Primates to address international concerns
Posted on January 16, 2009
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“The primates and moderators of the Anglican Communion will be hosted by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East for a February 1-5 meeting in Alexandria, Egypt… Meeting behind closed doors at the Helnan Palestine Hotel, the primates will discuss international concerns such as the proposed Anglican covenant, the situation in Zimbabwe, global warming, and Christian responses to the global financial crisis. …
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori will attend the meeting in her capacity as presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church. …
Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, will act as spokesperson for the meeting.”
– Report from Episcopal Life Online.
(Photo taken at last November’s JSC meeting: ACNS Rosenthal.)
Ugandan-born named Rwanda Bishop
Posted on January 15, 2009
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The Rev. Nathan Kamusiime Gasatura was on Sunday consecrated Bishop of Butare Anglican Diocese in Rwanda.
The consecration service was held in Butare Stadium and was attended by thousands of Christians from the dioceses of Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo and Uganda. …
– Report from The New Vision, Uganda. (Photo: New Vision.)
CMS NSW 2008 Annual Dinner talk
Posted on January 15, 2009
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CMS NSW has posted online the video of Steve Etherington’s talk given at last year’s Annual Dinner. He spoke about ‘the Intervention that matters’. Very challenging.
Australia Day Convention 2009
Posted on January 15, 2009
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This year’s Australia Day Convention at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney is focussing on Paul’s letter to the Colossians.
It’s on Monday January 26 (obviously) – and details are available at www.australiadayconvention.com
Gene Robinson on his prayer
Posted on January 14, 2009
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President-elect Barack Obama has asked Bishop Gene Robinson… to deliver the invocation at a kickoff inaugural event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, two days before the inauguration itself. …
In recent years, and especially during the inaugurations of President George W. Bush, ministers gave explicitly Christian prayers. Bishop Robinson said he had been rereading inaugural prayers through history and was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were.”
Bishop Robinson said, “I am very clear that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.”
He said he might address the prayer to “the God of our many understandings,” language he said he learned from the 12-step program he has attended for his alcohol addiction.
– read the full report from The New York Times. And there’s an audio interview from NPR.
(Photo: Episcopal News Service/Mike Collins)
The open Bible in England — F.F. Bruce
Posted on January 14, 2009
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“When William Tyndale, as John Foxe tells us, uttered his dying prayer at the stake at Vilvorde on 6 October 1536, ‘Lord, open the king of England’s eyes’, he could not have known that his prayer was already beginning to be fulfilled.
Twelve months earlier, a complete English Bible had been printed on the Continent (probably at Cologne, the setting of the first and abortive attempt to print Tyndale’s New Testament ten years before). This English Bible, the work of Tyndale’s associate Miles Coverdale, was largely dependent on Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament, the Pentateuch and Jonah …”
– Church Society has republished this 1988 Churchman article by F.F. Bruce (PDF file direct link).
New Diocese attempts to join lawsuit
Posted on January 13, 2009
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[January 8 2009] In an expected, but disappointing decision, the newly forming Episcopal Church diocese in southwestern Pennsylvania announced today that it intends to move forward with legal action against The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican) by attempting to claim all diocesan property.
“The document filed today in the Calvary litigation by Calvary and the new diocese created after the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh withdrew from The Episcopal Church is both procedurally and substantively improper. Moreover, it is regrettable that these groups have chosen to pursue more litigation rather than agree to equitable division of the assets.” said the Rev. Peter Frank, diocesan spokesman.
– Press release from the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Gene Robinson to kick off Obama inaugural weekend
Posted on January 13, 2009
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Following the row that erupted after pro-marriage and pro-life Saddleback pastor Rick Warren was picked to preside over the main inauguration event, Obama has selected the Episcopal Church’s only openly homosexual bishop to give the main invocation at a Sunday event celebrating Obama’s inauguration, to be held two days later. …
– Report from Life Site News. (Photo: TEC.)
Atheists play their hand — Probability
Posted on January 13, 2009
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The news first broke last year, when atheists in Great Britain announced the intention to put their message on London’s famous city buses. Atheist celebrities including Richard Dawkins and A. C. Grayling joined the campaign and enjoyed the publicity. Now, the atheists are taking their advertising campaign throughout Britain, with 800 buses carrying their message. …
In some sense, this campaign almost looks like a joke on atheists planned and performed by believers in God.
– Al Mohler is not convinced.
What to think of the NOOMA videos
Posted on January 12, 2009
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Rob Bell’s NOOMA videos feature excellent production and are wildly popular – but what do they actually teach?
At 9 Marks, Greg Gilbert has written a three part review. If your youth group is using NOOMA, the review is essential reading.
“Once you get past the razzle-dazzle of the videos’ style and really listen to what Bell is saying, you start to wonder if maybe they’re not so good after all. Watch the videos with a discerning eye, and certain questions start nagging you: What’s the cross for again? Why did Jesus die? How do you become a Christian? Hold on—did he just say that everyone has the Spirit of God living in them already? Jesus has faith in me? I am the gospel?”
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. (Nooma video covers image: 9Marks.)
Nigeria: Bishops’ Retreat communiqué
Posted on January 12, 2009
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“Following the Primate’s report on the meeting of the GAFCON Primates Council with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the House of Bishops, while expressing support for this effort to build bridges, stressed that in any effort to bring restoration to the Communion there can be no compromise on the need for genuine repentance by those who have walked away from the ‘faith once delivered to the saints’.
We are, however, delighted by the continuing fruit of GAFCON, the developing Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans around the world, the work of the GAFCON Primates Council and the emerging Anglican Church in North America.”
– from the 2009 Annual Retreat of the Bishops of the Church of Nigeria.
The Aussie saving lost souls on Wall Street
Posted on January 11, 2009
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He’s been described by an admiring New Yorker as “God’s go-to man on Wall Street”, an energetic Australian churchman ministering to the fallen financial gurus once considered masters of the universe.
That, the Reverend John Mason says modestly, is an exaggeration…
– John Huxley writes about the ministry of John Mason – in The Sydney Morning Herald.
See also the Christ Church website – Christ Church is affiliated with Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.
Related: Making your life count for eternity. (Photo: Sydney Morning Herald.)
Church loses to Diocese of Central New York
Posted on January 11, 2009
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“Dear Good Shepherd,
As you may or may not have heard, the judge has ruled and we have lost our building and all of our assets. …
This little white church on the corner of Livingston and Conklin has been a part of all our lives and the lives of those in our neighborhood for many years. Some of us have spent our whole lives here. This is painful news.”
– Matt Kennedy and the Vestry and Wardens of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, New York, break the news to their congregation. (h/t Stand Firm.)
(Screenshot from WBNG News, NY – see this earlier report.)
Rick Warren offers support for ACNA
Posted on January 10, 2009
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Pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren has entered the conflict within The Episcopal Church over title to church property, offering his full support to the breakaway congregation of St. James in Newport Beach, Calif., and the third province movement known as the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). …
“We stand in solidarity with them, and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans,” he wrote, and offered the “campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who needs a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County.”
– Report from The Living Church.
Blogging the Institutes
Posted on January 10, 2009
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Graduates of Moore College will long remember that reading through John Calvin’s Institutes was a requirement of their course. Asked about the reason for the requirement, former Principal Broughton Knox wryly quipped that it was so students would finish at least one book while at College!
Last month, the team at Reformation21 began ‘blogging through the Institutes’ to challenge others to read this key Christian document. It’s a big challenge!
Ligon Duncan writes – “Why should you read through Calvin’s Institutes with the lads here at ref21 as we blog through this work every weekday of 2009? Ten reasons:
1. Because it the most important book written in the last 500 years.
2. Because it is foundational for every Reformed systematic theology ever since.
3. Because Calvin was the best exegete in the history of Christianity…”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…