David Short remembers J I Packer standing for the gospel

As part of an online GAFCON tribute to Dr J I Packer, Canon David Short in Vancouver remembers and gives thanks.

David’s contribution begins here. He goes on to recall the crisis in the Diocese of New Westminster from 32 minutes – but watch it all. Archbishop Ben Kwashi, Dr. Leslie Thyberg and Dr. Joel Scandrett also take part.

David mentions Packer’s essays “Why I walked” and “Speculating in Anglican Futures”.

Most encouraging.

Concerns expressed over western Sydney council’s constraints on places of worship

Last week, the Member of Granville, Ms Julia Finn, delivered a Private Members’ Statement in NSW State Parliament concerning the Local Environmental Plan adopted by Cumberland Council last month.

Her 5 minute statement can be viewed here.

Remembering J I Packer — GAFCON Live event

GAFCON is holding a live event to remember, and give thanks for J I Packer.

It starts at 6:00am Eastern Australian time, tomorrow (Thursday 30th July 2020).

Notice of ACL Annual General Meeting 2020

The Anglican Church League hereby gives notice to its members of the 2020 Annual General Meeting.

Date/time: Thursday 13th August, 6:00pm.

Location: St Peters Anglican Church, 187 Princes Highway, St. Peters. Read more

Wallace Benn’s Tribute to J. I. Packer

“It was announced on Friday 17th July that Dr. Packer had passed away.

It is a sad day for Reformed Evangelicals because we have lost our champion, but not for him as he is now with the Saviour he honoured throughout his life.

He was the best Anglican Evangelical theologian of his generation, and a brilliant communicator of warm-hearted and big-minded classical evangelicalism. His wonderful books will live on, and as they are read by a new generation, will, please God, give them a deeper and more profound understanding of the Christian Faith, and deliver them from a weaker and more muddled modern version…”

– Bishop Wallace Benn shares his tribute to J. I. Packer, and Lee Gatiss links to many of Packer’s articles in Churchman – at the Church Society website.

New Anglican archbishop welcomed to Shrine of St Margaret Clitherow

“The Catholic Bishop of Middlesbrough welcomed the newly elected 98th Anglican Archbishop of York to pray alongside him in the shrine of St Margaret Clitherow in the city. …”

– Report from The Catholic Universe. Image: Church of England.

GAFCON Chairman’s letter June 2020

“Earlier this month, I chaired a meeting of the Gafcon Primates Council. Although we could not meet face to face, there was a remarkable joy in our time together and a strong sense that God is building his kingdom as our Churches seek to proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations. …”

– Read Archbishop Foley Beach’s June 2020 letter here.

Gafcon Australasian conference 2021

From Gafcon Australia:

“The Board of Gafcon Australia, along with Anglicans from both the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia (ACANZP) and the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa New Zealand (CCAANZ), are pleased to announce a joint conference in July 2021.

While we can only dream of gathering together and travelling to other places now, we would like you to mark in your diary Mon 19th to Thu 22nd July, 2021, for this conference.”

Dr Ashley Null will be the keynote speaker.

– Pre-register your interest here.

GAFCON Australasian Celebration 2020 — Wednesday 24th June 2020

From GAFCON Australia: Read more

“Inclusive” ECUSA: “Love Never Ends” — but +Love Must Go

“In a theological dispute that ECUSA’s Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has now personally allowed to become a travesty, the Episcopal Church in the USA… held a formal hearing whose object was to remove the Rt. Rev. William H. Love, Bishop of Albany, from the post to which his diocese long ago elected him.

His sin… that requires his deposition? It was his faithfulness to the “doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church (USA)” — exactly as he vowed when he took Episcopal orders, and again when he was consecrated one of that organization’s bishops…”

– A. S. Haley (Christian lawyer and The Anglican Curmudgeon) responds to TEC’s actions against Bishop William Love (pictured).

GAFCON Moment & Prayer 8 June 2020

From GAFCON:

Global Anglicans Moment & Prayer is an initiative for churches around the world so that each week they are kept up to date with news and a prayer item. Please share these in your church’s bulletins and media announcements.

GAFCON Chairman’s Letter Pentecost 2020

“Beloved in Christ Jesus: Greetings in the name of our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

At Pentecost we rejoice that we are indeed ‘not left as orphans’ (John 14:18), but through the crucified, risen and ascended Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon us in fulfilment of God’s promise.

It is by the Spirit of Jesus in our hearts that we are able to cry ‘Abba! Father! (Galatians 4:6) and even though many of us may not be able to able to sing the praises of God together in this time of pandemic, may our hearts nonetheless overflow with praise and adoration to God who so wonderfully restores us through his Son in the power of the Holy Spirit!…”

– Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council, Archbishop Foley Beach, has released this letter for Pentecost 2020.

‘Texas Supreme Court Repudiates ECUSA’s Sophistries’

“In a comprehensive and unanimous thirty-page decision filed Friday morning, May 22, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bishop Jack L. Iker and reversed the Court of Appeals’ earlier decision to the effect that ECUSA’s rump diocese, and not Bishop Iker’s diocese, controlled the Texas corporation which holds title to the properties of those parishes which in 2008 voted to withdraw their diocese from the unaffiliated and unincorporated association that historically has been called the (Protestant) Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

The decision is as straightforward an application of “neutral principles of law” (espoused by the U.S. Supreme Court in Jones v. Wolf) as one could find among the courts to which ECUSA has presented its “hierarchical church” sophistries. It repudiates those sophistries in a succinct passage (pp. 24-25) …”

– A S Haley, The Anglican Curmudgeon, reports on the latest legal decision concerning The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Fort Worth.

Pictured: The recently-retired Bishop Jack Iker, Fort Worth.

Earlier posts on the subject.