Exploring and Celebrating the Nicene Creed
“This year is the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, which is an important part of our liturgy for a number of our services, in particular for the Eucharist. We encourage you to mark this year by devoting some time to focussing on the creed, both personally and as a congregation. …”
– The Ministry Development Committee of the Diocese of Ballarat is seeking to help church members think about what they mean when they say the Nicene Creed on Sundays.
Related:
Credo Magazine feature: 1700 Years after Nicaea. – January 2025.
Christ and Creation — Two Ways News podcast
From Phillip Jensen:
“Dear Friends,
Hello again, thanks for the feedback and encouragement. Peter and I are enjoying chatting over the great themes of the Creator and creation in Genesis 1.
So far, we have been struck by the opening words ‘In the beginning God created’, which take us to the idea of one God and one universe. But yet when we come to John chapter 1 we find that the word by which God created all, became flesh in the person of Jesus. Furthermore, in Colossians 1, the world was created not only through God’s son but also for him.
So, in this week’s Two Ways News we are exploring the place of Christ in creation. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did in making it.”
– Listen here.
Who is Melchizedek?
“Who is the greatest in the book of Genesis? Abraham? Wrong! The greatest man in Genesis is Melchizedek.
‘Who?’, you say. Even if you have been a Bible reader for a while, your knowledge of Melchizedek may be a little sketchy. Who was he? And why does he matter?
Melchizedek appears in three places in the Bible. We will take these in turn and see how they fit together.…”
– Christopher Ash, Writer-in-Residence at Tyndale House in Cambridge, begins a new series, ‘Curious characters in the Bible’, by exploring questions around the mysterious Melchizedek.
God’s Deep Irony!
“HG Wells, historian and author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds responded to a request from The American Magazine in July 1922, to identify the six most influential people in history.
‘I am an historian,’ he said. ‘I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history’.
Why then was HG Wells, and many like him, not a believer? Perhaps it has something to do with what we might call, God’s deep irony. …”
– John Mason writes in this week’s Word on Wednesday from The Anglican Connection.
Creator, King and Country — The importance of the first five words
From Phillip Jensen:
Citizenship is a wonderful thing. To be part of something larger than yourself gives meaning purpose and identity. Peter and I grew up in the British Empire having been born before the granting of Australian citizenship. It was for the Empire that our parents and grandparents generation went to the world wars. Today that is almost unimaginable, for now people find their identity in being Australians.
However, when we read Genesis 1 we are confronted with a ruler who is over and above every empire and nation because he is the Creator of all things. In this episode of Two Ways News we look at the meaning and implications of the opening words of Genesis 1.
– Listen here.
The reality of ministry – 2 Corinthians 4
Archie Poulos preached at Moore College’s chapel this morning.
From 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he spoke about The Reality of Ministry.
Two Ways News Podcast — The Foundations of Genesis Part 2
The second episode of the 2025 series of Two Ways News Podcasts is now out, with Phillip and Peter Jensen. They continue on Genesis 1–11.
“We spent last time talking about the background ideas of how we come to read Genesis, but Peter, you said something about the nature of literature, and I’d like to follow you up more on the assumptions when you’re reading, because you talked about how you approach reading.”
Guess who’s coming to podcast?
“The former Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, has been joined by his brother, former Archbishop Peter Jensen, in a refashioning of the podcast Two Ways News.
The podcast was previously hosted by Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne. …
In the first episode of 2025, Mr Jensen introduces his brother Peter as the new co-host. “This year we’re looking at Genesis,” he says in the first episode. ‘Last year we worked our way through Romans and we just thought, well, the opening chapters of Genesis open up so many questions for us that it’ll be a great passage to have as the backbone of the year.’…”
– Russell Powell shares the news at SydneyAnglicans.net.
This podcast will be a real treat. Listen to the first episode for 2025, released today.
Image: Peter and Phillip at the 2023 King’s Birthday Conference at Moore Theological College.
Book review: ‘Proclaiming Christ’
“The past two hundred years of human history has seen the rise of so-called ‘modern’ thinking, which has created unprecedented challenges for Christians around the world.
As it stands, our current society is underpinned by a subjective approach to truth – emotions determine worldviews; objective biblical standards are labelled extremist; and unalterable biological realities like one’s own gender are contested on the grounds of personal feelings. In turn, this subjectivity has accompanied religious pluralism, as no revelation from God can be considered objectively true, because nothing is objectively true.
Against this cultural backdrop, believers are constantly in need of reminders to keep preaching Christ crucified. As a compilation of Packer’s 1978 lectures at Moore Theological College on Common Objections Against Christianity, this book serves to do exactly that. …“
As we noted when Campbell Markham reviewed the book last year, as well as reading the book, you can watch Packer’s 1978 Moore College lectures – About an hour each:
Lecture 1 – We’ve a Story to Tell.
Lecture 2 – The man Christ Jesus.
Lecture 3 – He emptied himself: the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Lecture 4 – The wonderful exchange.
Lecture 5 – No other name: the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.
What would we lose if we stopped teaching complementarianism?
Dr Mark D Thompson, Principal of Moore Theological College, writes:
“The following is a paper I presented to a seminar at the 2025 Priscilla and Aquila Conference.
What would we lose if we stopped teaching complementarianism?
If we believe that the complementarian nature of human life and Christian ministry is a good thing, given by our loving God for our welfare, then we ought to want to preach and teach it, and to help people see how this perspective finds expression right through the Bible, and how it nurtures healthy, joyful and meaningful relationships. Yet increasingly, it seems, Bible teachers and preachers who are convinced of the truthfulness and even the goodness of this part of the Bible’s teaching, are unwilling to teach it for a variety of reasons. The context of our moment in history in the Western world — a right and proper concern to affirm the equal dignity and value of women and men, while at the same time being confused about what it means to be a woman or a man; the grotesque misuse of the Bible’s teaching by some to justify oppression and abuse; voices inside the churches insisting the Bible says something different and outside the churches arguing not only that we need not, but that we must not, follow the Bible’s teaching anyway — all of this pushes hard against any decision to teach complementarianism even if we believe it.
So my goal in this seminar is simply to encourage us to teach what we believe. And I don’t want us to do that just out of some sort of obligation, begrudgingly teaching this because it’s there in the Bible, but because we know it is good and that without understanding this our life together will be all the poorer. God is good. His word is good. He is committed to our welfare. He has built us for relationships. And what he has to tell us in his word about how to relate as men and women, in the home, in the church, and in the world that he has made, is very good. So if we don’t teach complementarianism there is a lot that we can lose. …”
– Read it all here – and very good to share with others in your church.
Related: The Priscilla and Aquila Centre at Moore College.
Paul Grimmond: How godliness differs for men and women and how to teach it!
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“How does godliness play out differently if I am a man, a woman, a young man, a young woman, a husband or a wife?
All Christians are called to live like Christ. Why does the Apostle Paul choose to write about what godliness looks like for the older and younger and for us as men and women, rather than more generally for us as people?
Does our age and sex have implications for the challenges we face in living for Jesus?
Are these things just human constructs or elements of divine gift?
And what implications does this have for how we think about discipleship and our lived experience of complementarian ministry?
Paul Grimmond is a senior lecturer at Sydney’s Moore Theological College. Paul gave the keynote address at the Priscilla and Aquila conference.”
The Gender Revolution — a new blog to go with the book
The authors of the book The Gender Revolution, Patricia Weerakoon, Rob Smith, and Kamal Weerakoon, have started a blog to discuss related topics.
The first post, Every Body Has Authority, by Kamal Weerakoon, is now online.
The book is published by Matthias Media. (It’s also on special at the moment!)
“There are times when I receive a new book and find myself saying ‘I don’t think we need a new book on that.’ …
Yet sometimes I receive a new book and find myself saying, ‘I’m so glad someone has written a book on that!’ …
The Gender Revolution falls squarely in the second category. This is a book that has been written to provide a biblical, biological, and compassionate response to the modern day gender ideology that has been flooding our world and sweeping away so many victims.”
Image: Matthias Media.
Godliness vs Effectiveness — the Both/And Dilemma
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“Godliness vs Effectiveness
Theology vs Pragmatics
People centered vs Organisationally minded
Leading from the front vs Serving others
Courage to take a stand vs Quick to submit
Others know I am one of them vs I am set apart to lead
I lead patiently vs I lead with a sense of urgencyMost Christians at some point do start to wonder if they are the real deal. What God asks of us is so far reaching, so all encompassing, that when we come up short, we start to ask ourselves “Am I an imposter?” “Should I really be a leader?” and perhaps/Am even a Christian at all?’”
William Taylor: ‘Give yourself wholly to the work of the Lord’
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“What is the work of the Lord? What is in vain if the resurrection is not true? What truly lasts and what does gospel work looks like in our daily lives?
The debate over eschatology and one’s view of the new heavens and new earth. Will there be a Sydney Harbour Bridge in the new creation?
And in the meantime, what should be our priorities?
William Taylor is the rector of St Helen’s Church in London, where he is engaged in ministry to city workers.
He has written the book ‘Revolutionary Work’ to address these issues.”
1700 Years after Nicaea — Credo Magazine
A new issue of Credo magazine is out, with a focus on the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity:
“Without the doctrine of the Trinity we have no Christianity. So, something is fundamentally wrong when countless churchgoers and churches today never say the Nicene Creed together on a Sunday morning. In fact, some have never heard of the Nicene Creed at all.
The year 2025 is the anniversary of the Nicene Creed, meaning this year is a strategic opportunity for pastors everywhere to put the creed back in the church where it belongs. In this new issue of Credo Magazine, we explain why the creed should not only inform the doctrine of the church but its worship, pervading its liturgy. No longer can the church afford to go without that creed which brings us into fellowship with the communion of the saints and summons us into communion with the holy Trinity. …”
– Worth reflecting on the first three sentences – and reading through some of the articles in this issue.
From the first featured article, A Map to Organise Wonder:
“The Nicene Creed, written in 325 years then ratified and expanded in 381 at the Council of Constantinople, represents a doctrinal map seeking to organize the greatest Wonder within all the cosmos: the Triune God. It is not a replacement for the Wonder itself but helps pilgrims on the journey towards the Celestial City. The Creed prompts us to marvel at True Wonder as we progressively encounter his beauty before reaching him in glory. Thus, without the Nicene Creed, Christians are in danger of being lost in a sea of doctrinal and moral confusion. Whether evangelical Christians recite the Creed in gathered worship or not, we are indebted to the theological luminaries of the fourth century. To jettison the Creed is like disabling a GPS in an unknown territory.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…