Queensland flood appeal

Posted on January 14, 2011 
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The Archbishop of Sydney has launched an appeal – through Anglican Aid – for victims of the Queensland Floods.

Story from Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net.

2010 Reform National Conference

Posted on January 13, 2011 
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Continuing our links to resources you may find helpful, the 2010 Reform National Conference was held at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hertfordshire last October. The theme was ‘The counter-cultural church’.

Talks and other downloads are available from Reform.

Pastoral moves — latest 9Marks eJournal

Posted on January 11, 2011 
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Looking for a new minister?

Ministers, are you thinking of moving? Or wondering about staying?

The latest eJournal from 9Marks addresses these questions and gives some wise counsel.

Pastors Going
Leave Your Church Well
Prepare the Church for the Next Guy
Book Review: Handle That New Call With Care

Pastors Coming
What’s Wrong With Search Committees?
What’s Right About Elders?
What Not to do when You’re the New Guy
You Might Have the Wrong Candidate If…

Tips for an Interim Pastor
Pastors Staying
Staying to the Glory of God: One Preacher’s Death Wish
Staying for the Glory of God: The Sibbes, Simeon and Stott Model

All this and more at 9Marks.

Think! 2010 Desiring God conference

Posted on January 10, 2011 
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The 2010 Desiring God National Conference (“Think!”) was held last October. All the audio and video (large files!) is at the Desiring God website.

Todd Shaffer at Faith by Hearing recommends all the talks, with just one slight hesitation. See what you think.

Prayer urged for Sudan

Posted on January 9, 2011 
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Prayer is urged for Sudan, with a crucial referendum taking place today. Details from SydneyAnglicans.net.

The Christian Worldview as Master Narrative

Posted on January 8, 2011 
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“Even as the Bible begins the story with creation, it immediately moves to an explanation of what has gone wrong. Again, such an account is required of every worldview, and every philosophy of life must provide some explanation for why human beings are as we are and why we act as we act.

The Bible directs those who asked this question to the Garden of Eden and to the event we know as the Fall…”

– Albert Mohler on the Bible’s unique view of our world.

Euthanasia: The Patient and the right of ‘Advance Directives’

Posted on January 8, 2011 
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“Dr Megan Best suggests that while Christians believe that we are not free to take the life of another person, this does not mean that we must prolong life at all costs. Nor does it mean that the patient has no rights to cease treatment or give directions about their last days of life…”

– Dr Trevor Cairney at the Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education has some very helpful resources from palliative care doctor Megan Best at the Just in CASE blog.

ELCA proposes tougher rules for departing congregations

Posted on January 7, 2011 
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“According to the Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Renewal), Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) leaders are proposing new rules that will make it harder for congregations to leave the denomination.

The changes are proposed as nearly 300 congregations have completed current departure requirements, and another 140 congregations have begun the process. These congregations represent a loss of 200,000 ELCA members…”

– Story from The Layman Online (h/t AAC.)

Related:
Lutheran CORE November 2010 newsletter (PDF file).
ELCA documents on human sexuality.

Photo: ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, from the ELCA website.

The Authorised Version? – GAFCON and the Anglican Ordinariate

Posted on January 6, 2011 
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Charles Raven:

“It is sadly ironic that on the first day of the year which marks the 400th anniversary of King James’ Authorised Version of the Bible, which has had such a profound impact on the English speaking world, three Church of England bishops were received into the Pope’s Anglican Ordinariate in Westminster Cathedral.

The fact that the Ordinariate is described as ‘Anglican’ while having no authorization from the Church of England or the wider Anglican Communion is a reminder of just how bold a stroke this is. There are now two fundamentally different forms of Anglicanism in England itself, one of which is part of the Church of Rome…

A GAFCON sponsored mission in England would be an ‘authorised version’ of the Ordinariate because while not part of the Church of England, it would be indisputably Anglican in both faith and order.”

– Read all of Charles Raven’s latest opinion-piece at SPREAD.

(Photo of Pope Benedict during his visit to Westminister Cathedral last year.)

Petition to support B&B owners in Cornwall

Posted on January 6, 2011 
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While the petition being organised is for UK citizens only, it’s good to be aware of this case involving a Christian couple who run a Bed & Breakfast in Cornwall.

The Christian Institute has the background on their website – including this one page fact sheet (pdf).

And here’s a story from Mail Online (8th Dec 2010).

For UK readers, the petition, calling the Prime Minister to repeal or amend the UK’s the Sexual Orientation Regulations, may be seen here.

Churchman article on Bishop J C Ryle

Posted on January 5, 2011 
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“Well-wishers sent him an ornately embroidered cope and mitre, but he returned them, saying he ‘had no intention of making a guy of himself’, and another gift of a pastoral staff was graciously, but firmly declined: ‘No staff for me, if you send me a staff I shall lock it up in a cupboard and never see it again. A Bishop wants a Bible and no staff.’…”

– Church Society has republished Eric Russell’s 1999 Churchman article on Bishop J C Ryle. Available here as a PDF file.

‘Marriage of 2 lesbian Episcopal priests adds new twist to gay issues’

Posted on January 4, 2011 
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“Episcopalians here and across the country are already divided over whether to elect gay bishops and allow their priests to perform same-sex weddings. Now they have another issue to discuss: The marriage of two lesbians who are high-level Episcopal priests in Massachusetts.

In a wedding that appears to be the first of its kind in the U.S. – at least in the Episcopal Church – former Plymouth priest the Rev. Mally Lloyd married the Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, dean and president of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, on New Year’s Day.”

– report from The Patriot Ledger in Boston.

Related: “Abortion is a blessing”. (Photo: Episcopal Divinity School.)

The Pursuit of Holiness – free audiobook

Posted on January 3, 2011 
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The free audiobook from Christian Audio for January 2011 is Jerry Bridge’s The Pursuit of Holiness. Grab it here.

Stott on Charles Simeon

Posted on January 3, 2011 
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In November 2004, at Taylor University in Indiana, John Stott delivered a 33 minute introduction to Charles Simeon. The video was recently uploaded to Vimeo.

On preaching, Stott quotes Simeon: “Does [the sermon] uniformly tend to humble the sinner, to exalt the Saviour, and to promote holiness?”

(h/t Justin Taylor, who also has some useful links.)

Narnia Invaded

Posted on January 3, 2011 
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Writing before the release of the most recent film, Steven D. Boyer looks at the Hollywood interpretation of the Narnia books.

“If there is a possibility that Lewis was right—even a bare possibility—then this loss of the original Narnia, this domestication of Aslan, is distressing indeed. It signals nothing less than an invasion by a foreign and hostile power.

The creators of this ‘new improved’ Narnia have taken the single element in Lewis’s tales that twenty-first-century viewers most need to be instructed in, and they have recast it so that it contributes to the error rather than correcting it.”

– In the November–December edition of Touchstone.

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