Newcastle Bishop Nomination Board to hold regional workshops

This week, the Newcastle Diocese Bishop Nomination Board is holding a series of regional consultation workshops (PDF), as they reflect on who could be the next Bishop of the diocese.

Doubtless, they would appreciate our prayers for wisdom in this task.

Car wash to become homeless aged care centre

“In the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst, early work has begun on an aged care centre catering for homeless men and women.

The 42-bed centre will be operated by the charity HammondCare, on a site previously occupied by a car wash. …”

– Story from ABC News.

Artist’s impression of the new centre via St. John’s Darlinghurst.

Vision 2022 for Tasmania — video

In a follow-up to his 2017 Synod Presidential Address, Bishop of Tasmania, Richard Condie, speaks in this video about the new Vision 2022 for the churches of Tasmania.

Craig Roberts to be new Youthworks CEO

Here’s an announcement from Youthworks –

“The Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev Glenn Davies, and Youthworks Council Chair, the Rev Chris Braga are most pleased to announce the appointment of the Rev Craig Roberts BEc BD(Hons) DipMin MA(Theol) to the position of Chief Executive Officer of Youthworks. Craig will be joining Youthworks after fourteen years as the Senior Minister at Neutral Bay Anglican Church. Read more

ACL Annual General Meeting 2017 Report

ACL Council member Caitlin Hurley reports on this year’s Annual General Meeting, held in the Chapter House of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, on Thursday 8th June 2017. Read more

New Dean of Newcastle

“The Acting-Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Peter Stuart, is delighted to advise that the Reverend Canon Katherine Bowyer has been elected to be the next Dean of Newcastle.”

– News from the Diocese of Newcastle.

‘Bishop of South Sydney says yoga and meditation classes could be banned from church facilities’

“Yoga and meditation classes held in some Sydney Anglican churches could be banned after concerns have been raised that the spiritual aspects of the practices aren’t compatible with church teachings.”

– Bishop Michael Stead was interviewed on ABC 702 by Robbie Buck.

Bishop Richard Condie to Tasmanian Anglicans: We need to change!

“We have to face up to the reality of our church. The glory days are well behind us. We know we are faced with declining attendance in many places. We recognise that the old ways of doing things just won’t cut it any more. In many churches I visit there is at least one, if not two, generations of people missing – our kids and their kids. We have failed to make disciples, and we are often more committed to keeping things the same, than we are finding new ways of being God’s people on mission.

In many places we have developed a ‘folk religion’ which, while serving us and our needs, has lost its missional focus. In the recent National Church Life Survey people in our pews told us the things they most value. The top three were: ‘sharing holy communion’; ‘sermons’; and ‘traditional worship’. These are all essentially inward looking. While they are not bad in themselves, sadly at the bottom of the list of things we value were: ‘openness to cultural diversity’; ‘meeting new people’; and ‘reaching those who don’t attend church’; the items with an outward looking focus. We need to be equally passionate about both.

We need to change! If we continue as we are, we will become marginal at best. We will see more church closures, and more decline, until there will be very little left. I don’t think for one moment that the Church will cease to be. God is too committed to it for that. But if we are going to be obedient stewards of God’s gift to us, and to love His church, even half as much as he does, then we need to feel the weight of these issues, and do something about it.

We need to be more Christian and more Anglican. That is, we need to shed the cloak of our ‘folk religion’ that serves our needs, and re-engage with the Lord our God, and His Son the Jesus Christ, and be so transformed spiritually by Him that we can’t hold the message back. We need to be more Anglican, by which I mean, committed to mission in the world, the mission of proclaiming the gospel in the language and culture of the people. After all, the birth of the Church of England in the 16th Century was a radical engagement with presenting the gospel in a language and style that people could understand.

My job as your Bishop is to lead you. I promised at my ordination (among other things) to ‘lead those in [my] care to obey our Saviour’s command to make disciples of all nations’, and I intend to do this. I intend to do this, through casting a Vision today to set the agenda for the next five years of the Diocese of Tasmania. Before I do, I want to tell you how we got here. …”

– In his 2017 Synod Presidential Address, Bishop of Tasmania, Richard Condie, shares a vision for the churches of Tasmania. Read it all in this PDF file from the Diocese of Tasmania.

The Robinson-Knox view of Church — Interview with Chase Kuhn

“If you’ve grown up in Sydney Anglican churches chances are your understanding of what church is and what it’s for has been significantly shaped (perhaps unknowingly!) by two people – Donald W. B. Robinson and D. Broughton Knox.

However, no one has undertaken a systematic and extended articulation and appraisal of this approach to church …. until now – we chat to Moore College lecturer Chase Kuhn about his new book The Ecclesiology of Donald Robinson and D. Broughton Knox.”

– Read it all at The Australian Church Record.

Presidential charge to the Synod of the Diocese of the Northern Territory

“Last synod, I mentioned six planks that I felt needed to guide what I, and we together, focussed on in the diocese, and I have written more about them in the issues of Top Centre since last synod. Now that I have been the bishop for nearly two and half years, I have had more time to think about and refine the areas that I believe need attention and resourcing.…”

– The Diocese of the Northern Territory has published Bishop Greg Anderson’s 2017 Synod Charge.

Read it, and be encouraged to pray for our brothers and sisters, and the progress of the gospel, in the Top End.

The Christ Church Cathedral saga

“Lost track of what is going on in the Christ Church Cathedral saga? These 19 questions will get you up-to-date. …”

– Over in New Zealand, six years after the earthquake, the future of Christchurch Anglican Cathedral is still undecided.

This article helps to explain why it is taking so long for the situation to be resolved.

Photo: cardboardcathedral.org.nz.

Greg Clarke and Roy Williams with James Valentine on ABC Radio

Bible Society Australia CEO, Greg Clarke, and author of “God, Actually”, Roy Williams, chatted with James Valentine about the Bible and the Sydney Writers Festival. Aired 23rd May 2017 on 702 ABC Sydney.

17 minutes. Listen here.

Photo of Roy Williams and Greg Clarke courtesy Bible Society.

Broughton Knox: servant of Christ Jesus

“More than a hundred years ago, Broughton Knox, Principal of Moore College from 1959 until 1985 and one of the most influential figures in the history of the Diocese, was born.

He was a man loved by many and yet he deeply irritated others. For forty years he was a dominant force in the Diocese of Sydney, shaping generations of clergy and impacting the core convictions of the diocese.

He shaped its theological college, Moore College, into a modern institution capable of making a significant contribution on the world stage. Then, after retiring from a record principalship of the College in 1985, he accepted an invitation to found another college in South Africa, George Whitefield College, which today is playing a strategic role in equipping the burgeoning churches on that vast continent.

What was it that animated Broughton Knox throughout his ministry and his life as a disciple of Christ? …”

– Moore College Principal, Dr Mark Thompson, writes about his renowned predecessor – at the Moore College website.