Southern Cross magazine, February 2022

Anglican Media Sydney has just released Southern Cross magazine for February 2022.

Printed copies will be available in parishes from this weekend, but you can download a PDF version now at magazine.sydneyanglicans.net.

Australia Day Honours 2022

“The foundation headmaster of Penrith Anglican College and the former Principal of St Luke’s Grammar School are among Sydney Anglicans recognised in the list of Australia Day honours. …”

– Australia Day news from SydneyAnglicans.net.

Please pray for 2022 Ordinands

A Media Release from the Diocese of Sydney names those who are scheduled to be ordained on Saturday 19th February.

Fuel for your prayers.

Anglican Aid — Tonga: Volcano Emergency Response

From Anglican Aid:

“Anglican Aid and the Anglican Relief and Development Fund Australia have partnered with the Evangelical Wesleyan Church in Tonga to distribute urgently needed relief to the people impacted by the recent volcanic eruption.

We are also working with Missions New Zealand to provide supplies to four Anglican Churches in the capital, Nuku’alofa, to distribute among their local communities.”

– Details of the appeal here.

Resources for churches to publicise the appeal. Top image: JMA.

Synod cancelled

“The next Synod, or church parliament, of the Diocese of Sydney will not go ahead in February as planned.

The special session, planned for 26 February to 2 March, was to have begun with an historic ‘Synod in the Greenfields’ day in which Synod delegates would have toured new areas of Sydney’s outer suburbs and the Archbishop was to give his Presidential Address in the new suburb of Oran Park. …”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Russell Powell reports on the decision to cancel February’s Synod due to Covid.

Mothers Union Sydney Annual Seminar — For Such a Time as This

Mothers Union Sydney is holding its Annual Seminar on Friday 25th February.

The theme: For Such a Time as This.

Topics:

The God We Know – Jo Gibbs

Have I the right to be who I am? – Rob Smith

When Dreams are Broken in the family – Jenny Brown, author of Growing Yourself Up.

Details at the MU Sydney website.

Anglican Revisionists Keep Pushing their Agenda

“It’s 2022 so about time for an Anglican update. What’s new in the Anglican Church in Australia?

Well, not much. The situation can be characterised as revisionists now effectively ignoring the moratorium we were going to have before General Synod.

Action has been happening in 2 places in particular …”

– David Ould shares the latest moves in Wangaratta and Perth.

Image: The Crest of the Anglican Church of Australia and those of its members dioceses.

Related:

Sydney Diocese Response to actions in the Diocese of Wangaratta – December 10 2020.

‘Same-sex couple have marriage blessed in Albury Anglican church after two-year battle’

“It’s just before nine o’clock on Sunday morning and the bells are ringing out loudly at St Matthew’s church in Albury.

It’s already 25 degrees Celsius and the sun is beating hot and bright onto a small knot of people milling around outside. Among them are two men with matching cream linen jackets and nervous smiles. …

The two men have driven 10 hours from their hometown in the north of New South Wales after their own parish would not recognise their relationship. …

Albury priest Peter MacLeod-Miller, a long-time advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, tells Sunday’s congregation that ‘we are celebrating a better, kinder world, and also a real change’.

He reads a letter from Bishop Clarence Bester, head of the Wangaratta diocese of which St Matthew’s is a part and which adopted a resolution to offer blessings for same-sex marriages in August 2019.”

– Report from the ABC. Base map: Anglican Church of Australia.

Earlier:

Sydney Diocese Response to actions in the Diocese of Wangaratta – December 10 2020.

“It would be naïve to think that mutually contradictory views on same-sex marriage can co-exist within our national Church. Pronouncing God’s blessing on a same-sex marriage is contrary to the teaching of Christ. It is therefore untenable to have some members of the Church purporting to declare God’s blessing in such circumstances. To pursue this course will not bring healing but will only lead to a collapse in the fellowship that binds us together.”

More good news from the Diocese of Bathurst

Good news for Parkes and Peak Hill – from the Diocese of Bathurst Facebook page:

“With great thankfulness to God, we share the news that Ben Mackay, following his ordination on 12th February, will be appointed Deacon-in-Charge of the parish of Parkes and Peak Hill. We are also thankful that the Rev’d Natalie Quince will continue to serve in the parish as Assistant Priest. (Ben pictured here with is wife Bron, and three children, Ella, James and Elijah.)”

– Please continue to pray that the Lord will raise up men and women to share the good news of Jesus in the cities and towns of the Diocese of Bathurst, and pray for Bishop Mark Calder in this key work.

The impact and ministry of the Archbishops wives

“The Archbishop’s wife is a key person in our Diocese, providing her own leadership and gifts in the service of the Lord Jesus, church members, her family and her husband.

In Sydney we have been blessed by a succession of godly and able women, whose contribution has been sometimes underappreciated but always invaluable.”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Simon Manchester asks Pam Goodhew, Christine Jensen, Di Davies and Cailey Raffel about their roles and experiences in working alongside their Archbishop husbands.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson after the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope

Last night (Christmas morning in the US), after years of delays, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched for NASA from South America by the European Space Agency. It’s an incredibly complex and sensitive observatory with the potential to make astounding discoveries.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson spoke shortly after the launch, using words you may find familiar. (Starting at 2:04 into the video.)

Christmas message — Bishop Mark Calder

The Bishop of the Diocese of Bathurst, Mark Calder, has released this terrific message for Christmas 2021.

Here’s the text:

Will Christmas celebrations offer any reprieve from the anxiety and uncertainties we face through COVID-19 at the present time, especially with omicron?

About a month ago, it looked as though we could plan for a pretty much normal Christmas. Hotel quarantine for international travellers has been scrapped. Requirements of wearing masks and checking in through the QR codes had been relaxed and we were able to plan family reunions and Christmas holidays.

Now all of that is up in the air as NSW case numbers are blown out of the water. Some of your friends may have now been deemed as close contacts of a COVID case and you’re not able to meet with them. Christmas holidays have had to be put on hold for many people. Some planning to travel to Queensland are now no longer able to get there simply because they haven’t got their test results back in time.

I think anxiety levels are now higher than they at any time during the lockdowns that we’ve known.

Yet into all of this, Christmas will surely come, and it is the message of Christmas that can give us some hope, some comfort, and some perspective.

Perhaps you’ve been singing some of the ancient carols, where we sing words such as:

“He came down to earth from heaven, Who is God and Lord of all”.  

“So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heav’n” 

“Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled” 

By turning up here on earth in the historic person of Jesus Christ, God reached out to us in love, and the invitation is there this Christmas and always, to reach back to him and find some hope, strength, perspective, calm, peace, and even joy, in the midst of our mess.

Direct link to video here.

PDF version here.

Don’t miss the truth of Christmas — Archbishop Kanishka Raffel

Here’s the first Christmas message from Archbishop Kanishka Raffel.
With thanks to SydneyAnglicans.net.

Great to share – you can also download it from this link.

A Fireside Chat with Bishop Rod Chiswell

The December 2021 – January 2022 issue of The Link from the Diocese of Armidale is now up on their website.

Lots of encouraging articles and fuel for prayer.

Bishop Rod Chiswell writes,

“Greetings from Armidale. I hope you’ve weathered the winter and stayed warm in your patch. Since moving to Armidale, I’ve rediscovered the joys of sitting by the fire. So, this letter from me comes as a kind of fireside chat to share some of the things that are on my heart.

During my first eight months in the job as bishop, at every opportunity in parishes around the Armidale Diocese, I have been underlining the central importance of God’s word. …”

– Read it all on page 3 of The Link, available via this page.

Also in this issue, Bernard Gabbott reflects on “shepherding a scattered mob” during COVID in Narrabri.

The Diocesan vision is to “Introduce people to Jesus and help them home to Heaven”. How wonderfully clear and encouraging!

New video: Thank you for supporting the Gospel in Greenfields

Here’s the latest encouraging video from the Archbishop of Sydney’s New Churches for New Communities.

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