What is the Problem?

“Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and symbolic head of the Anglican Communion, has issued his most serious and straightforward diagnosis of the crisis within the Anglican Communion.”

– The American Anglican Council’s Canon Phil Ashey thinks the Archbishop of Canterbury has made a serious misdiagnosis. Related: Tearing the Fabric. (PDF.)

Syria: Archbishop Welby’s speech in the House of Lords

“We have heard already about Lebanon and about Iran, particularly the effect that an intervention would cause on the new Government in Iran as they are humiliated by such an intervention.

However, there is a further point. I talked to a very senior Christian leader in the region yesterday and he said that intervention from abroad will declare open season on the Christian communities. They have already been devastated. There were 2 million Christians in Iraq 12 years ago; there are fewer than 500,000 today.”

– Read it here.

What the Hijabi Witnessed (and what she didn’t)

“I have had the pleasure on a couple of occasions of sitting next to a girl wearing a hijab. Typically, this has occurred in departure lounges of airports or on the platforms of railway stations. Never has it happened in a place of worship at the time of a service. Never, that is, until recently. …”

– Carl Trueman has some excellent points about what the girl next to him saw and heard. (Photo: King’s College.)

How to be Polemical — without being a downright Nasty Person

“The chief advances of the Christian faith are due to those moments when leaders and laypeople saturated with Scripture rose up in defiance of the unbiblical trends of their time and place. We have the Nicene Creed, the Apostles’ Creed, the Chalcedonian Creed, and the Reformation confessions and catechisms because, by God’s grace, men and women had the courage of their convictions and dared to be polemical.”

– Terrific article by Michael Horton in Modern Reformation magazine.

The Best Place for Theological Training

“Last week was Moore College Sunday. For over one hundred years our college has trained ministers of the gospel to serve in Sydney, Australia and overseas. It is a great college in which Christ is honoured by his word being faithfully taught. It lies at the very heart of our evangelical diocese.

There is no alternative to formal, academic, theological training for those who would be paid to teach God’s word…”

– Phillip Jensen writes his weekly column ‘From the Dean’. Good to read and pass on to others.

Bishop Nazir-Ali on the situation in Egypt

“There is considerable anguish and hand-wringing amongst the armchair orientalists and strategists over the situation in Egypt. Those who thought that the “Arab Spring” was a harbinger of secular, Western-style democracy can now see it is nothing of the kind…”

– Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali writes in The (UK) Telegraph.

Why Expository Preaching Matters

“If preaching is central to Christian worship, what kind of preaching are we talking about? The sheer weightlessness of much contemporary preaching is a severe indictment of our superficial Christianity. When the pulpit ministry lacks substance, the church is severed from the word of God, and its health and faithfulness are immediately diminished.”

– Albert Mohler continues to write about the key place of expository preaching. Encouraging and challenging.

Mediocrity Is Not ‘OK’

Colin Adams at Unashamed Workman links to this encouraging article by Ajith Fernando. (Dr. Fernando has been a guest at several CMS Summer Schools in recent years.) –

“I was once at a meeting of preachers, and they were discussing the problem of having inadequate time to prepare their sermons.

One person said that given all the things he had to do, it was impossible for him to give much time for preparation, and therefore he usually went to preach without much preparation. I was shocked by what I heard, but I did not say a word. This happened more than a year ago, and I have suffered much since then. Thoughts have been rolling over and over again in my mind as to what I should have said that day. I have finally decided to put my thoughts on paper …”

– Read it here.

The Antidote to Anaemic Worship

“In far too many churches, the Bible is nearly silent. The public reading of Scripture has been dropped from many services, and the sermon has been sidelined…”

– Even though Albert Mohler writes in an American context, this is a good reminder.

Who am I to Judge? The Pope, the Press, and the Predicament

“The Pope did not signal in any way a revolution in Catholic moral teaching. The judgment on homosexuality within the Catholic tradition is consistent and very clear. At the same time, the Pope was trying to differentiate between homosexuality and persons struggling with homosexual inclinations.

When the Pope spoke of a gay Catholic who ‘seeks the Lord’ he was speaking of a gay person who is seeking to live in faithfulness to Catholic moral teaching. …”

– Albert Mohler looks at what the Pope really said.

In what are we united?

“Organizational unity instead of Gospel unity is death. The failure of Christian ministries, be they church or para-church, commences when they lose their direction and become organizations that demand organizational unity over theological unity in the service of the gospel.

We all can see how churches have lost their way over time, but the para-churches can just as easily lose their way.…”

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

What is an Archbishop?

Phillip Jensen continues his brief series on the coming Archbishop’s election, and asks; “What is an Archbishop?”

“When it comes to electing an Archbishop the natural questions are ‘What does the role involve?’ and therefore ‘What are the characteristics or competencies that we are looking for in a candidate?’ However, the answers to these questions are quite different to most people’s expectations as they are not the most appropriate questions to ask.”

Remembering the St. James’ Massacre

“Man’s evil trumped by God’s good – always!

Today (July 25) marks the 20th anniversary of the 1993 massacre at St James Kenilworth in suburban Cape Town. A commemorative service will be held at St James today to mark the occasion.”

– David Mansfield writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Standing our ground

“In a democracy, what happens when a view, previously supported by the majority becomes a minority view? Do you change your position – to retain ‘credibility’, or ‘influence’, or just simply not to be classed as a ‘nutter’, or stand your ground?…”