ANiC parishes Appeal Court Decision
24 December 2009
The trustees of four Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) congregations in the greater Vancouver area have filed an appeal of Mr Justice Stephen Kelleher’s BC Supreme Court decision of November 25, 2009, in order to preserve their vibrant Anglican ministries. The four parishes, St Matthew’s (Abbotsford), St Matthias & St Luke’s (Vancouver), St John’s Shaughnessy (Vancouver) and Church of the Good Shepherd (Vancouver), have an average Sunday attendance of approximately 1500 people and are involved in many ministries throughout the week serving their communities. Read more
Paternoster sold to Koorong
“Press Release: Carlisle December 21st 2009
The Board of Trustees and Senior Management of leading Carlisle-based Christian Charity, IBS-STL UK, formerly known as STL are pleased to announce the sale of two of its three trading divisions: Authentic Media and STL Distribution…
Authentic Book Publishing and 8 Wesley Owen Stores (Bath Birmingham, Bristol, Bromley, Coleraine, Derby, Glasgow and York ) have been sold to Koorong, which is owned by the Bootes family. Based in Sydney, Koorong has 18 stores operating successfully throughout Australia. It has purchased all of the Authentic and Paternoster intellectual property and author contracts, the freehold properties in Glasgow and York, the Wesley Owen trading name, and the domain name, wesleyowen.com. They plan to continue to operate from the Milton Keynes area.”
– from the Church Times blog. (Image: STL Distribution)
Archbishop Peter Jensen’s Christmas message 2009
In his 2009 Christmas message, Archbishop Peter Jensen begins by speaking about leadership.
The full text is available at SydneyAnglicans.net (pdf) – or watch it here. (Here’s the SMH’s report.)
‘Equality and Diversity’ for Christians in Britain?
“Christians in the U.K. are continuing to warn that the government’s planned ‘equality’ legislation will drive Christian believers out of public life. The Christian Institute, Britain’s leading evangelical Christian lobby group, has issued a report titled ‘Marginalising Christians,’ detailing the many recent cases of Christians who have been disciplined or lost work because of conflicts between faith and the government-sponsored and increasingly aggressive secularism.
The government’s recent equality and diversity laws, the group says, leave Christians “the first to be punished and the last to be protected…”
– Story from LifeSiteNews.
Archbishop Jensen on Sunrise
This morning (December 21 2009), Archbishop Peter Jensen was interviewed briefly on the Seven Network’s Sunrise programme.
The segment was a result of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s comments about the place of the Bible in a good education.
Bp John Rodgers on the Anglican Covenant
Bishop John Rodgers:
“If we cannot confess that Gospel and Faith together, we have no unity to confess and intensify.”
Rowan Williams on the Anglican Covenant
Archbishop Rowan Williams calls for the just-released ‘final version’ of the Anglican Covenant to be ratified by the Provinces.
Washington-based Anglican blogger BabyBlue notes the claimed ‘centralized authority’ of what is now called ‘The Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion’. (Indeed, they have just issued a press release.)
Tributes for Denis Ryan
The Mosman Daily has this tribute to Denis Ryan, who fell asleep in Christ earlier this month.
Denis is remembered with affection by many ACL members.
Bishop John Harrower’s Christmas message
Bishop of Tasmania, John Harrower, has released this Christmas message –
Enjoying God, enjoying life
Apparently, coming to a bus near you is a Tasmanian version of the UK bus ads, ‘There’s probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy life.’
While Christians are enjoying life and celebrating Christmas precisely because there is a loving God [the Christmas message is ‘Emmanuel, God with us’]; some atheists are worrying that there is probably no God.
This is sad. Read more
‘Lampooning literalism’
StandFirm linked to this chat by The Venerable Glynn Cardy, Vicar of St. Matthew-in-the-City, Auckland.
He gives the background to the billboard causing offense in Auckland and explains that “Progressive Christianity believes the Christmas stories are fictitious accounts designed to introduce the radical nature of the adult Jesus”.
(Tip: Keep your expectations low.) Video update from TVNZ.
‘Jesus-era’ burial shroud found
“A team of archaeologists and scientists says they have for the first time found pieces of a burial shroud from the time of Jesus in a tomb in Jerusalem…”
– Report from BBC News.
Sovereign Grace church plant coming to Sydney
Sovereign Grace Ministries have today announced their planned church plant in Sydney will be ‘in the Hornsby area’.
See this video for the reasons for coming to Sydney.
Presbyterian propectus online
The prospectus for the Presbyterian Theological Centre in Sydney is now online for any who may be interested.
Church in Quebec is ‘dying’
The Diocese of Quebec is all but dead, its bishop told the Canadian House of Bishop at their fall meeting in Niagara Falls, the Anglican Journal of Canada reports.
The Rt. Rev. Dennis Drainville said his diocese was “teetering on the verge of extinction” according to an account given by the church’s official newspaper.
Of the diocese’s 82 congregations, 50 were childless and 35 congregations had an average age of 75. These graying congregations often had no more than 10 people in church on Sundays, he said. “The critical mass isn’t there, there’s no money anymore,” he said. …
(R)etired marketing expert Keith McKerracher … said, “…We’re losing 12,836 Anglicans a year. That’s 2 percent a year. If you draw a line on the graph, there’ll only be one person left in the Canadian Anglican church by 2061.”
– Read George Conger’s full story written story for the Church of England Newspaper. (Photo of Bishop Drainvolle: Diocese of Quebec.)
Follow up on BC Supreme Court decision
“ANiC chancellor Cheryl Chang has written to the four Vancouver-area churches involved in the recent court proceeding reporting on a meeting held November 30 with the leaders of the four churches and their legal counsel. She says that while there are clear grounds for appeal, no decision has been made.…”
– Report from the ANiC newsletter for December 10, 2009.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…