholic friends and sharing the saving news of Jesus with them.
Image: Leonardo De Chirico spoke at the NSW & ACT CMS Summer School in January 2023.
An Australian Creed for Sexual Integrity
From Mark Powell at AP, the Australian Presbyterian national journal:
“Glenn Davies, the current bishop for the Diocese of the Southern Cross and former Archbishop of Sydney, discusses why he helped to produce an Australian creed for sexual integrity.
This document seeks to faithfully uphold the teaching of the Bible and provide a positive vision for human flourishing.”
See The Australian Creed for Sexual Integrity.
Also mentioned:
Diocese of The Southern Cross.
Presbyterians extend hand of fellowship to Bishop of the Diocese of the Southern Cross – August 2022.
2025 Summer Prayer Diary
Tara Sing at SydneyAnglicans.net has produced a very helpful resource:
“It’s summertime and we’re getting out into the sunshine, sharing the good news of the gospel and diving deep in understanding the word of God.
With the weeks packed with camps, conferences and missions, we’ve put together an eight-day prayer diary featuring some of the great kingdom initiatives that we can bring before the Lord. …”
– Find it here.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…