Gerald Bray on the 39 Articles

Posted on January 26, 2010 
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ACL President Mark Thompson is encouraged at the new attention being given to the Articles –

“Gerald Bray has provided a brilliant resource for the study of authentic, biblical and evangelical, Anglicanism. His recently published study of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, The Faith we Confess: An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles (London: Latimer Trust, 2009) should be included on the reading lists of every Anglican theological college.”

(Articles? What Articles? You’ll find them at the back of the Prayer Book – and here.)

Order your copy of the book – or read the Introduction – from Latimer Trust.

Australia Day Honours 2010 (updated)

Posted on January 26, 2010 
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Among those awarded Member (AM) of the Order of Australia in the 2010 Australia Day Honours are –

Robert Tong, ACL Chairman, “For service to the Anglican Church of Australia through a range of diocesan and national executive and administrative roles, and to the law as a practitioner and as an academic.”

Dr Bill Andersen, “For service to religious education through a range of academic and professional roles, and to the Scripture Union movement.” and

Bruce Baird, “For service to the Parliament of Australia, and to the community of New South Wales through a range of business, tourism and welfare organisations.”

Susan Scarcella, long involved with Italian ministry and also service to the church in Bali, was awarded Medal (OAM) of The Order of Australia, “For service to overseas humanitarian aid projects, particularly through the Protestant Christian Church, Bali.”

(See also this story by Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net with a list of others who also received awards.)

Bishop John Harrower on ‘anger at happy clappers’

Posted on January 25, 2010 
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“A front page article in our State’s major newspaper today illustrates some of the challenges of following Jesus in today’s Tasmania. Newspaper article here, Anger at ‘happy clappers’.”

– Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower on the challenge of making Christ known in Tassie.

(This is a good reminder to uphold in prayer Bishop Harrower, and all who belong to Christ in Tasmania.)

Sermon preparation help

Posted on January 25, 2010 
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At his Gospel Coalition blog, Kevin DeYoung has been sharing some helpful thoughts on sermon preparation. Part 1, Part 2.

Church statistics: not many dead

Posted on January 24, 2010 
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“Still, it is worth remembering, as one looks at these dull graphs, that there are on any Sunday at least 100 people in an Anglican church for every member of the National Secular Society.”

– At The Guardian, Andrew Brown tries to put in perspective the latest figures form the Church of England.

The Wonder of Words

Posted on January 23, 2010 
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“Put simply, then, the question of the importance of words to the Christian church is a question of theology, not methodology: to marginalise preaching in our church life and outreach is to marginalise words; and to marginalise words will inevitably involve marginalising the Word himself.”

– Thabiti Anyabwile quotes from Carl Trueman as he ponders the wonder of how God speaks to us.

Related: Propositional Revelation, the Only Revelation – by D.B. Knox.

Ignorance or historical censorship?

Posted on January 22, 2010 
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“In teaching about William Cowper to groups of people under the age of 30, I have tried to place him in his historical context.

To my amazement, I have discovered an almost complete lack of knowledge of colonial history.

The names and events of governors Arthur, Bligh or Macquarie, or issues like emancipation, or the exploration of the continent – the crossing of the Blue Mountains, the inland explorers or the journeys of Matthew Flinders – or even the gold rushes, were basically unknown…”

– Phillip Jensen writes about the importance of history. (Also at SydneyAnglicans.net)

Encouragement and example in Evangelism

Posted on January 22, 2010 
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What is the gospel?

In characteristic style, Chappo gets straight to the point –

“It does not focus upon us, not should it draw attention to us. It focusses on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what the gospel is about. The gospel is not about us. The gospel is not even about us and our needs. It not even about us and our needs and those being met in Christ. It is none of those!

The gospel is about Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the gospel. I’m not talking about how you engage people in listening to the gospel – you might do that in a hundred and one different ways. But when I have gospelled you, it is about the Lord Jesus Christ that I have spoken from beginning to end.

It is about him. OK?”

– from a talk given in the UK in 2004. (See the last link on this page – “The Training an Evangelist Needs – 2 Cor 4v5”.)

While you’re there, read about the very exciting A Passion for Life initiative – “a [UK] nationwide initiative that is drawing together local evangelical churches to plan a fantastic variety of missional initiatives culminating in Easter 2010”.

And see their terrific collection of videos — a selection of testimonies and apologetics.

Mobile edition available

Posted on January 21, 2010 
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If you have access to the ACL website on a mobile device, we’ve now enabled a lightweight mobile version for your convenience.

To continue to see the website in the standard format, there should be a link at the bottom of each page.

Talking about Mary

Posted on January 21, 2010 
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“You would have to be living on another planet not to notice the avalanche of publicity about Mary MacKillop at the moment. …

However, when talking with people from a Catholic background, rather than raising … concerns straight away, it would be better to take another approach. …”

– Mark Gilbert makes some helpful suggestions on how to start a conversation with your Romans Catholic friends – at SydneyAnglicans.net.

How will they hear without a preacher?

Posted on January 21, 2010 
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“Preaching has fallen on hard times. So suggests a report out of Durham University’s College of Preachers. The British university’s CODEC research center, which aims to explore ‘the interfaces between the Bible, the digital environment and contemporary culture,’ conducted the study to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the College of Preachers. The report is not very encouraging…”

– from Al Mohler’s latest column.

Biblical Baptism revisited

Posted on January 20, 2010 
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Barry Newman picks up the theme of Baptism in the latest posts on his blog –

“Over September 1 to September 13 2009 I created a series of blogs on the subject entitled “Biblical Baptism”. The material has been discussed by various people in different venues and I have tried to listen carefully to the comments made. What follows is an attempt to further contribute to the debate…”

– Read Barry’s blog here.

Find the Bible boring?

Posted on January 19, 2010 
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John Piper has some words of exhortation in this video excerpt from a sermon on Philippians 2:14-16.

(Or see the whole thing.)

Mother of three seeks backing of C of E General Synod for North American Anglicans

Posted on January 19, 2010 
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“A mother-of-three children from Eastbourne is officially to ask the Church of England’s Parliament (General Synod) to support Anglicans in the USA and Canada who are unwilling to conform to what they perceive to be their churches’ reaction of historic Anglican teaching and practice. …

She said: ‘It is my desire to give Synod an opportunity to hear about the unfair treatment of people who have continued to maintain the Anglican faith in doctrine, practice and worship, and to express their continuing fellowship with them as loyal Anglicans.’…”

– Report via Anglican Mainstream. (Photo: Church of England website.)

More Catechesis, Please

Posted on January 18, 2010 
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“Packer’s last crusade in this world,” the Rev. Dr. J.I. Packer affirms, is recovering catechesis — systematic instruction in the Christian fundamentals — to meet the challenges of an increasingly pagan age.

– Amen to Dr Packer as reported by The Living Church. (Image: Oak Hill College.)

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