Happy 200th birthday to J C Ryle
Posted on May 10, 2016
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Today is J.C. Ryle’s 200th birthday.
Church Society is celebrating with the launch of a book.
Three dollars worth of gospel, please
Posted on May 9, 2016
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Adam Ford tackles a well-known illustration from D. A Carson.
The Reason for Faith
Posted on May 9, 2016
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“Faith may lack a comprehensive knowledge of its object, but unless it is pure folly, it typically can see enough evidence to know that the testimony about it is, at least, likely to be true. It is more than a mere opinion which cannot commit firmly to one position or another…”
– Dr Andrew Leslie at Moore College writes about Faith in the College’s ‘ThinkTank’ Faculty blog.
Budget Considerations
Posted on May 8, 2016
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“With an election in the offing it is never surprising that the political rhetoric around the Budget indulges self-interest. While we might expect that, and while we are critiquing the Budget, should we not critique our self-interest and how we became so addicted to ourselves? Budget time seems like a great opportunity to consider our hedonistic materialism…”
– Bishop of Armidale Rick Lewers asks if we should ‘budget God back into our economy’.
Petition calls on Bill Shorten to support a marriage plebiscite
Posted on May 8, 2016
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The Australian Christian Lobby has launched an online petition calling on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to support the proposed plebiscite on same-sex marriage.
As the Australian Christian Lobby’s Managing Director Lyle Shelton notes, under current policy, an ALP win in the Federal election would mean same-sex marriage being legalised in Australia by early October.
Photo credit: ALP.
‘The Bathurst Diocese decision and legal personality of churches’
Posted on May 6, 2016
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“Today at the Law and Religion Scholars Network (LARSN) Annual Conference (5 & 6 May, 2016) at the Cardiff University School of Law and Politics, Cardiff, Wales I presented a paper discussing a recent Australian case on the ‘legal personality’ of churches and how they are held accountable for debts. …
The abstract is as follows:
In the NSW Supreme Court decision of Anglican Development Fund Diocese of Bathurst v Palmer [2015] NSWSC 1856 (10 Dec 2015) (the Bathurst Diocese case), a single judge of the Court held that a large amount of money which had been lent to institutions in the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst, and guaranteed by a “Letter of Comfort” issued by the then Bishop of the Diocese, had to be repaid by the Bishop-in-Council, including if necessary by that body “promoting an ordinance to levy the necessary funds from the parishes”.
The lengthy judgment contains a number of interesting comments on the legal personality of church entities and may have long-term implications for unincorporated, mainstream denominations and their contractual and tortious liability to meet orders for payment of damages. The paper discusses the decision and some of those implications.”
Read Neil Foster’s post, and download the linked files, at Law & Religion Australia.
A majority of millennials reject capitalism and support Bernie
Posted on May 6, 2016
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“After generations of both political correctness and philosophical postmodernism, we now see a generation that seems to be virtually incapable of beginning any sentence with anything other than, ‘I feel like,’ which as is indicated in this article means a retreat from any claim of truth or a fact merely to an assertion of opinion.…”
– Albert Mohler reflects on the belief system (or lack thereof) of many millennials. Insightful and disturbing. From The Briefing, 03 May 2016.
Defence Anglicans Prayer Diary 2016
Posted on May 5, 2016
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Our friends who minister to Australia’s Defence personnel would be very glad of your prayers on a regular basis.
The Defence Anglicans Prayer Diary for 2016 is now up on their website.
Be encouraged to download and use it.
The Anglican Communion and GAFCON: Interpreting the Peter Jensen interview
Posted on May 4, 2016
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“Peter Jensen, the retired Archbishop of Sydney and the current general Secretary of GAFCON, has given an extensive interview to VirtueOnline in which he expressed frankly some of his views on the current state of the Anglican Communion, and the mission of the Christian church in contemporary culture. The Virtue piece also contains some excerpts from talks that Jensen gave to the recent CANA meeting in Pennsylvania. It is worth giving these comments some analysis, as they give voice to the thinking behind GAFCON, as well as bringing to light some of the problems in global Anglicanism that derive from very different perceptions and interpretations of events…”
– Andrew Syme at Anglican Mainstream provides his analysis of the reported interview with Dr. Jensen.
FCANZ Opening Conference audio
Posted on May 4, 2016
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Audio files from the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans New Zealand’s opening conference have now been posted online.
In his closing address, FCANZ Chairman Jay Behan (pictured) reminds his hearers that human sexuality is not the gospel. However it is a gospel issue which must not be ignored.
Take the time to listen, and be urged to pray for our brothers and sisters in New Zealand as they seek godly wisdom for the days ahead.
(The General Synod of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia meets in Napier 06–13 May 2016.)
Preaching or Social Action?
Posted on May 3, 2016
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“Can a ‘church’ be a good church if it minimises the importance of preaching? Or if it does not engage with social action?
How does the New Testament help set our priorities for ministry and preaching?
Should a pastor preach on things such as political matters, social matters or current controversies?”
– In the latest Preaching Matters video from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, Kevin DeYoung looks at the New Testament pattern.
USU withdraws threat to deregister EU
Posted on May 2, 2016
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“The Evangelical Union (EU) will not be deregistered, with the University of Sydney Union (USU) deciding at its April Board meeting to amend clubs and societies (C&S) regulations to allow faith-based declarations as a condition of membership…”
– from Honi Soit. More from Bible Society Australia.
Church of England uses ‘trendy’ Post-it notes in new service celebrating the role of godparents
Posted on May 1, 2016
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“The Church of England has been accused of ‘dumbing down’ after drawing up a new service in which worshippers use Post-it notes, clap like football fans and move their fingers like ‘twinkling stars’.
The new liturgy will be used in hundreds of churches for the first time today to celebrate the role of godparents.
But in an outspoken attack, the former Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, said it reflected the Church’s ‘now familiar desire for being trendy’…”
– Story from Mail Online.
Here’s The Church of England’s Godparents’ Sunday site, with the liturgy mentioned in the article (PDF file).
Archbishop Nicholas Okoh elected as GAFCON Chairman
Posted on May 1, 2016
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“Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria, the Most Rev’d Nicholas D. Okoh has been elected the new chairman of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) Primates’ council.
A statement issued by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) secretariat, which was made available to LEADERSHIP Weekend yesterday said Archbishop Okoh was elected during a meeting of the Primates’ council held in Nairobi, Kenya from 18 to 22 April, 2016…”
– from Leadership (Nigeria) via Anglican Mainstream.
Archbishop Peter Jensen on the ‘failure’ of the Canterbury meeting and ACC-16
Posted on May 1, 2016
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“The ACC-16 Lusaka gathering was irrelevant to the GAFCON bishops. We stated again that the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka, only highlighted again the inability of the current instruments to uphold godly order within the Communion.
Delegates from the Episcopal Church, by their own admission, voted on matters that pertained to polity and doctrine, in defiance of the Primates. This action has damaged the standing of the Anglican Consultative Council as an instrument of unity, increased levels of distrust, and further torn the fabric of the Communion. I think that is pretty definitive. The Anglican Communion should be preaching the Word of God…”
– GAFCON General Secretary Peter Jensen was intervewed for VOL as he attended the CANA East Diocesan Synod in Pennsylvania last week.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…