Bill Shorten speaks at Australian Christian Lobby national conference
“Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has told a Christian conference he supports same-sex marriage.
Mr Shorten made the comments in a speech to the Australian Christian Lobby national conference in Canberra this morning.
‘When I see people hiding behind the bible to insult and demonise people on the basis of who they love, I cannot stay silent, I do not agree,’ he said…”
– Story from ABC News. (Photo: BillShorten.com.au)
Related: Australian Christian Lobby media release.
Archbishop Davies welcomes new Roman Catholic leader
“The Archbishop of Sydney issued a statement of welcome to Bishop Anthony Fisher, named as the successor to Cardinal George Pell as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney.”
– read Archbishop Davies’ statement here.
(Photo credit.)
‘Government should back Nationals’ urgency motion to help Islamic State victims’
Here’s a media release from The Australian Christian Lobby:
“The Australian Christian Lobby has renewed its call for the Federal Government to urgently lift the humanitarian refugee intake to assist refugees fleeing Islamic State brutality in Iraq and Syria.
This follows unanimous support for such a move at this weekend’s Nationals Federal Council meeting in Canberra. Read more
Online comments cause SU Tasmania Chaplain to be sacked
“It wasn’t his Facebook post that caused Scripture Union (SU) Tasmania chaplain Troy Williams to be sacked. It was his follow up comment on a conservative Christian site. …”
– Story from John Sandeman at Eternity Newspaper.
A life dedicated to serving mission and community
“Owen Shelley, who died on Saturday, August 2, lived to serve Jesus Christ and to share the good news of salvation to thousands of children…”
– Story from The St. George & Sutherland Shire Leader.
Veteran children’s evangelist dies
“Owen Shelley, who spent more than 30 years as children’s missioner with Scripture Union, has died.
Mr Shelley was well known to generations of Christians in Sydney and NSW for his talks and story telling at church services, outreach events and beach missions.”
– SydneyAnglicans.net has this story on Owen Shelley, including a tribute from Scripture Union.
With thanksgiving for Owen Shelley
Many thousands of people will be giving thanks to the Lord Jesus for his servant Owen Shelley, who died on Saturday at the age of 87.
“Owen Shelley left us on Saturday 2nd August to be with his Lord and Saviour. He lived to serve Jesus and to share the good news of salvation to thousands of children.”
There will be a memorial service at 2:00pm on Tuesday 12th August at Narwee Baptist Church (33-39 Baumans Road, Peakhurst). The Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, will preach.
– Read more at Shelley and Son.
Sydney church member killed on flight MH17
“A western Sydney church is coming to terms with the loss of one of their own, Victor Oreshkin, one of the 298 passengers on MH17. Victor, aged 29, was a core member of the small Slavic Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Lidcombe…
Victor had been studying a Certificate of Theology part-time with Morling College in Sydney and was due to start his next subject — Old Testament — on Tuesday night this week.”
The Christian origins of NAIDOC week
“This week is NAIDOC week across Australia, celebrating the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’. What many don’t realise is that it was Aboriginal Christians that started NAIDOC week. Specifically, it was the initiative of an Aboriginal Christian, William Cooper, who asked the churches to start praying for aborigines on what would become known as ‘Aboriginies Sunday.’…”
– Dominic Steele writes at The Briefing.
Gospel Coalition Australia announced
“Following the broad pattern of the original TGC, we have formed a Council drawn from across Australia. Building on existing relational networks, we have drawn together a group of 13 men committed to the TGC Foundation Documents and to one another.
Whilst we haven’t tried to ensure that every possible constituency is represented, we have ended up with a real mixture of denominations, backgrounds, geographical locations, and experience. The founding Council Members are listed for your information below.”
– from The Gospel Coalition website.
High Court strikes down chaplaincy funding
“Funding for school chaplains has been declared constitutionally invalid for the second time by the High Court of Australia…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has reassured the community of the government’s commitment to the program when he said it ‘very much supports [the program] and wants it to continue’. It follows the announcement in May to continue to fund the program a further $244 million over four years.
In the Senate Question time today, Senator Brandis said “It is important to note that in arriving at that conclusion, the Court did not deal with the merits of the program, merely that the question of whether it fell within a particularly constitutional definition”…”
– Report from The Australian Christian Lobby.
Keeping in touch with the Pressies
The latest issue of New Directions, from the Presbyterian Church of Queensland is now out.
It’s a good way to be encouraged by (and to pray for) what’s happening elsewhere.
(h/t Gary Ware.)
Other labourers in The Lord’s Vineyard
Sometimes we may forget we have brothers and sisters labouring in other parts of the Lord’s Vineyard. Here’s the latest from The Presbyterian Inland Mission (PDF) and Australian Presbyterian World Mission (PDF).
Remembering Leon Morris on the Centenary of his birth
Australian theologian Leon Morris was born one hundred years ago this weekend – on March 15th 1914.
The current Principal of Ridley College Melbourne, Dr, Brian Rosner, has a tribute. (Photo: Ridley College.)
If you are not familiar with the writings of Leon Morris, you can read three articles on the Church Society website:
The Person of Christ (1960).
The Authority of the Bible Today (1961, PDF file).
Christian Worship (1962, PDF file).
And if you can obtain a copy (and especially if you have some Greek), take the time to read his The Apostolic Preaching of The Cross – The Tyndale Press, London, 1955) – an enormously important book still today.
That book “is an attempt to understand certain key words, words which are crucial to the New Testament picture of the atonement, by seeing them against the background of the Greek Old Testament, the papyri, and the Rabbinic writings. Armed with our discoveries, we then proceed to examine them in their New Testament setting…” – from the Preface to the First Edition.
Update: Sandy Grant has just published this at The Briefing.
Senate rejects push to dump Lord’s Prayer
“The Australian Christian Lobby has welcomed the Senate’s decision to reject the Greens’ push to dump the Lord’s Prayer from parliament.”
– from the Australian Christian Lobby.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…