‘Pyne’s boast: The plan revealed’

“Christopher Pyne bragged to his Left-wing faction that we might get same-sex marriage ‘sooner than everyone thinks’.

As he said on Friday:

One of those we’ve got to deliver before too long is marriage equality in this country… We’re going to get it. I think it might even be sooner than everyone thinks. And your friends in Canberra are working on that outcome.

Sure enough:

Two Liberal MPs have been secretly working on a plan to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia as soon as August, with a draft copy of the laws well advanced and consultation with advocates under way. …”

– from The Herald Sun. (Photo: pyneonline.com.au.)

Meet the new ‘twicer’: The irregular regular

“I came across an interesting expression recently: the twicer. From what I understand, ‘the twicer’ used to refer to the person who went to church twice a day (think of the days of morning and evening prayer). It then began to refer to the nominal churchgoer who would attend twice a year, the ‘Christmas and Easter’ Christian.

When I heard the phrase recently, it was used to refer to the committed churchgoer. That is, to describe a regular churchgoer—who attends church just twice a month on average. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Mike Leite points to Biblical encouragement to meet more often then every-so-often.

Bishop of Los Angeles ‘caught between a rock and a hard place’

“The Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, has landed himself in a difficult spot. As detailed in this earlier post, he entered into a contract in 2015 to sell the property of St. James the Great in Newport Beach to a developer for a price of $15 million, without bothering to inform its parishioners beforehand. When the congregation and its vicar protested, he changed the locks and kicked them out. …”

– A S Haley, ‘The Anglican Curmudgeon” comments on the latest in the saga of the Bishop of Los Angeles and his desire to sell the property of a resistant parish.

(Photo: Bishop J. Jon Bruno of Los Angeles.)

This is the day — Presbyterians remember with thanksgiving

“10.00am, forty years ago, the words of Psalm 118 rang out in Scots’ Church Sydney: ‘This is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.’

Today, Friday 23rd June 2017 – it’s forty years to the day when the Presbyterian Church of Australia was refreshed. And, it’s fair to ask: What became of that bold decision to remain as a Presbyterian church? What distinctives of the Christian faith do we offer? What does PCA stand for?

Permit this man’s reminiscing …”

– Presbyterian Moderator-General John Wilson considers the Presbyterian Church of Australia’s ‘refreshing’, over the last forty years.

Thomas Cranmer: Evangelising the Nation

“At the 2017 Church Society Conference, Revd Dr Peter Adam outlined Thomas Cranmer’s strategy for evangelising the nation, which could be summed up in one word: Bible.”

– from Church Society, which has posted the audio files from its 2017 Conference, held last month.

Dr. Adam’s very enlightening and highly encouraging talks can be heard here –

Thomas Cranmer: Evangelising the Nation – Part 1.

Thomas Cranmer: Evangelising the Nation – Part 2.

Also from the Conference:

Reformation Epistemology – Dr Kirsty Birkett.

Martin Luther and the Freedom of the Christian – Dr Lee Gatiss.

You might have missed — June 2017

Here are some posts you might have missed from the last few weeks –

The Crisis of ’77 by Bob Thomas. (About the continuing Presbyterian Church. Today is the 40th anniversary of ‘Church Union’.)

Forty-forty vision – Presbyterian Moderator-General reflects on 40 years of ‘continuing’.

Review of Faith in a Time of Crisis – a new book from Vaughan Roberts and Peter Jensen.

Craig Roberts to be new Youthworks CEO.

Report on the ACL’s 2017 AGM.

Canon Andy Lines to be ACNA Missionary Bishop.

Bishop Richard Condie to Tasmanian Anglicans: We need to change!

Albert Mohler speaks with John Anderson

In his latest ‘Thinking in Public’ series of conversations, Albert Mohler speaks with former Australian Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson (mp3 audio).

Well worth hearing.

 

Conserving Moore College’s treasures

“In 2016 a special fundraising program was launched to invite people to partner with the Library in conserving some of the most precious items in the Rare Book and Archives collections. …

The photographic collection of the Reverend Dr Frank Cash (1887-1964) carries great historical significance as it documents in hundreds of images the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. For decades, most of these images have remained in their original form as glass plate negatives and lantern slides – fragile and inaccessible formats. Now they have all been digitised and are available on Myrrh…”

– Generous gifts have helped close the gap in funding important conservation at Moore College.

What it means to be a disciple

Tony Payne, co-author of The Vine Project, explains what it means to be a disciple and what it therefore means to make disciples – in this video posted at GoThereFor.com.

Good News that is also True News

“Gospel means ‘good news’ because its message is that Jesus the Son of God has saved us from the penalty of our sin and blessed us with his life-changing Spirit.

This ‘good news’ is no less true news’ – true historically. If the gospel is not historically true, then its message is not ‘good’, but ‘bad’, misleading and a cruel mockery.

But the ‘good news’ is no less ‘true news’. …”

– Dr. Paul Barnett has made available the text of his talk, delivered at the Anglican Connection Conference in Dallas, June 12-14, 2017.

How to venerate a relic

“A relic of Mother Teresa (now Saint Teresa of Calcutta) – a drop of her blood – is being taken to Roman Catholic Churches throughout Ireland.

It has its own Facebook page where you can see it being venerated by crowds of people.

There’s also a video to tell you how to properly venerate it. The Reformation isn’t over!” – From Tim Challies.

Screenshot: The relic arriving in Newry Cathedral last weekend.

See also: Do Catholics and Protestants believe in the same Trinity? – by Mark Gilbert.

Head to Head about 1 Corinthians 11:3-16

“Chapter 11 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians … deals with what women wear on their heads. And to most of us, the issues he raises seem as foreign to us as hats at royal funerals and the experience of young Muslim women. Culturally, it is a world away.

So what do we make of 1 Corinthians 11 in this day and age? Is there anything in it for us as modern Christian women and men?”

– There’s been some unhelpful fuss lately about 1 Corinthians 11. Confused? To bring clarity, The Gospel Coalition Australia recently published this article by Dr. Claire Smith.

And, back in 2010, Kevin DeYoung wrote Why Complemegalitarian Doesn’t Work – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

My favourite Reformer is John Calvin

“Having been an active member of the Roman Catholic Church for 28 years, only leaving it 4 years before I started studying at Moore, reading Calvin’s Institutes was for me like discovering the Protestant play book for Catholic Evangelism!

Most of the arguments and answers to the questions and challenges I would put to my Protestant friends as a Catholic, I discovered when I started reading Calvin, actually came from him. …”

– The Rev. Mark Gilbert points out that Calvin’s insights are very useful in sharing the gospel with our Catholic friends.

Protection of Religious Freedom through Discrimination Balancing Clauses

Associate Professor Neil Foster presented a paper with the above title at today’s Freedom 17 Conference in Canberra.

He has made it available via his blog.

Justin Welby and ‘Agreeing to Disagree’

“Last week, the Scottish Episcopal Church voted to alter that church’s Canon on Marriage, to remove the definition that marriage is between a man and a woman. …

In the light of this long-anticipated rejection of Jesus’s word, the Bible, as the supreme authority over the church, GAFCON have announced that they will be consecrating Canon Andy Lines as a missionary bishop for Europe, including Scotland. Andy is a man of unimpeachable integrity, godliness, and clarity of teaching whose episcopal leadership will be welcomed by all those Scots who have been marginalised by their leaders, and by those outside the Church of England who wish still to remain Anglican in their doctrine and polity. …

In response to this, Archbishop Justin Welby wrote to the Primates of the Anglican Communion …

In his letter, Archbishop Welby sadly seems far more concerned about “cross-border interventions” than with the schismatic and heretical teaching which has infiltrated the Episcopal Church in Scotland (and elsewhere) and emptied churches in the process…”

– Read the full article by Church Society Director, Dr. Lee Gatiss.

Be sure to also read the linked article from Crossway, “Can we agree to disagree?”, by Dr Martin Davie (PDF file) –

“There has been much talk lately of ‘agreeing to disagree’ on the issues of human sexuality in the church. In this article, I shall introduce three categories into which we can place matters on which there is disagreement within the church:

  • matters which are adiaphora
  • matters which are not adiaphora and on which the church cannot simply live with disagreement, and
  • matters which are not adiaphora and on which the church can live with disagreement.

Having introduced these categories, I shall conclude by asking which category the issue of human sexuality fits into.”

Photo: Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.

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