A Year of Mercy for Catholics
“Pope Francis… has declared 2016 to be a Year of Mercy for all Catholics. This is quite a big thing for the world’s Catholics. Francis published a book containing one of his encyclicals on mercy in 2015 called The Name of God is Mercy, Catholic schools around the world have structured their syllabi around this theme, and Catholic churches are organizing their teaching programs around the theme of mercy this year as well.
Having recently read Francis’ book, I thought it would be good to share a few thoughts on how to engage with Catholics who will be thinking about mercy more this year…”
– Some good ideas from Mark Gilbert to help us connect with our Catholic friends. At GoThereFor.
(Photo via SydneyAnglicans.net.)
Don Carson on How knowing the Bible does not automatically make you more holy
“Knowledge of the Word does not sanctify us by mere education. I have now lived long enough and have belonged to enough professional biblical societies that there are not many front-rank New Testament scholars in the world whom I have not met. Some of them are very brilliant minds indeed…”
– Andy Naselli shares a sobering quote from D. A. Carson. Read it all at the link, and pray that we would all be shaped by God’s Word to be his people.
Australian Church Record — June 2016 — out now
The latest issue of The Australian Church Record (June 2016, number 1916) is now up on their website.
As always, it’s a free download, and is full of thought-provoking articles.
In this issue:
The art of godly listening
Where to for Anglican evangelicals?
‘When I kept silent’: the vital art of confession
Making sense of gender confusion
It’s unanimous: ARV and Anglicare to merge
and more. Get it from the ACR website.
Teaching 2 Peter
In the latest Preaching Matters video from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, William Taylor encouraged preachers to tackle the little letter of 2 Peter.
He shows the great benefit of a careful study of the Biblical text.
Celebrating The Reformation in 2017 at Moore College
Moore College has some dates for your diary –
18th March. This event, held at Moore College, will be a morning of hearing Peter Jensen, Peter Adam and Simon Manchester each present a paper on a significant character from the reformation and what we can learn from them today.
26th-27 May. This afternoon and following morning event, held at Moore College, will reflect on the reformation doctrine of justification by faith alone and how the biblical doctrine bears upon many of the contemporary debates surrounding this subject. Speakers include, Mike Ovey (Principle of Oak Hill College, London), Peter Orr and Andrew Leslie.
4-11 August. The Annual Moore College Lectures will be given by Carl Trueman, a world renowned Reformation scholar.
26th August. This event, held at St Andrew’s Cathedral, will be a morning hearing Gerald Bray, Glenn Davies, Kanishka Raffel and will include a service conducted from the 1552 Book of Common Prayer.
13-14 September. The School of Theology will be a conference assembling Reformation scholars from around Australia who will present papers on Reformation theology, significant reformers as well as the reception of the Reformation in the five hundred years since.
Winning the Good Fight — Queen’s Birthday Conference
Two Ways Ministries and Phillip Jensen are holding an encouraging afternoon of thinking and praying about our progress in evangelism.
Queen’s Birthday Conference – Winning the Good Fight, Monday 13th June, 1:30 – 4:30pm at Moore College in Newtown.
Click the image for a larger invitation.
And, to help with catering, they would be very grateful if you could let them know you are going – there’s an e-mail address on the invitation.
(Learn more about Two Ways Ministries.)
Death and the Life Hereafter in focus
“What happens after death? Will I get a spot in heaven? Is hell for real?
We’ve all asked ourselves such ultimate questions and the Annual Moore College Lectures will dare to provide answers.
Held between August 19 and 26, ‘Death and the Life Hereafter’ will be an engaging lecture series which investigates some of the most important aspects of our existence…”
– Dr Paul Williamson is giving this year’s Annual Moore College Lectures.
Gospel DNA – Replicating Effective Ministry
The Centre for Ministry Development and Effective Ministry are planning a full day forum for Wednesday 20th July.
The topic for the day will be, “Gospel DNA – Replicating Effective Ministry”.
Main speakers are Richard Coekin, Paul Harrington and Tim Sims. Details and booking at Moore College’s Centre for Ministry Development.
We’re told that registration is now open.
Reflections on discipleship (part 2)
“I googled ‘What is a disciple?’ recently and got 8,370,000 results in 0.47 seconds. There’s a lot in the Christian cyber world about discipleship!”
– At Equal but Different, Lesley Ramsay continues to explore the meaning of Christian discipleship.
Hope, not Death: Euthanasia is no response to sexual abuse
“Reforms to allow euthanasia in Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria are likely to be debated this year, and Senator Leyonhjelm and the Greens want to give the Territories the power to legalise euthanasia. While suicide itself has long been legal throughout Australia – attempted suicide attracts no penalty or consequence – they want medical killing legalised. …
It is no stretch to imagine that a young woman with PTSD, a survivor of sexual abuse, might qualify for euthanasia in Australia in the future especially in an environment of over-stretched and under-funded mental health systems.”
– Read why in the full, troubling, article by Melinda Tankard Reist at ABC Religion and Ethics. (h/t SydneyAnglicans.net)
Church Society Lectionary videos
Are you attending a church which uses the Lectionary, but where the preaching doesn’t really help you understand the passages read?
Or are you attending a church which uses the Lectionary, and where the preaching does help you understand the passages read?
Either way, this new video series from Church Society may be a help and encouragement.
The Church in the Furnace
David Mansfield follows up on his earlier article, ‘The Church in the Fridge’.
“Sometimes our thoughtlessness and insensitivity can seem cool and indifferent. At other time, as I mentioned in the last blog, in the story of the inveterate hugger of every newcomer and regular that he could get his arms around, our behaviour can be too intense. Rather than a church in the fridge, we may come across as a church in the furnace.
While extreme examples don’t apply to most of us, there may be more subtle ways that we do things that can also come across as a bit intense to the newcomer…”
– As someone who visits many churches, David spots sub-cultural quirks you might not notice. At SydneyAnglicans.net
Catch up with the Nexus16 conference
If you missed the Nexus16 conference at Annandale today (or would like to revisit it), you can view the videos at the Nexus website.
The videos include interviews with various attendees – and the talks!
Are you ashamed of Jesus?
“You’re an embarrassment to be around.”
“Please don’t walk next to me – I don’t want people to know that we’re together.”
These are painful words that no one ever wants to hear. But does my life speak these words to Jesus?
This is the question that has troubled me since my first day visiting persecuted Christians in the Middle East with Open Doors…
– At Communicate Jesus, Steven Kryger has a challenge for you.
“Exemptions” in discrimination laws applying to churches
“Australia is in the midst of a Federal election campaign at the moment (thankfully, one which will end on July 2, unlike the one being endured by our friends in the United States, which seems to stretch on interminably!) But law and religion has now emerged as one of the election issues.
This time the question is not about same-sex marriage (SSM), although the various parties’ views on that topic are well-known (at the moment, the Australian Labour Party (ALP) has promised to introduce SSM within 100 days if elected, and the Liberal-National Party Coalition, currently in power, has promised to put the matter to a plebiscite after the election if they are returned.)
But the latest question has been raised by a minority, but increasingly influential, Greens Party, which has included as part of its election platform a promise to remove ‘religious exemptions to federal anti-discrimination law’…”
– Neil Foster, at Law & Religion Australia, looks at the background and some implications of election promises from The Greens and others. Very relevant.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…