Caring or Killing

Phillip Jensen“‘Is the baby normal?’ is one of the first questions parents ask the doctor and that’s the last time the parents are happy that their child is only normal!

We don’t want our children to be abnormal or have any abnormalities but we do want them to be above average. We don’t want them to be the high achievers who crash and burn in the blaze of celebrity magazine publicity, but nobody wishes their child to be below average. Everybody’s child is above average in their parents’ imagination, and even higher in their grandparents’ estimation.

However, it is very important that our pursuit of excellence and perfection should never be applied to our humanity…”

– Phillip Jensen looks at some implications of being human.

Keeping up with General Synod

Australian dioceses (image: Anglican Church of Australia)As General Synod meets in Adelaide, here are a few ways you can keep up, if you so desire –

Biblical Theology and the Sexuality Crisis

Albert Mohler“As the church responds [the current moral and sexual revolution], we must remember that current debates on sexuality present to the church a crisis that is irreducibly and inescapably theological.

This crisis is tantamount to the type of theological crisis that Gnosticism presented to the early church or that Pelagianism presented to the church in the time of Augustine. In other words, the crisis of sexuality challenges the church’s understanding of the gospel, sin, salvation, and sanctification.

Advocates of the new sexuality demand a complete rewriting of Scripture’s metanarrative, a complete reordering of theology, and a fundamental change to how we think about the church’s ministry.”

– Albert Mohler writes at the 9Marks blog.

Chaplains in Schools Song by Colin Buchanan

SoundcloudYesterday’s “Thank God it’s Friday” with Richard Glover on ABC 702 Sydney had Colin Buchanan as one of the studio guests.

The outcry over a topic for the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House and the High Court Challenge to School Chaplains came together in Colin’s song.

Identity

Phillip Jensen“Hello, my name is Bill, and I’m an alcoholic.”

– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen asks us to consider our identity.

Andrew Symes on the ACNA Assembly

The Rev Andrew Symes“The Anglican Church in North America exists as a kairos response to a crisis in a mainline denomination.

The leadership of the official Anglican denomination in the USA and Canada became more and more liberal. Bishops regularly pronounced that Jesus is one of many possible Saviours , that the Bible contains some of the word of God, that Christian mission is to help fulfil the Millenium Development Goals of the United Nations. It became commonplace to have multifaith services where occult pagan practices would be celebrated in Cathedrals as part of Holy Communion Services, as ‘the Spirit’ can apparently be discerned in all faiths and none…”

– Anglican Mainstream’s Andrew Symes reflects on the just-concluded Assembly of the Anglican Church in North America.

God made me this way

Phillip Jensen“The nature argument is expressed: ‘I was born this way.’ ‘This is how God made me.’ ‘I can’t help it; it’s not my fault; it’s in my DNA.’ …

The nurture argument is expressed: ‘I am free to do whatever I like, however I like to do it.’ ‘You mustn’t restrict me from, or require me to do, anything because of my race, sex, or biology.’…”

– Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column for the Cathedral newsletter.

The Pen is mightier

mightier“A student entering a lecture room today would consider taking notes on a laptop entirely natural. Why would anyone in their right mind question that activity?…”

– a thought-provoking piece from George Whitefield College.

Committed to actually reading the Bible?

NCLS 2011 Bible Reading statsIn an article at SydneyAnglicans.net, Archbishop Glenn Davies observes,

“It is a strange phenomenon that we Sydney Anglicans, who are so devoted to our commitment to the teaching of the Bible, do not appear to be as devoted to our personal reading of the Bible…”

– Read his article, and then check out these resources –

Permanence before experience — the wisdom of marriage

Albert Mohler“Rightly understood, marriage is all about permanence. In a world of transitory experiences, events, and commitments, marriage is intransigent. It simply is what it is – a permanent commitment made by a man and a woman who commit themselves to live faithfully unto one another until the parting of death. …”

– Albert Mohler writes at Southern Seminary’s blog on the wisdom of marriage.

Asylum seekers

David Cook“I don’t want to be too controversial in this column but I think the time has come to write something about asylum seekers…”

– Presbyterian Moderator-General David Cook challenges not only the government but also the churches and individual Christians in his latest (29 May 2014) Pastoral Letter.

(Image: St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.)

Religious Violence and the Kidnapped Girls

Phillip Jensen“It is an unmitigated horror. There is no excuse and no way of justifying the dreadful kidnapping of the girls in Nigeria. The terror, pain, suffering of those poor young women is beyond comprehension. We must continue to pray for them, support whatever actions are available to rescue them and bring the perpetrators of such a barbaric act to justice. …”

– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column.

Reading the Bible — Regularly, carefully, prayerfully

David CookThe latest two posts by David Cook, Moderator General of the Presbyterian Church, deal with sin, and reading the Bible (respectively). Here’s a quote from “Reading the Bible – Regularly, carefully, prayerfully”.

“Do you wonder how many people in church read the Bible regularly? The latest statistics I could find from the Bible Society are 19% read on a daily basis, 14% several times a week, 10.5% several times a moth. That means that more than half are not reading the Bible at all. We need to do something about this.”

The church David attends is seeking to do something.

Both posts are under Moderator General’s Comments (you may need to scroll down to 20 May 2014 to find them).

Lord Carey calls for the right to convert from Islam

Bp George Carey“Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has called on leading British Muslims to support the right to convert from Islam to another religion after a court in Sudan sentenced a woman to death for apostasy…”

– Story from The Independent.

The Budget: Being Economical with the Truth

Phillip Jensen“Did Tony Abbott lie? Did Julia Gillard lie? Do all politicians lie? Do they have to lie in order to run the country? Were John Howard’s non-core promises, lies? Was Bob Hawke’s “no Australian child will be living in poverty”, a lie?

Were these national leaders untruthful or unfaithful? What is the connection between truth and faith or between faith and faithful? …”

– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column for the Cathedral.

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