Moore College lectures 2012

Posted on June 20, 2012 
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“The Point of the Sword: Applying the Bible to applying the Bible” is the topic for this year’s Moore College Lectures, coming up in August.

Chris Green, Vice Principal of Oak Hill College in London, is the speaker. Details from Moore College. (While you are there, check out info on the Moore College School of Theology in September.)

Chappo unplugged

Posted on June 19, 2012 
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Richard Chin, National Director of AFES, recently interviewed much loved evangelist John Chapman. As Sandy Grant says at The Briefing, “Younger generations of ministers in Sydney and Australian evangelicalism should hear this for personal edification but also to understand something of our heritage.”

You will be greatly encouraged and helped by investing 86 minutes of your time in watching Chappo. Classic. And give thanks for our dear brother.

Heavenly tours?

Posted on June 19, 2012 
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“Travelling to heaven and back is where it’s at today. Don Piper spent ninety minutes there and sold four million copies of his account. Colton Burpo doesn’t know how long he was there, but his travel diary has surpassed 6 million copies sold …  There have been others as well, and together they have established afterlife travel journals as a whole new genre in Christian publishing…”

– Tim Challies has serious misgivings about popular books you’ll find at some Christian bookshops.

Baptist statement reaffirms marriage

Posted on June 17, 2012 
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“[O]n Friday the President of the Baptist Association of NSW & ACT released the following statement to all our churches, affirming our understanding of the nature of marriage…”

– Baptist minister Rod Benson (who is also Public Affairs Director for the NSW Council of Churches) points out that NSW Baptists have not changed their position. He also comments on statements made to the media by a Sydney Baptist.

Related: Baptists overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage.

‘Redefining Marriage’ — Archbishop Peter Jensen’s letter to Sydney Anglicans

Posted on June 16, 2012 
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In the light of the forthcoming vote in Federal Parliament, Archbishop Peter Jensen has written to all parishioners in Sydney Diocese on the subject of same-sex marriage.

“However hard it may be and whatever pressure we may face, we do not love our fellow Australians if, knowing God’s grace and his written will, we do not speak up and point them to God’s plan for the flourishing of human relationships.”

In his accompanying e-mail to Rectors, he said, “The whole controversy gives us an opportunity to teach on the subject of marriage and to commend the Biblical way of life in our churches and to the community.”

The Archbishop made it clear that he respected the decision of Rectors as to how and if they would pass his letter on to parishioners. The text of his letter follows:

Redefining Marriage

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It is likely that sometime in the near future our parliamentary representatives will be asked to vote on a proposal to change the legal definition of marriage in order to allow for same-sex unions to be dignified by this name. I am writing to you to urge you to oppose this move as out of keeping both with the word of God and also of the best interests of our community.  Read more

Archbishop Peter Jensen in the Sydney Morning Herald on same-sex marriage

Posted on June 16, 2012 
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The Sydney Morning Herald has published this opinion-piece by Archbishop Peter Jensen –

“We are in the midst of a sustained and brilliantly orchestrated campaign to radically alter the marriage laws of this country to allow same-sex marriage.

Three slogans carry the message: ‘marriage equality’, ‘marriage won’t change’, ‘it’s inevitable’. Of course, the difficulty with slogans is that they are not arguments and, so, are hard to refute, except by slogans in return…”

– Read it all here, ‘Stylish same-sex campaign glosses over real issues’. Worth reading and passing on.

‘Christian leaders to unite against gay marriage’ — ABC News

Posted on June 16, 2012 
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“Some of Australia’s most prominent Christian leaders are expected to read out and distribute anti-gay marriage letters at their Sunday services tomorrow.

Statements from Anglican, Catholic and Greek Orthodox leaders have been coordinated ahead of further debate on gay marriage in Parliament next week.

Churchgoers will be urged to contact their Federal MPs to register their opposition to gay marriage…”

– Report from the ABC includes an interview with Archbishop Peter Jensen broadcast on AM.

St. George’s Tron, Glasgow, secedes from Church of Scotland

Posted on June 15, 2012 
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News from Scotland:

The Rev Dr William Philip, minister of the 500 strong congregation based in Buchanan St, Glasgow,  said:  “Our decision to separate from the Church of Scotland is the culmination of careful thought, sincere discussion and prayer for over 12 months… We believe the Church of Scotland is choosing to walk away from the biblical gospel, and to walk apart from the faith of the worldwide Christian Church.”

Full statement from St. George’s Tron below:  Read more

Church Society response to the Church of England Submission on Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on June 14, 2012 
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The Church Society media release below refers to this submission (PDF) from the Church of England.

“Church Society Response to the Church of England Submission on Same-Sex Marriage

Church Society welcomes the Church of England’s official submission to the government’s ‘consultation’ on sex-same marriage, which argues strongly in favour of retaining the current definition of marriage as “the voluntary union for life of one man with one woman to the exclusion of all others”.  Read more

‘Sexegesis’ book launch in Hobart

Posted on June 14, 2012 
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Bishop of Tasmania, John Harrower, reports –

“Today we launched Sexegesis – An Evangelical Response to Five Uneasy Pieces on Homosexuality at St David’s Cathedral, Hobart. I would like to express my thanks to the Revd Joel Kettleton and the Dean Richard Humphrey, for their work in putting together this event.

Here is the introduction which I gave at the book launch:

2012 marks the 50th Anniversary of the Anglican Church of Australia. At the recent Synod of our Diocese we gave thanks that our founding documents affirm that we are part of the apostolic and worldwide church, that we are biblically based and that we are Christ centered.

As Anglicans then as we deal with issues such as homosexuality we do so in this context.

We are part of a worldwide Anglican communion and need to listen to that body which has clearly stated in the Lambeth Resolutions (1.10 – Human Sexuality) that homosexual practice is incompatible with the Scriptures.

As that resolution makes clear and the constitution of our Church says we take the Scriptures “as being the ultimate and standard of faith given by inspiration of God.” The Church is not at liberty to “ordain anything contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another.” (Article XX of the Anglican Church’s 39 Articles of Religion).  We need to keep coming back to Scripture, to wrestle with it, understand and apply it, even when it corrects and challenges us and our culture. Read more

Sydney Anglicans II. The congregation as the centre

Posted on June 13, 2012 
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Mark Thompson writes about ecclesiology in the second post of his series on Sydney Anglicans –

“One of the most celebrated, most ridiculed and most misunderstood theological commitments shared by most Sydney Anglicans is the priority of the local congregation.”

Read it all here –

“One of the most celebrated, most ridiculed and most misunderstood theological commitments shared by most Sydney Anglicans is the priority of the local congregation. No doubt historical, cultural and sociological factors have contributed to what some see as a ‘distinctively Sydney’ approach to ‘church’.

The colony of New South Wales began in 1788 with a chaplain rather than a bishop (though notionally under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Calcutta). The Australian psyche has a large strain of anti-authoritarianism and individualism running through it. In addition, federalism (as opposed to centralism) has been an organising principle at a number of levels in Australian society (e.g. national-state government relations and the concern in the Australian Anglican constitution to shy away from a large central bureaucracy and rather to protect the integrity of each of the constituent dioceses). However, influential as these larger cultural factors have been, first and foremost this is a theological commitment arising from convictions about what the Bible teaches on the subject.  Read more

Walking in opposite directions

Posted on June 13, 2012 
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From St. George’s Tron in Glasgow:

“Download Walking Away from Jesus by Willie Philip and Walking with Jesus by Dr J.I. Packer.

Over a year ago, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland took the decisive step of walking away from the historic, orthodox Gospel. These reflections on that decision were written by Dr Philip for the Tron Times of May 2011.

By re-publishing them now, alongside the article by Dr Packer, we see clearly that the situation faced by our church family in recent days is shared by many in the world-wide confessing church today. There is great encouragement to know we don’t stand alone.”

– Download here. (PDF)

‘Is David Cameron about to force the Queen to break her Coronation Oath?’

Posted on June 12, 2012 
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Well-known UK blogger ‘Archbishop Cranmer’ looks at some implications of the British government’s proposals –

“The newspapers today are full of reports of the likely consequences to the Church of England of the Government’s plans to redefine the institution of marriage to include same-sex unions, contra the official teaching of Church, as established by Act of Parliament. The Report has been hyped, selectively quoted, misquoted and misrepresented by much of the media, so His Grace urges you to READ IT for yourself…”

– Read it all here. (h/t Anglican Mainstream.)

One flock and one Shepherd

Posted on June 12, 2012 
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Steve Etherington gives an excellent reminder of the need for Bible translation for the Top End (and elsewhere) – on Vimeo.

It’s a good reminder to support the CMS Annual Appeal.

Same sex marriage — Weekend Sunrise interview

Posted on June 11, 2012 
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On Saturday (June 9 2012), Archbishop Peter Jensen, Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Julian Porteous and the Australian Christian Lobby’s Jim Wallace were interviewed by Andrew O’Keefe on the Seven Network’s Weekend Sunrise.

The topic was, “Why are so many Christians opposed to same sex marriage?”

The segment runs nearly 12 minutes and is well worth watching and passing on.
(h/t Lionel Windsor.)

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