Bishop Mari Emmanuel forgives his attacker and endorses freedom of speech and religion

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For ANZAC Day, Bishop Mari Emmanuel of Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley has spoken out in forgiveness and in support of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Remembering the Sacrifice: ANZAC Day 2024

“Grant Dibden, Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force, shares the story of sacrifice about Corporal Reginald Samuel Thorn from Broken Hill, NSW.

A recently discovered letter from Corporal Thorn was sent one day prior to his sacrifice at Pozières, France.

At deaths door, Reginald Thorn’s letter shares the hope of a better place beyond the grave made available through the greatest sacrifice made by Jesus.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13.”

– At Defence Anglicans.

Pray for Peaceful Proclamation

“On Monday 15th April, a teenager stabbed two Eastern Orthodox priests during a church service in western Sydney, in what seems to be a religiously-motivated attack. The chief target, Bishop Emmanuel, has become simultaneously popular and controversial by being outspokenly conservative in all manner of social issues, from sex to Islam to pandemic lockdowns. This, and the angry response of the crowd that gathered after the attack, have made the NSW Police and Government understandably concerned about the possibilities of an escalating spiral of retaliatory violence.

In this environment, we have an opportunity to pray for and work towards communal, inter-religious peace. Not just for the common good – for love of neighbour, but because that kind of secular peace is good for gospel proclamation. …”

– Kamal Weerakoon has this Bible-based encouragement for you at The Gospel Coalition Australia.

What about all those other Secret or Lost Gospels?

“The Bible has four Gospels included as part of the Canon or official collection of scripture. Those are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These four canonical accounts record the good news—that’s what “gospel” means—about Jesus from eyewitness testimonies. Their aim is clear: they’re written so we can hear about Jesus, trust in him, and continue to do so (John 20:31).

I recently read Bart D. Ehrman’s collection of over a dozen of the earliest non-canonical gospels, including several from the Nag Hammadi discovery in Egypt. …”

– At The Gospel Coalition Africa edition, Ryan Van Der Avoort provides some simple tools for thinking about these other “Gospels”.

Image: A 3rd Century fragment from Egypt, of Revelation chapter 1, in the Chester Beatty collection, Dublin. Photo with thanks to Kevin Murray.

The Gateway Drug to Post-Christian Paganism

“I recently revisited a book that I had not read for many years: Robert P. Ericksen’s Theologians Under Hitler.

It is a study of how three intellectuals, Gerhard Kittel, Paul Althaus, and Emanuel Hirsch—scholars of the Old Testament, Luther, and Kierkegaard, respectively—came to support Hitler in 1933 and ultimately be identified with an evil ideology that cost millions of lives, both in the death camps and in the war that German expansionism precipitated. …”

– At First Things, Carl Trueman has a warning for Christians – whatever their political leaning.

Link via Tim Challies.

Hope Beyond Cure

“Friends in Christ, cancer – if all types are grouped together – is the leading cause of death in Australia. (If you take them separately, such as lung, breast, prostate, pancreatic, etc., then heart disease tops them on their own.)

But everyone knows someone who is impacted by cancer. And – to state the obvious – not everyone gets better from a cancer diagnosis.

In that space, Dave McDonald’s book Hope Beyond Cure has become the Christian book I give away more than any other, even ten years after publication. At just 90 pages, his book is clear and gripping. …”

– In the latest Cathedral newsletter, Dean of Sydney Sandy Grant explains why he gives away copies of this book (and he shares where you can get your copy).

“Brace Yourselves!“: The Reduction of Public Bible Reading

“It’s quite possible, as a missionary who has just returned from his first term in another country, that the old bugbear of ‘reverse culture shock’ has made me just a little bit tetchy.

On the other hand, as I’ve travelled to our twelve or so supporting churches (of various denominations) who support us in our work, I may have seen something of what many of us are prioritising as we meet week by week.

Usually I’m the guest preacher, and Revelation 7 (with John’s vision of a ‘great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language’) has been my text. And so, as Bible readings before the sermon, I’ve asked for Revelation 7 along with a few short paragraphs from the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. Now, these are not long passages. And they are certainly not boring! Yet, without blushing, one service leader politely asked me if the short Old Testament readings could be done away with, and Revelation 7 itself – not a long chapter! – be chopped in half. …”

– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Mike Fischer notices that something important is missing from some churches.

Preaching in tragic times — what will you say on Sunday?

“It is hard to describe the sense of loss pervading London in 1997 following the death of Princess Diana, however, I had been invited to preach at a London church the following Sunday and it was clear that in the midst of such loss and confusion, people were looking for a clear word from God.

It was the same for every preacher, following the Strathfield massacre in 1991 or the September 11 World Trade Centre tragedy in 2001 or the Lindt coffee massacre in Sydney in 2014.

And now the Bondi Junction stabbings. Perhaps it was too late to change the text to be preached the Sunday immediately following those Saturday afternoon murders, but next Sunday people will be coming to church and expecting a clear word from God. …”

– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook has some very helpful words for preachers in these days.

Image: David Cook at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in 2022.

We cannot help but speak — ACR Easter 2024

If you haven’t yet seen the latest issue of The Australian Church Record (Easter 2024), do yourself a favour and download your copy. (PDF file.)

The overall theme is “We cannot help but speak”, and Mike Leite’s Editorial has just been published on the website as a standalone post – but do download the entire issue for your encouragement.

We have a problem with Truth

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“We are moving into a post – post-modern world  But what does that look like and mean for truth – and us as pastors – as we attempt to communicate with our churches?

Our church members have unconsciously adopted some of the presuppositions of our society in the way we process texts and information.

We are living in a fake news world on social media with a parallel loss of confidence in institutions and authorities. …”

– Dominic Steele speaks with Moore College Lecturer (and ACL Council member) Lionel Windsor.

Lionel has recently published Truth be Told to help us ‘in the task of sharing the truth of the gospel with confidence and conviction’.

Religious Freedom and the NSW Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024

Associate Professor Neil Foster writes at Law and Religion Australia:

“I have prepared a paper exploring the operation of the NSW Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024 in relation to the freedom of churches and other religious groups to continue to provide teaching and guidance based on the tenets of their faith. The Act has received assent but will not commence operation until 3 April 2025.

Overall, the Act contains much better protections for religious freedom and the welfare of vulnerable children and young people than similar legislation elsewhere. But there are some areas where it is not clear, and it will require careful consideration by religious groups, as well those interested in so-called ‘gender transition’ issues even from a non-religious background.”

– Download his paper here.

Sorry, but Christianity must be more than just cultural

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“In 2007, the four men who came to be recognised as the leaders of New Atheism – Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens – met at Hitchens’s apartment in Washington DC to affirm their alliance and explore together the nature of their respective anti-theisms.

Hitchens, ever the contrarian, voiced two heretical views at the meeting: first, that as religion is so deeply engrained in humans due to their evolutionary trajectory, it is unlikely that it will disappear; two, that it is undesirable that religion should disappear since arguing with religious people sharpens sceptics’ polemical skills. Hitchens later stated to Doug Wilson, his debating partner on the ‘God is not Great’ book tour, that for the rest of his life he would never forget the look of hostile incredulity on Dawkins’s face when he said those two things. …”

– At The Conservative Woman, Peter Harris points out that “it is not enough to defend those Christian-based moral values … by calling ourselves cultural Christians”.

Image from Dawkins’ LBC interview two weeks ago.

New book from David Mansfield — About Love

“If you want to learn from Jesus’ most sustained and intimate teaching to his disciples, read this book.

Dave Mansfield wrote About Life (2001) on the first half of John’s Gospel (1-12).

The long-awaited sequel covers the second half of this magnificent book (13-21). …”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Andrew Barry commends About Love by Dave Mansfield .

Copies are available from The Wandering Bookseller.

How not to get flustered in evangelistic conversations

“My first job in Christian ministry was in the chaplaincy department of a private school in suburban Sydney. After the best part of a decade as an infantry officer in the Army my hope was that, in comparison, talking to teenagers about Jesus would be pretty easy.

It took me about 15 minutes to work out that, rather than this being a walk in the park, it was closer to a limp through the valley of the shadow of death. …”

— Encouragement from Dave Jensen – at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Responses to a new book about the recent history of the Diocese of Armidale

Today saw the launch of a new book – Darkness: The Conversion of Anglican Armidale, 1960-2019 by Thomas A. Fudge, Professor of History at the University of New England.

You can get a feel for the likely tone of the book from a report by John Sandeman in July 2023 (link via our website). And the University of New England website has an interview with Professor Fudge.

Today the Diocese of Armdale has published two responses to the new book –

One by Bishop of Armidale Rod Chiswell –

“‘Darkness – the conversion of Anglican Armidale 1960-2019’ is a book that seeks to bring to light hitherto unheard voices responding to the transition of the Anglican Diocese of Armidale from a middle church diocese to a lower church evangelical diocese. …”

However Bishop Chiswell challenges two of Professor Fudge’s key presuppositions as well as his conclusions.

The other is a Review of the book by Dr. Mark Earngey, Head of Church History and Lecturer in Christian Thought at Moore College –

“Professor Fudge has produced a weighty tome on some of the recent history of the Anglican diocese of Armidale. … While conversion is normally associated with light (e.g. 1 Peter 2:9: ‘that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light’), Fudge interprets the growth of evangelical Anglicanism in the Armidale diocese in terms of darkness.”

In his Review, Dr Earngey provides very helpful historical and theological perspective.

Read both responses at the Diocese of Armidale website.

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