SMBC 2011 Preaching Conference

Posted on November 18, 2010 
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Learn about plans for the 2011 SMBC Preaching Conference, May 2–5.

Ligon Duncan reflects on the Lausanne Congress

Posted on November 18, 2010 
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Watch Ligon Duncan’s interview on the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism. He argues for much greater engagement with Christians in the Global South.

Runs for 9’47”, he was interviewed by Derek Thomas and Jeremy Smith at Reformation21.

A Fatal Blend

Posted on November 17, 2010 
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“…the Presiding Bishop will be acting on her own in assuming the mantle of a metropolitan, with absolute authority over her fellow bishops. The Canons purporting to confer such powers are a nullity, because they contravene the powers given to the Presiding Bishop by the Constitution. They thus cannot be the source of any such claimed powers; the Presiding Bishop, if she so acts, will simply have assumed them by force of her will.”

– A S Haley at The Anglican Curmudgeon writes about two very different leadership styles – those of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the TEC Presiding Bishop.

(Photo: Jim DeLa, ENS.)

‘Dissident Anglican priests have to move — but not before Christmas’

Posted on November 17, 2010 
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“Neither side in a long, bitter war over Anglican Church property in Vancouver and Abbotsford expects any Christmas services will have to be moved elsewhere this December.

But Vancouver-area Anglican Bishop Michael Ingham began moving Tuesday to replace the dissident priests at four congregations that have failed to obtain legal control of Anglican Church properties valued at more than $20 million…”

– report from The Vancouver Sun on how the court decision will affect ‘dissident priests’ and their congregations. Your prayers would doubtless be appreciated.

(Statement from the Diocese of New Westminster here.)

BC Court of Appeal dismisses appeal

Posted on November 16, 2010 
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From The Anglican Network in Canada –

“The congregations have always said that if they are forced to choose between their buildings and their faith, they will choose their faith. That position remains unchanged.”

15 November 2010

In a decision released today, the BC Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by four Anglican Network in Canada churches in the Vancouver area.

The four parishes – St John’s (Vancouver), St Matthews (Abbotsford), Good Shepherd (Vancouver), and St Matthias & St Luke’s (Vancouver) – had appealed a November 25, 2009 decision of Mr Justice Stephen Kelleher awarding beneficial ownership of church properties to the Diocese of New Westminster in the case involving the split in the Anglican Church. The Diocese of New Westminster’s counter appeal of Mr Justice Kelleher’s decision granting a sizeable bequest to the ANiC congregation of the Church of the Good Shepherd was also dismissed.   Read more

Christians flee Iraq

Posted on November 16, 2010 
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ABC Television’s Ben Knight reports from Amman, Jordan on “a frightening picture” for Christians in Iraq.

Related story.

New book on The Thirty-Nine Articles

Posted on November 16, 2010 
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Available now from Moore Books.

A new book: Defining Convictions and Decisive Commitments: The Thirty-Nine Articles in Contemporary Anglicanism – by Michael Jensen of Moore Theological College and Tom Frame St Mark’s National Theological Centre in Canberra, is now available.

They write:

“We firmly believe that the Articles have a continuing place in the life of the Anglican Church of Australia because they deserve such a place. In our view the Articles are a treasury of wholesome doctrine and ought to serve as the basis for assessing new thinking and novel customs. We are convinced that the Articles point to a distinctly Anglican approach to theology and ecclesiology, and are worthy of close attention and sustained study. Rather than have the Articles overlooked in the hope that they might quietly fade from view, we argue that Anglicans ought to pay closer attention to the Articles.   Read more

Heidelberg Conference on Reformed Theology audio

Posted on November 15, 2010 
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The 2010 Heidelberg Conference on Reformed Theology was held (in Heidelberg, of course) October 27–29.

Speakers were Derek Thomas, Carl Trueman, Jon Payne and Sebastian Heck.

The audio of the talks (and some video) is now available on their website.

Very helpful in thinking about what we do in church. h/t Thabiti Anyabwile.

Social Media and Digital Discernment

Posted on November 15, 2010 
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“Almost overnight, the budding world of social media has revolutionized the way our culture communicates. Even our vocabulary has been affected. Suddenly, people are “tagging” each other, “tweeting” about themselves, and “liking” everything they see.

For the first time, it’s possible to have “friends” you’ve never even met. Those conversant in the language of social media rarely use complete sentences or even complete words (since they are limited to 140 characters). All the while, words like “screenager,” “vlog,” and “cyberslacking,” are finding their way into dictionaries like Oxford and Webster’s. It’s funny to consider that, not too long ago, surfing was just a water sport and a yahoo was a crazy person. But not anymore…”

– John Macarthur has some very sensible advice.

‘Diocese of Niagara litigation costs’

Posted on November 11, 2010 
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“For the first time that I’m aware of, the Diocese of Niagara has included the cost of suing ANiC parishes in a financial statement. You can find the statement here and the relevant line shows that in 2009 the diocese, while not preoccupied with distributing free hugs, spent $395,895 on lawsuits…”

– from the Anglican Essentials Canada blog.

Old is new again

Posted on November 11, 2010 
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US-based Christian band Page CXVI will be releasing a new album of hymns (Hymns III) at the end of this month.

They’re posting samples on their blog. So far, Be Still My Soul and Be Thou My Vision are online.

New Emu album to be released

Posted on November 10, 2010 
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Emu Music have announced that their latest album, Undivided, will be available around the end of this month.

“10 excellent new songs for churches from Emu. Produced by Nathan Tasker and featuring songs from Nicky Chiswell, Trevor Hodge, Michael Morrow, Philip Percival, Simone Richardson and Rob Smith, this album reflects Emu’s commitment to putting the Word into song, and reflecting the drive and passion of churches who love contemporary corporate worship.”

Samples and a pre-order form here. Sounds great.

The English Reformers on ministry and worship

Posted on November 9, 2010 
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“The English Reformers faced a formidable task when they began the work of revising the ideas of ministry and worship in the Church. …

In view of the fact that the Reformation is so often regarded as a purely political or social upheaval it is necessary to emphasise that it was essentially a movement inspired by the Bible.”

– Church Society has reprinted the 1992 Churchman article “The Teaching of the English Reformers on Ministry and Worship” by Edgar Dowse. It’s available here in PDF format.

A Portrait in his Actions: Thomas Moore of Liverpool

Posted on November 8, 2010 
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(Re-posted.) Moore College lecturer, Rev Dr Peter Bolt, is launching Part 1 of his biography of Moore College benefactor, Thomas Moore, during the Liverpool Bicentenary celebrations next month.

The book will be launched by the Governor of NSW, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC, CVO, on Monday 22 November, 5pm at the Liverpool City Library.  Everyone welcome.

More info and order form from the Moore College website.

Dr Megan Best’s Synod speech on the Euthanasia motion

Posted on November 8, 2010 
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In the ongoing debate on Euthanasia, Dr Megan Best’s speech at Sydney Synod last month is well worth reading and circulating.

“I speak as a palliative care doctor. Palliative care is specialty care for terminally ill patients.

Our state and federal parliaments have been asked to consider changing the law to allow euthanasia. We are told that 85% of Australians support such a change. I believe that what this shows us may not be so much how many people support euthanasia, so much as the fact that many people don’t actually know what it is.

Having discussed euthanasia on talkback radio many times over the years, I have come to realise that misconceptions are rife amongst the general public. Confusion abounds regarding what the legalisation of euthanasia means. But first we need to know what euthanasia is not…”

Read Dr Best’s full speech here (PDF file).

The text of the motion to which she was speaking can be seen on pages 1 and 2 of the Business paper for October 19 2010 (PDF).

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