The Rainbow Ringwraiths
“Totalitarians and fascists have always sought to demonise their opponents, in part by marking them out from the ‘normal’ majority. They are clearly identified one way or another as recalcitrants, and treated accordingly. Simply consider how Jews fared as the Nazi regime occupied various European countries: being forced to wear a yellow badge in the form of a Star of David.
Millions of our young men gave their lives to fight these totalist regimes and to preserve our cherished freedoms. But a new totalitarianism is descending upon the West, and it comes in the form of the militant and totalitarian rainbow activists. …”
– Bill Muehlenberg at CultureWatch has more on the ‘voluntary’ wearing of rings to promote same-sex marriage.
GAFCON Chairman’s April 2017 letter
“In our time, God is still active through his Word, the Scriptures. The Anglican Communion is a wonderful gift of God, but we see its witness degraded and confused by false teaching.
What is more, the Communion’s traditional leadership responds by accommodating it. There is no hope in that direction, but at the same time, we see a new future unfolding. This is the Gafcon vision and it is being demonstrated very clearly in North America. …”
– Archbishop Nicholas Okoh has published his GAFCON Chairman’s letter for April 2017.
‘A ring to bind them to their master’s will’
“Bosses at big companies like Qantas and Google have ‘suggested’ their employees wear black rings with a gap to show they support same-sex marriage. Or show that they have a future at their company, perhaps, because it’s not quite clear how this push for ‘tolerance’ quite works now. …”
– Andrew Bolt reports on a concerning move — Herald Sun.
More:
Firms ring in campaign for marriage equality — The Australian.
“Qantas staff and cabin crew would wear them, he said, while Google Australia has also provided rings for its 1300 staff to wear. ‘Our goal is to build momentum around the issue of marriage equality and spark those conversations about acceptance,’ Mr McDonagh said.
The move is likely to fire up the debate about the role of corporations as lobbyists for contentious social causes, which has attracted criticism from some conservative politicians and religious leaders in light of the recent public hounding of brewer Coopers into pledging support for Australian Marriage Equality.”
Airbnb calls for marriage equality — AdNews.
“Launched with support from some of Australia’s biggest brands including Qantas, Google, ANZ bank and eBay, and in collaboration with The Equality Campaign, ‘Until We All Belong’ marks the most public corporate declaration for marriage equality in Australia to date.”
Image: AdNews.
Anglican Archbishop Glenn Davies slams same-sex marriage activists
“The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney has branded radical same-sex marriage campaigners as a ‘barge of bullies’ who are swamping the public debate with an ‘introspective, authoritarian denial of free speech’.
Writing in The Australian today, Glenn Davies says the corporate world in Australia has been ‘press-ganged’ into supporting marriage equality and backing diversity by gay activists. ‘What kind of diversity is so monochrome that it does not allow differing expressions of opinion in the debate?’ he says. ‘This narrow-minded, freedom-restricting carping is what the same-sex marriage campaign has come to.’…”
– Story from The Australian.
Here is an excerpt from Archbishop Davies’ piece –
“There is only one upside from the recent attacks and unprecedented abuse directed at an academic and the directors of Christian organisations: people are beginning to wake up and take notice. They are starting to understand that the campaign for same-sex marriage is not sailing on a raft of rainbows but on a barge of bullies.
Last week there was the IBM executive whose position was questioned because he was a director of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute. He was the subject of attack in his previous employment as well.
Then there was the Christian academic who had not even entered the same-sex marriage debate, whose university was pressured over his employment which, it was claimed, conflicted with its membership in the so-called Pride in Diversity campaign. What kind of diversity is so monochrome that it does not allow differing expressions of opinion in the debate?
Not only has this minority view tried to swamp the public debate with its introspective, authoritarian denial of free speech, it has struck at the heart of Australian democracy and the freedoms that we all cherish. …”
– Read the full article – on page 14 of the print edition of today’s Australian – or in their digital edition (paywalled).
Anglican Aid launches Cyclone Debbie appeal
“Anglican Aid is launching an appeal for those who have lost their livelihoods in Cyclone Debbie. We are asking Christians in Sydney to stand in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in northern Queensland who have been affected by the cyclone.”
– Details from Anglican Aid. (Image: NASA DSCOVR / EPIC Team.)
Calls for Macquarie University to distance themselves from Christian Academic
“In the latest case in a growing line of stories, Dr Steve Chavura, a Senior Research Associate at Macquarie University, has been the subject of calls for his dismissal from the university. …
It should be noted that Dr Chavura is not the first LMI board member to receive attention in recent days, indeed these stories a fast becoming common place around the country. For example: …”
– Murray Campbell looks at the latest ‘take no captives’ approach in the culture wars.
(Interestingly, Dr. Chavura’s “research interests include … philosophical issues relating to freedom of speech”.)
Christian leaders slam ‘appalling and unAustralian’ gay activists
“The nation’s most senior Christian leaders have described as ‘appalling’ and ‘unAustralian’ attacks from gay activists that have driven two Christian charities to request board secrecy.
And the Sydney Anglican Archbishop Glenn Davies has slammed the multinational corporates who surrender to those attacks as ‘weak-kneed’.”
– Story from The Australian. (paywalled). File photo of Abp Davies: Moore College.
Related: Another Christian persecuted by Gay Left – Herald Sun.
Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!
“Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!”
These, of course, were the last reported words of William Tyndale who was strangled and then burnt in 1536.
His crime? Translating the Bible into English.
His prayer? That King Henry VIII would allow the distribution of the English Bible.
– GAFCON General Secretary Archbishop Peter Jensen reflects on the life and work of William Tyndale, whose belief in the clarity of scripture led him to translate the Bible into English.
Diocese of Niagara parish offers Islamic prayer
“In the wake of the Quebec mosque shooting, St. Simon’s in Oakville decided to support Muslims by praying to Allah during its monthly labyrinth walk.…”
– News from David Jenkins at Anglican Samizdat.
Abortion, Obscenity and Free Speech
“Sometimes a powerful visual image is what is needed to shock us into action. But can an image be so powerful and horrifying that it becomes “obscene” and hence unlawful to use in public?
That, it seems, is now the view being taken in Victoria of a particular type of image: pictures of unborn babies who have been killed. While the decision of a Victorian court, it may be followed elsewhere in Australia. …”
– At Law and Religion Australia, Neil Foster (Associate Professor in Law at Newcastle) discusses the decision in Victoria, and implications for free speech.
Image: Australian Christian Lobby.
Anglican renewal in Brazil
“Most Christians in the UK probably have only the haziest idea of what Anglicanism looks like in South America.
The Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 inhibited Protestant and Anglican missionary work in the continent at a time when the English language was (and still is) marginal. This is unlike most other areas of the Anglican Communion where the British influence was much stronger.
And yet, out of the continuing crisis in the world wide Anglican Communion, and in spite of official persecution in the area, a reinvigorated and missionary church is emerging in South America.
In fact, the pattern of North America is being repeated – just as a new GAFCON recognised Province, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), arose out of the aggressive and assertive revisionism of the American Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Church of Canada, so in South America a new orthodox Province is coming into being as the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) and various TEC satellite provinces in central and northern South America follow the lead of their North American counterparts.
This new emerging Province is based on the Anglican Diocese of Recife …”
– Charles Raven with more encouraging news about GAFCON.
Photo, left to right:
Canon Charles Raven, GAFCON Membership Development Secretary;
Canon Dan Alger, ACNA;
Bishop Flavio Adair Torres Soares, Anglican Diocese of Recife;
Canon Alan Hawkins, ACNA
— meeting in Sheffield in January 2017.
The GAFCON vision in action
“The Anglican Communion worldwide is a most amazing gift of God, but it is being squandered by false teachers determined to substitute their own ideas for God’s revealed will in Scripture. They do this without rebuke from the Communion’s traditional leadership.
Gafcon is the future. Through Gafcon the true gospel is being proclaimed and the Bible guarded. We hope this snapshot will demonstrate that the faithful of the Anglican Communion have risen and have begun to reclaim the Communion for a confident and clear witness to Jesus Christ. …”
– GAFCON has produced this overview of what they do, with the hope of gaining your support.
How showing a picture of a dead foetus has become a crime
“Showing a picture of a dead foetus in public is now a crime following a ruling in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Tuesday which will strengthen the hand of the abortion industry lobby across Australia, warns the Australian Christian Lobby.’…”
– from The Australian Christian Lobby.
On Leaving the Church of England — Gavin Ashenden
The Rev. Gavin Ashenden gives his reasons for leaving the Church of England in this video released overnight.
While our readers might hold to a somewhat different theological perspective (Gavin speaks from an Anglo-Catholic position), he raises concerns which many would share. The video runs for 27 minutes.
Related:
Princeton Seminary cancels award to Tim Keller after LGBT complaint – Christian Post.
Princeton Seminary reforms its views on honoring Tim Keller – Christianity Today.
Christianity in Iraq is finished, says Canon Andrew White, ‘Vicar of Baghdad’
“He is one of the world’s most prominent priests, but Canon Andrew White – known as the ‘Vicar of Baghdad’ – has reached a painstaking conclusion: Christianity is all but over in the land where it all began.
‘The time has come where it is over, no Christians will be left. Some stay Christians should stay to maintain the historical presence, but it has become very difficult. The future for the community is very limited,’ White told Fox News this week.”
– From Fox News. (via Anglican Mainstream.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…