‘Red light’ ministry conversations – the who, when and how?
Posted on February 3, 2022
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From The Pastor’s Heart –
“How to have the hard conversation with someone who is enthusiastic about why they shouldn’t go into professional Christian ministry?
How do you make the decision to raise a ‘Red light’ or an ‘Orange light’?”
– Paul Grimmond and Rowan Kemp discuss with Dominic Steele questions of discernment and wisdom.
New year, old virus, eternal home
Posted on February 2, 2022
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“The new year has arrived, but the pandemic is not going away anytime soon. The ABC’s Dr Norman Swan has suggested that new variants are virtually certain and they may be more severe than any of the variants we have experienced so far.
For many, the summer break was disrupted by needing to isolate as a close contact, or by testing positive for the virus. Some experienced severe symptoms and others required hospitalisation. We should not neglect to remember that many have died and many have been left behind to grieve. Families are also bracing themselves for the possibility of further disruption to schooling.
In such challenging circumstances, how should Christians approach a new year? …”
– Encouragement from Archbishop Kanishka Raffel.
(Also published in Southern Cross, February 2022.)
Religious school tells parents it will apply its religious beliefs
Posted on February 1, 2022
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“The above heading doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? Isn’t that what one would expect, that a school set up to educate students in a particular religious view would apply those beliefs in its practices? But the press in Australia sees it differently, apparently.
‘School rules: Brisbane college expects students to denounce homosexuality’ is the way that the Sydney Morning Herald puts it (Jan 31). Citipointe Christian College has sent a letter to parents spelling out its views on a number of issues, letting them know that the College expects students and parents to be aware of these views if students are to be sent there.
Here I will comment on whether the College is legally justified in so doing. …”
– Neil Foster writes at Law and Religion Australia.
Southern Cross magazine, February 2022
Posted on January 31, 2022
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Anglican Media Sydney has just released Southern Cross magazine for February 2022.
Printed copies will be available in parishes from this weekend, but you can download a PDF version now at magazine.sydneyanglicans.net.
How the Black Summer of 2019/2020 prepared me for the pandemic
Posted on January 31, 2022
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“It was October, November, and I was anxious. I was trying to do several things at the same time – plan my move to Sydney for College, finish up a ministry apprenticeship, hand over my ministry responsibilities and begin to think about saying goodbye well, and several times an hour, I’d open the Fires Near Me NSW app to tell me where the fire had spread to.
I lived in Newcastle, but the place I grew up in was burning. Crowdy Head was alight, and the Lake Innes fire, which had begun near Port Macquarie, was starting to make its way south. …”
– At The Australian Church Record, Brooke Hazelgrove reminds us where our trust must be.
Sunday morning encouragement
Posted on January 30, 2022
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With thanks to Rob Smith and St. Andrew’s Cathedral Sydney.
Performance & Conflict Management and Servant Leadership – with Vikki Napier
Posted on January 27, 2022
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This week on The Pastor’s Heart:
“We address the big HR questions faced by senior pastors in leading our ministry teams?
How can we do performance management best among our varied team members?
What is the difference between conflict and bullying and abuse?
Is it possible for a senior minister to be too conflict averse and not give needed ‘tough love’? Conversely where do senior ministers get this wrong?
What difference does it make if one is an ‘office holder’ vs a ‘fair work employee’?
What does Jesus’ teaching on servant leadership mean for staff management?
Vikki Napier is the Sydney Anglican Human Resources Parish Partner. She advises senior pastors and parish councils on how to manage clergy and other ministry staff.”
‘The divide between two different Christianities’
Posted on January 27, 2022
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“One of the most influential books in the 20th Century Church was J Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism.
Machen was prophetic in his analysis of the crisis facing the Church in the US in the first half of the century – some would argue that it was because of his (and others’) stance that the US Church did not go down the path of decline that Churches in most other Western countries did.
In his prophetic book he warned:
‘A terrible crisis unquestionably has arisen in the Church. In the ministry of evangelical churches are to be found hosts of those who reject the gospel of Christ. By the equivocal use of traditional phrases, by the representation of differences of opinion as though they were only differences about the interpretation of the Bible, entrance into the Church was secured for those who are hostile to the very foundations of the faith.’
These words came to mind as I listened to the latest debate on conversion therapy on Premier’s Unbelievable, between Jayne Ozanne, the chair of Ban Conversion Therapy, and Peter Lynas of the Evangelical Alliance. …”
– At The Wee Flea, David Robertson reposts an article he wrote for Christian Today.
Australia Day Honours 2022
Posted on January 26, 2022
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“The foundation headmaster of Penrith Anglican College and the former Principal of St Luke’s Grammar School are among Sydney Anglicans recognised in the list of Australia Day honours. …”
– Australia Day news from SydneyAnglicans.net.
Richard Johnson to the inhabitants of New South Wales
Posted on January 26, 2022
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In 1792, Chaplain to the Colony, the Rev. Richard Johnson, penned an evangelistic booklet which was thus addressed –
“To the British and other European Inhabitants of NEW SOUTH WALES and NORFOLK ISLAND.
My Beloved, I do not think it necessary to make an apology for putting this Address into your hands; or to enter into a long detail of the reasons which induced me to write it.
One reason may suffice. I find I cannot express my regard for you, so often, or so fully, as I wish, in any other way.
On our first arrival in this distant part of the world, and for some time afterwards, our numbers were comparatively small; and while they resided nearly upon one spot, I could not only preach to them on the Lord’s day, but also converse with them, and admonish them, more privately.
But since that period, we have gradually increased in number every year…”
– Read it all here (PDF file).
(Photo: Richard Johnson’s Address – copy held by Moore College.)
Please pray for 2022 Ordinands
Posted on January 25, 2022
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A Media Release from the Diocese of Sydney names those who are scheduled to be ordained on Saturday 19th February.
World Watch List for 2022
Posted on January 25, 2022
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Open Doors has released their list of the countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian.
The Criminalization of Christianity in Finland
Posted on January 23, 2022
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“In a foreshadowing of America’s future under coercive secularism, a Finnish politician and Finnish bishop will go on criminal trial next week for merely upholding historic Christian teaching on sexual morality.
The trial is a telling measure of the erosion of Christianity in Europe.
Juhana Pohjola, a Lutheran bishop, and Päivi Räsänen, a member of Finland’s Parliament, stand accused of an act increasingly forbidden in the de-Christianized West: quoting the Bible. …
After Räsänen quoted from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans in a tweet, she found herself under police interrogation for 13 hours.”
Sunday morning encouragement
Posted on January 23, 2022
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With thanks to Emu Music.
Gary Millar’s “Read This First”
Posted on January 22, 2022
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“As our culture continues to become less ‘Christian’, more and more people are becoming less and less familiar with the Bible – in some cases, they have never actually seen a Bible, let alone read it. I’m convinced that we can do a better job at helping people to get started.
Personally, I’ve often wanted to be able to hand something to people which helps them to get into the Bible, rather than just giving them a gospel (or a whole Bible) and expecting them to make sense of it. This is a very simple ‘primer’ to help people do just that. …”
– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Jacob York asks Gary Millar about his new book, Read This First.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…