A breakdown of the Australian National Church Life survey – with Peter Mayrick and Ruth Powell

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“Sunday Church attendance across Australia is down, but decline has slowed.

The Australian National Church Life Survey results are out.  Worryingly the key newcomer indicator has dropped to 5.7%.

While evangelism is down, engagement in church based service groups is up. Mid week small groups are up.

We take a hard look under the bonnet of the top level results.

Ruth Powell is National Director for the National Church Life Survey.

Peter Mayrick is with Partners in Ministry and the Center for Ministry Development at Sydney’s Moore Theological College and is a board member of the National Church Life Survey.”

– Watch or listen here.

Anglican Church Comes to Crossroads Over Teaching on Homosexuality — Will It Compromise in the Name of Unity?

In his The Briefing for Thursday 27 October 2022, Albert Mohler comments on what’s happening in the Anglican world. He responds to an article originating from New Zealand –

“…this takes us back to an article that also ran in the Times just a matter of a few weeks ago, and the headline tells you a lot about how the mainstream media messaged this kind of story.

The headline in the article by Pete McKenzie is this, ‘Anglican Church Delivers A Kick In The Guts To Gay Parishioners.’

… Pete McKenzie in this article, which was date-lined from Wellington in New Zealand basically is unabashed in arguing that it’s the conservative Anglicans who are holding the church back, and they are doing great harm.”

– Listen or read at AlbertMohler.com.

A visit to Grace Presbyterian Assembly in NZ

“As Moderator during the covid pandemic, I visited a few places in person – notably Hurstville for the ordination of two elders and New Dunesk for its opening as the centre of the work of the Presbyterian Inland Mission. Then there were the Zoom meetings.

But from 3-7 October 2022 I was able to visit the Grace Presbyterian Assembly in Auckland. …”

– We are so thankful for the formation of the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa New Zealand (CCAANZ) in response to the liberal trajectory of the Anglican Church in NZ.

Peter Barnes, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Australia briefly reports on another response to liberal theology in NZ – this one by faithful Presbyterians.

New Anglican Bishops for England and Europe

“It was a great privilege to journey from Oxford to Yorkshire last Friday (21 October) to witness the consecration of two of our distinguished Wycliffe Hall alumni as new Anglican bishops. There was a buzz of excitement in the air at the inauguration of their new ministries, and exhilaration at the gospel bonds which draw together the global Anglican family.

In a variation to the usual liturgy, the new bishops were doffed on the head with a Bible and exhorted, “Remember that you are always under the Word of God.”

We weren’t gathered, however, in the Gothic glories of York Minster, but in a converted warehouse on an industrial estate in Hull, lent for the occasion by a local Vineyard church. This was not the Church of England, but a much younger ministry, the Anglican Network in Europe.

Global leaders in the Anglican Communion, associated with Gafcon, gave the consecration their full backing. … The platform was a wonderful global array.”

– At Psephizo, Andrew Atherstone shares his impressions of Friday night’s consecrations in Leeds, as well as giving some background to the Anglican Network in Europe and the Anglican Mission in England. He also has some suggestions for the future of ANiE and ACE.

Calls for Archbishop Welby to repent – with Foley Beach, James Wong and Andy Lines

From The Pastor’s Heart:

Claims today that the global leader of the Anglican Church is out of step with God.

The Primates of the Global Anglican Fellowship (GAFCON), meeting in Kigali Rwanda, have said that Archbishop Justin Welby has,

‘Departed from the authentic exercise of his office by normalising and praising those who have departed from biblical teaching and practice…and giving equal place to practices contrary to biblical norms, as Anglicans have received them.  We urge him to repent.’

And the Archbishop of Canterbury’s explanations are described as disingenuous if not duplicitous.

The Gafcon Primates statement comes on top of the statement from the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, which if anything, is even stronger.

The Global South Fellowship says,

‘Archbishop Welby’s first position is lamentable; his second is repugnant to our understanding of the authority and clarity of Holy Scripture. The notion of ‘pluriform’ truth is contrary to the Anglican Ordinal which binds duly consecrated bishops to be responsible for the guarding, teaching and imparting of divine truth in Holy Scripture.’

Archbishop Welby’s actions, which have provoked the criticisms, are his appointment of a new Dean of Canterbury (the lead minister of Canterbury Cathedral in the UK) of a man in a civil same sex partnership.

The Global South statement says,

‘It feels as if the present Archbishop of Canterbury has shut the door of the [Canterbury] Cathedral to orthodox bishops, clergy and members of the [Anglican] Communion.’ 

We are speaking today with:

Watch or listen here. A very sobering situation.

Last one out, please turn off the lights

“It has been three decades since the Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison took his first step away from his life as one of the Episcopal Church’s strongest evangelical voices. …

Now the 95-year-old bishop has officially resigned his status as an Episcopal bishop, making his departure official. Two weeks ago, he wrote U.S. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to clarify that he had been received into the Anglican Church in North America – a body recognized as valid by many Anglican bishops in Africa, Asia and the Global South, but not by the Archbishop of Canterbury or leaders in the U.S. Episcopal Church.”

– Story from Terry Mattingly at Get Religion.

Read and be thankful for faithful ministers of the gospel like Bishop Allison.

Image from a fascinating 2013 interview by Anglican TV in which he outlines the tragedy of the Episcopal Church and also tells his own story of Christ’s mercy. Well worth watching, saturated with the gospel.

Consecration of new Assistant Bishops for the Anglican Network in Europe

Early this morning (22 October 2022), Australian time, Tim Davies, Lee McMunn and Ian Ferguson were consecrated as Assistant Bishops in the Anglican Network in Europe at a service in Hull in the UK.

The service was introduced by Bishop Andy Lines, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Network in Europe.

Many international guests were present. Archbishop Foley Beach presided at the consecration. Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, Primate of Rwanda, preached and called his hearers to take Jesus’ command, The Great Commission, seriously.

Watch the full service here. Most encouraging.

‘Church of England spokesman’ responds to ‘inaccurate’ statements from GSFA and GAFCON

The Anglican Communion News Service has published an article purportedly correcting “inaccurate” statements from the Steering Committee of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches and the GAFCON Primates Council about the appointment of the new Dean of Canterbury Cathedral.

The unnamed spokesman claims the statements misunderstand –

• the nature of civil partnerships into which “some gay and lesbian English clergy have entered”, and

• the claim that the Archbishop of Canterbury has no “authority to discipline or exclude a church of the Anglican Communion” – even though the Archbishop chose to invite to the Lambeth Conference bishops in same-sex marriages.

– Read the full article here.

Related:

Communiqué from the Steering Committee of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches – 17 October 2022.

Excerpt:

“We are deeply saddened, but not totally surprised. The present ABC’s action is part of the direction he had set in the recently concluded Lambeth Conference. There, he indicated that he is not willing for the office of ABC to be used to discipline member provinces in keeping to the Church’s teaching. He also indicated that he felt that the Communion should allow for ‘a plurality of views’ on what the Holy Scriptures teach [1]. Archbishop Welby’s first position is lamentable; his second is repugnant to our understanding of the authority and clarity of Holy Scripture. The notion of ‘pluriform’ truth is contrary to the Anglican Ordinal which binds duly consecrated bishops to be responsible for the guarding, teaching and imparting of divine truth in Holy Scripture.

It saddens us that in this recent appointment of the Deanery of Canterbury, the ABC shows yet again, that his oft-expressed assurance that Lambeth 1.10 remains ‘the official teaching of the Church’ is merely lip-service [2]. If it is the official teaching of the Church, then it ought to be followed through in the ‘faith & order’ of all Provinces. The appointment of a person in same-sex civil partnership to a senior clerical position clearly contravenes the spirit of Lambeth 1.10, which not only rejects ‘homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture’, but goes on to declare that the Lambeth Conference of 1998 ‘cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same-sex unions.’

The GSFA Churches are committed to upholding Lambeth 1.10 in its entirety. This means that while we hold fully to the moral teaching of Scripture expressed in 1.10 , we also commit ourselves to “assure homosexual persons that they are loved by God and … that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation , are full members of the Body of Christ.” We heed the words of Jesus to all sinners: “Repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mk 1:15).

It is in our Christian faith to love a person for who he or she is, regardless of the person’s sexual orientation. But this love for the person is always in the context of honouring and obeying God’s revealed Word. The first cannot be at the expense of the second. Indeed, to love a person is to help usher the person, by our word and deeds, into the life-transforming power of the Gospel as revealed in Holy scripture. That, as GSFA understands it, is the unchanging mission of the Church.

So, we take exception to the Church of England’s accommodation of a person in a same-sex union being appointed to an office of spiritual authority over the flock of God’s people.

Looking back, perhaps the rot in upholding biblical doctrine on this matter had set in with the consecration of an openly homosexual bishop in the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003 in TEC. The rot has since spread through the woodwork of the Communion, and this recent appointment is foreboding because the rot is now blatantly visible in the Communion’s ‘mother church’ under the guise of love, tolerance and human rights.

As GSFA Churches, we believe in the mutual accountability of Anglican provinces to one another, and that we are duty-bound to God to admonish (‘warn with tears’) one another not to compromise ‘the faith once delivered’ (Jude 3) . We shall therefore be writing a personal letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the bishops in the Church of England on the seriousness of this action.…”

Communiqué from the GAFCON Primates Council – 20 October 2022.

Excerpt:

“The original GAFCON in Jerusalem in 2008 was born out of the tragic cost that has come from Provinces that have departed from clear biblical teaching and established historic Anglican Formularies that were unquestioned until recent years. Those departures continue and are even spreading. We were deeply grieved by the recent appointment of a man who lives in a same-sex civil partnership as Dean of Canterbury Cathedral. It is a heartbreaking provocation that such a departure from biblical standards would be thrust upon the Communion in the historic See of Canterbury and in opposition to the established teaching and practice of the majority of Anglicans.

The announcement from the Archbishop of Canterbury distanced himself from this appointment, as it was the recommendation of a Selection Panel, requiring the Queen’s approval. Yet it is difficult to see how a Diocesan Bishop, let alone the Archbishop of Canterbury, could not influence the appointment of the Dean of his own Cathedral, especially given the published process for the Appointment of Deans. Moreover, filling this position was the responsibility of Mr Stephen Knott, the Archbishop’s Secretary for Appointments, who is himself in a same-sex marriage. It is disingenuous, if not duplicitous, for the Archbishop to claim that the Church of England has not changed its doctrine of marriage …”

Mark 7:1-23 – ESV.

Image: Anglican Communion News Service web banner.

GAFCON Primates Council Communiqué: Welby’s Language “Disingenuous, if not Duplicitous”

From David Ould:

The GAFCON Primates Council have issued a communiqué with very strong language challenging Welby’s statement over the appointment of the new Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, a man living in a same-sex relationship. They write,

The announcement from the Archbishop of Canterbury distanced himself from this appointment, as it was the recommendation of a Selection Panel, requiring the Queen’s approval. Yet it is difficult to see how a Diocesan Bishop, let alone the Archbishop of Canterbury, could not influence the appointment of the Dean of his own Cathedral, especially given the published process for the Appointment of Deans.

Moreover, filling this position was the responsibility of Mr Stephen Knott, the Archbishop’s Secretary for Appointments, who is himself in a same-sex marriage. It is disingenuous, if not duplicitous, for the Archbishop to claim that the Church of England has not changed its doctrine of marriage, when he has engaged an Appointments Secretary, whose own union is a living contradiction of marriage as God has ordained it, and which the Church of England claims to uphold. …

– Read the full communiqué.

Global South Bishops ‘aggrieved’ by appointment of new Dean of Canterbury

“The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GFSA) has expressed disappointment that the new Dean of Canterbury, the Very Rev Dr David Monteith, is in a same-sex civil partnership.

Rev David was appointed on 10th October. He currently chairs the College of Deans for the Church of England and is the former Dean of Leicester.

In a statement, the Archbishop of Canterbury praised Rev David’s service in the Church of England thus far.  ‘We will benefit greatly from David’s experience and perspective, not least from his work in helping diverse faiths and cultural communities to live well together,’ he said.”

– Report from Premier Christian News.

See also:

Statement from Global South Anglicans – via Anglican.Ink.

“We are deeply saddened, but not totally surprised.

The present ABC’s action is part of the direction he had set in the recently concluded Lambeth Conference. There, he indicated that he is not willing for the office of ABC to be used to discipline member provinces in keeping to the Church’s teaching.

He also indicated that he felt that the Communion should allow for ‘a plurality of views’ on what the Holy Scriptures teach.

Archbishop Welby’s first position is lamentable; his second is repugnant to our understanding of the authority and clarity of Holy Scripture. The notion of ‘pluriform’ truth is contrary to the Anglican Ordinal which binds duly consecrated bishops to be responsible for the guarding, teaching and imparting of divine truth in Holy Scripture.”

Photo: Canterbury Cathedral.

Gafcon Primates’ Council meets in Kigali

Prayer point from GAFCON:

“The Gafcon Primates’ Council meets in Kigali Rwanda today for three days.

Pray for warm fellowship, encouragement in gospel partnership, and for the Lord’s help as they work through a busy agenda.”

Learning from Elsewhere — voices from around the Anglican Communion

The Church of England Evangelical Council asked Anglicans around the world share what happened when Scripture’s teaching on sexuality was compromised.

See the latest film (Film 5) and the previously-released resources here.

The Pastor, the CEO and the Victorian Premier — The Pastors Heart

From The Pastor’s Heart –

“Four Victorian Christian leaders on the controversy that has erupted in Australian National Politics – around the chair of the Victorian based City on a Hill church movement Andrew Thorburn, over his appointment as CEO of the Essendon Football Club and then almost immediate resignation.

When faced with an ultimatum to choose between his church and his new position at Essendon, Thorburn chose his church.

Melbourne’s Herald Sun started the controversy by publishing quotes from two ten year old sermons from City on a Hill on abortion and homosexuality.

Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews described City on a Hill’s mainstream Christian views as appalling, intolerant, bigoted, hatred and wrong.

Our guests:

– Watch or listen here. Well worth watching.

New bishops for the Anglican Network in Europe

Here’s an announcement from GAFCON (via e-mail):

It is with great joy that we announce the appointment of two new bishops for the Anglican Convocation in Europe. Ian Ferguson and Stuart Bell will serve as Assistant Bishops under the leadership of Bishop Andy Lines.

Bishop Andy’s appointments were affirmed by the ACE Synod on 4th October after a thorough process of references, conversations and interviews.

Together with Bishop Andy, Ian and Stuart will seek to provide support and encouragement, oversight and accountability to the ACE ministers and congregations, enabling and assisting them to ‘proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations’ of Europe.

Bishop Andy writes: “I am passionate to see the peoples of this great continent have the opportunity to hear of the biblical Christ and to see lives transformed by him. Ian and Stuart share this concern and have already been demonstrably used by the Lord to this end. I look forward to seeing what more the Lord will do with and through them.”

Ian Ferguson was converted through the ministry of St Silas’ Glasgow. Married to Heather, he trained for ordination at Oak Hill Theological College under Maurice Wood and his ministry in Scotland involved pioneering and leading a new church plant in Westhill, Aberdeen for over 30 years which has, in God’s goodness, enjoyed significant growth. Despite the ‘success’ of Westhill, Ian has faced many difficulties along the way. This has particularly equipped him to empathise with and help those who are struggling in ministry.

Bishop Andy writes: “I am excited that Ian has agreed to serve in this way. His and Heather’s knowledge of Scotland and the Scottish Anglican scene will help me care for the Scottish Anglicans who look to me but I expect his long experience and wisdom to help me far more broadly than that geographical dimension. Indeed Ian has already been helping others struggling a long way from Scotland.”

Ian will be consecrated on Friday 21 October in Hull, along with 2 new assistant Bishops for the Anglican Mission in England, Lee McMunn & Tim Davies.

Stuart Bell is originally from Devon, but along with his wife Pru, was called to serve the gospel in Wales. Under his leadership St Michael’s Aberystwyth became the largest Anglican church in the principality and from where over 50 people have gone on to ordained Anglican ministry.

Now leading Fellowship 345, Stuart says, “For more than half a century I have been concerned to bring Christ to the people of Wales and the people of Wales to Christ. I am primarily a preacher / teacher with a strong evangelistic focus. My eyes are constantly searching for the people in the congregation who have not yet embraced the Gospel in its fullness. This is true of my relationships pastorally with members of our church as well as those which have been established in our local neighbourhood.”

Bishop Andy writes: “I am delighted that Stuart, with his wife Pru, have agreed to help me care for Anglican churches in Wales. Their long and distinguished service and their recognised knowledge of Welsh culture and language will be invaluable as I seek to serve the orthodox Anglican witness in the country. Stuart’s evangelistic focus is an added gift, as is the wisdom the Lord has given him in both difficult and good times.”

Stuart’s previous commitment to serving at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem this autumn means his consecration will be delayed until sometime in 2023.

Photo: Ian Ferguson (left) and Stuart Bell.

GAFCON UK on the Church of England teaching on sexuality, relationships and marriage

“Two new reports have been released in September as a follow-on to the Living in Love and Faith process. …

This process appears to be leading in the same direction as the Lambeth Conference’s ‘Call to Human Dignity‘. The conference leaders attempted to affirm two mutually contradictory views on sexuality and more broadly, on how the bible functions in the life of the church. Scottish and Welsh Bishops have followed this path – will English bishops do the same? Much prayer is needed!”

– GAFCON GB & Europe has brief news items on LLF, the just concluded ReNew Conference, and planning for GAFCON 4 in Kigali.

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