ACL Annual General Meeting 2021 — Report

Posted on June 19, 2021 
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The 2021 Annual General Meeting of the Anglican Church League took place on Thursday 10th June at Moore Theological College, Newtown.

ACL President the Reverend Andrew Bruce (pictured) spoke on Acts 1:1-14. He encouraged the meeting with the reminder that Jesus is the ascended Lord, that his gospel will go to the ends of the Earth, and that this will happen through the testimony of his disciples, in the power of the Holy Spirit. He pointed out that the apostolic mission began with earnest, dedicated and united prayer.

Reverend Bruce exhorted all present to wait on the Lord and engage in devoted prayer as we continue this significant task of gospel proclamation. Humanly speaking, the “odds” of being able to proclaim Jesus to the ends of the earth seem impossible. Yet this impossibility is the normal situation for God’s people. In the end, the risen and ascended Lord will see his gospel go out. Thus, we can only engage in this mission through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Andrew then moved on to provide some thoughts on some of the aspects of Sydney Diocesan life. He emphasised the need to be reinvigorated in our lives and our churches with gospel confidence. As a Diocese, we are in constant danger of focusing on the “urgent” matters that our world sees as priorities, rather than the truly important things of gospel ministry: prayer, godliness, evangelism, and recruiting and training.

Reverend Bruce exhorted us to ensure that the “urgent” does not take up all of our resources so that we neglect the important. We do not have unlimited resources – indeed we are quite stretched – and so we need to be wise, courageous and sacrificial in saying “no” to things that seem urgent but are not central to what we do.

He also exhorted us to reinvigorate our evangelism. All ministry today is cross-cultural, because of the vast difference between our aggressive secular culture and our gospel culture. So evangelism must be relational and person-to-person. This means we need to engage deeply with the laity, since one-to-one mission is primarily lay-led. This requires gospel courage and endurance.

We must also reinvigorate our recruiting and training. We need to ensure there are strong numbers of Anglican candidates in training at Moore College, that they sign up in good time for us to evaluate them, that we recruit Rectors, and that we retain those we have trained.

The ACL can play a key role in advocating for Diocesan structures to make courageous and bold decisions to seek always to value the important over the “urgent”.

The President closed his address with a reading from Romans 12:1-2 and prayer for our Diocese.

The meeting received the Treasurer’s Report, approved positions for Elections Secretary, Recruitment Secretary, Membership Secretary and Communication Secretary, and elected office holders. Office holders for 2021-2022 are listed here.

Update on restrictions as of 18th June 2021

Posted on June 19, 2021 
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SydneyAnglicans.net’s COVID page has the latest recommendations as of 18th June 2021.

J. I. Packer’s Final Book

Posted on June 19, 2021 
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“J. I. Packer, who went to be with his Triune covenant Lord on July 21, 2020, was never able to see this final book in print. But The Heritage of Anglican Theology was near and dear to his heart, the one book he wanted to give his last years to. …”

– At The Gospel Coalition, Justin Taylor introduces J. I. Packer’s last book.

Image: Regent College, Vancouver.

Fined for declining to make a “transgender cake”

Posted on June 18, 2021 
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“A Colorado District Court has handed down a decision imposing a penalty on a cake-maker for declining to provide a cake designed to celebrate a ‘gender transition’, in Scardina v Masterpiece Cakeshop Inc (Denver District Ct, Co; 19CV32214, 15 June 2021).…”

– Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia on a new, yet familiar, challenge.

Moore Matters Winter 2021

Posted on June 18, 2021 
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The Moore Matters for Winter 2021 is now being distributed to churches.

It’s packed with encouraging articles, and has plenty of fuel for prayer.

You can read online or download your own copy at this link.

Responding to Family Violence – The Anglican Example

Posted on June 17, 2021 
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From The Gospel Coalition Australia:

“The Anglican Church of Australia commissioned research into the prevalence of Family Violence among those who identify as Anglican, along with related research on clergy awareness and victim experience of FDV.  The National Anglican Family Violence Research Report was published last week along with 10 commitments to prevent and respond to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). This research is a first among Australian Christian denominations.

Sandy Grant is the Senior Minister of St Michael’s Cathedral Wollongong. He kindly agreed to Murray Campbell for this interview.”

– Read the full interview with Sandy (pictured) here.

The Importance of Complementarianism

Posted on June 17, 2021 
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“I was asked recently about the role of women at my church. This is a topic I love to speak about and I am always excited to list off the many ways that women serve.

As an example, last Sunday we had women leading music, praying, reading the Bible, teaching kids’ church, and leading an easy English Bible study. Outside of Sunday ministry women serve as parish councillors, wardens, small group leaders and, in many other ways.

While I am thankful for each of the ways women serve, I made a mistake by answering the question about the role of women when I answered it in this way. …”

– ACL Council member Rev. Kate Haggar writes at The Australian Church Record.

The Homogenous Unit Principle: All you need to know with David Williams

Posted on June 16, 2021 
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From The Pastor’s Heart:

“The Homogeneous Unit Principle suggests that outreach is most effective when carried out in the context of a discrete group defined by similarity in cultural background.

But David Williams says the mission world’s view today is that it’s bad in practice and theory. We discuss a biblical view of class, race and language and challenge assumptions about how we set up Church. We also discuss the impact of COVID on the raising and sending out of missionaries.

Dr David Williams is the Director of Development and Training for CMS Australia and Principal of the missionary training college St Andrews Hall in Melbourne.”

– A fascinating conversation.  Watch or listen here.

Response to National abuse study

Posted on June 15, 2021 
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“All Anglicans should be deeply grieved by the study released this week by the Anglican Church of Australia on domestic and family violence.

‘Like my predecessor, I want to state clearly that all forms of domestic abuse are incompatible with Scripture and Christian faith,’ said the new Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel. ‘Nothing justifies violence or coercion. Christian relationships are to be marked by love, gentleness and respect.’…”

– This Media Release was published last week by the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.

This Mortal Coil: Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel

Posted on June 15, 2021 
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On ABC Radio’s This Mortal Coil, 13 June 2021, new Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel, is invited to tell his story.

“We don’t have anything else to offer apart from Jesus.”

Listen here, 40 minutes – and be encouraged to share widely.

(Thanks to SydneyAnglicans.net for the link. Image: The Pastor’s Heart.)

The Inside Story

Posted on June 14, 2021 
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“The values of liberal democracy overlap with Judaeo-Christian values, both of which are currently under threat. We have the latter values thanks to the Decalogue in the Tanakh, the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels, and the admonitions of the apostles recorded in their letters.

These values include due acknowledgement and love for the Almighty, care of neighbour, respect for governing authorities, lifelong commitment in marriage, responsible upbringing of children, and the expectation of working to provide for the family. …”

– Bishop Paul Barnett AM shares this short but enlightening paper on the origins of the underpinnings of western civilisation.

Image: Aquila Press.

Prayer for Uganda

Posted on June 13, 2021 
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“From June 7 Uganda has returned to a full lockdown for 42 days.

These are very challenging times for the nation and Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba has issued a statement encouraging Anglicans to make every effort to keep meeting using radio, local TV stations, Zoom, social media, etc.

He also calls ‘on all husbands and fathers to step up and take responsibility for leading your families in daily home prayers and in Sunday worship.

The Family is the smallest church, and every home needs its Family Altar.’ ”

– Matters for prayer – from GAFCON.

Belief that sex is immutable can be a protected belief

Posted on June 12, 2021 
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“The view that biological sex is immutable and that a man cannot become a woman is, of course, controversial today. But in a very welcome decision, the UK Employment Appeal Tribunal in Forstater v CGD Europe [2021] UKEAT 0105_20_1006 (10 June 2021) has now overturned a previous single judge decision, and ruled that such a belief is “worthy of protection” as a “philosophical belief” under UK discrimination law.

The decision, while not based on religious belief, will have important implications for protection of religious freedom in the UK, and hopefully in other parts of the world as well. …”

– Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia shares a UK decision which coincides with Religious Freedom Weekend in Australia.

Review: Priscilla and Aquila Conference, 2021

Posted on June 11, 2021 
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“The Priscilla and Aquila Conference at Moore College on February 1st this year was another in that long line of what we have to come know as… pandemic conferences.  Much reduced physical attendance, large numbers of online attendees, a virtual speaker broadcasting from another state. Yet it proved to be first rate. If I was writing this for millennials, I’d say it was a ‘cracker of a conference’!

Gary and Fiona Miller joined us from Queensland Theological College (complete with backdrop of the Brisbane CBD) for the 2 plenary Bible talks on ‘Genesis Women: Why the patriarchal narratives aren’t patriarchal’. …”

– At Equal But Different, Lesley Ramsay commends the talks given at this year’s P&A Conference.

The Word of God — the Bible!

Posted on June 10, 2021 
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“Central to our Christian faith is our conviction that the Bible is God’s book, the book through which He reveals Himself, His will and purpose.

The very first clause in the ordination vows of Elders and Minsters relates to the ordinand’s conviction about the Bible.

The most important reading in any class preparing people to preach is to read what the Systematic tomes teach about the doctrine of revelation.

Preachers need to understand the nature of the book they are to spend a lifetime preaching, so whether it be Robert Reymond or Wayne Grudem or Kevin DeYoung, the preacher in training needs to understand the inspiration, authority, reliability and sufficiency of God’s Word, the Bible. It is a constant battle keeping the Bible, and therefore God, central in our ministry and lives. We may be losing the battle!

I have noticed three unhealthy trends. …”

– Encouragement from David Cook.

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