Donison Down Under Tour — November 2025
A prayer point from Gafcon –
“We pray for the upcoming November visit to Australia and New Zealand by our General Secretary, The Rt Revd Paul Donison, as he presents the ‘Gafcon Global Vision’ events, and visits key leaders in the two countries.
Bishop Paul will be speaking at free evening events this November in Melbourne (Tuesday 18th), Hobart (Wednesday 19th), Perth (Thursday 20th), Adelaide (Friday 21st), Sydney (Wednesday 26th), Brisbane (Friday 28th), and Christchurch (Saturday 29th).
Pray that this two-week visit will energise and inspire Aussies and Kiwis as they hear important updates about our movement, and that it will help grow their Gafcon Global Vision as they hear of the many opportunities to partner with brothers and sisters around the world in generous fellowship.”
– Prayer point and photo: Gafcon. Might be good to pop in your calendar.
More prayer points and stories from Gafcon here.
Is 5% Enough?
“There seems to be a change in the cultural atmosphere in much of the West. It may be that people are more open to the Gospel. The question is, how should we take advantage of that? How do we use this cultural moment to bring the gospel to those who are lost? We always need to humbly remember that ‘many are the plans in the heart of a man, but it is the Lord’s purpose that stands’ (Proverbs 19:21).
This year’s General Assembly of the NSW Presbyterians accepted a motion I put forward to reflect on how we do evangelism. The Assembly ask the Mission Committee to evaluate the status of evangelism within the Presbyterian church of NSW and to report back to the 2026 GA with recommendations which will help the whole church work together to bring the Gospel to all the people of NSW.
The Assembly also heard a call for the Presbyterian church to double in 20 years. Providentially the Gospel Coalition recently held a summit where the same doubling in 20 years was agreed. They declared that this could be done by seeing 5% conversion growth in each church over a period of 20 years.
The Pastor’s Heart, a fascinating and helpful podcast presented by Dominic Steele, has recently had three podcasts focusing on this numerical target …”
– At AP, the online Presbyterian journal, David Robertson reckons we should ‘go for glory’.
The Church in Wales departs from biblical teaching and orthodox fellowship — Diocese of Sydney statement
Archbishop Kanishka Raffel has released this statement on behalf of the Diocese of Sydney —
The election of the Rt Rev Cherry Vann, a person in a same sex civil partnership, as Archbishop of Wales is a grievous departure from the teaching of the Bible, inconsistent with the understanding of marriage as expressed in the formularies of the Anglican Church, and a tragic rejection of the words of Jesus.
At a time when the See of Canterbury remains vacant, and the Church of England proceeds to develop liturgical recognition of same sex unions, this appointment adds to the increasingly irreconcilable divisions between the majority of the Anglican Communion who hold to the authority and primacy of Scripture in matters of life and faith and those churches that have departed from the teaching of Christ.
In the face of the failure of those who should be witnesses and keepers of Scripture, we give thanks for faithful Anglicans in Wales who hold to ‘the faith once delivered to the saints’ and contend for the gospel within the Church of Wales.
There is, however, a growing number whose consciences prevent them from remaining in a denomination in which the leadership has so clearly departed from the scriptures. For them, we commend the fellowship of the Anglican Network in Europe, under the pastoral care of Bishop Andy Lines.
Archbishop Kanishka Raffel
4 August 2025
— Media release via SydneyAnglicans.net.
Related:
“Church of England’s treatment of Bernard Randall is evil”
“The Church of England’s treatment of former school chaplain, Rev Dr Bernard Randall, deserves to be described as evil.
The Christian Legal Centre is rightly calling for Dr Randall to be restored to ministry after statutory authorities found that he did not pose a safeguarding risk. …”
– Julian Mann writes at Christian Today.
Photo: Christian Concern.
GSFA Statement on the Election of the Rt Rev Cherry Vann as the Archbishop of Wales
From the GSFA:
Before The Episcopal Church of the United States went ahead with the consecration of Gene Robinson, who was openly in a same sex relationship, as Bishop of New Hampshire, the 2003 Primates meeting in Canterbury warned that this action would “tear the fabric of the Anglican Communion at its deepest level” if it went ahead.
Despite this warning, the divisive rejection of the historic biblical and Anglican teaching on marriage and human sexuality has been allowed to continue without any effective restraint. The election of the Rt Rev Cherry Vann as the Archbishop of Wales is the latest example and we now have a Primate of the Anglican Communion who is, to quote from her address at a Pride Cymru Eucharist in August 2021, “an openly lesbian and civilly partnered bishop”.
Faithful Anglicans of the Global South will grieve that the tear in the fabric of our beloved Communion is now established at the highest level, but this will also strengthen our resolve to restore the Scriptures to their central place in our life together and build covenanted relationships through which we are able to gladly recognise one another as partners in mission and members of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The Most Rev Dr Justin Badi Arama
Archbishop and Primate of the
Episcopal Church of South Sudan, and
GSFA Chair.
– Source.
“Archbishop of Wales Election Shatters the Communion”
“Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Gafcon family,
Grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the earth.
It is with a heavy heart that I write to you of grievous events in our beloved Anglican Communion.
The decision by the Church in Wales to elect the Rt Revd Cherry Vann as Archbishop and Primate is another painful nail in the coffin of Anglican orthodoxy. …”
– Chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council, Archbishop Dr. Laurent Mbanda, shares a pastoral letter.
Earlier:
New Archbishop of Wales elected.
Bible Society sells its main property, Hillsong the likely buyer
“An office and former warehouse tenanted by Hillsong and smaller renters in Macquarie Park in Northern Sydney has been sold by the Bible Society. It was the former Headquarters for the NSW Bible Society. …”
– John Sandeman reports on a recent sale.
Image: OpenStreetMap.
GSFA Primates Encourage Faithful Anglicans in England
“On Friday 18th July, the GSFA Chairman, Archbishop Justin Badi, together with Deputy Chairman Archbishop Samy Shehata and Hon Secretary Archbishop Titus Chung, had a series of meetings with Church of England leaders, culminating in a special evening reception for over three hundred clergy and leading laity at which they were the guests of honour.
They were invited by the Alliance, a broadly based movement of orthodox Anglicans which seeks to combat the move to overturn two millennia of Christian teaching on marriage and human sexuality being driven by the Church of England’s bishops in General Synod. …”
– from The Global Fellowship of Anglican Churches.
“We still need your prayers”: Anglicans appeal for prayer after DRC killings
“ ‘Please brothers and sisters, we still need your prayers.’ Clergy from the Anglican Church in DRC have appealed for prayers for peace following attacks that killed more than 40 people in a Catholic church in the eastern Congolese town of Komanda on Sunday 27 July.
A United Nations report on 28 July stated that elements of the ADF, an Islamic State-affiliated insurgent group that originated in neighbouring Uganda, carried out the attack in Komanda town, Irumu territory, Ituriprovince.The militants wielding guns and machetes struck around 1 a.m. while Catholic Christians were attending the prayer vigil.
At least 40 civilians were killed, including children. …”
– Report from The Anglican Communion News Service.
Church of England Newspaper suspends publication
The Church of England Newspaper’s Editor, Andrew Carey, has announced that there will be no further published editions of the CEN until further notice. Instead, a weekly newsletter (by email?) will be sent out “for the foreseeable future” –
“In 1828, a group of young evangelical clergy set up a newspaper called The Record. One of its earliest subscribers and supporters was a young John Henry Newman. The Newspaper formed what became known as the ‘Recordite’ faction in the C of E opposing Tractarianism. It was in the 1950s that the Record merged with The Church of England Family Newspaper to become CEN. …”
Victorian Inquiry into Cults
“A new submission by Freedom for Faith warns that the Victorian Government’s inquiry into cults, coercive control, and high-demand groups may pose serious risks to religious freedom if not carefully scoped and defined.
While commending the inquiry’s aim to protect individuals from abuse, the submission emphasises that poorly drafted laws could stigmatise or even criminalise legitimate religious practices. …”
– Read more at Freedom for Faith (especially if you are in Victoria).
Anglican Communion (Nigeria) restricts political activities in Churches
“The Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, has banned politicians from using its lectern for campaign matters.
At the just concluded episcopal consultation at Nike Diocese in Enugu, the Anglicans set guidelines for the reception of politicians and government officials in Church services/programmes across all its Churches. …”
– Report from The Source Magazine Nigeria.
Has Living in Love and Faith come to an end? An open letter to the Archbishop of York
At Psephizo, Ian Paul writes to the Archbishop of York:
“Dear Stephen
I read with interest your address to York Diocesan Synod on 5th July, and one word leapt out for me: ‘final’. Near the end of your address, you comment:
The Living in Love and Faith process is not yet complete. Some final proposals will be brought to the February 2026 meeting of the General Synod.
If that is the case, I am and countless others (on all sides of this debate) will be delighted. This has been a disastrous and divisive process since 2017; I wonder whether you realise how damaging it has been, and whether you will ever publicly acknowledge that. It sprang out of Justin’s spontaneous and ill-conceived phrase ‘radical new Christian inclusion rooted in scripture and Christian theology’ which was both incoherent (how can this be new if it’s rooted in existing theology?) and immediately open to misinterpretation …”
– Read it here.
Image: Ian Paul speaks at last year’s Church of England General Synod.
Mass, indulgences and relics at Canterbury Cathedral
“Nearly 500 years after the English Reformation, Canterbury Cathedral, the mother church of the Protestant Church of England, will be given over to a Roman Catholic Mass, celebrated by the pope’s own representative in the country in honor of the martyr Thomas Becket, who died in the cathedral in 1170.
…the Mass will award those in attendance a plenary indulgence … celebrated by Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia, apostolic nuncio to the United Kingdom …
And while the only relics left at the cathedral are some bloodstains of Becket’s, the Roman Catholic parish of St. Thomas, also in Canterbury, has acquired a relic — a bone of Becket’s, which will be taken to the cathedral for the Mass.”
– At Religion News Service, Catherine Pepinster previews the Roman Mass to be held in Canterbury Cathedral tonight, Australian time.
Outprinting the Prosperity Gospel in Southern Africa
“Seven years ago, Tommie van der Walt went to his elders with an idea.
‘I wanted to train pastors,’ he said. He especially wanted to train pastors in impoverished and underresourced areas. And he wanted to do it, in large part, by using books.
It sounds like the beginning of a great plan. Van der Walt lives in Africa, which is overrun with syncretism and the prosperity gospel. The need to train pastors is obvious.
But relying on books wasn’t as intuitive. First, getting books to Africa is prohibitively expensive. The shipping takes months. And if you do manage to get books there, Africa’s oral tradition and lower literacy ratesmean they’re likely to sit unread.
Not only that, but somebody else had beaten him to it.
‘Guys like Joel Osteen pay for imports or for printing,’ van der Walt said. It’s a financial strategy: ‘They pay for their resources to be dirt cheap, because they know if you read their books or see them on TV, you’ll give them money.’
It’s working—over the last 10 years, the prevalence of the prosperity gospel has been ‘getting worse,’ says pastor and TGC Africa Council member Conrad Mbewe. ‘One reason is that there is very little antidote for it.’…”
– A fascinating story of God’s grace at work – from Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra at The Gospel Coalition.
Photo: Gospel Coalition.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…