‘Get with the Program’ — The Church of England votes to ordain Women Bishops
“Writing about the age of John Milton, the British author A. N. Wilson once tried to explain to modern secular readers that there had once been a time when bishops of the Church of England were titanic figures of conviction who were ready to stand against the culture.
‘It needs an act of supreme historical imagination to be able to recapture an atmosphere in which Anglican bishops might be taken seriously,’ he wrote, ‘still more, one in which they might be thought threatening.’
Keep that in mind as you read the news that the General Synod of the Church of England voted yesterday to approve the consecration of women as bishops of the church …
Ruth Gledhill is profoundly right about another aspect of Monday’s vote as well. It won’t stop with women bishops. ‘Now the church can move into the 20th century, although perhaps not the 21st,’ she wrote. ‘A change on gay marriage would be needed to do that.’ Well, stay tuned, as they say”
– Albert Mohler writes on what happens when bowing to the spirit of the age is more important than a serious commitment to biblical Christianity.
‘Out of step’ with the times — but not the Bible
“The Church of England’s decision to allow women bishops may represent a historical shift in attitudes in its General Synod, but to the dismay of supporters of the ordination of women, the move may hold little sway for Sydney’s Anglican community…
‘As much as we respect the Church of England, it is no longer the centre of our world,’ Bishop Forsyth said. ‘It’s not our Rome, it’s a partner church in the worldwide community of Anglicans.’…”
– from The Sydney Morning Herald.
Includes a quote from ACL President Gav Poole –
”Sydney is known around the world for its evangelical character and its holding to the authority of the scriptures,” he said. ”That’s a long tradition here in Sydney and something we have always appreciated.”
‘Anglicans mad only if they ignore Bible’
“Amid the swirl of opinion around the Anglican General Synod’s decision to commit to finding a way to bless gay couples, the epithets for orthodox Anglicans have mounted: anti-gay, homophobic, wrong, immoral, betrayers of Jesus, unloving, judgmental, intolerant, bigoted, ostracising, unjust and hypocritical. Doubtless an incomplete list, but enough to paint a nasty picture…”
– In this opinion-piece for the New Zealand Herald, Michael Hewat (Vicar of the West Hamilton) argues that the NZ Anglican General Synod has failed ‘the LGBT community’.
Related: Same-Gender blessings: NZ General Synod votes. (May 14 2014)
Who is the most important person in your church?
“Who is the most important person in your church? On one level it’s kind of a silly question to ask. Yet in his book Healed at Last, Scott Blackwell provides an answer that is both sweet and encouraging. He tells about his friend Steve who has been profoundly disabled since birth.”
– Tim Challies draws attention to Healed at Last.
Caring or Killing
“‘Is the baby normal?’ is one of the first questions parents ask the doctor and that’s the last time the parents are happy that their child is only normal!
We don’t want our children to be abnormal or have any abnormalities but we do want them to be above average. We don’t want them to be the high achievers who crash and burn in the blaze of celebrity magazine publicity, but nobody wishes their child to be below average. Everybody’s child is above average in their parents’ imagination, and even higher in their grandparents’ estimation.
However, it is very important that our pursuit of excellence and perfection should never be applied to our humanity…”
– Phillip Jensen looks at some implications of being human.
‘Can I Really Trust The Bible?’ Promo
You might enjoy this promotional video for Barry Cooper’s book, Can I Really Trust the Bible?
When the sermon could have been better
In the latest Preaching Matters video from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London, William Taylor speaks about what to do when your sermon wasn’t really up to scratch.
New Proc Trust website
The Proclamation Trust has an updated website with lost of resources.
Keeping up with General Synod
As General Synod meets in Adelaide, here are a few ways you can keep up, if you so desire –
- General Synod media releases
- General Synod program
- General Synod papers
- Sandy Grant atThe Briefing –
1. Drive away and promote,
2. Advice to evangelical Anglican churchmen.
3. Air bags on pokies. - David Ould’s blog –
1. Electing a Primate,
2. A Quest for Unity?
3. Getting Some Clarity?
4. Embracing the Marginalised?
5. General Synod Roundup – A Way Forward? - SydneyAnglicans.net –
1. Freier elected next Primate,
2. Baptism marriage rule to stay,
3. Synod calls for freedom not religious ‘gag’,
4. Governments and churches urged to take more asylum seekers,
5. Synod highlights ‘inactivity’ on gambling.
Biblical Theology and the Sexuality Crisis
“As the church responds [the current moral and sexual revolution], we must remember that current debates on sexuality present to the church a crisis that is irreducibly and inescapably theological.
This crisis is tantamount to the type of theological crisis that Gnosticism presented to the early church or that Pelagianism presented to the church in the time of Augustine. In other words, the crisis of sexuality challenges the church’s understanding of the gospel, sin, salvation, and sanctification.
Advocates of the new sexuality demand a complete rewriting of Scripture’s metanarrative, a complete reordering of theology, and a fundamental change to how we think about the church’s ministry.”
– Albert Mohler writes at the 9Marks blog.
Praying for Moore College
In the latest post at the Moore College ThinkTank, Principal Mark Thompson urges us to pray for the College.
And they’ve been trawling through College audio archives for classic sermons on Prayer. So far, two are online – Graeme Goldsworthy on Galatians 4:6, and John Woodhouse on The Lord’s Prayer. They plan to add another one each week.
Subscribe to the Moore College Classic Prayer podcast on iTunes.
Confident and Equipped: Facing Today’s Challenges in the Church of England
One of the passions of John Richardson, who departed this mortal life at the end of March, was to see the Church of England reclaimed for Christ.
A Thanksgiving Service was held for John at St. Peter’s, Harold Wood on June 11th (Order of Service, PDF file).
It’s fitting that the new book, Confident and Equipped: Facing Today’s Challenges in the Church of England, was available just in time for the service. It’s a volume of papers from the Junior Anglican Evangelical Conference 2013 (which John started).
Lee Gatiss has an outline of the contents – and the book is available in the UK from Church Society (£40.00 for 10, £22.00 for 5, £5.00 for one – contact them for international orders).
Photo: St. Peter’s Harold Wood.
Chaplains in Schools Song by Colin Buchanan
Yesterday’s “Thank God it’s Friday” with Richard Glover on ABC 702 Sydney had Colin Buchanan as one of the studio guests.
The outcry over a topic for the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House and the High Court Challenge to School Chaplains came together in Colin’s song.
Identity
“Hello, my name is Bill, and I’m an alcoholic.”
– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen asks us to consider our identity.
Check out Introducing God 2.0
The new and updated version of Introducing God was launched in March.
The first version was widely used around Australia.
In this video, Tony Payne speaks with Introducing God 2.0 author Dominic Steele about what’s different and why this version might be just the thing for use in large groups, small groups, and one-to-one settings. Check it out.
And here are ten ways you could use the course.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…