‘The good book’s guide to great sex’

“Sex is God’s gift to humanity and healthy sexual behaviour should be the church’s gift to the world. As reported in The Age this week, we are neurologically wired to desire sex, to fall in love with the person we desire sex with, and for that love to develop into a deep personal attachment. Our bodies are wired to operate best with one sexual partner for life.

The Christian church has a positive duty to help all people form healthy sexual self-identities, which lead to healthy sexual behaviour, particularly in a world where highly sexualised images are commonplace…”

–  Kamal Weerakoon (St. Marys Presbyterian Church) writes in the Sydney Morning Herald. It’s a follow up to Monday’s article by Barney Zwartz in The Age.

Richard Baxter’s account of the Restoration

“Not only was Baxter a major player, he was, like Pepys, also a meticulous and disciplined administrator and writer. He records many details from events he experienced first-hand, and his account includes a wealth of valuable documentation.”

– Lee Gatiss wrote this interesting article for Churchman in 2008. It’s just been published online by Church Society. (PDF file.)

Standing Committee of which Communion?

“…The listing by geography shows that none of the major African provinces of the Communion, with more than 60% of its total members, is even represented on the Committee. It follows that the current make-up of the Committee is designed to effectuate the will of a minority within the Communion…”

– A S Haley, the Anglican Curmudgeon, looks at the makeup of “the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion” and that of the Anglican Consultative Council. (Photo taken at the November 2008 JSC meeting: ACNS Rosenthal.)

Listening pastors

“It seems to me that pastors tend to be poor listeners for a few reasons: they are usually assertive people and have trouble slowing down, have honestly heard many of the same things multiple times (counseling situations, theological questions, etc.) thus they feel like they ‘know’ where the conversation is headed, they are multi-taskers who tend to think they can listen and think about other things at the same time, and they are used to talking/preaching with others listening to them!”

– Jason Helopoulos has a few helpful suggestions on listening as a pastor.
At Kevin DeYoung’s blog.

‘We are Anglicans’

“The Pope, or more properly the Roman Catholic Bishop of Rome will visit England and Scotland from 17th to 19th September of this year. In recent years political figures and many in the media have fawned all over the Pope. More recently however, there has been growing attacks on Rome by secular humanists and the homosexual lobbyists, together with the media, which is dominated by both. Whilst we do not wish to be sucked into the ungodly agenda of these groups nevertheless it is important to say that this visit is also unwelcome for other reasons.

What does it mean to be Anglican? Though it is not normally where people look for an answer part of the nature of Anglicanism is set out in the Coronation Oath Act of 1688. This Act applies still in England and Wales and its well known wording was used at the Coronation of the present Queen…”

– David Phillips, Church Society General Secretary, writes in the latest issue of Cross†Way. (PDF file.)

Christ-centred Communion – Further thoughts (full series)

Barry Newman has been adding to his series on ‘Christ-centred Communion’ and has now completed his ‘further thoughts’.

Even if you don’t agree with it all, you’ll find it stimulating and edifying.

C.S. Lewis on Democracy

Food for thought from C S Lewis –

“I am a democrat because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that every one deserved a share in the government.

The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. … I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost. Much less a nation. … The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows…”

– C.S. Lewis, “Equality”, in Present Concerns. (h/t Between Two Worlds.)

An important distinction in our thinking about church

“It seems to me that we are not often as careful when we think and speak about church as we are in other areas of Christian doctrine. Confusions abound, sometimes through a lack of careful distinctions.

Earlier this year I was in a debate with some older brothers in the faith about the threefold order (bishops, priests, and deacons)…”

– Mark Thompson seeks to stimulate our thinking at Theological Theology.

‘The Anglican church can’t now renege on women bishops’

John Inge, the Bishop of Worcester, writes this opinion piece for the BBC.

“When the decision was made to ordain women as priests, solemn promises were made to them that they would continue to have an honoured place in the Church of England.

To renege on that now would seem like a betrayal.”

Related: Developments in York.

Some deep reflection needed

“I have been reading an immensely interesting book in the last couple of weeks. It is by Peter Hitchens, British journalist, author, broadcaster and brother of celebrated ‘new atheist’ Christopher Hitchens.

It is interesting for a whole host of reasons…”

– ACL President Mark Thompson writes at Theological Theology.

The C of E’s General Synod: Doing the Best Things in the Worst Times

“While some may draw comfort from the apparent ruling out (if he was ever ruled in) of Jeffrey John as Bishop of Southwark, the Church of England’s direction of travel is now abundantly clear. Whether or not we agree with David Virtue’s assessment that the Church of England ‘is now Province XVII of The Episcopal Church’, he is absolutely right that we are seeing the same ruthless marginalisation of the orthodox as has happened in the United States…”

– Charles Raven’s latest commentary at SPREAD.

The Anglican Curmudgeon on developments in York

“…the women priests in Synod combined with a sufficient number of male priests to ensure, by a bare minimum, that the wisdom of the other orders in the Church of England would not be put into practice. And in that description of the result is all the data that anyone needs to conclude that the admission of women to the priesthood in the Church of England was just the first step in a widening gyre.

There will be no turning back: after the approval of the ordination of women to the episcopate, the numbers will so change in the Church of England’s House of Bishops, and in the lay delegates as well, as to make inevitable the ordination of LGBT’s to the episcopate. And at that point, the Church of England — in whatever form it then remains — will be indistinguishable from ECUSA.”

– A S Haley (Anglican Curmudgeon) looks at the trajectory on which the Church of England has launched itself. (Photo: Women in the Church.)

ESV widget for Mac

If you use a Mac, you may find the updated ESV Dashboard widget useful.

After women bishops, what next?

“I’ve not had time to follow the Synod debate on women bishop’s much less to comment. However, I was having a discussion with some of our own folks on Thursday night, where I observed that the introduction of women bishops is by no means the end of the line, for there are explicit indications amongst the chief supporters of the consecration of women that our theology and liturgy are also in line for changes.

Just to give an idea of what this entails, I have simply cut and pasted the following from a paper on the WATCH website:…”

– John Richardson writes about moves for women bishops at the Church of England General Synod (which meets until Tuesday).

Josephus: the man and the myths

The folks at The Centre for Public Christianity have been busy uploading resource videos to their Vimeo account.

Added recently is a two part interview with Professor John Barclay of Durham University – on Josephus. Part 1, part 2.

(Related: a recent broadcast from The White Horse Inn.)

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