An unwanted gift

Posted on March 20, 2022 
Filed under People, Sydney Diocese, Theology Comments Off on An unwanted gift

“Have you ever received a gift that you did not want? A number of years ago I asked my father to buy me a cast-iron griddle pan, but he decided to give it to my wife Pearl instead. I was delighted. She was less than impressed. Not every gift is something we want.

I received a gift I didn’t want recently. Despite abundant caution and double vaccination I received a bad case of COVID-19. And it really was bad. I cannot remember feeling so ill in my life. Even a month later I’m still in the process of recovery. Yet, despite all that, and amid recognition of all the pain and loss it has caused so many, I still consider it a gift. …”

– Bishop of Western Sydney Gary Koo shares what he has learned through COVID – at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Image: Bishop Gary Koo / Anglican Media Sydney.

National Bishops meeting in Adelaide

Posted on March 18, 2022 
Filed under Australian dioceses Comments Off on National Bishops meeting in Adelaide

The Bishops of the Anglican Church of Australia are meeting in Adelaide Friday 18 – Tuesday 22 March. Due to COVID the last two years, this is their first in-person meeting since 2019.

Please uphold in prayer all who are meeting.

Pray for good and godly discussion as relationships in some quarters have been strained by recent actions relating to the blessing of same sex marriages.

Pray for wisdom for all and that the Lord will be honoured in what is said and done.

(Diocesan crests via the Anglican Church of Australia website.)

How ‘voluntary assisted dying’ would change our culture and values

Posted on March 17, 2022 
Filed under Culture wars, Sydney Diocese Comments Off on How ‘voluntary assisted dying’ would change our culture and values

“The introduction, last year, of Independent MP Alex Greenwich’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill (2021) (the ‘Bill’) is a momentous shift in medical practice and community expectation. It marks the final abandonment of one of the cornerstones of Western civilisation: the sanctity of life. The idea that all human life is inherently precious was not generally affirmed in the world into which Jesus Christ was born. It spread with the growth of early Christianity and finds expression today in the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Advocates of Voluntary Assisted Dying (a deeply misleading cluster of words) have emphasised not the sanctity of life, but quality of life as subjectively experienced, and the primacy of autonomous choice.  Recently, a man said to me, ‘Archbishop, if you don’t want to choose assisted suicide you don’t have to, but don’t get in the way of those of us who want the right to choose’. I understand the depth of feeling and the logic.

But this way of arguing – ‘if you don’t choose it, it won’t affect you’ – is naïve.…”

– Archbishop Kanishka Raffel writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

See also:

The Archbishop joined The Hon Damien Tudehope MLC (Leader of the Govt in the Legislative Council Professor), Professor Margaret Sommerville AM FRSC (Bioethicist) and Dr Frank Brennan MBBS, DCH, Dip Obs, FRACP, FAChPM, LLB (Lawyer and Palliative Care Specialist) in a special event at St. John’s Parramatta last night.

Watch the full video – and share with friends.

Likewise, please see and share: ePetition: “Please unanimously reject the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021”.

Praying for GAFCON 4

Posted on March 16, 2022 
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Today’s prayer item from GAFCON –

“Preparations are beginning for Gafcon 4 (21-28 May 2023).

Later this month, Daniel Willis (Gafcon Operations Manager) and Paul Mirrington (Conference Administrator) plan to visit Kigali.

Pray for safe and successful travel and blessings on their meetings and arrangements.”

A Wake-Up …

Posted on March 16, 2022 
Filed under Resources, Theology Comments Off on A Wake-Up …

“With the continued missile onslaught on the cities of Ukraine we feel the pain and the suffering and the loss of life. ‘Why this evil and suffering in this 21st century?’

In his 1940s book, The Problem of Pain, CS Lewis considers the question of pain and suffering from the perspective of the meaning and purpose of life. …”

– At the Anglican Connection, John Mason has a reminder of the signs of the times.

InterCultural MTS broadens the horizon

Posted on March 14, 2022 
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“When the Ministry Training Strategy began in the early 1980s, the vision was always to multiply gospel workers through ministry apprenticeships ‘to win the world for Christ’.

Now there is a new method for achieving this aim, through a partnership between MTS and European Christian Mission. …”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net. Judy Adamson reports on a new angle for MTS.

Shepherds of Assurance

Posted on March 14, 2022 
Filed under Encouragement, Resources Comments Off on Shepherds of Assurance

“How did the Puritan pastors use their doctrine of personal assurance of salvation to assist believers in living the Christian life?

And what lessons can we learn today from their pastoral specialization in the vast field of experiential Christianity connected with the assurance of salvation?…”

– At Desiring God, Joel Beeke looks at the Puritans and outlines how their examples are a great encouragement to pastors in understanding their roles today. (link via Tim Challies.)

How Can Jesus and the Father both be God?

Posted on March 13, 2022 
Filed under Resources, Theology Comments Off on How Can Jesus and the Father both be God?

“Thanks for asking this great and important question. There are a few issues tied up here but let me begin by offering a basic answer and then try to explore it a bit more deeply.

You ask how the Father can be God and yet Jesus can also be God. Of course, this is similar to what John talks about at the start of his gospel. Referring to Jesus as the ‘Word’, he declares that:

In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

How can the Word (the eternal person who became Jesus) be with God and be God. Is this simply a contradiction?

How can this make sense? How can the Word (the eternal person who became Jesus) be with God and be God. Is this simply a contradiction?…”

– In a new feature at The Gospel Coalition Australia (“Ask TGCA”), Andrew Moody seeks to bring some clarity in answering the question “How Can Jesus and the Father both be God?”.

Three Encouragements for Pastors Pursuing Wandering Sheep

Posted on March 12, 2022 
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“One of the unintended consequences of the pandemic has been the disintegrating weekly habit of attending the Sunday gathering. What should a pastor do when faced with wandering sheep, those who have left the safe pastures of the local church and found themselves in dangerous territory away from the herd?

Let me encourage you, pastor, to consider three things as you seek out wandering sheep. …”

– At 9Marks, Nick Gardner has some encouragement in these changing times.

New start at Parkes

Posted on March 11, 2022 
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“The Anglican Parish of Parkes and Peak Hill has welcomed and embraced the Reverend Ben Mackay and his family who moved to Parkes in early January.

Ben’s formal welcome and commissioning will be held at St George’s Parkes tomorrow, 12th March, at 10am. The Bishop of the Diocese of Bathurst, Mark Calder will conduct the service …”

– News from The Parkes Phoenix.

Vladimir Putin, A Friend to Christian Morality and Conservative Culture?: A Christian Response this Question

Posted on March 11, 2022 
Filed under Opinion Comments Off on Vladimir Putin, A Friend to Christian Morality and Conservative Culture?: A Christian Response this Question

In his daily analysis of news for Thursday March 10 2022 Albert Mohler tackles the place of the Christian morality and the Russian Orthodox Church in what’s happening in Russia at the moment.

Suffering servants in Ukraine

Posted on March 10, 2022 
Filed under World news Comments Off on Suffering servants in Ukraine

“If there is one image that symbolises the Russian invasion of Ukraine for believers, it is the one taken by a photographer from The New York Times showing the body of church volunteer Anatoliy Berezhnyi lying beside the mother and children he was trying to help escape the fighting. …”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Russell Powell has an update on the tragic events in Ukraine.

Not as good as we hope to be? — Leadership effectiveness and ministry blindspots

Posted on March 9, 2022 
Filed under Resources Comments Off on Not as good as we hope to be? — Leadership effectiveness and ministry blindspots

“Senior leaders long to be effective leaders, but we may not be as good as we hope to be.

Leadership in a church context has become much much more complex, with increasing demands on the senior pastor to be excellent in leadership, managerial, and administrative on top of preaching, teaching and pastoral care. …”

– This week at The Pastor’s Heart.

Bathurst Anglican e-News — March 2022

Posted on March 8, 2022 
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The Diocese of Bathurst’s e-News for March 2022 is now up on their website.

It’s a “newsletter for the Anglican Church in Central & Western NSW”, but will be of interest to many who are praying for the eternal good of men and women across that diocese.

In this issue Bishop Mark Calder writes –

Encouraging signs of growth

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind towards each other that Christ Jesus had so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the same mind towards each other that Christ Jesus had; a humility of servanthood and of sacrifice, so that with one voice and one mind we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom. 15:5-6)

I’ve been sharing those verses with you since before I began here and I think that under God we are slowly seeing our prayers answered in that regard. …

Read it all on page 2 – and download the whole issue here. (3.7MB PDF file.)

In an e-mail to newsletter recipients Bishop Calder writes:

“Please give thanks with us for the grace of God at work among us and pray that the Lord will raise up more gospel workers for our 16/29 parishes without clergy.”

Praying at the foot of the Cross

Posted on March 8, 2022 
Filed under Anglican Communion, Encouragement Comments Off on Praying at the foot of the Cross

“The pain of the world, the reality of death and the uncertainty of life has been made acute by the long struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic and by the war that has broken out in Ukraine just this past week. That is the context in which Christians across the world are called to be faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ.

So now like never before we need to personally know the transforming love of Christ and the living hope we have in Him. And there is no place to experience these powerful realities than at the foot of the Cross.

As we gather at the foot of the Cross and behold our Lord, there are three dimensions that shape our posture. …”

– The Rt Revd Rennis Ponniah, former Bishop of Singapore, calls Christians to worship at the foot of the Cross. This Lent devotion was published by the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches.

(Image courtesy St. Andrew’s Cathedral Singapore.)

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