Carl Jung and the Gnostic Reconciliation of Gender Opposites
Ed Hird, Rector of St. Simon’s Church in North Vancouver (ANiC), gave this address at the CWiPPTHINK 09 conference in San Diego earlier this month. –
“Leanne Payne wrote an unforgettable book in 1995 entitled ‘Crisis in Masculinity’. We live in an age where equality is equated with sameness, where men and women are deeply confused about their gender identity, about what really is authentic male and authentic female. I believe that this Gnostic Reconciliation of Gender Opposites, this gender-blending about authentic maleness and femaleness, is the direct result of our culture’s embracing of the Jungian agenda. …”
– Read Ed’s talk (PDF file – direct link) at the St. Simon’s website.
Connecting with families via DVD
One of the ways in which Sydney parishes are seeking to connect with their communities is through a DVD being produced by Colin Buchanan. (Colin and his friend Nudge made an appearance at The Big Day In.) The aim is to offer it to as many families as possible. It will be available from March 18th.
Churches participating in Connect09 have until next Friday (February 27 – the deadline has been extended a week) to place their orders. The DVDs which are heavily subsidised to allow them to be given away. Please pray for this effort.
Biblical requirements for Presbyters
“In writing to both Timothy and Titus the Apostle Paul sets out qualifications and standards expected of those to be presbyters. …
What is immediately striking from the person described by Paul in both places is the almost total lack of ability. Only two abilities are required, and these are not accidental. …”
– Church Society has published online their booklet on what ought to be expected of Christian leaders.
Responding to the fires
“Every morning I wake up and it’s okay—until, with a dull thud, it comes back to me: image after image of people who died in the fires; rows of army tents with homeless people staying in them; entire communities that have been wiped out; my friend whose parents lost their house; a family known to me who died in their car in their driveway; a 12-year-old girl, badly burned, whose parents and sister died.
How do we respond to a tragedy like this?…”
– Jean Williams in Melbourne writes at The Sola Panel. Will your church be observing the National Day of Mourning on Sunday?
‘As Darwin turns 200, Jefferts Schori the scientist reflects’
“Jefferts Schori’s supporters say her unique background has invigorated her church and brought fresh insights into age-old problems. …
Jefferts Schori said science informs everything from how she interprets the Bible to her views on homosexuality — two subjects that now embroil her church and the larger Anglican Communion.”
– Article from Episcopal Life Online. (Photo © 2009 Episcopal Life Online.)
Of Fire and Flu
My grandfather died of the flu. He was a man in his prime of life with a large family of young children. Within a few days he was dead.
Usually influenza is of greatest danger to young children or the elderly. However the so-called “Spanish flu” was notorious for its attack on healthy young adults.
Most Australians today have never heard of “the Spanish flu”. It was a great pandemic that spread across the world at the end of the First World War – killing more people than the war did. …
– The Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, writes for the St. Andrew’s Cathedral newsletter.
Is the liberal tide in the Church of England beginning to ebb?
In contrast to the bad natured meeting of July last year, this week’s General Synod of the Church of England has passed off not only peacefully, but also with a significant step forward for those who want to see the Church of England recover its confidence in the gospel. A motion by lay member Paul Eddy affirming the uniqueness of Christ was agreed with 283 votes in favour and only 8 against.
Its significance was not lost on journalist Ruth Gledhill of the London Times who was quick to claim, under the headline ‘Anglicans called on to convert non-Christian believers’, that ‘The established Church of England put decades of liberal-inspired political correctness behind it in a move that led one bishop to condemn in anger the “evangelistic rants”.’ …
– Charles Raven writes at Anglican SPREAD. (Photo: C of E website.)
Hospitals betray their history by banishing prayer
“The long withdrawing roar of the sea of faith seems to be getting louder: nurses cannot pray, the Creed cannot be recited at Christian services for fear of offending non-believers, Christian marriage counsellors are removed because they believe in Christian marriage and Christian adoption agencies cannot be publicly funded because they believe that children are best brought up in a family with a mother and father to look after them.
It seems certain that no other faith would be subjected to such strictures and, indeed, to the benign neglect to which the churches have become accustomed. A place for Christians in the public square must be reclaimed. …”
– Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali comments on the recent case in the UK where a nurse was suspended for offering to pray for a patient. In The Telegraph. (h/t Anglican Mainstream. Photo: Joy Gwaltney.)
Church Society General Secretary on the Primates’ meeting
Another meeting of Anglican Primates has come and gone, nothing of substance has been done or decided. The problem the Communion faces is not with one or two individuals such as Gene Robinson who unfairly has become the focus of our problems, but rather with false teaching. Those who teach that sexual immorality is acceptable are leading people to destruction. …
There was a brief time when combined outrage might have translated into action but Rowan Williams headed this off and now it seems that the body of Primates as a whole will not do anything. …
– David Phillips, General Secretary of Church Society, comments on the just-concluded meeting in Alexandria.
‘Out of Egypt I called my son’
“The gathering of the GAFCON movement last June and its Jerusalem Declaration represented a decisive rejection of the spiritually compromised control of the Anglican Communion by the Lambeth based instruments of unity. Yet there seems to be little sign of the GAFCON Primates asserting their new found authority and some might even question why they are at Alexandria at all. Are they going back to an ecclesial Egypt?…”
– Charles Raven at SPREAD encourages prayer for the GAFCON Primates in Alexandria.
The Church and Evangelism
The audio recording of Mark Dever’s talk on “The Church and Evangelism” at the Desiring God 2009 Conference for Pastors is now available.
Relevant for Connect09? You bet. Very helpful and encouraging.
Get the 55 minute 16MB audio file from Desiring God. (Update: All of the audio and video from the conference is now available.)
Latest 9Marks eJournal
The latest issue of the 9Marks eJournal is now online. As always, stimulating reading.
At 9Marks – and as a PDF file (direct link).
Bus slogan generator
For a bit of light relief, try the Bus slogan generator.
(h/t John Richardson.)
Mark Baddeley has some more serious thoughts at the Sola Panel.
Preach to yourself the gospel
From Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ classic work, Spiritual Depression:
“Have you realised that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.
Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Your self is talking to you. …”
– read the rest of the excerpt on Psalm 42, at Gospel-driven Church.
Biblical Authority in Evangelicalism
After reading this week’s piece by Charles Raven on ‘Rowan Williams and Revelation wrapped up’, readers may find this article on Biblical Authority helpful –
Written by Lee Gatiss and published in Churchman in 2006, it’s entitled “Biblical Authority in Recent Evangelical Books” and has just been made available online in PDF format (direct link) by Church Society.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…