Commending the Jerusalem Declaration

GAFCON has created a page to commend and explain the Jerusalem Declaration.

Most encouraging.

Be sure to watch the “Understanding the historical context” video on that page.

You can also assent to the Jerusalem Declaration yourself.

Victoria: Churches locked out of Andrews pathway from lockdown

Here’s a media release from The Australian Christian Lobby:

Churches locked out of Andrews pathway from lockdown

19 October 2020

Victorians are relieved to see lockdown restrictions easing, but whilst retail and hospitality sectors can open from 2 November, churches and other faith communities remain in the dark about their future.

“From midnight 1 November, metropolitan hospitality venues can host 20 people indoors and regional venues 40,” ACL spokesperson Jasmine Yuen observed, “Yet church communities can not hold an indoor gathering.”

“In today’s daily press conference Premier Andrews justified the disparity by saying hospitality venues were heavily regulated. Allowing up to 40 strangers in a pub but zero members of a church community inside their own building is nonsensical and unjustifiable.

“The longer this trampling of freedom of worship goes on without making the specific epidemiological justifications public, the more it highlights how desperately religious freedom reform is needed.

“The sentiment of faith groups is clear, from a joint petition of 10,000 people of Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Presbyterian, Muslim and Hindu faiths, to 300 pastors and leaders who wrote to the Premier, all urging him to allow them to open. Faith groups provide an essential service for community health and mental wellbeing.

“Indoor church services with COVID-Safe Plans and contact tracing are safer than gatherings in public places. Churches have cooperated with the government for a long time to comply with the various protocols on food, hygiene, child safety, fire safety & emergency management et cetera. There is no reason why they can’t open in a COVID-Safe way just like restaurants and pubs.

“COVID-Safe church opening now is vitally important, particularly when people have been so lonely and isolated.

– ENDS.

Related:

295 church leaders urge Premier to open churches – 08 October 2020.

New Bishop of Singapore installed

“In a ceremony steeped in tradition, the Reverend Canon Dr Titus Chung was installed as the new bishop of the Anglican Church in Singapore yesterday evening. …

The 55-year-old was previously priest-in-charge of St Andrew’s Cathedral’s Mandarin congregation and takes over as bishop from Right Reverend Rennis Ponniah, 65, who retired last month.”

– Report from The Straits Times. Photo: Diocese of Singapore.

GAFCON Chairman’s October 2020 Letter

“Greetings in the Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

As I write to you, my brothers and sisters, it is the fall season here in North America.  Like you, we are being challenged by the onslaught of the pandemic, but we have not lost hope and we are confident in the faithfulness of the Lord that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 10:35), and that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

Please continue to pray for the Lord to relieve the world of this pandemic, guide the medical and health officials and the politicians in their decisions, and bring healing to those who have the coronavirus. …”

– GAFCON Primates Council Chairman, Archbishop Foley Beach, calls for continued prayer – including for Archbishop Ben Kwashi – in his October Letter.

Frontline church leader battles cancer

“There’s been a worldwide prayer request for one of Africa’s senior church leaders, who has been hit by colon cancer.

Archbishop Ben Kwashi, the general secretary of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) and Archbishop of Jos in Nigeria, has begun treatment after being diagnosed last month. …”

– Story from SydneyAnglicans.net.

Archbishop Ben Kwashi on colon cancer, the future of Gafcon, COVID in Africa

From Dominic Steele at The Pastor’s Heart:

“As general secretary of GAFCON, Nigeria’s Archbishop of Jos Ben Kwashi is one of the world’s most influential Anglican leaders.

With GAFCON representing two thirds of the world’s Anglicans, Archbishop Kwashi has been described as the most influential person in the Anglican Communion.

Nine days ago rumours started to circulate on social media that he’d been diagnosed with Colon Cancer.

Archbishop Kwashi joins us to give an update on his health, the 74 orphans who live with him and his wife Gloria, plus news on navigating COVID in Africa and the future of the GAFCON.”

– Plenty to pray about. Be sure to watch or listen at The Pastor’s Heart.

Lift up your hearts – GAFCON devotions – this month by Simon Manchester

Simon Manchester is contributing October 2020’s ‘Lift up your Hearts’ devotions for GAFCON. On the book of Deuteronomy.

And see the interview with Simon on the page linked above.

(Photo: St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.)

Praying for Christians in Sudan

In a recent interview, Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail spoke about the Peace Agreement signed in Sudan earlier this month.

Fuel for prayer.

Bishop Andudu and Faith McDonnell lead GAFCON’s Suffering Church Network.

Knowing our Limitations

“If anyone is looking for suitable reading in lockdown – or in wild freedom, for that matter – Blaise Pascal’s Penséesis indeed food for the soul and for the intellect.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a distinguished French scientist who sought to write an apologetic for the Christian faith, but death took him before the work could be completed. No matter, for Pascal’s work in its unfinished state outdoes other writers whose works are finished and neatly revised. Pascal was especially incisive when it comes to exposing the human condition. …”

– Presbyterian Moderator-General, Dr. Peter Barnes, on the understanding we need at this time.

Good News from Sudan

“The Gafcon Suffering Church Network leaders, Faith McDonnell and Bishop Andudu Adan Elnail, joined Gafcon’s Everyday Global Anglicans for an interview about recent, positive developments in Sudan.

A peace agreement was signed which will have significant implications for the church in Sudan. …”

– Watch at the GAFCON website.

GAFCON Chairman’s September 2020 Letter

“It seems trite and overused to say we are living in ‘unprecedented times.’ But the reality is that we are. These times are still ‘unprecedented.’

But they are not unique. The history of the Church is full of the changes and chances of life and the followers of Jesus continued on with His ministry and His message.

So, in the midst of these times, we press on towards Christ and His purposes for us. We go forward. Always Forward.  Everywhere Forward! …”

– Archbishop Foley Beach, Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council, shares encouragement in this month’s pastoral letter.

GAFCON Lift Up Your Hearts Devotions with Stephen Noll

The Rev. Dr. Stephen Noll is contributing this month to GAFCON’s “Lift Up Your Hearts” devotionals.

He is sharing on the subject of “Marriage According to the Book of Common Prayer”.

Read or listen at the GAFCON website.

You can also subscribe to daily e-mail updates.

Church Society to unveil new name and vision for Churchman

“Church Society is relaunching its theological journal with a new name and a new vision for the global Anglican church in the 21st century.

Join us for a LIVE event on the Church Society Facebook page at 11am on September 1st [i.e. 8:00pm AEST Tuesday 1st September] when the new name and new vision for the journal will be announced.

The conversation will include the journal’s editor, Peter Jensen, as well as Bishops Alfred Olwa and Samuel Morrison from Uganda and Chile, respectively. There will be chance to pray for the global Anglican communion, participate in the Q&A, and even win a year’s subscription to the journal.”

– Once the relaunched journal is made public, the first edition will be available as a free download.

Conversion Therapy laws and religious freedom

“Australia has seen two recent initiatives by local Parliaments aimed at what are often called ‘conversion therapy’ practices.

No-one supports coercive electro-shock or other oppressive practices imposed on someone without their consent, to change their sexual preferences or identity. But the problem with the recent legislative proposals is that the laws do not target these practices alone (as to which it is hard to find any evidence of them occurring in Australia in recent years), but seem to reach further and to prevent religious groups sharing the teaching of their faith. …”

– At Law and Religion Australia, Neil Foster looks at some of the implications of the recently-passed Queensland and ACT legislation.

A Thin Gruel For The Soul

“The great Christian philosopher and theologian, Dallas Willard, once wrote that every compelling and coherent worldview must address four questions:

What is reality?
What is the good life?
What is a good person?
How does one become a good person?

Christianity, including the Anglican way of following Jesus, has answers to these questions. Reality is the unshakeable Kingdom of God (Hebrews 12:18-29). The good life is not about consumption, but rather righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). The one who is blessed by Jesus (in every counter-intuitive and counter-cultural way he names in Matthew 5:1-12) is the good person. And one becomes such a person, a “disciple” according to Jesus, by denying oneself, taking up one’s cross, and following Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:24).

Sadly, you will find no answers to these questions in What do Anglicans Believe: A Study Guide to Christian Doctrine from Anglican and Ecumenical Statements, published by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) last week …”

– The American Anglican Council’s Canon Phil Ashey points to a better way than a new book which has just been published.

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