Senator encourages involvement in Solidarity Sunday
Senator David Fawcett spoke yesterday about the persecution of religious minorities, particularly Christians, under ISIL, and informed the Senate of Solidarity Sunday. (YouTube.)
Pray for Christians who are ‘living in Babylon’ this weekend
Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, calls for prayer for persecuted Christians on the Barnabas Fund Day of Prayer, this Saturday, November 1st:
“The fires of anti-Christian persecution rage on around the world. Through most of the Middle East, and in large parts of Africa and Asia, our brothers and sisters continue to suffer discrimination, ill-treatment and violence because of their love for Christ. Research has estimated that around 200 million Christians – about 10% of the total number – are disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their faith…”
See also www.livinginbabylon.org
And the Australian Christian Lobby is calling for churches to stand in prayer with their persecuted brothers and sisters on November 2nd – Solidarity Sunday.
The heavens declare
Beautiful images of the Earth, as seen from just beyond the Moon, taken by China’s unmanned lunar mission.
The State of Theology
Ligonier Ministries surveyed 3,000 US adults about what they believe.
While the Australian context is not quite the same, it’s worth taking the time to look at the results and hearing R C Sproul discuss them.
Defence Sunday 2014
Anglican Chaplains to Australian Defence Force would appreciate your prayers – and “Defence Sunday” (November 9th, the Sunday closest Remembrance Day) would be a good time to focus on them and those to whom they minister.
Various resources are available via the Defence Anglicans website, including Remembrance Day Prayers, Bible Readings, and Resources. with audio files of the Last Post and other music.
Are there Three Ways to Live?
“There are only two ways to live: one leads to death, the other to eternal life.
However, Christians share with non-Christians a great desire to find a third way…”
– Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column for the Cathedral.
70 years ago today: The conversion of J. I. Packer
“On Sunday, October 22, 1944—seventy years ago today—it is doubtful that anyone noticed a soft-spoken, lanky, and decidedly bookish first-year university student leaving his dormitory room at Corpus Christi College and heading across Oxford for an evening Christian Union service at a local Anglican church.
18-year-old Jim Packer had arrived at Oxford University less than three weeks prior, a single suitcase in hand, traveling east by train from Gloucester using a free ticket available to family members of Great Western Railway employees…”
– Justin Taylor fittingly marks the anniversary.
(Photo: Dr. Packer, right, with David Short, in Vancouver three years ago.)
Who or what defines the Anglican Communion?
“In an interview with the editor of the Church Of Ireland Gazette (Canon Ian Ellis), the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, has given his opinion on what defines a church as part of the Anglican Communion, and therefore, by implication, what is critical for Anglican identity…”
– SydneyAnglicans.net published this piece by Moore College Principal mark Thompson shortly before Synod. Take the time to read it all.
George Whitefield College newsletter
George Whitefield College’s latest newsletter (November 2014) has just been released.
You can download it as a 2MB PDF file.
Preaching 2 Samuel – The Possibilities and The Difficulties
Past Principal of Moore College, John Woodhouse, is leading a workshop to help improve your preaching.
At Moore College on Wednesday 26th November. Details and registration here.
Sermons are ‘fair game’ in Houston
“When news broke earlier this week that the attorneys working for the City of Houston had issued subpoenas to pastors for sermons, I was fairly certain that some mistake had been made. When the actual text of the subpoena came to me, I could hardly believe my eyes.
Here was a legal demand, sent to Christian pastors in the name of one of America’s largest cities, to surrender ‘all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO (an anti-discrimination ordinance), the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession.’
That subpoena is nothing less than ruthless thuggery …”
– Albert Mohler looks at the real warning in the big story out of Houston.
Also Bishop David Anderson, of the American Anglican Council, comments.
Hugh Latimer — 16 October 1555
“On the morning of 16 October, 1555, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, both formerly bishops of the Church, were executed for heresy in Oxford.
It was then that Hugh Latimer uttered his famous sermon,
Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as I trust shall never be put out.”
Written by the then Church Society Director David Streater for Crossway in 1996, “Hugh Latimer – Apostolic Preacher” is available in Church Society’s archives as a PDF file.
Take the opportunity today to learn of and to thank the Lord for Bishop Hugh Latimer.
Dr. Ashley Null on Cranmer — article reprint
In September 2001, ACL News spoke with Dr. Ashley Null while he was visiting Moore College. The interview was mentioned in the October 2014 issue of The Australian Church Record. Here is that interview if you’d like to read it…
“Most people don’t realise that the first liturgical change Cranmer made was to insist on good solid biblical preaching in every Sunday church service.
To ensure that, he and others gathered together a set of Homilies that were to be read in course throughout the year. The first six of these sermons explain how one comes to a biblical understanding of having Jesus Christ as your Saviour by faith alone – and the gratitude that one receives from knowing God has saved you, even though you are not able to make yourself worthy of salvation.”
– Read the interview here – in our Resources section.
Australian Church Record — October 2014
The latest issue of The Australian Church Record, Number 1914, October 2014, is now out on their website (just in time for Sydney Synod). Here are some excerpts:
From ‘Faith Under Attack‘
“So Protestants should be alarmed at recent trends in scholarship presenting fine-sounding arguments for faith + something else. And Anglicans need to be alarmed at even small additions to their liturgy that confuse those praying it in this same direction.”
From ‘Faith Alone v. Faith at work‘
“The tendency of the human heart to want to boast in its own achievements is all too prevalent. But there is nothing that we do to merit our justification before God. Like our forebears, contemporary Protestantism must continue to work carefully and clearly in defining the place of faith.”
The View from The Top
“In an age of tolerance poisoned by relativism, inclusive multi-culturalism, and cultural sovereignty which is still coping with the guilt of colonialism, any exclusive claim to truth, salvation or God has to be challenged.
Yet, Jesus said ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6). And the Apostle Peter said ‘there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12). So it has been consistent Christian teaching down the centuries that we have no assurance of salvation for anybody other than those who name Jesus as their Lord, just as we have every assurance for those who do…”
– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…