Church of Scotland ready to approve same-sex marriage as General Assembly starts
“The Church of Scotland’s General Assembly starts today with a vote on same-sex marriages, a call for a conversion therapy ban and the confirmation of a Declaration of Friendship with the Catholic Church in Scotland as the main points on the agenda. …”
– Report from Premier Christian News, Saturday 21 May 2022.
Earlier stories on the Church of Scotland.
Photo: Church of Scotland.
Passage of the ‘Voluntary Assisted Dying’ legislation — Media Statement
Here is a Media Release from the Anglican Diocese of Sydney:
————-
“Public Statement
The passing of the ‘Voluntary Assisted Dying’ legislation will be a matter of regret for our whole community, not just for people of faith who objected strongly or for the doctors who raised their voices against it.
Thanks are due to those MPs who sought to ensure there would be safeguards protecting vulnerable people, medical practitioners and others who care for those who suffer. Unfortunately, most of the proposed amendments were rejected.
This legislation affects not only those who will choose what is euphemistically called ‘Voluntary Assisted Dying’ but will fundamentally affect our culture and values.
We must be vigilant to maintain an emphasis on palliative care so that people have quality to the end of their lives and are not subject to undue pressure because of a lack of resources to support them in their suffering.
I hope the government will ensure that the scope of the bill and those to whom it is applied, does not broaden in the way it has done overseas, being extended to those who are not terminally ill and who suffer from a broad range of illness or disability.
Finally, pray for those suffering that they may be assured that everything will be done to preserve and promote their quality of life, and for medical staff whose relationship with patients has been fundamentally altered by these laws.
Archbishop Kanishka Raffel,
20 May 2022.”
Why is Canada euthanising the poor?
“Since last year, Canadian law, in all its majesty, has allowed both the rich as well as the poor to kill themselves if they are too poor to continue living with dignity. In fact, the ever-generous Canadian state will even pay for their deaths. What it will not do is spend money to allow them to live instead of killing themselves.
As with most slippery slopes, it all began with a strongly worded denial that it exists. …
Even before Bill C-7 was enacted, reports of abuse were rife. A man with a neurodegenerative disease testified to Parliament that nurses and a medical ethicist at a hospital tried to coerce him into killing himself by threatening to bankrupt him with extra costs or by kicking him out of the hospital, and by withholding water from him for 20 days.”
– Yuan Yi Zhu in Oxford writes in The Spectator (UK online edition) about the situation in Canada – which will get worse when changes come in 2023..
NSW’s voluntary assisted dying laws delayed as MPs fail to vote after marathon sitting
“Voluntary assisted dying is set to be legalised in NSW today, after a marathon debate in the upper house that lasted until midnight failed to produce a vote.
MPs spent more than eight hours debating nearly 100 amendments on Wednesday. …
The majority of the amendments were voted down during the debate, including the push to give aged and residential homes the power to block voluntary assisted dying taking place in their facilities.”
– Report from ABC News.
Update, 1:10pm –
“Voluntary assisted dying has been made legal in New South Wales.
The legislation passed the Lower House of parliament, after a vote to accept the amendments from the Upper House.
The Upper House spent 10 hours debating amendments before a final vote of support 23 to 15.”
(Image: St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.)
Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill third reading today in NSW upper house
“Independent MP Alex Greenwich says he is hopeful his Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill will be passed by the NSW upper house by midnight tonight and is pleading with MPs to not use stalling tactics. …”
– Report from ABC News.
Election survey probes parties on faith freedom
“A survey of political parties and candidates on their attitude to religious discrimination has revealed varying levels of support – and in some cases, no support – for measures to ensure religious freedom. …”
– Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net writes about the religiousdiscriminationsurvey.au website.
Related:
The Australian Christian Lobby (not associated with the Anglican Church League – we just have the same initials) has produced a page of “various documents and videos to help you make an informed choice on Election Day”, including this page where they share the answers given to their questionnaire in each electorate as well as each candidate for the Senate.
And not forgetting the call to pray –
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” – 1 Timothy 2:1-6.
“It is not my intention to interfere” — but Archbishop Carey writes from England to every Member of the NSW Upper House
“A former archbishop of Canterbury has written to every member of the NSW upper house urging them to vote for voluntary assisted dying this week in a dramatic bid to counter strong opposition to the proposed law from some faith leaders and MPs. …”
– Former Archbishop of Canterbury has written to all members of the New South Wales Legislative Council. “It is not my intention to interfere”, he said.
Story from The Australian. (Subscription.)
Related:
General Synod calls on MPs to oppose euthanasia – SydneyAnglicans.net.
How ‘voluntary assisted dying’ would change our culture and values – Archbishop Kanishka Raffel at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Many related posts on our website.
(Image: St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.)
Whither The Australian Anglican Church?
“This week the General Synod of the Australian Anglican Church has been debating what its stance is to be on human sexuality. A vote to affirm the church’s traditional position on marriage was strongly supported by clergy and laity but was narrowly rejected by the bishops.
A split is looming, but in this, Australian Anglicans are not unique.
In recent decades, Christian denominations all across the West have been dividing along progressive versus conservative lines. Anglican Churches in Scotland and New Zealand have been impacted by this trend. In North America, denominations affected by splits include the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the American Baptist Churches USA.
The trigger in all these cases has been whether the church will endorse same-sex unions. However, the fault lines run deeper than attitudes to human sexuality. …”
He argues that ‘Anglican progressives’ have misread the theological landscape.
For some very helpful context, here’s a chart of Diocesan Representation at General Synods 1962-2022. Click the image for a two-page PDF file.
Table initially complied by Robert Tong, updated by Daniel Glynn 6 May 2022.
(Fun fact: The Diocese of St. Arnaud, mentioned in the table, was in the Mallee and Wimmera regions of north-west Victoria. It merged with the Diocese of Bendigo in 1976.)
General Synod calls on MPs to oppose euthanasia
“The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia has reaffirmed its principled opposition to euthanasia or physician assisted suicide.
The strong statement came as the NSW Parliament considers a Bill to allow for such a practice. …”
– Story from Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net.
(Photo: James Levingston via SydneyAnglicans.net.)
Anglican General Synod votes ‘yes’ & in so doing discredits controversial Victorian Law
“While the bishops’ decision to block the motion on marriage is grievous, other and related issues have been discussed and decided, and these have ramifications beyond what the General Synod may realise.
Two motions have been adopted by an overwhelming majority. …
What makes these two motions interesting is that their application in the State of Victoria is illegal.”
– Murray Campbell watches the developments at General Synod from the State of Victoria.
Waiter, can I get some more ‘Anglican’ in this activism?
“In what sense is an Anglican school that rejects Anglican teaching in order to keep non-Anglican families happy still an Anglican school?
That’s the question Sydney Anglicans are wrestling with as opposition to Christian teaching on sexuality and gender grows.…”
– James Macpherson at The Spectator Australia responds to reported comments in a recent Sydney Morning Herald article. (Subscription, but several free views allowed for non-subscribers.)
Image: A sketch of Richard Johnson’s schoolhouse in Sydney.
Bishop Julian Dobbs on when Doctrine goes Bad
“I’ve been this week at the conference of the Anglican Diocese of the Living Word (ACNA), led by Bishop Julian Dobbs.
The bishop gave his annual address on Friday morning, and … Lord have mercy, if only ten percent of bishops and pastors talked like this man, we would be living in a different country. I present to you here the entire text…
Imagine a bishop talking like this! Catholics and Orthodox can scarcely wrap our minds around it. I asked the diocesan communications director to send me the text, which was so extraordinary. Here it is…”
– At The American Conservative, US conservative writer Rod Dreher shares his gratitude at hearing an address by Bishop Julian Dobbs.
Bishop Dobbs has seen what happens when a denomination turns away from the Bible to embrace the surrounding culture.
From his address –
“One of the many reasons why I am so sensitive to wokeness and this pattern of capitulation within the Anglican Church is because I am, and many of you are, refugees from a church that lost her way when she began to succumb to appeals for compassion, tenderness and a capitulation to culture as the justification for dismantling the faith ‘once for all entrusted to the saints’.
I am a refugee from a church that deposed the late Dr. J.I. Packer from the ordained ministry. I am a refugee from a church that put our own assisting Bishop William Love on trial for believing the bible. And I am a refugee from a church which just three days ago reaffirmed its commitment to the murder of unborn babies and said, ‘As Episcopalians, we have a particular obligation to stand against Christians who seek to destroy our multicultural democracy and recast the United States as an idol to the cruel and distorted Christianity they advocate.’
Brothers and sisters, when doctrine goes bad, so to do hearts, minds, churches, nations and eternal destinies. That is why this matters. …”
Read it all. Or, better, watch it all. Most edifying.
“In Canada, death is cheap”
“Canada refers to ‘euthanasia’ and ‘assisted suicide’ by the friendlier-sounding term of ‘medical assistance in dying’ (MAID). The MAID programme was first introduced to end the suffering of terminally ill people, but its mission creep is now undeniable.
Denise (not her real name), a 31-year-old Toronto woman who uses a wheelchair, is nearing final approval for a medically assisted death. She only applied after her many attempts to move from her apartment, which she says worsens her severe sensitivities to household chemicals, all failed. …”
– Heartbreaking story from Spiked. See also this video report from CTV News.
‘The Judgement to Choose to Abort a Child’: President Biden Accidentally Speaks the Truth about the Pro-Abortion Argument
In his The Briefing for Wednesday 4th May 2022, Albert Mohler comments on the responses to Monday’s leaked document from the US Supreme Court.
Baylor University charters LGBTQ group
“The news that Baylor University has officially chartered Prism, an LGBT student organization on campus, marks an important moment in Christian higher education in the USA.
To be fair to Baylor, Christian colleges and universities have a very difficult task in the current climate. Institutions of higher education are meant to be places for free discussion and exchange of ideas. With sexual identity politics now a central component of wider public discourse, freedom of discussion inevitably means that sexual identity discourse will take place on campuses. But there is a difference between students discussing these issues in the context of, say, a debating society or a mainstream political club, and discussing these ideas in an official LGBT group. To receive an official charter is to receive a formal imprimatur. …”
– At First Things, Carl Trueman writes about Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
Started in 1845, Baylor is private Christian University.
From the Baylor website:
“During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, prestigious institutions of higher education founded on Christian principles began a relentless retreat from their spiritual heritage. During that time and into the Twenty-first Century, Baylor has remained one of the few to persist in the belief that not only can its Baptist heritage inform a vital approach to life in general, it can also inform the life of the mind specifically.”
and their Statement on Human Sexuality.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…