Bishop of North Kigezi Diocese, Uganda, ‘succumbs to Covid-19’

Posted on June 24, 2021 
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“The North Kigezi diocese Bishop Rt Rev Benon Magezi has died a week after he tested positive for Covid-19 before he was admitted at Mbarara regional referral hospital. …”

– News report from NTV, Uganda.

See also this statement from the Church of Uganda.

“Bishop Benon Magezi grew up in a Christian home and attended church regularly with his family. During a Mission Sunday at his local church in 1981, he received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour and was born again. The following year he left teaching and began full-time ministry as a parish youth worker. …”

Restrictions back, congregational singing out

Posted on June 23, 2021 
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“Churches are back to the four square metre rule and singing by congregations is now longer allowed, according to new restrictions in force from June 23 for one week. …”

– The latest from SydneyAnglicans.net.

Are you more Likely to be Abused as an Anglican?

Posted on June 23, 2021 
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“The report suggests that ‘Absolutist discourses related to marriage as a lifelong commitment, the submission of the wife to the husband, unconditional forgiveness and suffering for Christ….are harmful for those who experience abuse’.

I would suggest that it is the misunderstanding and misuse of these teachings which causes harm.  Those who misuse these teachings are blaspheming. As are those who reject them.

The key biblical teaching on this is that men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25-27). It’s a level of service, sacrifice and love way beyond anything our secularists could even dream of. And a million miles away from the ‘bible says I can beat you with impunity’ caricature so beloved by those who want to attack our faithful Anglican sisters and brothers. …”

– Published last week on The Australian Presbyterian’s blog, David Robertson takes a look at the report and some of the subsequent commentary and argues that the Word of God is the cure…not the problem.

See also: Responding to Domestic Violence in the Church – with Sandy Grant and Kara Hartley – The Pastor’s Heart.

Rico Tice on Luke 19:1-10

Posted on June 22, 2021 
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Rico Tice at All Soul’s Langham Place preached on Jesus and Zacchaeus from Luke 19:1-10 on the first day of the Evangelical Ministry Assembly 2021 in London.

Watch here. A great encouragement in so many ways, and well worth sharing.

(Link updated to reflect the edited video uploaded.)

The Great Rescue

Posted on June 22, 2021 
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“26th May was the anniversary of perhaps one of the greatest rescues of all time.

World War had broken out in September 1939. Into 1940, the Nazi German army was surging across Western Europe with lightning speed and force.

As the month of May progressed over 300,000 troops from the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) along with Belgian, Canadian, and French soldiers, were trapped and encircled at the beach of Dunkirk in France.

A terrible disaster seemed inevitable. …”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, John Lavender has some godly encouragement for you. (Also published in the June 2021 issue of Southern Cross.)

EMA 2021 — Tuesday 22nd to Thursday 24th June

Posted on June 21, 2021 
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The Proclamation Trust’s Evangelical Ministry Assembly is being held online from the UK this week. The theme is Word Work.

“Building on the success of last year’s online EMA we are going to run it again online this year.

The event will be free to all and each day will run 09:30-12:30 BST. [6:30pm – 9:30pm AEST Tuesday to Thursday.]

Each morning will start with a conference sermon from Luke 19, preached by Rico Tice, Phil Allcock and William Philip.

Next one of the Cornhill staff will take us through an exegesis session showing us the working they do on a passage in the study.

The mornings will finish with the Cornhill staff member preaching an expository from the passage they have been working on.

It is going to be a terrific event and we would love to have you with us. The conference will be streamed live here.”

See the timetable here.

Watch the livestream here.

And download the Workbook here.

Practical principles for kids’ ministry

Posted on June 20, 2021 
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“A danger in children’s ministry is that it becomes disconnected: children are disconnected from ministry to adults on Sundays and Sundays are disconnected from any wider ministry during the week.

Here are a few key ways to help a children’s ministry grow to be an integrated family ministry. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Pete Tong shares some encouraging principles.

See also his earlier posts –

I’m not passionate about kids’ ministry – but it still matters – 03 June 2021.

Theological principles for kids’ ministry – 08 June 2021.

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.

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