Why attend CMS Summer School this year? A chat with Dr Andrew Shead on the Psalms
Posted on January 6, 2022
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“It speaks volumes that the most popular conference for Sydney Anglican clergy to network with each other (not forgetting the many others who also attend!) is a missionary conference. The good news of forgiveness in Jesus Christ is for the whole world, and right now our world needs to hear of Jesus just as much as ever.
So why sign up for CMS Summer School’s livestream talks this year? Aside from the fact that it’s easy, and the kids’ and youth program is this year entirely free, there is a great treasure in store as we are taken through the Psalms with Moore College’s Head of Old Testament Dr Andrew Shead. …”
– The Australian Church Record speaks with Dr Andrew Shead.
CMS Summer School runs from 8 – 14 January 2022.
Anglican Revisionists Keep Pushing their Agenda
Posted on January 5, 2022
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“It’s 2022 so about time for an Anglican update. What’s new in the Anglican Church in Australia?
Well, not much. The situation can be characterised as revisionists now effectively ignoring the moratorium we were going to have before General Synod.
Action has been happening in 2 places in particular …”
– David Ould shares the latest moves in Wangaratta and Perth.
Image: The Crest of the Anglican Church of Australia and those of its members dioceses.
Related:
Sydney Diocese Response to actions in the Diocese of Wangaratta – December 10 2020.
Growing My Faith in the Face of Death
Posted on January 5, 2022
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“I have spent a good part of my life talking with people about the role of faith in the face of imminent death. Since I became an ordained Presbyterian minister in 1975, I have sat at countless bedsides, and occasionally even watched someone take their final breath.
I recently wrote a small book, On Death, relating a lot of what I say to people in such times. But when, a little more than a month after that book was published, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, I was still caught unprepared. …”
– Tim Keller, who in December shared that his cancer has progressed to ‘stage IV’, recently relinked to this article which he wrote for The Atlantic in March 2021.
And please do uphold Tim and his family in prayer.
See also:
Pastoring the city – Tim Keller on coming to Christ and learning to love the city – Part 1 of a December 2021 Q&A with Tim Keller by World Magazine.
“To make a long story very short, reading C.S. Lewis on pride helped me finally understand the depth of my sin as something that was not simply a matter of wrong behavior, but something profoundly wrong with my heart, identity, and outlook—and most of all, it was alienation from God. Underneath all the religiosity, I saw I was actually hostile to God. For the first time, I recognized the need for salvation by sheer grace. …”
Handling a hostile culture – Assessing how the Church is responding to shifting cultural pressures – Part 2 of December 2021 Q&A with Tim Keller by World Magazine.
“Every Sunday I preached, every meeting I taught, I took unpopular stands that went against the grain of center-city dwellers. I faced weekly—sometimes daily—opposition and hostility.
Redeemer Presbyterian Church is a conservative, evangelical church in secular, liberal Manhattan. Every single week I was telling people things that most considered absolutely outrageous, if not dangerous—Jesus is the only way to salvation; without believing in Him you are lost and going to hell; the Bible is true in every word and you must submit to it whether it fits your opinions or not; sex is only for a man and a woman in marriage; you should be radically generous with your money, and, if you are prosperous, you should adopt a modest lifestyle. And so on! …”
From the archives: Broughton Knox on Propositional Revelation, the Only Revelation
Posted on January 5, 2022
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“For some time now it has been fashionable to deny what is called ‘propositional revelation’. The term has been coined by those who are opposed to the concept, and by it they appear to mean that revelation is not given to us by God in the form of truths couched in words, or propositions, but that all the revelation that God has given has come to us primarily as acts and events. …”
– It’s never a bad time to be reminded that, in Scripture, God speaks.
Read Dr Broughton Knox’s article in our Resources section.
Rico Tice preaches at the St. Helen’s Insurance carol service
Posted on January 4, 2022
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Yes, Christmas is over, but it is always wonderful to hear Christ preached.
Rico Tice spoke from Matthew 2:1-12 at the St. Helen’s Bishopsgate Insurance Carol Service in December 2021.
Be encouraged to likewise share the news of Christ.
Clarifying “transgender hate speech”
Posted on January 3, 2022
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“An important appeal decision in November 2021, REP v CLINCH (Appeal)[2021] ACAT 106 (3 November 2021), provides significant clarification on what amounts to “transgender hate speech”, and what does not, under the law of Australian Capital Territory – and provides a helpful and persuasive set of reasons which may be influential in other jurisdictions.
Is it unlawful to say that ‘a trans woman is a man’? Not according to the Appeal Tribunal in the Rep decision …”
– At Law and Religion Australia, Neil Foster looks at a clarifying decision.
Roman Catholicism as a “Temptation” for Evangelical Theology
Posted on January 3, 2022
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“The Presidential Address at the Evangelical Theological Society is a helpful barometer to measure where the wind blows in North American evangelical theology. This year (on November 16), President Al Mohler dedicated his address at the 73rd annual convention in Fort Worth, Texas, to the four temptations for contemporary evangelical theology.
In Mohler’s view, present-day evangelical theology faces these temptations: Fundamentalism, Atheism, Roman Catholicism, and Liberalism.
These words are not to be taken lightly; the trajectory of evangelical theology has not always been peaceful. What is interesting is to understand the main dangers surrounding it.
Let me briefly comment on three temptations and then focus on Roman Catholicism…”
– At Vatican Files, Leonardo De Chirico is thankful for Albert Mohler’s clarity.
(Link via Tim Challies.)
Related:
Article XIX of The Thirty Nine Articles.
‘Same-sex couple have marriage blessed in Albury Anglican church after two-year battle’
Posted on January 3, 2022
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“It’s just before nine o’clock on Sunday morning and the bells are ringing out loudly at St Matthew’s church in Albury.
It’s already 25 degrees Celsius and the sun is beating hot and bright onto a small knot of people milling around outside. Among them are two men with matching cream linen jackets and nervous smiles. …
The two men have driven 10 hours from their hometown in the north of New South Wales after their own parish would not recognise their relationship. …
Albury priest Peter MacLeod-Miller, a long-time advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, tells Sunday’s congregation that ‘we are celebrating a better, kinder world, and also a real change’.
He reads a letter from Bishop Clarence Bester, head of the Wangaratta diocese of which St Matthew’s is a part and which adopted a resolution to offer blessings for same-sex marriages in August 2019.”
– Report from the ABC. Base map: Anglican Church of Australia.
Earlier:
Sydney Diocese Response to actions in the Diocese of Wangaratta – December 10 2020.
“It would be naïve to think that mutually contradictory views on same-sex marriage can co-exist within our national Church. Pronouncing God’s blessing on a same-sex marriage is contrary to the teaching of Christ. It is therefore untenable to have some members of the Church purporting to declare God’s blessing in such circumstances. To pursue this course will not bring healing but will only lead to a collapse in the fellowship that binds us together.”
More good news from the Diocese of Bathurst
Posted on January 2, 2022
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Good news for Parkes and Peak Hill – from the Diocese of Bathurst Facebook page:
“With great thankfulness to God, we share the news that Ben Mackay, following his ordination on 12th February, will be appointed Deacon-in-Charge of the parish of Parkes and Peak Hill. We are also thankful that the Rev’d Natalie Quince will continue to serve in the parish as Assistant Priest. (Ben pictured here with is wife Bron, and three children, Ella, James and Elijah.)”
– Please continue to pray that the Lord will raise up men and women to share the good news of Jesus in the cities and towns of the Diocese of Bathurst, and pray for Bishop Mark Calder in this key work.
Sunday Morning Encouragement
Posted on January 2, 2022
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With thanks to Rob Smith and St. Andrew’s Cathedral Sydney.
Amazing Grace — a hymn for the New Year
Posted on December 31, 2021
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John Newton wrote his most famous hymn, Amazing Grace, 249 years ago.
Learn more at The John Newton Project.
“The words of Amazing Grace were etched on Newton’s heart daily.
But we assume that he first wrote this hymn for his New Year’s Morning sermon of 1 January 1773, for it fits his sermon notes so closely and the text he chose to write above it in the Olney Hymns, 1 Chronicles 17:16,17, is identical to the sermon’s text.”
You can also hear some of the earliest tunes used to sing the hymn.
Greg Sheridan on the 160 pages that may change your life
Posted on December 31, 2021
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At The Wee Flea, David Robertson has posted the full text (with permission) of Greg Sheridan’s a wonderful Christmas article in The Australian entitled 160 pages that may Change Your Life (subscribers’ link).
New Year’s Resolution: focus on the now
Posted on December 31, 2021
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“I was recently reflecting on the initial results released after the 2021 Australian Community Survey regarding what Christians think and know about Jesus and church. Already these things should cause us to come to God in prayer.
On the one hand, there are so many signs that the spiritual health of Australian mainstream society is poor.
On the other hand, one can’t help but notice the opportunities to share about Jesus, and the benefits of being part of a Christian community who love and care for each other.
This then also got me thinking about the fascination that we have (me included) with New Year’s resolutions. …”
– Ben George writes at The Australian Church Record.
The impact and ministry of the Archbishops wives
Posted on December 29, 2021
Filed under People, Sydney Diocese Comments Off on The impact and ministry of the Archbishops wives
“The Archbishop’s wife is a key person in our Diocese, providing her own leadership and gifts in the service of the Lord Jesus, church members, her family and her husband.
In Sydney we have been blessed by a succession of godly and able women, whose contribution has been sometimes underappreciated but always invaluable.”
– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Simon Manchester asks Pam Goodhew, Christine Jensen, Di Davies and Cailey Raffel about their roles and experiences in working alongside their Archbishop husbands.
Preserving preaching Christ – with Michael Stead
Posted on December 28, 2021
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From The Pastor’s Heart:
“The whole concept of a tolerant society is being spun around.
Sydney Anglican Bishop Michael Stead says there are moves afoot to block Christians from being able to say that ‘Christ is the only way to heaven.’
It’s also being claimed by Equality Australia that to say ‘marriage is between a man and woman’ is an offensive statement.
Bishop Stead says he wants to protect moderately expressed statements of religious belief. …”
– This is a very big issue. Watch or listen here.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…