The Best Christmas Ever

“Christmas 2012 turned out to be the best Christmas ever! Who would have thought that we would have such a large congregation on Christmas night itself! Nearly all our initiatives worked better than anybody expected. In terms of congregational members’ involvement, evangelistic outreach, follow up contact cards, and conducting different gatherings, a whole new way of programming Christmas has been created for 2013.

To call it “the best Christmas ever” is a great claim that is of course slightly ridiculous…”

– Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, looks back at Christmas 2012 at the Cathedral.

Rescuing the Baby from the Bilgewater

Peter Bolt continues his response to recent publications on women preaching to mixed congregations of men and women.

“How do you talk about a ‘prohibition’ in God’s good economy in which he always commands what is good for us? Grammatically, a prohibition is simply saying ‘don’t do it!’, but what is the force of this ‘No!’ when it comes from our loving Creator who has graciously redeemed us in Christ in order for the universe to ring out with his ‘Yes!’?…”

– There’s plenty of food for thought in this post at Theological Theology.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Feeling Blue?

Mark Thompson writes: “Following the interest in yesterday’s posting on the preaching question, and in preparation for more detailed work to be done in the future, here is a initial contribution from guest blogger, Peter Bolt.”

“With three short e-books downloadable from Christmas Day, Zondervan has released a new series, ‘Fresh Perspectives on Women in Ministry’. Well, even the authors admit there is nothing really fresh here, but ‘Regifted Perspectives …’.

Since these three booklets have been released in the public sphere, they deserve the more considered critique which will follow in kind, that is, in the same public sphere in which any proper discussion of ideas must take place. However, since discussion has already begun in the subterranean depths of the online realms, and since two of the three e-authors who have come up for air in this series, John Dickson and Michael Bird, are my fellow Aussies with whom I share no little history, some interim and quick responses may be appropriate in these dark realms as well!  My thanks go to Mark for allowing me several pieces of his blog-time across the next little while.

Each of these pamphlets seek to entangle their readers in what has been identified as a ‘Shift Story’. … This personal journey tells of a shift from ‘Point A’ to ‘Point B’: ‘I used to believe that, but now I believe this’. …”

– read it all at Theological Theology.
(Dr. Peter Bolt is Head of the New Testament Department at Moore College.)

Are the Atheists right about Christmas?

“This Christmas the American Atheists have posted a large billboard in Times Square New York. It has two pictures: one of Santa Claus and the other of Jesus on the cross. The captions under the pictures are “Keep the Merry” and “Dump the Myth”. Apart from having the captions under the wrong pictures, the sentiment is one I agree with. …”

– Read the latest from the Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen. A great article to share this Christmas.

In Praise of Singing

“Music is emotional: be it happiness or sorrow it engages us emotionally (e.g. Psalm 137, James 5:13). Singing gives voice to our emotions. Congregational singing unites us in expressing our common belief by articulating how Christians feel.

A fortnight ago, at the thanksgiving for the life of John Chapman, the force and beauty of congregational singing was palpable. Maybe it was because I was standing in the middle of the congregation, between the organ and the brass, that I was overwhelmed by the sheer power of the music, but others have commented to me about the effects of the hymns. …”

– Phillip Jensen, Dean of St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, writes.

The Kirk without the People

“In PR terms it has been a disaster for the Church of Scotland and one entirely of their own making.”

– Peter Robertson at St. Peter’s Free Church in Dundee writes a detailed response, from his outside perspective, to the Church of Scotland’s public statement on the departure of the congregation of St. George’s Tron.

Related: A new home for our church family

“The Tron church family has moved. Sunday morning 9 December 2012 was our last meeting in the St George’s building in Buchanan Street and we are now preparing to formally hand over the building as soon as possible to the Presbytery of Glasgow as requested. We have begun a new stage in our life as a church family, meeting as normal but in our new location: 25 Bath Street. It’s just a block away from the old building and we’ll have all our services there from now.”

(To see something of the building, check this video.
And please pray for the members of The Tron.)

Death and Life and your Tongue

“Proverbs warns us of the power of the tongue, which is to say, the power of our words…”

– Tim Challies has some good advice for all of us.

How the Incarnation humbles me

Tim Challies on the Incarnation –

“This is not the Mary of Roman Catholicism who was without sin and, in that way, the most suitable mother in all of human history. No, she is a sinful girl who stands in desperate need of the very Savior she is carrying. …

Of all I love about God—and there is a lot I could list!—this is very near the top, that he chooses such unlikely people to benefit from his gifts and his grace.” – Read it all here.

Advent, tyranny and freedom

“‘Free Thine own from Satan’s tyranny.’ These words come from the much-loved Advent carol, ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’. We sing it most years, and it has always moved me. The Lord Jesus comes to set me free.

Tyranny, though. Doesn’t that sound a little odd?…”

– Mike Ovey writes at the Oak Hill blog.

Indomitable Sydney? The challenge of Sydney Anglicanism

Michael Jensen from Moore College writes for the ABC’s Religion & Ethics –

“Evangelical Anglicans of the sort found in Sydney have good ground for claiming the Anglican heritage as their own and ought not to accept the view that they are in some way the illegitimate children of the Anglican family.”

– Read it all here.

Now keep calm and carry on

“The reaction of the British media to the result in the ‘women bishops vote’ (I hesitate to call it ‘bishopsgate’ for fear of offending William Taylor) is as predictable as the vote itself was surprising. The essence of most of the commentary I have read is: the church has voted for oppression of women and has made itself irrelevant…”

– Insightful comment from Carl Trueman at Reformation21.

The women bishops vote in the Church of England

Dr Mark Thompson writes on last night’s defeat of the Consecration and Ordination of Women Measure in the Church of England’s General Synod:

“If it had been passed, the dissenters would be excluded even further from the life of the Church of England over the next ten years and before long, as in many parts of The Episcopal Church, acceptance of women in the episcopate would be the litmus test for ordination.”

Full text below. Read more

American Anglican Council on the Archbishop of Canterbury announcement

Bishop David Anderson of the American Anglican Council writes:

“Archbishop Welby, in his new appointment, will have to work with the more orthodox Global South provinces, especially the GAFCON Primates who represent a huge majority of the churchgoing Anglican world. The new Archbishop will need to find a way to disengage the Anglican Communion Office and the office and work of the Archbishop from the incestuous ties with the American Episcopal Church’s money, influence and power.”

Read more

War Histories or History Wars?

From this week’s column by the Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen:

“In this last week we not only have the end of WWI to remember, but also Guy Fawkes’ failed bomb plot and Martin Luther’s courageous act that started the Reformation. The poppies may remind us of Armistice but without the bonfires and fireworks, and without any memorial to Luther – our society celebrated the absurd fun of Halloween instead.

The memory of two great acts that established the nature of our society is being lost to the tawdry commercialisation of superstition. It is why revision lessons are so important for keeping our memory fresh. …”

– Read it here.

Reactions to the US Presidential election

“Christians must now pray for our President. As the Apostle Paul instructs us …

Christians must never see political action as an end, but only as a means. We can never seek salvation through the voting booth, and we must never look for a political messiah. Nevertheless, Christians do bear a political responsibility, established in love of God and love of neighbor. We are rightly concerned about this world, but only to a limited extent. Our main concern is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

– Al Mohler.

“If we suffer political defeat like those who have no hope but politics, we do not even commend ourselves, let alone the God who hung the moon and stars. …”

– Collin Hansen (written before election day).

 

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