Talking Back to Death
“One of the most anguished stories I’ve ever read was about what happened to Martin Luther’s daughter Magdalena. Barely fourteen years of age, she was stricken with the plague.
Broken-hearted, Luther knelt beside her bed and begged God to release her from the pain. When she had died and the carpenters were nailing down the lid of her coffin, Luther screamed out: ‘Hammer away! On doomsday she’ll rise again.”…”
– At AP, Mark Powell, with help from John McClean, speaks of every Christian’s sure confidence.
‘The hardest talk I’ve ever given: Loving God’ – with Ray Galea
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“‘God wants all of me to love all of God all the time’ says Senior Pastor of Fellowship Dubai, Ray Galea.
We want our staff and leaders to live and serve in ministry out of an overflow of the love of God for them. Grasping this love properly lifts our service from duty to desire.
As pastors we are so committed and focused on encouraging our congregations to love God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strengths. But do we stop to consider that our own love for God might be the limiting factor?
The pastor’s love for God will be a limiting factor for the congregation’s love for God. If we do not truly have hearts for God, how could we possibly lead others to the same?…”
Armidale Preaching Conference Review
From The Expository Preaching Trust:
“On 6-7 May we held a fully subscribed Preaching Conference in St Peter’s Cathedral, Armidale.
The conference was sponsored by the Trust and co chaired by Rod Chiswell, the Bishop of Armidale, and David Cook of the Trust. …”
– Read here.
LLF Working Groups – is it just the next step on the travelator?
“The Church of England finally announced the membership of the three Working Groups that will continue the work of implementing the outcomes of Living in Love and Faith. The press release says that the role of the Working Groups is to:
‘…feed into the Programme Board, helping to shape recommendations to be presented for consideration at the House and College of Bishops ahead of bringing an outline proposal to the July meeting of the General Synod.’…”
– This piece, published a few days ago at Anglican Futures, argues that the process within the Church of England has been well organised to provide the desired result.
Inside the hidden assumption in Albanese’s ‘misinformation’ bill that undermines its entire premise
“As Claire Lehman of the Quillet puts it: ‘In universities across the world, humanities departments have, over time, come to reject the notion that there is such a thing as objective truth.’
If they are right, there is no point in any debate or discussion about either the news or our opinions of the news. …”
– At Sky News Australia, Kel Richards points out the fatal flaw in all ‘misinformation’ legislation.
The church as our village
For Mother’s Day, SydneyAnglicans.net has published a version of a talk Jocelyn Loane gave the Mothers’ Union Sydney conference in March:
“During COVID lockdowns I started collecting memes about parenting to get the vibe of how the internet portrays being a mum.
I came across memes that played on the old African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child. One said this: ‘They say it takes a village. I believe it also takes a vineyard’. Which might tell you something about how people found those months of home learning! …”
– Read it here.
The heavens declare the glory of God
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” – Psalm 19:1.
Photo: Aurora Australis as seen from Tasmania, 11 May 2024.
The risen Lord of life and ministry: A sermon on John 21
Moore College’s Lionel Windsor preached on John chapter 21 in the College chapel earlier this week.
Outline: John 21: A strange commissioning
1–3 The in-between time.
4–14 Trying to catch fish? – Jesus has it sorted.
15–17 Feeling a failure? – Jesus has just the job for you.
18–23 Suffering & out of control? Jesus knows all about it.
24–25 The things we really need to know.
Save the date for Anglican Aid’s 2024 Conference
From Anglican Aid in Sydney:
“We are thrilled to announce that Anglican Aid’s 2024 one-day conference will take place on Saturday 31 August at Moore College.
After the success of last year’s ‘Social Justice Reframed’ event, we will once again gather with 200 thoughtful Christians to consider the intersection of Christian aid, development, and the gospel.
This year’s international guest speaker is Bishop Mwita Akiri, Anglican Aid’s partner in the Diocese of Tarime, Tanzania and Chairman of GAFCON Tanzania. …”
TGC announces new list of ‘Best Commentaries’
“In the spirit of Don Carson’s New Testament Commentary Survey, TGC Council members, staff, and expert writers have worked together to compile an annotated list of the best commentaries on each Bible book.
This project leverages the collective wisdom of scholars and church leaders who have devoted years to training the next generation in biblical scholarship and expositional preaching. Our goal has been to serve you – pastors, ministry leaders, and laypeople in local churches – by pointing you to the best resources available. …”
– A helpful resource from The Gospel Coalition.
(Many of our readers will think of other commentaries which are worthy of inclusion, but this list is a good start.)
Justin Welby left Spinning
Comment from Anglican Futures:
“The Primates Meeting has been wonderful,” declared the Archbishop of Canterbury in the official Press Release.
But his face at the Press Conference suggested that it had also been exhausting, which might explain why he appeared to struggle to give coherent answers when it came to some pretty simple questions. …
– Read here.
Four Reasons to Preach the Psalms as a Book
“Since the 1980s, scholarship has devoted serious attention to the shape of the Psalter. While viewing the Psalms as a book has not filtered into popular consciousness yet, pastors and preachers may have discovered this argument in recent commentaries, such as James M. Hamilton’s excellent volumes.
Preaching the Psalter as a book might at first seem like a difficult task, but it’s well worth it. Here are four reasons why. …”
– At 9Marks, Davy Ellison in Northen Ireland points to a helpful way of reading (and preaching) the Psalms.
Saving ‘The Quiet Time’
Joshua Bovis at St. John’s Tamworth shares this message he wrote for his parish newsletter. We hope you will find it an encouragement to read and pray:
Saving ‘The Quiet Time’
I was introduced to the practice known as ‘The Quiet Time’ not long after I became a Christian. As someone whom has not been given the gift of silence by our Heavenly Father, (still working at it), quiet times were not often practiced. Turns out ‘The Quiet Time’ refers to the practice of spending time alone with God in prayer and in His Word. Yet over time, I had noticed that although the term ‘quiet time’ does not appear in the Holy Scriptures, these two seemingly benign words on their own often engender enormous guilt in the Christian’s life.
Of course, we all know (and should know) that time with God in prayer and His Word is vital, and we are all cognisant of the blessings and benefits that will entail.
Yet I have met so many of God’s people when I ask them how they are going when it comes to prayer and the Word, a common response is one of discouragement and guilt, with the added embellishments such as:
“I don’t know what to read”; “I cannot seem to get into the rhythm”; “I run out of things to pray for”; and there is the big one,
“I don’t have the time!”
Being an Anglican vicar, the context of which I asked this question is an Anglican one. Yet what I find interesting and rather sad is that so many Christians (who attend Anglican churches) are unaware of a practice that I have found to be so helpful in my own life, and that is the practice known as The Daily Office.
So what is the Daily Office?
The Daily Office or Divine Office, to put it simply, is a time during the day where Christians pray and read the Bible.
It is based on the ancient practice of prescribed daily times of prayer. The name comes from the Latin officium divinum meaning “divine office” or “divine duty.” Although it seems that liturgy is not in vogue or used by many parishes, the Prayer Book has a daily service in the morning and evening for this very purpose, (in fact did you know that the Book of Common Prayer prescribes this practice for clergy?) These services are accompanied by daily Scripture readings which include a reading from the Psalms, Old Testament, the New Testament, and a Gospel reading. The Daily Office includes prayers for morning and evening.
The late J.I Packer stated:
“None of us will ever find a better pattern for private prayer and Bible-reading anywhere than that offered by the Prayer Book’s own daily offices.”
God’s people who struggle with their ‘quiet times’ need to struggle no longer, there is a great resource available to be used, if only they were made aware of it.
I was first introduced to the Daily Office when I was an ordination candidate in the Newcastle Diocese. Although I was an Anglican Christian, I had not even heard of this practice let alone engaged it in. So at first I found it to be foreign, dull, repetitive and pedestrian. But after doing it every morning and every evening with my supervising Rector, I realised that my prayer life and Bible reading was changing. My relationship with my Heavenly Father was deepening. No longer was I dependent on how I felt on any given day when it came to pray. Time was no longer an issue as it was a scheduled non-negotiable part of my day.
Many years ago at a Clergy Conference in another diocese I heard it said that human beings are repetitive. Think about the hand you use when you talk on your mobile phone. Have you ever tried using your other hand? Or your other ear? It feels wrong doesn’t it? It is the same when you brush your teeth with your other hand. It feels wrong. With exceptions of course, generally there is no biological reason why we cannot use the phone in the alternate hand/ear. It is because we are creatures of habit. We all have rituals, and routines, and a place where we put things (as the saying goes, “a place for everything and everything in its place).
This is why I find the Daily Office such a helpful thing. It gives me the rhythm and routine that I am made for and at the same time makes prayer and the word part of that rhythm and routine.
The Daily Office is also helpful in that sooner or later when the day will come when you will not be able to pray in your own strength. On that day the liturgy will pray for you. There have been times and are times when I simply did not and do not have the words to pray.
What do you need?
• A set time – this way, the Daily Office will become part of your routine, your life rhythm, and before you know it will become a time that you look forward to.
• A place – your study, the chapel in your church, or somewhere nice and quiet, indoors or outdoors.
• A Bible – For me I use the ESV. It has been my norm for ages.
• A Prayer Book – for me it is mainly the BCP 2019 , though for years I used the original and best (BCP 1662).
• A Smartphone or iPad – this may seem like a weird thing to recommend but along with the BCP 2019, ACNA (The Anglican Church in North America) has produced an excellent App called The Daily Office. I find this app to be brilliant. It contains the Morning and Evening Prayer Services with the Collects (special prayer for the week) for every day of the year. It even has what is known as Compline (which is a service one uses before lights out for the night It even has a Midday Prayer (which I love to do each day). The Bible Translation is from the ESV (which is what we use here at St John’s) and the Psalter are the Miles Coverdale Version, which utilises English beautifully.
Anything else?
No. That is it. Just go for it. Take your time, enjoy God enjoy his Word, and abide with Christ. You may be sceptical, you be tempted to think what I think about the sport section in the Sydney Morning Herald, “Oh how dull”, but if you are struggling with your quiet times, it is certainly worth giving the Daily Office a go. Up until recently Anglican Christians have been doing it for a very long time. And before you know it, the next time your Vicar or anyone else asks you, “How is your quiet time going”?, you can smile and give an answer that is encouraging (and will give cause to give thanks and praise to God!)
Take Jesus at His Word
“What does it mean to be a Christian disciple? Putting it as simply as possible, being a disciple means following Jesus Christ. Christian disciples want to follow their Lord in everything, to be shaped by his teaching and his example in the way they think, feel, and behave. We want him at the center of our perspective on the world, his mission as the priority of our life, his glory our chief concern in every endeavor. That is as true for the Christian theologian as for any other disciple.
Christian theology can helpfully start at any number of places. Its fundamental ground lies in the triune God himself. Theology has long been defined as ‘words about God and all things in relation to God.’ Yet because what we know about God is made known by God — spoken through the prophets and apostles, and given to us in the more permanent form of Scripture — all true theology arises from and is tested by the Bible. So, we could start the discussion of any theological topic with a reflection upon the person of the triune God or upon what the Bible tells us about that specific topic.
But what makes theology specifically Christian theology is the critical place accorded to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God and Saviour of the world. …”
– Published earlier this year, this encouraging article was written by Moore College Principal Dr Mark Thompson. At Desiring God.
Update on the Wahroonga Preaching Conference
From The Expository Preaching Trust:
“The Preaching Conference at Wahroonga has been rescheduled for Monday – Tuesday, 9-10 September. The Conference is to be Co Chaired by Chris Edwards, the Bishop of North Sydney and David Cook of the Expository Preaching Trust.
Simon Manchester is the main speaker and there will be sermons by Mike Leite, Jim Mobbs and David Cook, all on the book of Acts.
The conference begins at 9:30 am on Monday the 9th at the Wahroonga Presbyterian Church, it will be held at the Anglican and Presbyterian churches in Wahroonga.
Cost is $50, fully catered and we are limited to 30 participants.
Preaching groups will be led by Simon Manchester, David Cook, Mike Leite, Jim Mobbs and Janet Riley.”
– See their website for details.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…