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.
Bishops demand UK Government offer asylum to Iraqi Christians
“From Canon Andrew White, Vicar of Baghdad: ‘We have just had terrible news that Baghdad International Airport has been shut down because of security risks. Without it we cannot go North to do the relief work or even leave the country. Please pray that we can get out.’
As the Islamic State continues its programme of bloody executions and forced conversion, Canon White bears witness to the suffering…”
– Blogger “Cranmer” on the deterirotaing situation in Iraq. (h/t Anglican Mainstream.)
Related: Iraqi Christians ‘should be offered asylum in UK’ – bishop. – BBC News.
Welby hopes women bishops won’t prevent ‘full communion’ with Catholic Church
“In a letter sent to Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said he hopes the vote to allow the ordination of women bishops would not prove a stumbling block to future ’full communion’ between the Anglican and Catholic churches…”
– Report from The Catholic Herald.
(Photo: ACNS.)
‘All you need to know about christening’ — without mentioning…
“The Church of England has created a new website which promises to tell you ‘all you need to know about choosing, planning and going to a Church of England christening’. How far does it succeed in this endeavour?
Let’s start with a positive. The fact that the church is seeking to provide clear and accessible resources for those considering having their child baptised is much to be welcomed. …
Unfortunately, problems start to crop up when we begin to read what the website actually says…”
– Mark Smith at Church Society looks at the new Church of England “christening” website – or you might want to check it yourself first. (And compare 1 Corinthians 2:2.)
Flourishing after the consecration of women bishops?
“Many of us in the Church of England today see the consecration of women as bishops to be a departure from God’s revealed plan for the flourishing of his church. As Christians, our basic confession is ‘Jesus is Lord’, and so we believe he must decide how the church is governed…”
– Church Society’s Director Lee Gatiss addresses the new situation in the Church of England.
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.”
A letter from Rod Thomas to Reform members
“Dear Member of Reform,
You will have been saddened, but probably not surprised, by the General Synod’s vote last Monday on women bishops.
This was the logical outcome of the decision in 1993 to enable women to be ordained to the presbyterate in the Church of England. That decision prompted the formation of Reform and since then we have actively sought to urge the Church to reform herself under the authority of the Word of God. …”
– Rod Thomas, Chairman of Reform, responds to the Women Bishops vote.
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.
‘Church of England says yes to women bishops’
“Women can now become bishops following an historic vote by the Church of England’s General Synod today.
Following a day of debate at the General Synod meeting in York on the issue of women in the episcopate, at least two thirds majority of each house – laity, clergy and bishops – voted in favour of the measure to pass.
General Synod votes in favour in all three houses:
• Bishops: 37 in favour, 2 against, 1 abstention.
• Clergy: 162 in favour, 25 against, 4 abstentions.
• Laity: 152 in favour, against 45, 5 abstentions…”
– from the Anglican Communion News Service.
See also: The transcript of the Archbishop Justin Welby’s remarks during the General Synod debate.
Beware of scams
The Church of Nigeria warns of scams involving requests supposedly coming from Archbishop Nicholas Okoh –
“It has come to our knowledge that some unscrupulous persons fake the identity of the Primate of All Nigeria online and create impostor facebook accounts bearing his picture and his name. These same people also use these scam facebook accounts to defraud some unsuspecting members of the public by raising money online under a pretext to support some charity causes.”
– PDF file from The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).
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.
‘Anglican archbishops clash over assisted dying ahead of UK law debate’
“Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has stressed his opposition to assisted dying as one of his predecessors announced he has changed his mind and will now support the right of terminally ill patients to seek help to end their lives. …
George Carey … said he would now oppose the church’s official line by supporting the right to be helped to die…”
– Report from The Sydney Morning Herald.
Related:
Blogger “Cranmer” weighs in: “Lord Carey unhelpfully tells us via the Daily Mail that ‘The old philosophical certainties have collapsed in the face of the reality of needless suffering’.”
“Desmond Tutu: I support assisted dying” – The (UK) Telegraph.
Archbishop of Canterbury to visit Melbourne
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will attend the installation of Dr Philip Freier as the new Primate at a service of Choral Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne on Wednesday August 13. Archbishop Welby will preach, after flying from the Solomon Islands the day prior, and before to a trip to New Zealand the next day.
Bishop Edwin Ngubane
“Many Sydney Anglicans are grieving the death of a very dear brother in Christ.
Rt Rev Edwin Ngubane, the Area Bishop for Johannesburg and Pretoria with REACH (Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa, formerly known as CESA) and Rector of Christ Church Hillbrow in the heart of Johannesburg’s red light district, died on Sunday 29th June. Edwin was 44. He succumbed to a series of strokes following many months of battling TB and pneumonia.”
– Very sad news via David Mansfield. It would be good to pray for Edwin’s wife, Genevieve, and family, and for the church at Hillbrow.
Tribute from Gorge Whitefield College Principal Mark Dickson.
Related: Rescued From Hell in Hillbrow. (Photo: REACH South Africa.)
A succession plan for our parish
“Blake’s words about ‘dark, satanic mills’ were not specifically about Oldham, but they could have described the Oldham of my childhood, surrounded as we were by over 360 mills.
The damp, gloomy atmosphere of this Pennine town, together with the coal mined here, provided ideal conditions for it to be the textile processing capital of the world. The parish of Christ Church Chadderton was founded in 1870 at the height of this industry as a clearly evangelical witness.…”
– At Church Society, John Simmons shares why his parish has asked Church Society to be its Patron. (It’s a rather different system in the CofE – and evangelical patronage is a significant responsibility.) Photo: Christ Church Chadderton.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…