Two (more) reasons to give thanks for Moore College
Two (more) reasons to give thanks for – and to pray for – Moore College:
1. Now is the moment of opportunity for Moore graduates.
2. Moore College distance education goes viral.
Reform’s ReNew Conference 2013 audio files
Reform’s “ReNew conference met Nov 26th to 27th, 2013. The conference was predominantly for church leaders and for women in paid positions of ministry in the Church of England. The purpose of the conference was to establish the basis on which Anglican evangelicals can work together and to begin to chart a way ahead.”
– Audio files of the talks are currently being added to the Reform website. The audio is a little over-compressed, but is quite audible and the talks are well worth hearing.
So far they have the talks by –
- Hugh Palmer – Proclaiming the gospel – the urgency of the hour
– 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, - Alasdair Paine – Defending and contending for the gospel – Romans 16:17-20,
- and Vaughan Roberts – JC Ryle – an Anglican Evangelical role model.
High Court reserves decision on challenge to ACT same-sex marriage laws
“Australia’s first ever same-sex marriages will take place from Saturday, after the High Court reserved its decision on the Commonwealth’s challenge to ACT’s same-sex marriage laws.
The court says it will hand down its decision next Thursday, and in the meantime will allow same-sex marriages to take place in Canberra.”
– Report from ABC News. Photo courtesy High Court of Australia.
Young Christian surfer killed in shark attack
“Christian surfer Zac Young has died following a shark attack near Coffs Harbour on Saturday. The 19-year-old was just about to start an apprenticeship with Christian Surfers and Youth for Christ, and has been described by his pastor as wanting to “give his life over to telling the whole world about Jesus”. …
Zac’s church held a memorial service for him yesterday, which was attended by more than 500 people.”
– from Eternity Newspaper. (Photo: Dave Malvern, Christian Surfers.)
ABC News report.
(At last night’s gathering at The Point Community Church, Ed Springer spoke about what changed Zac – about 20 minutes from the start of Ed’s sermon on Ecclesiastes 7:1-14.)
The Church of England facing ‘officially sanctioned apostasy’?
The Rev. Andrew Symes, Executive Secretary of Anglican Mainstream, works through The Pilling Report (PDF) to see the huge impact if its recommendations were to be adopted in The Church of England.
From his conclusions:
“This is why we are faced with officially sanctioned apostasy in our own church. It has finally happened. What do we do? The first thing to say is that the report has not yet been endorsed by the house of Bishops. We must pray for them and lobby them as politely but intensively as we can before their meeting to discuss the document.”
– Be sure to take the time to read his analysis in full here.
Anglican Mainstream also has a comprehensive list of links to reactions to the Report.
And some essential background:
The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns – Mark Thompson (from The Sydney Lambeth Decision Briefing – 16 March 2008)
The Limits of Fellowship – Phillip Jensen (from The Sydney Lambeth Decision Briefing – 16 March 2008)
Are we stronger than He? (PDF) – David Short (January 2005)
Some questions for the new Archbishop of Canterbury – by Mark Thompson (09 November 2012)
‘Tearing the Fabric’ — 2012 edition – American Anglican Council (PDF)
Bishop Charlie Masters’ Advent letter
“Advent, this year beginning conveniently on December 1st, is the first and best argument for observing the Church Year. Surely there is no other reality or central teaching of the Bible, more forgotten or functionally dismissed, by even serious Christians, than the doctrine of the return of Christ.
Thankfully, Romans 13, the first Epistle for the First Sunday of Advent, almost like an alarm clock interrupts the peaceful repose which is our lives and begins the church year with these words; ‘And do this, understanding the present time: the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.’ (Romans 13:11). …”
– Charlie Masters, Bishop of the Anglican Network in Canada sends his Advent greetings via the Anglican Essentials Canada blog.
Reform’s Chairman ‘deeply ashamed’ of the ‘very divisive’ Pilling Report
“Reform Chairman Prebendary Rod Thomas said today that he was “deeply ashamed” that the Pilling Report was opening up divisive discussions about the church’s stance on human sexuality.
He said: “Anglican evangelicals want to encourage the best possible provision of pastoral care for everyone involved in parish life. The calling of Christians is to a transformed life. True pastoral care in the case of those experiencing same-sex attraction will be to help them live Christianly. The report does not do this in its recommendations for “pastoral accommodation”. Reform profoundly regrets this insensitivity to real pastoral need.
Speaking at the close of the pan-evangelical ReNew conference, attended by over 250 senior Anglican leaders, Rod Thomas said that the report’s proposals were “very divisive and distressing”. He warmly endorsed the Bishop of Birkenhead’s dissenting statement with its understanding that the trajectory of the report “…undermined the discipleship and pastoral care of many faithful Christians”.
The Reform Council gave initial consideration to the report today. It concluded that the inevitable result of the report’s recommendations would be that pressure will increase for changes to the church’s understanding of marriage and of God’s purposes for human flourishing as outlined in the Bible. The Council reiterated its belief that the Anglican approach to doctrine and ethics can only be based on Scripture and therefore was not open to negotiation in facilitated conversations.”
– Source: Reform.
See also: The Bishop of Birkenhead’s dissenting statement.
Anglican Mainstream statement.
Church Society responds to the Pilling Report on sexuality
“Church Society welcomes the publication of the Report of the House of Bishops Working Group on Human Sexuality, so that it can be discussed openly and publicly by the whole church.
Like the apostle Jude, in the Bible, we would prefer to discuss the good news of Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers to all, but feel constrained to respond to the teaching of those who are changing the gospel into an affirmation of immoral behaviour.
We call on the church to read the report prayerfully, and to weigh its teaching and recommendations carefully in the light of scripture’s very clear teaching on sexuality, to which the Church of England is committed in its canons, doctrinal formularies, Synodical statements, and the resolutions of the Lambeth Conference. We particularly commend to people the “dissenting statement” in the report from the Bishop of Birkenhead, and thank him for its clarity and care. A further statement will be made in due course.” – Lee Gatiss, Director of Church Society.
Click here for full Pilling Report and CofE statement (CofE website).”
– from Church Society’s EV news.
Governor-General backs ‘gay marriage’
“Governor-General Quentin Bryce has publicly backed both Australia becoming a republic and gay marriage in a landmark speech in Sydney…”
– Report from ABC News. (Photo: Governor-General website.)
Tasmanian Parliament decriminalises abortion
“Tasmania has joined Victoria and the ACT in removing abortion from its criminal laws after seven months of deliberations in Parliament. …
Anti-abortion campaigners in Tasmania are warning some doctors may resign over the law.”
– report from ABC News.
And in NSW: Zoe’s Law to protect foetuses passes NSW Lower House.
Abp Welby’s presentation to the General Synod
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby spoke on the first day of the Church of England’s General Synod in Westminster –
“While I was in Nairobi for the condolence visit, I was there just before the beginning of GAFCON, and I had the opportunity to benefit from meeting a number of primates who had arrived for it. This was a great pleasure, and, as always, an education. As leader of GAFCON Archbishop Wabukala was as gracious as could have been wished.
There were naturally, as you may have noticed, different views expressed about different aspects of the Anglican Communion while I was in Nairobi and subsequently, including views about me, it has to be said not invariably warm and cuddly, but I was genuinely most glad to have had the opportunity to meet, and I have to say that the overwhelming response was not only kind but also deeply encouraging.”
– full text at The Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.
Goodbye St. Hilda’s
Anglican Samizdat reports on the sale and demolition of the former St. Hilda’s Anglican Church building in Oakville, Ontario. The congregation lost it to the Diocese of Niagara in 2012 after leaving the Anglican Church of Canada. via Anglican Eessentials Canada blog.
Related: Earlier ACL posts.
Bishop Charlie Masters at GAFCON 2013.
Archbishop Wabukala defends GAFCON
On Tuesday night, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Chairman of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans spoke at The Ridley Institute in South Carolina.
He spoke on “In Defense of GAFCON” with reference to The Thirty Nine Articles.
His address deserves wide distribution and is most encouraging. Archbishop Wabukala’s address begins 16 minutes into the video recording. (The address runs for about 45 minutes, followed by the question time which begins, after a break, at 1 hour 15 minutes into the recording. Also worth watching.)
Update: The text of his address is now available (PDF) on the GAFCON website as well as at The Ridley Institute.
Here’s a quote:
“I am so thankful to God that Christianity as moralism was not, on the whole, the gospel brought from England and the West to Africa and what we now call the Global South during the great missionary initiatives of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although the GAFCON movement coined the phrase ‘Confessing Anglicans,’ Provinces like mine which are the fruit of missionary endeavors have always been ‘confessing.’ For many of us the writings of John Stott and J.I. Packer simply were normal Anglicanism and too many of us assumed that the rest of the Communion thought the same way!
However, in the past thirty years it has become clear that the West has finally exhausted the capital of its Christian heritage. The combination of secularization and the growth of global media and communications has laid bare a fundamental theological divergence between Western secularized moralistic Anglicanism and confessional Anglicanism. The resulting strains have seriously damaged the Communion — many faithful orthodox Anglicans have been marginalized or even ejected from the formal structures of their Churches. Sexual immorality has not only been tolerated but held out to be holy and the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other formal instruments of Communion are no longer able to fulfill their basic purpose of gathering the Communion. …”
Stay in Noah’s Ark — or get into the lifeboat?
“I’ve just completed four years of training for ministry in the Church of England, and, God willing, have ahead of me many years of gospel ministry in the Anglican Church.
However, there seems to me to be more pressure than ever to doubt the integrity of that position. How can an evangelical who takes seriously his stewardship of revealed truth, ever with a good conscience take office in the Church of England? …”
– At The Church Society, Oak Hill graduate Matt Graham asks if it’s worth sticking with the Church of England. (PDF file.)
Related: Audio files of talks from the Junior Anglican Evangelical Conference.
Australian Christian Lobby welcomes defeat of NSW same-sex marriage bill
“The Australian Christian Lobby welcomes the defeat of the NSW same-sex marriage bill 21 to 19 votes in the upper house today. ACL Managing Director Lyle Shelton said it was time for state parliaments to stop using parliamentary time to debate a federal issue. …” – Media release from the Australian Christian Lobby.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…