Bishop Mark Calder’s Christmas message for 2020

The Bishop of Bathurst, Mark Calder, has released a brief Christmas message.

Click this link to watch the video – and the text is below.

Can you imagine the conversation Mary had to have with Joseph?

“Joseph – we need to talk”. (Long pause while she gathers the courage.) “I’m pregnant”.

What a shock! Mary knew she hadn’t slept with anyone. Joseph knew it wasn’t him!

Joseph was a good guy and decided not to make a fuss but simply walk away.

But God had other plans.

“What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit”, an angel told Joseph in a dream. What a dream!! There would have been comfort in that dream – Mary had not been sleeping around. But confusion too – whatever does “conceived by the Holy Spirit” mean?

Put simply, it means that in this baby, God was stepping into our world. He had an earthly mother, but a heavenly Father. God turned up – not in a majestic palace – but as a small, vulnerable baby, laid in a food trough and needing his nappy changed. Astonishing!

The two names given to this boy help us understand something of the significance of his birth.

The first: ‘Jesus’. It means ‘God saves’. Saves from what? The angel explained to Joseph, “You are to give him the name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins”. “Sins” is not a word we use today. Ultimately it means shutting God out and living as if he doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter. That attitude breaks our relationship with God. Jesus’ whole mission was to mend that relationship. By his life, death and resurrection, he makes it possible for anyone, should they want to, to be forgiven and come back into relationship with him, now and forever. That is pretty wonderful and overwhelmingly generous.

The second name: ‘Immanuel’. It means ‘God with us’. “What if God was one of us?”, Joan Osborne mused in her hit song. Christmas reminds us that God did in fact turn up as one of us. That means he gets us. He knows life! And he’s still with us – by his Spirit. In all our joys and laughter. In all our pain and grief. God is with us! This too is pretty wonderful.

COVID may dent our plans and indeed may have caused us grief this year.

But it is not so powerful that it can change the meaning of Christmas.

God saves. God with us. Revel and enjoy. (Even if your plans have had to change.)

Watch our traditional Christmas service here: https://tinyurl.com/trad-service
Watch our more contemporary service here: https://tinyurl.com/mod-service

And do pray for the churches right across Bathurst Diocese as they seek to share the saving news this Christmas.

John 1 from Around the World!

As an encouragement, and as a reminder of our unity in Christ, members of Gafcon read John 1:1-18.

Bullying in churches — legal implications

From Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia –

“I was invited to give a presentation to ministers of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney earlier this year on the legal implications of bullying in churches.

The Diocese has kindly agreed that the presentation can be made more widely available. This links to the video and also has a link to a written paper to accompany the presentation.”

What do Anglicans Believe? – Review by Mark Thompson

The latest issue of Global Anglican (formerly Churchman) has been published by Church Society.

From Church Society:

In the last issue of The Global Anglican in 2020, editor Peter Jensen writes about True Forgiveness, a much talked-about but little-understood subject of critical importance to the gospel.

There are two articles on the subject of baptism. First, from Peter Nyende, “Prepared to Believe: The Evangelism of Preschoolers and Infant Baptism in African Anglican Churches” and second from Lee Gatiss on “The Anglican Doctrine of Infant Baptism”.

Stephen Noll considers the ecclesiology of an important figure in the Australian Anglican church in “Canonicity, Catholicity, Apostolicity: Archbishop Donald Robinson on the Church.”

We also have two review articles in this issue. Colin Reed reviews Bishop Mwita Akiri’s “Christianity in Central Tanzania: A Story of African Encounters and Initiatives in Ugogo and Ukaguru, 1876–1933” from the perspective of one who spent many years working and teaching in Tanzania.

While most of the content is only available to subscribers, Dr Mark Thompson’s review of the Anglican Communion document “What Do Anglicans Believe?” has been published for everyone to read.

“The Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO), working with the Anglican Communion Office’s department of Theological Education in the Anglican Communion (TEAC), has produced a short 45-page study guide entitled What Do Anglicans Believe? (2020). It has been distributed widely, in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, with a particular focus on institutions providing theological education within the Anglican Communion.

It is presented as a working draft, with the goal of assisting readers in “deciding how doctrine in general, and specific doctrines, should play a more contextually authentic and inspiring role in our worship, mission and discipleship, and then resolving to make those changes” (p. 7). But it is seriously misleading and points us in the wrong directions.”

Read Mark Thompson’s probing review here. (PDF file.)

My Year in Books – Claire Smith

“For someone who spends much of their time sitting at a desk reading and writing, I am generally amazed at how few books I read cover to cover, and that I read for no other reason than I am interested to read them! ‘My Year in Books’ tends to be determined by the projects I’m working on that given year.

This year, for example, I was asked to review three books on the Bible’s teaching about men and women. Unfortunately, I could not recommend any of them, as I explain in the reviews I’ve written. But they did alert me to three trends in the ongoing discussion about the relationship and roles of men and women in marriage and ministry. …”

– Dr Claire Smith writes at The Gospel Coalition Australia.

Release From a COVID Christmas

“The pre-covid, covid, and post-covid worlds have striking similarities: we are imprisoned in a world of sin, pain, and death …”

– Dr Peter Barnes, Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, shares his 2020 Christmas message.

Albert Mohler speaks with Carl Trueman on ‘The Triumph of the Modern Self’

Albert Mohler speaks with Carl Trueman on Car’s new book, ‘The Triumph of the Modern Self’, in the latest edition of ‘Thinking in Public’.

Carl Trueman speaks about his book ‘The Sexual Revolution and the Rise of the Modern Self’

At Christ the Center’s podcast from Reformed Forum, Carl Trueman speaks about his new book, “The Sexual Revolution and the Rise of the Modern Self”.

“My aim is to explain how and why a certain notion of the self has come to dominate the culture of the West, why this self finds its most obvious manifestation in the transformation of sexual mores, and what the wider implications of this transformation are and may well be in the future.”

Listen here.

See also:

Review: ‘The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self’ by Carl Trueman.

NSW Covid-19 rules for churches from 7 Dec 2020

“The NSW Government has now released the text of the new more generous gathering rules which will apply from Monday 7 December, in the Public Health (COVID-19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement) Order (No 7) 2020 (“PHO7”).

The new rules are much more generous in allowing churches to gather – in short, most indoor church meetings will only be subject to a new ‘one person per 2 square metres’ rule, rather than a hard numerical cap. Restrictions as to outdoor gatherings have also been eased. …”

– Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia helpfully outlines the latest COVID-19 rules for churches in NSW.

The Coming — a dramatic new Christmas video from Glen Scrivener and Speak Life.

This year’s Christmas video from Glen Scrivener and Speak Life has just been released. This ambitious production, an animation based on “The Coming” by R. S. Thomas, is sure to generate discussion.

Be sure to watch.

Plus

You could pray about ways of using this video for Christmas.

The Australian Church Record Journal, Summer 2020-21

The latest Australian Church Record Journal is packed with helpful and informative features.

Be sure to download your copy – and let others know.

Here’s a taste of what’s in this issue:

Celebrate the great unmasking of God

“This has been the year of wearing masks.

Little did we know as we entered 2020 that Australia, and indeed the world, would suffer the effects of a pandemic from the Coronavirus – which first made its entrance into the world about 12 months ago in Wuhan, China. …”

– Archbishop Glenn Davies shares a very appropriate Christmas message in the December 2020 edition of Southern Cross.

The North Australian Lectionary

With Advent Sunday kicking off the church year this weekend, the Diocese of the Northern Territory has unveiled a new lectionary designed especially for the Top End.

The North Australian Lectionary tells the Bible story as the weather seasons change.

“During Wet season, from Christmas to Easter time, we read the Gospel story of Jesus Christ.

During Dry season, we read about God’s people in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

During Build-Up season, we read God’s word to encourage us, to help us to keep going in hot weather time.

This lectionary helps us to think about God’s story as the country we live in changes.

We also tell the Bible story every year using the church seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. These church seasons help us to remember the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. Christians have been using church seasons for a long time to help them grow in Jesus.” (emphasis added)

The lectionary includes readings in several languages. A wonderful resource.

 

The Beautiful Story

From The Church of England Evangelical Council (PDF file):

“The Church of England has just released a suite of resources (called ‘Living in Love and Faith’) and launched a new dialogue around human experiences of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. And though we are not yet at the end of the road we have reached a big and important milestone. We are now getting close to the point where we shall finally have to make up our minds about same-sex sexual relationships in particular, and this is going to affect every parish in the land, every ministry, every incumbent, and every PCC.

One option for the future is that we simply accept that the Church has a range of views and that we must learn to live with difference. But that is a bit like saying that we don’t really need to make up our minds at all.

And provided you don’t think about it too much, it sounds attractive.

But is it possible to say and do a number of contradictory things at the same time? …

Most important of all, would it be right to lose confidence in God’s design for human flourishing at this critical moment in our nation’s history?

This brand new film ‘The Beautiful Story’ brings together a diverse range of evangelical Anglican leaders who believe the time has come to say where we stand. It is not exhaustive (e.g. there is no exploration of the experiences of transgender people) and it will not answer all the questions that people might have. However they believe it is time to speak up for what we are for rather than what we are against. They believe in another story, a better story, that has been given for our good and for human flourishing. …”

– See The Beautiful Story at the CEEC website. It’s the first of a number of planned resources.

See also these responses to the Church of England’s ‘Living in Love and Faith’:

Living in Love and Faith: Honest disagreement – Kirsten Birkett. (Church Society)

Initial thoughts on LLF – Lee Gatiss (Church Society)

“This whole Living in Love and Faith thing is huge. A 450 page book, a 5 week course, and 50 or so detailed scholarly papers online in a library, plus 30 hours of videos and podcasts. Not only that, but there is already an array of initial responses and comments from various bloggers and tweeters. So it’s hard work keeping on top of all this.

Overall, I want to say this: Ultimately, there is absolutely nothing in LLF which warrants a change in the Church’s doctrine or practice. It simply fails to present a sufficient case to justify revision, if that’s what some were hoping it would do. The clearer our feedback to the process of discernment on the back of this, the better. …”

– First impressions of the Church of England’s Living in Love and Faith are very disappointing – Prudence Dailey.

– LLF’s surrealist theology bodes ill for Evangelical Anglicans – Julian Mann.

Review: The Headship of Men and the Abuse of Women: Are They Related in Any Way?

“No one could be unconcerned about the scourge of domestic abuse in our communities, and even our churches. One victim is one too many, and the increased stress and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic has only made the matter more pressing.

It is this sombre reality that makes Kevin Giles’ book, The Headship of Men and the Abuse of Women so disappointing. Although it is short, easy to read, and deals with an issue that should concern us all, the most commendable aspect of the book is the author and his wife’s evident concern and practical care for women victims. But as a biblical response to the problem, it falls far short. …”

– The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has published Dr Claire Smith’s review of Kevin Giles’ new book.

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