Prayers for Defence ministry

Posted on May 16, 2012 
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Our friends who minister to Australia’s Defence personnel would be very glad of your prayers on a regular basis.

There’s the current Prayer Diary (pdf) and other prayer resources at this link.

Falls Anglican Church Virginia has last Sunday at property

Posted on May 15, 2012 
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“A departing Anglican congregation held its final services at a Virginia church property that they lost to The Episcopal Church in a years-long court battle.

The Falls Church Anglican, a congregation that broke away from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia years ago over the increasingly liberal theology of the denomination, held two services on Sunday, leaving the property to a much smaller Episcopal congregation…”

– story from Christian Post. Photo: Falls Church.

Simple Bible reading advice

Posted on May 15, 2012 
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“Wherever you settle on this question, be sure to ignore headings as much as possible. In fact, the best exegesis experience I ever had in the gospel of Mark was using a text without headings, paragraphs, or verses. Just 40 pages of a block of text with page and line numbers. A wonderful teaching tool I used for years and highly recommend.”

– In a discussion about ‘the spirituals’ in 1 Corinthians 12, Bill Mounce offers this advice for reading the Scriptures.

New West Synod moves to lift same sex blessing ‘partial moratorium’

Posted on May 13, 2012 
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From a report on the Synod of the Diocese of New Westminster, which concluded yesterday –

“Of interest to many was the passing of Motion #1 on the afternoon of May 12th by a substantial majority of Synod.

In this motion, Synod requested that the Bishop lift the partial moratorium that has been in place since 2005 and authorize priests of the Diocese of New Westminster to bless the civil marriages of gay and lesbian couples in those parishes that support this pastoral act. …

Bishop Michael responded by saying that he will think about this decision and that he plans to confer with many members of the diocese…”

– from the New Westminster website. (Photo: Dioc. New Westminster. h/t Anglican Essentials Canada blog.)

Related: The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns by Dr Mark Thompson, 2008.

Same-Sex Marriage ‘makes a lot of sense’

Posted on May 13, 2012 
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“Same-sex marriage makes sense if you assume that the individual is the center of the universe, that God—if he exists—is there to make us happy, and that our choices are not grounded in a nature created by God but in arbitrary self-construction…”

– Michael Horton’s piece at The White Horse Inn is well worth reading. (h/t Tim Challies.)

Moore College Open Nights and Open Weeks

Posted on May 13, 2012 
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Moore Theological College in Newtown is holding an Open Week 21-25 May, and an Open Night on Monday 28 May, with others later in the year.

Info here.

UK Advertising Standards Authority investigates blogger

Posted on May 12, 2012 
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This from well-known UK blogger “Archbishop Cranmer” –

“Apparently there have been a number of complaints about one of the advertisements His Grace carried on behalf of the Coalition for Marriage. He has been sent all manner of official papers, formal documentation and threatening notices which demand answers to sundry questions by a certain deadline. He is instructed by the ‘Investigations Executive’ of this inquisition to keep all this confidential…”

– Read about it here.

What I say is who I am!

Posted on May 12, 2012 
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“When a lot of our time is spent within the Christian community, or when we talk about Christian things with fellow-believers rather than non-believers, we easily get used to what we sound like and it just sounds normal. To us, the words we say mean what we know they mean. But for others, the words we use may be giving a very different signal…”

– Greg Anderson, Head of the Missions Department at Moore College, appeals to Christians to think about how we communicate.

The Working Mother

Posted on May 11, 2012 
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“If you want to divide a church, cause a rift in a family, ruin a dinner party, and bring hatred upon yourself – raise the issue of working mothers. Few subjects create more heat and antagonism than this one. There are not many more sacred cows, nor more strident voices bullying opposition into silence, than this topic.

So most people keep their wisdom to themselves. And woe-betide any man who cares to venture an opinion. He is not a mother, does not understand, has a vested interest in having somebody to stay at home and serve his needs and never adequately shares the housework, so has no right to speak. Thus, with nervous fingers I approach the keyboard, remembering that there is not much difference between a brave man and a fool…”

– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen approaches a hot topic in his weekly column.

Evolution’s End? President Obama calls for Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on May 10, 2012 
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“Is President Obama’s “evolution” on same sex marriage finally complete? His call for the legalization of same-sex marriage yesterday is an historic and tragic milestone. An incumbent President of the United States has now called for a transformation of civilization’s central institution. And yet, no observer of this president could be surprised. The arrival of this announcement was only a matter of time…”

– Dr Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, looks at the unsurprising announcement from the American President.

Related: New York Times story.

Jesus, Lord of His Church and of the Church’s Mission

Posted on May 10, 2012 
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The transcript of Bishop Michael Nazir Ali’s address to the Leaders Conference of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in London last month, has now been posted online.

It’s entitled “Jesus, Lord of His Church and of the Church’s Mission”.

“I was once at a very grand assembly of a denomination in the West, let’s put it like that. It was very grand, very awe-inspiring. But in the middle of it, I had this sense that they had the form of godliness but not the power. You know what I am talking about.

What makes the church has to do with the Gospel, that is to say, everything that the Church needs in its ministry – its life together, its preaching, the celebration of the sacraments – comes about because of the nature of the Gospel itself. In other words, how we are church is not different from what the Gospel is. The Gospel produces what is authentically church.

This is a lesson we must learn again and again if the ecclesia is to be semper reformanda: again and again to check how we are church against the Gospel, and you’d be surprised at how much resistance there is to such an idea in some circles if you put it forward.”

Photo: GAFCON.

Moore Missions 2012 over and out

Posted on May 7, 2012 
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“Moore College Missions 2012 (held April 29 to May 6) have successfully concluded for another year. It has been a wonderful display of God’s people evangelising…”

– Read it at the Moore College website.

Happy Birthday, New Bible Dictionary

Posted on May 7, 2012 
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“This month marks the 50th anniversary of The New Bible Dictionary, first published by IVP back in May 1962. Initially edited by James D. Douglas, it featured contributions from a host of evangelical scholars, including Australians like Leon Morris, Donald Robinson, Edwin Judge, Alan Cole, Broughton Knox, and more recently, Peter Jensen and David Peterson…”

– Over at The Briefing, Sandy Grant gives thanks for a most significant and enduring resource.

New Bishop for Wellington, NZ

Posted on May 4, 2012 
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“Justin Duckworth has been announced as the next Anglican Bishop of Wellington.

And he may just be the least likely-looking bishop ever elected in New Zealand. He has dreadlocks, for starters. He’s usually in shorts and bare feet, too. But the voters in the Diocese of Wellington saw past that…”

– Report from Anglican Taonga. More from the Diocese of Wellington.

Is the Reformation over?

Posted on May 3, 2012 
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At last month’s Together for the Gospel conference, Carl Trueman spoke at a breakout session on ‘Why the Reformation isn’t over’. He gives five reasons why the Reformation matters in our churches today –

“The Centrality of the Cross, the Centrality of the Word, the Centrality of Assurance, the Centrality of the Pastor, and the Centrality of more than just the gospel.”

Audio here.

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