Northwest Network April 2016
The latest issue of Northwest Network has been released by the Diocese of North West Australia.
Download your copy (PDF file) to help you pray for the people of North West Australia.
All Saints’ College on market to pay diocese’s bank debt
“All Saints’ College is to be sold to help the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst repay a multi-million dollar debt to the Commonwealth Bank.
Plans to sell the school were confirmed on Saturday during the first day of a local synod meeting. Nine other unidentified church properties across the diocese have also been earmarked for sale to repay the debt…”
– Story from The Western Advocate. (Photo: Bishop Ian Palmer.)
Archbishop of Adelaide announces intention to retire
“Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide Jeffrey Driver is to retire after almost 11 years in the pivotal role.
In an unexpected move, Archbishop Driver, 65, advised parishioners at this morning’s services of his intention to step down as the spiritual leader of SA’s Anglican community in August…”
– Report from The Adelaide Advertiser. (Photo: Diocese of Adelaide.)
Two new bishops for Melbourne
“Archbishop Philip Freier has announced the appointment of the Revd Dr Paul Anthony Barker and the Revd Dr Bradly Scott Billings as Assistant Bishops in the Diocese of Melbourne…”
– Story at The Melbourne Anglican.
‘Bathurst Anglican church forced to sell property to meet contested CBA debt’
“The Anglican diocese of Bathurst is being forced to sell church property following a NSW Supreme Court order to settle an outstanding debt of up to $25 million to Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The diocese, which covers one-third of the area of NSW, is likely next month to approve the first sale of properties at a synod, or governing council, after losing a lengthy battle in which it argued it did not have the authority to sell property it held under trust structures…”
– Report from The Australian Financial Review.
Bishop Greg Anderson’s Easter Message 2016
“Political commentator Mungo MacCallum recently described Malcolm Turnbull’s performance in the top job as ‘a hugely disappointing resurrection’. Maybe it is good that the word resurrection still has some place in today’s media. But the first resurrection sets the benchmark. All other so-called resurrections, including the PM’s, are inevitably hugely disappointing. They all, in the end, run out…”
– Bishop of the Northern Territory, Greg Anderson, shares his Easter message for 2016.
Easter messages 2016
Easter is a wonderful opportunity to speak with clarity about the meaning of the Lord Jesus’ death, and the implications of his Resurrection.
Please pray that church leaders will communicate that message as they should, that Christ will be honoured, and that men and women will turn to him in repentance and faith.
Here are some of the messages we’ve spotted so far.
Will our messages to the world this Easter be as simple and clear as the sign in the photo? –
Diocese of the Northern Territory, Bishop Greg Anderson –
“Political commentator Mungo MacCallum recently described Malcolm Turnbull’s performance in the top job as ‘a hugely disappointing resurrection’.
Maybe it is good that the word resurrection still has some place in today’s media. But the first resurrection sets the benchmark. All other so-called resurrections, including the PM’s, are inevitably hugely disappointing. They all, in the end, run out…”
Diocese of Armidale, Bishop Rick Lewers –
“What is surprising about Easter is that the death of Jesus on the cross is all about clemency. Not His, but ours. It is where God would take upon himself the sins of the whole world, accepting the blame for what we have done in preference to leaving us stranded in our blameworthiness with no hope of forgiveness…”
Presbyterian Moderator-General David Cook –
“Toplady’s hymn expresses it well:
‘Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling;
Naked turn to you for dress;
Helpless look to you for grace;
Foul I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.’
By dying on that cross, Jesus won our salvation…”
Diocese of Melbourne, Archbishop Philip Freier –
“What is the resurrection promise of Easter Day? – God’s love will endure and continue, no matter what. Christians look to Jesus’ rising from the dead as not just an historic action but as the promise of his presence with us today – even in the worst of circumstances…”
Australian Baptist Ministries, National Ministries Director Keith Jobberns –
“The Easter celebration is a reminder that humans have been given a second chance. The Easter narrative records that in Jesus, and through relationship with Him we can find freedom from the shackles of fear, acceptance despite our faults and the opportunity to begin anew with God and our fellow humans…”
Diocese of North Queensland, Bishop Bill Ray (PDF)–
“Yes, Christians believe that ‘on the third day Jesus rose from the dead’, but Christianity is more than just believing, it is living this new life in Christ and bringing it to others…”
(Photo: Bicycle bearing a gospel message, in Federation Square, Melbourne, with St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in the background, 19th March 2016.)
‘Outback Bishop : Divine Stage’
“When the Anglican Church couldn’t find a bishop to fill an Outback posting, it sought divine assistance from head office.
Enter stage left from London Reverend Rob Gillion, a former professional actor. As the Bishop of Riverina, he’s taken on his most important role yet and on his biggest stage: a fair swathe of New South Wales.…”
– The ABC’s Landline ran a profile on the Diocese of Riverina’s Bishop Rob Gillion.
Runs for 22 minutes. Image: ABC.
Related: The theatrical Bishop caring for a far-flung flock in the outback – ABC News.
Tasmania’s new bishop wants to rebuild trust in the Church
“Tasmania’s new Anglican bishop wants to rebuild trust in the church.
Bishop Richard Condie was installed to the role on Saturday at a service in Hobart attended by 700. One of his first tasks was to meet a victim of child sexual abuse…”
– Report from The Examiner. (h/t SydneyAnglicans.net)
Richard Condie to be installed as Bishop of Tasmania this Saturday
Please uphold in prayer Richard and Helen Condie, as Richard is installed as the twelfth Bishop of Tasmania at St. David’s Cathedral in Hobart tomorrow, 19th March.
Related: Diocese of Tasmania.
Canberra – Goulburn conference to focus on discipleship
The Centre for Lay Ministry and Mission in Canberra & Goulburn diocese is running a discipleship conference in May.
Bishop Stuart Robinson writes, “We’d love to see people from all over Australia attend and learn from Mike and Sally Breen.” Details here (PDF).
Around the Anglican Church of Australia 27 February 2016
Here are a few snippets from around the Anglican Church of Australia this weekend.
Please pray that all of us will keep Christ’s saving gospel front and centre, and proclaim it clearly, as we should (Colossians 4:4, Matthew 28:16-20):
Melbourne
Anglican Media Melbourne has this video from a forum held on Ash Wednesday. One of the speakers was The Rev Andy Bowman (pictured), Co-Director of the Anglican Alliance:
“Ash Wednesday’s appropriate because first, we’ve got to lament the kind of poor response we’ve shown over the last two decades – and so we began the day today thinking about how we should be grieving that, how we should be seeking forgiveness about that…”
“… How can we restore the Earth to what it should be – what it was – when God first created it and gave us that great responsibility of stewarding it.”
North Queensland
The funeral of Bishop John Lewis (Bishop of North Queensland 1971-1996) will be held at St. James’ Cathedral in Townsville, today Saturday 27th February.
In his weekly bulletin, current bishop Bill Ray explains that he is sorry medical reasons prevent him being at next month’s Australian Bishops’ Conference in South Australia. He writes:
“Despite what you may have read in the press, it has been my experience that each Bishops’ Meeting is a time of fellowship and learning as well as a time where people show respect to each other.
I have found each conference very helpful and I am disappointed that I will not be present.”
Bathurst
Bathurst Diocese is advertising an Encouragement Workshop at St. John’s Wellington in March.
Canberra & Goulburn
Canberra– Goulburn Diocese reports that a UK expert in children’s church, The Rev Mark Griffiths, is touring regional areas next month to help churches reach young people.
Perth
The Diocese of Perth has an essay on “Liberation theology in modern Australia”.
Call to help Aboriginal church leaders thrive
“The Anglican Bishop of the Northern Territory is calling for up to 50 mature Christians to move to Arnhem Land to disciple up-and-coming Aboriginal church leaders on a long-term basis.
Dr Greg Anderson, a former CMS missionary to the NT who returned to Darwin as bishop a year ago, sees the need for ‘an ongoing, possibly permanent partnership’ between mature Christians and Aboriginal churches in Arnhem Land.
‘We have local, ordained leaders but some of them are old, well past ‘whitefella’ retirement age, and there’s a younger generation we’re looking for to come up behind them and there are some signs of those people coming forward, but those people need [cultural] scaffolding.’…”
– Story from Bible Society Australia.
Related: Diocese of The Northern Territory.
‘Newcastle Anglican Bishop … concerns about a breakaway conservative movement’
“Fractures in the Australian Anglican Church on the issue of gay clergy are set to boil over at a national meeting of bishops in early March, prompting Newcastle Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson to miss the event and accuse Sydney diocese of leading a breakaway conservative movement.
The emergence of a ‘para Anglican Communion’” was underway, Bishop Thompson said in a letter to Anglican Primate Archbishop Philip Freier in December, in which he declined to attend the annual bishops conference in South Australia from March 6 because it would give the impression of a united church that conflicted with reality.
He accused Sydney diocese of demanding other dioceses sign up to Anglican protocols on homosexuality, or Sydney would not attend any further national bishops’ conferences…”
– Story from The Newcastle Herald via SydneyAnglicans.net.
At his blog, David Ould shares some thoughts on the article.
Update: Newcastle Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson “could not simply stand by” as Sydney diocese acted against two bishops – The Newcastle Herald.
Same-sex marriage activist returns to Wangaratta Diocese church
“In yet another move in the Diocese of Wangaratta to push forward the Same-Sex Marriage agenda … the outspoken Archdeacon Peter Macleod-Miller has invited prominent campaigner Rodney Croome to speak at St Matthew’s Albury as part of their Easter and Lent 2016 lecture series. Last year’s lecture was part of the 9am Eucharist service…”
– David Ould has the story.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…