The power of God
“The statistics concerning the Church of England continue to make grim reading. The decline in attendance has not abated, the number of clergy continues to fall and there are signs that even if there were more clergy many dioceses cannot afford to pay their stipends. The Church is also losing influence in the national life …
There is much ground for pessimism and it may be that we are witnessing the judgement of God on our Church and nation. Our first response to such things must always be to repent and to cry out to God for mercy. But we are called to do more, and part of what we must do is reform the Church. …”
– David Phillips, General Secretary of Church Society, writes the editorial in the current issue of Cross†Way. (PDF file.)
Cranmer & Hooker on the saving power of the word
“The first two of Ashley Null’s lecture series on repentance in classical Anglicanism have been superb. So far he has spent time unfolding the place and nature of repentance in Thomas Cranmer’s thinking and then in the thinking of Richard Hooker. …”
– ACL President Mark Thompson blogs about Ashley Null’s lectures.
Whither Evangelicalism?
“… I’d be inclined to say that the singular characteristic that stands out most among contemporary evangelicals is their distaste for drawing any clear lines between truth and error. They don’t like to handle doctrine in a polemical fashion. They especially don’t want to be thought “negative” when it comes to declaring their doctrinal convictions. …
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones saw this trend coming and warned against it. In 1971, during a visit to Australia, he gave a series of lectures that were compiled and published as a booklet, ‘What Is an Evangelical?’ If you haven’t read it, you should. …”
– Phil Johnson writes of evangelicalism in North America. Is Australia far behind?
Tong: Defending my take on Schori
My last blog remarked on Presiding Bishop Schori’s breathtaking rejection of the gospel of salvation, “the great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God”.
The blog drew some debate about my use of Scripture but I take comfort from the report of Bishop David Bena’s sermon at an ordination where he attacked Schori by saying…
– Read Robert Tong’s post at SydneyAnglicans.net.
The Wrighteousness of God
“Bishop Wright’s views on Paul, Israel and justification have been known for many years, and have often been debated in scholarly circles.
As this latest book makes clear, those views have not been widely accepted—indeed, they have been openly opposed by almost everyone engaged in the field, from the most conservative Evangelicals to the most ardent liberals. …”
– In his editorial to the June 2009 issue of Churchman, Gerald Bray gives a helpful summary of Bishop Tom Wright’s teaching, and the response of John Piper and others. It’s available from Church Society as a PDF download and is worth reading.
A House Divided?
“Rowan Williams’ proposal for a ‘two-track’ Anglican Communion is a theological disaster. Beyond this, it is almost certainly unworkable.
The reason for this is simple — both sides in this controversy see the question of homosexuality as both unavoidable and fundamental. Both sides see the question as far too important to remain unsettled. Neither side can accept the permanent disagreement of the other. …”
– Albert Mohler writes at his blog.
See also, “Are we about to go to war?” by Peter Ould and some comments by John Richardson. (Photo: ACNS.)
NT Wright on GC09 and the Archbishop of Canterbury: Unpacked or Repackaged?
“It has been said of the great twentieth century theologian Karl Barth that his was ‘a maverick ego that never lost the sense of continuity with itself’.
Whether the Bishop of Durham, one of Anglicanism’s most heavyweight theologians, has a maverick ego could be an interesting debate, but a strong ego is undoubtedly an asset to any theologian. In his ‘unpacking’ of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s reflections on TEC’s recent General Convention, he clearly demonstrates continuity with himself, but there is a worrying discontinuity in the image we are given of Rowan Williams. …”
– Charles Raven at SPREAD comments on Bishop Tom Wright’s “Rowan’s Reflections: Unpacking the Archbishop’s Statement” at Fulcrum.
Christian Missions in the Third Millennium
“The impulse of the missionary conviction is drawn from the assurance that God saves sinners, and that He is glorifying Himself by creating a new people through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we have the glad opportunity to glorify God by declaring the Gospel to all the peoples of the earth. …” (emphasis added.)
– Albert Mohler’s comments are a world away from this earlier story.
Canterbury, you’ve missed the point!
“Archbishop Rowan Williams’ Reflections on the 2009 TEC General Convention has so incensed me that I am compelled to respond with a second post for today. …
The row is about the authority of Scripture which declares the practice of homosexuality to be a sin.”
– Bishop Glenn Davies writes at SydneyAnglicans.net. (Photo: Russell Powell.)
Moratoria dashed
“Sad to say, just one year after the affirmations of Anglican Church unity made at the Lambeth Conference of 2008, the USA Anglicans have decided that one year was enough of a wait.
Their recent decision to affirm same sex relationships will deepen the split in the world-wide communion. All the Lambeth conversation groups (‘indabering’) bought only one year’s reprieve…”
– Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower laments the dashed hopes of Lambeth.
Schori declaration a sad milestone
‘That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.’ Neil Armstrong’s words come readily to mind for those who watched (on television) the first ‘man on the moon’. That was 40 years ago. …
– Robert Tong writes at SydneyAnglicans.net
The spirit of Jezebel
Bishop David Anderson, President of the American Anglican Council, reflects on the TEC General Convention –
Dearly beloved in Christ,
As I have been reading my way through 1st and 2nd Kings, I have been almost bogged down in the depressing history of the Northern Kingdom of Israel – how they went further and further away from the Lord God, and more and more into the worship of the pagan deities, even to the sacrificing of their own children. Prominent in this journey was Ahab, the king, and Jezebel, the queen. Read more
The Bishop discovers heresy?
“The bishop is simply not concerned with seeing persons come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. She has made this clear over and over again and her convictions were well-known when she was elected as the denomination’s Presiding Bishop. …”
– Albert Mohler on last week’s pronouncement by Katherine Jefferts Schori. (Photo courtesy ACNS/Rosenthal.)
After B033, can English Evangelicals unite?
“It is a sad fact that throughout a period when Traditionalist Anglicans should have been united, they have been bitterly at loggerheads, sometimes over policies, but often, one suspects, over personalities. …”
– John Richardson writes about the English reaction to the TEC vote this week – at the Ugley Vicar.
The Americans know this will end in schism
“In the slow-moving train crash of international Anglicanism, a decision taken in California has finally brought a large coach off the rails altogether. The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States has voted decisively to allow in principle the appointment, to all orders of ministry, of persons in active same-sex relationships. This marks a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion. …”
– Bishop Tom Wright in The Times.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…