Sydney’s almost unnoticed Archbishop-elect: The challenges facing Kanishka Raffel and the Anglican church

“Sydney’s Anglicans have just elected a new Archbishop — the current Dean of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel. You may not have noticed. Only two decades ago, the election of an Anglican Archbishop in Sydney was not just news, it was a matter for critical commentary in the opinion pages of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Earlier this year, the retirement of the previous holder of that office, Archbishop Glenn Davies, was not even mentioned in the secular press. The death of former Archbishop Donald Robinson, Archbishop from 1982 to 1993, likewise scarcely caused a ripple.

All this tells you something about the current cultural moment into which the new Archbishop of Sydney must step. …”

– In an opinion piece for ABC Religion and Ethics, Michael Jensen concludes,

“If Sydney Anglicans can catch something of the character of Christ as it has been refracted in their new leader, and imitate him as he continues to imitate and serve his Lord, then who knows what the Spirit of the living God may do?”

Sydney’s new Anglican Archbishop faces an enormous task

“Last week, Sydney’s Anglicans elected Kanishka Raffel to serve as Archbishop of Sydney.

Kanishka is currently serving as dean in Sydney’s St Andrew’s Cathedral. At a service there on May 28, he will be officially installed in the role, making him the spiritual leader of some half a million people who identify as Anglicans in Greater Sydney and Wollongong. …

Only about 60,000 people regularly attend Anglican churches in the Sydney diocese. … There is, however, a deep spiritual hunger in our community – a desire that has intensified during the pandemic.”

– Michael Jensen writes about the challenges facing the new Archbishop and Anglicans in Sydney – in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Image: Kanishka and Cailey Raffel were interviewed about their new roles during the Cathedral service this morning.

Wrong Paradigm, Wrong Diagnosis, Wrong Solution

“Our response to the world needs to embrace more than lament, but a deep malaise has descended upon contemporary Western society.

There is a hardness of heart, but a softness in the head; a trivialisation of life, yet a lack of humour; and a coarsened culture but a distorted sensitivity concerning giving offence.

Any example would do as an illustration, but the recent moral outrage at the sexual misbehaviour of parliamentary staffers in Canberra is clear enough. …”

– Dr Peter Barnes, Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, makes the case that if the diagnosis is wrong, the solution will evade you.

Dr. Stephen Chavura on the history of Western civilisation

In his latest Conversations video, John Anderson speaks with historian Dr. Stephen Chavura on the history of Western civilisation, Western thought and the historical roots of freedom, democracy and the rule of law.

Timings from the video on YouTube –

00:00 – Intro
2:02 – Why history?
4:16 – Western civilisation
12:01 – Slavery & racism
23:32 – The American Revolution
26:25 – The Enlightenment
28:34 – Nietzsche
33:57 – Created equal
49:24 – Enlightened thinking?
52:15 – Australian history.

Martyn Iles, Q and A and what it tells us about Australia today

“The Sydney Morning Herald thought this week’s Q and A was a significant cultural moment – so who are we to disagree?!  They compared it with another one in 2008 where the shibboleth question for our culture, that of homosexuality, came up. It was indeed a revealing programme – telling us a great deal about where Australian culture, politics and religion are at – and where we are heading. …

It was the appearance of Martyn Iles that was too much for some people – even before he had been on the show. …”

– David Robertson writes at AP (the national Journal of the Presbyterian Church of Australia) and gives thanks for Martyn Iles.

Related:

Excerpts from the programme may be seen here. Or the whole thing on the Q and A website (9th April 2021).

Unprecedented times?

“About 10 years ago I was in the north of Nigeria, in a region dominated by the Islamic group, Boko Haram.

I was locked away in a church compound guarded by the army, training a group of local evangelists. Just down the road a bomb was set off outside another church.

These local Christians knew that by trying to share the gospel with their Muslim neighbours, they faced the very real threat of death.

Yet on my last day there they prayed for me, and for Christians in Australia.

They prayed that God would make us ready to face opposition because, they reasoned, we had never had to face any real opposition in the past and they were not at all sure that we would persevere in the faith now the tide was turning against us. It was a great and insightful prayer. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Moore College Vice-Principal Simon Gillham helps put things in much-needed perspective.

When the Bible turns into Instagram

“Our daughter is in middle school, and recently she deleted the Bible app from her phone. I was glad.

She didn’t make this decision because she no longer wants to read the Bible. (In fact, she’s more engaged in Bible study now than before.) And she didn’t delete the app out of frustration with how poorly it works. …”

– At The Gospel Coalition, Trevin Wax has some thoughtful comments on how and where you read the Bible.

Why I love the Apostle Paul

“The apostle Paul has been hated for 2000 years by many men and women, with endless papers, books and talks about how awful he was and how he got things so wrong.

But that’s not the whole story. There are also many of us – including many women – who love him. …”

– Jane Tooher writes at The Australian Church Record.

The significance of sex — can it be recovered through consent alone?

“Responding adequately to the sad news of the Kambala sexual assault petition — the latest spotlight on the sexual assault epidemic — is a sobering challenge for us all. Leading educators in our secondary schools, depressed by the recent revelations and struggling to find solutions, are themselves revisiting calls for better “consent training” for students. But, as others have argued, “consent training” is bound to be an inadequate response on its own.

Why is “consent training” not enough to combat the toxicity of what we are seeing in relations between the sexes? Why have so many young women been hurt, and why are so many young men insensitive to the seriousness of sexual assault? The answer to these questions will require some preparedness to challenge a number of deeply held and culturally popular assumptions about the nature of sex itself. …”

– At ABC Religion and Ethics, Dr. Emma Wood provides a very helpful (secular) engagement with the ‘consent’ approach to sexual assault. Worth reading.

Also see:

Do we have a boy problem? – Marshall Ballantine-Jones writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Not Gathering with the Church Hurts You Spiritually

“Some will think this is insensitive, some will think it’s overdue, but I want to make sure it’s said: not physically gathering with the church hurts you spiritually.

So, pandemic-weary Christian, work to gather again with your church, even if your church continues to offer a virtual option.

Likewise, pandemic-weary pastor, gently encourage your pandemic-weary congregation to gather as soon as they can. …”

– Timely words from Jonathan Leeman at 9Marks.

What will you do when the Culture demands that you Pivot?

In his The Briefing for 2nd March 2021, Albert Mohler again warned Christians to be ready for the inevitable challenge to forsake Christ to appease the culture.

He has now expanded his comments into a must read essay:

Pivoting to Surrender: A Warning for All Christians – 4th March 2021.

“Every Christian and every Christian ministry will come to a reckoning – we must all decide here and now where we stand.

Will we pivot or will we hold fast to faithfulness and the hope of the gospel?”

Collision of laws: the impact of Commonwealth law on the Victorian CSP law

“The Victorian  Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020 (Vic) (which I will call the “CSP” law for short) passed the Upper House on 4 Feb, 2021. As I write it seems not to have yet received the Royal Assent and become an ‘Act’ but that will no doubt happen soon. The government has signalled that the legislation will not come into operation for another 12 months (see the final sentence in this article.)

My previous posts (see here for the most recent) have expressed grave concerns about the effect of the law on religious freedom and specifically on the freedom of parents and others to encourage children to live in accordance with Biblical standards of sexual behaviour. It is astonishing that the Bill was rushed through Parliament in the face of concerns also being expressed by the Law Institute of Victoria, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP). (See this excellent post from Murray Campbell noting these issues.)

There are, it seems, very few legal avenues available to challenge the many problems created by this law. But in this post I want to suggest one which may be available…”

– Associate Professor in Law Neil Foster writes at Law and Religion Australia.

Abortion – The Central Sacrament of the Political Left

“This past Friday, January 22, 2021 marked the forty-eighth anniversary of one of the darkest days in the history of the United States. Forty-eight years ago, the Supreme Court handed down the decision known as Roe v. Wade, and abortion on demand was effectively legalized throughout the nation.

Since that time, it is estimated that more than 62,000,000 unborn babies have died from abortions. When Roe turns fifty in 2023, those numbers will be even higher. It is hard to think of numbers on this scale, especially when we are talking about the loss of human life …

the last forty-eight years have also revealed that abortion has become the central sacrament of the political left in the United States. This is evident in a tweet issued by President Joseph Biden on the forty-eighth anniversary of Roe. He stated: ‘As we mark the forty-eighth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, now is the time to rededicate ourselves to the work ahead…’ ”

– Albert Mohler comments. Read it all.

‘In some instances … feticide is undertaken’

“I wrote in November about the Liberal Bill before the parliament here in Adelaide which seeks to make lawful the killing of a foetus right up to the time, and immediately after, his or her birth. The upper house has already passed it. The lower house will vote on the February 3.

Since I first wrote of the bill, an anonymous someone in the Attorney-General’s Department or Health Department has distributed to MPs a document explaining how the Bill the department has drafted will operate.

This is question and answer #5 in that government publication:

Q: What happens in later term abortions?…”

– Retired Federal Circuit Court Judge Stuart Lindsay writes in Quadrant Online about a vile abortion bill. Important, though distressing, reading.

Also read the earlier article with its challenge to the churches.

(Photo: Stand for Life rally, Sydney, September 2019.)

Related:

‘Catholic’ Biden marks Roe v. Wade anniversary with pledge to make abortion available for ‘everyone’ – LifeSiteNews.

Child Safety and Religious Freedom

“The NSW Government is currently inviting comment on draft legislation entitled the Children’s Guardian Amendment (Child Safe Scheme) Bill 2020.

The legislation has been drawn up in response to the work of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and as well as governing “secular” agencies caring for children, it will mandate a new scheme for child protection covering “religious bodies” (see cl 8AA definition of “child safe organisation”, para (c)).

The Bill is generally a good idea, but I want to suggest one amendment which will be needed for it to properly protect religious freedom. …”

– Neil Foster writes at Law and Religion Australia.

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