Australia Day Convention 2014
The 2014 Australia Day Convention at the Cathedral is coming up on Monday 27th January.
Phillip Jensen, Neil Foster and Mark Thompson are the speakers, and the early-bird rates end soon.
Being Moore
Moore College has a new section on its website about growing the College.
See it at being.moore.edu.au
Youthworks mourns lecturer’s sudden death
“The Sydney Anglican youth arm, Youthworks, and the wider church community, is mourning the sudden loss of College lecturer Andy Stirrup, who collapsed suddenly on Thursday night. …”
– Sad news from SydneyAnglicans.net.
Anglican Aid South Sudan Emergency Appeal
The Archbishop of Sydney’s Anglican Aid has launched an emergency appeal for South Sudan.
Donations can be made online at this link.
Here’s the text of a letter released by Anglican Aid and sent to all Sydney parishes –
Anglican Aid Supporting South Sudan
Anglican Aid has launched an emergency appeal for the victims of the violence that has caused so much death and suffering in South Sudan in the last two months.
Media reports have put the death toll from the violence at 1,000. The Archbishop of The Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS), Daniel Deng, estimates the number dead to be many more than that. Read more
Marie Robinson — Awaiting the Resurrection
Members of the ACL are saddened to hear of the death of Marie Robinson, beloved wife of our former Archbishop, Donald Robinson. Yet in the midst of sadness we rejoice that, with all who have trusted in Christ, she is awaiting the Resurrection.
We note that her funeral will be held at St Swithun’s Pymble, on Saturday January 11 at 11:00am, and assure the Robinson family of our prayers.
Prayers in Melbourne for South Sudan
“More than 200 adults and 70 children gathered at the Anglican Church of the Apostles, Sunshine, for a regular thanksgiving service. But because most of those present come from the vicinity of Bor in South Sudan which has seen armed conflict this past week, the prayers reflected the anxiety and concern about relatives back home.”
– from the Diocese of Melbourne. (Map: DFAT.)
Thanksgiving for Ridley Smith
There will be a Thanksgiving service for Ridley Smith at St. Andrew’s Cathedral at 10:30am on Friday 3rd January 2014.
Ridley, who died just before Christmas, is best known to many as the Architect who designed St. Andrew’s House and Sydney Square.
We also have Ridley Smith to thank for perpetuating the “Eternity” symbol chalked around Sydney by Arthur Stace for so many years.
In 1977, he had Eternity, in cast aluminium letters eight inches high, set in pebbles at the bottom of the Sydney Square waterfall.
(Photo of Ridley Smith with thanks to Ramon Williams, Worldwide Photos – taken at the opening of additions to Gymea Baptist Church, 29th November, 2009.)
Chapter ends for Bathurst’s Anglican News
“After 34 years of publishing, the Anglican News has been printed for the last time. As the Bathurst Diocese of the Anglican Church struggles financially, the 2014 budget adopted by the Synod makes no provision for the production of a diocesan newspaper.”
– from The Western Advocate. (Anglican News Archives.)
Archbishop Glenn Davies’ Christmas message 2013
The first Christmas message from Dr Glenn Davies as Archbishop of Sydney.
Read it below – or download the text as a PDF file (2 x A5 format suitable for copying) here.
What is it about our society that ‘selfie’ is the landmark word for 2013?
Many of us cringe at the self-centredness of these self-portraits, as much as the bad photography, but many ‘selfies’ will be taken over the Christmas period and inflicted upon others, along with the usual array of awkward family photos.
But at Christmas time we should remember that there is an ultimate self-image, the image of God, which far outweighs the supercilious picture of a face filling our screen. We are all stamped with the image of God and it is this image that makes us precious in his sight.
Incarnation is the theological word which describes God’s coming to earth as a human being, with all the vulnerabilities associated with being born as a baby in that Bethlehem crib.
But so often we tend to leave Jesus as a baby in a stall, cute and inoffensive, and forget that he grew up as a fully developed adult, so that he might live the life we could not live and die the death that we deserve.
Christmas without Easter is not the full story. We fail to appreciate Christmas if we fail to appreciate the reason why he came – to suffer death upon a cross on Good Friday, rise again on Easter Day so that the bonds of death may be broken and new life become a reality for all who put their trust in him.
As you look at the pictures you take this Christmas, some will be joyful and some scenes may be sad, but you will look at faces that have the self-image of God – those for whom Jesus came to offer new life.
What shall we give him in return?
We can give him nothing, but we owe him everything.
Happy Christmas.
Dr Glenn N Davies
Archbishop of Sydney
Christmas 2013
Source: SydneyAnglicans.net
Vale Ron Patfield
“We note with sadness the death of Ron Patfield on Friday December 20, 2013. Ron graduated from the College in 1948. He then was used by the Lord in a succession of ministries at Wahroonga, Normanhurst, Annandale, Wentworthville, Seaforth and too many positions as locum to mention.”
– from Moore Theological College.
Live stream on Christmas Eve from Sydney Cathedral
St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, will live stream this year’s Christmas Eve service so friends in Australia and around the world can watch.
From 8:00pm AEDT on Christmas Eve. The theme is “The Romance and the Reality of Christmas”. The video stream should start around 7:50pm.
Watch it at new.livestream.com/audioadvice/christmas. (The time shown on the Livestream page is US East Coast time.)
Christmas messages 2013
As we spot Christmas messages, we’ll post them here. So far…
From around Australia —
John Harrower, Bishop of Tasmania.
Philip Freier, Archbishop of Melbourne.
John Parkes, Bishop of Wangaratta.
Ian Lambert, Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force.
Stuart Robinson, Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn.
Peter Stuart, Bishop Administrator of Newcastle.
Bill Ray, Bishop of North Queensland.
And from further afield –
Hundreds of talks from St Matthias and University Ministries
From the Administrator of Phillip Jensen’s website –
“Phillip has been preaching God’s word for over forty years. It has been his aim to preach the gospel by prayerfully expounding the Bible to the people God has given him to love.
As talks given prior to 2003 are currently being added to the website it is hoped that listeners will be enriched, refreshed and challenged by these talks.”
– An amazing resource. Thank you! (Photo: Matthias Press 1996.)
Jars of Clay
“Clay speaks the truth that we who are made in the image of God are also made of the dust of the ground. Clay speaks of being in the hands of the master potter who is shaping us to His own ends. It speaks – as it does here – of the homely and ordinary; of the everyday domestic vessels whose myriad shards are scattered across every field in the Middle East.
Why has God made His servants of this clay? The reason is clear: to show that the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
– Dean of Armidale, Stephen Williams, delivered this address at the funeral of Bishop Peter Chiswell last week, and Peter’s son Graeme gave the Eulogy.
Northwest Network — December 2013
The latest edition of The Northwest Network is now available – grab a copy to help in praying for the people of the North West (660kb PDF, hosted with permission).
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…