Something missing?
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund of the Anglican Church of Canada has published a book of Lenten Studies with a brief comment on a Bible passage for each day.
The comments illustrate a liberal approach to the Bible. Here are some excerpts – see if you can spot what’s missing – Read more
Free online access to the ESV Study Bible (for a month)
Here’s a press release from Crossway:
“Crossway is pleased to make the ESV Online Study Bible available free—for anyone and everyone—for a limited time beginning today, March 2, 2009. Until now, the ESV Online Study Bible has been available exclusively to those who have purchased the print edition.”
– Details at the ESVSB Blog.
Northern Michigan Elects ‘Christian-Buddhist’ Bishop
News from last week:
The Diocese of Northern Michigan elected the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester as bishop Feb. 21 at a special diocesan convention. … The announcement of Fr. Forrester’s nomination sparked controversy last month because he is also a practicing Buddhist and said he had received Buddhist “lay ordination” and was “walking the path of Christianity and Zen Buddhism together.” …
– from The Living Church. Other details from the Diocese of Northern Michigan. (Photo: Episcopal News Service.)
Apologies
Our apologies for lack of news on the ACL website last week – our web hosting company had misconfigured things. We’re back now.
Give no assistance or encouragement
This Memorandum has been sent to clergy in the Diocese of New Westminster:
Memorandum
To: Diocesan Clergy, Members of Diocesan Council
From: Bishop Michael Ingham
Date: February 19, 2009
Subject: New Activities of the Network
Dear Friends in Christ:
Throughout the centuries, Anglicanism has held together evangelicals, liberals, and anglo-catholics in a single church. Such is our ethos and mysterium. Read more
Launch of church planting network
“Last night Al Stewart, Andrew Heard and Steve Chong cast a bold vision to create a new Australian church planting network. … There was a great buzz as 170 crowded into a room at the Wesley Centre.… People came who are already part of Christian networks — RICE, FIEC, Presbyterian churches, Baptist Churches, Church Army, Anglican Churches and others.”
– Michael Kellahan blogs about the meeting last night. (Photo courtesy of Michael’s blog.)
Here one moment — tribute song for the victims of the Victorian bushfires
Colin Buchanan writes,
“I wrote HERE ONE MOMENT in 1994 after the Sydney fires, which claimed life and property within about a 10 min drive of my home.
In 2001 the fires came up to the back of our house at about 2 am in the morning — I stayed, the family had been evacuated. It was quite an experience standing in my backyard when the flames finally appeared coming up through the bush. Being threatened by fire just makes the reports that much more real, even though we lost nothing.
I felt the Victorian fires — our worst ever with loss of life topping a horrifying 200 average Aussies — warranted a new verse for Here One Moment.”
– See his website to download the song and lyrics.
Engaging With Barth
Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds draws attention to the availability (in the US) of Engaging With Barth: Contemporary Evangelical Critiques.
Contributors include Mike Ovey and Mark Thompson.
Sydney bushfire suburb in fundraiser
Residents of a Sydney suburb threatened with destruction by a bushfire in 2001 will host a fundraising event for the victims of Victoria’s bushfires. …
“Heathcote in the Sutherland Shire has been threatened by ferocious fires many, many times over the years with the last one … requiring evacuations of massive sections of our suburb in the middle of the night with flames clearly visible in the distance,” Heathcote Anglican Church Assistant Minister Tom Hargreaves said. …
– Story from The Australian. (View of Heathcote: Google Earth.)
Primates’ Report on The Episcopal Church
The American Anglican Council has prepared a comprehensive document entitled ‘The Episcopal Church: Tearing the fabric of the Communion to shreds’.
Archbishop Peter Akinola requested its preparation to aid the Global South Primates at the meeting in Alexandria earlier this month and decided to release it when he wrote his Open Letter to Archbishop Rowan Williams.
It’s available as an 820kb PDF file – direct link. (h/t Stand Firm.)
From Hatred to Reconciliation
Justin Taylor has linked to a 3.5 minute video clip from ABC News in the US – about a sudden transformation. Worth watching.
Another Canadian parish joins Anglican Network
“The congregation of St Mary’s Anglican Church, in Nanoose Bay, British Columbia voted overwhelmingly on Sunday, February 8, to come under the episcopal oversight of Bishop Donald Harvey, Moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), and under the Primatial authority of Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. …”
– press release from the Anglican Network in Canada.
Missed the Big Day In?
If you missed the Big Day In (the launch of Connect09), you can now watch Archbishop Peter Jensen’s sermon. It’s been posted to Vimeo by SydneyAnglicans.net.
A Wake up call to the People of God
“All through our gathering at the recently concluded Primates’ meeting I kept wondering whether we were the ones to whom John was writing. We have a glorious reputation – a worldwide communion of millions with a glorious history and beautiful heritage, fluid structures, grand cathedrals, “infallible” canons, historical ecclesiology and ‘flexible’ hermeneutics – but we are in danger of forgetting what we have received and heard and replacing it with the seemingly attractive gods and goddesses of our age. We are in danger of becoming the ‘living dead’ by giving the outward appearance of life but in reality we are no more than empty and ineffective vessels.…”
– Archbishop Peter Akinola reflects on last week’s Primates’ meeting.
See also An Open Letter from Archbishop Akinola to Archbishop Williams – at The American Anglican Council website –
“…In preparation for the meeting I asked The American Anglican Council to prepare the attached report on the continuing situation of The Episcopal Church to enable people in the wider Communion to have a fuller perspective of the circumstances in North America. I shared it with my colleagues in the Global South but did not release it more widely in the hope that we would receive assurances from the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada that they were willing to exercise genuine restraint towards those Anglicans in North America unwilling to embrace their several innovations.
Sadly that did not prove to be the case. Instead we were treated to presentations that sought to trivialize the situation and the consequences for those whose only offence is their determination to hold on doggedly and truthfully to the faith once delivered to the saints.…”
Bushfires: Melbourne Diocese responds
Anglican Media Melbourne has the latest on Melbourne Diocese’s response to the Bushfire tragedy – including Archbishop Freier’s launch of a Bush Fire Appeal.
See also “Churches hit hard but stay focussed on pastoral care” by Barney Zwartz in The Age.
Photo: The Rev Stephen Holmes (vicar of Whittlesea and Kinglake) and Abp Philip Freier, at the ruins of St Peter’s Kinglake.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…