Reform pledges support for GAFCON movement
Posted on October 20, 2008
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Reform, the 1,700-strong conservative evangelical network, has pledged support for the initiatives of GAFCON at its annual conference in London.
Revd Rod Thomas, Reform’s chairman, welcomed the clear Biblical leadership given by the GAFCON Primates at the Jerusalem meeting in June 2008, saying that there “we saw what an Anglicanism united in the Gospel and dedicated to mission could look like.”…
– Read the full Reform statement here.
Update: The Anglican Mainstream steering committee has released a statement of support for the Jerusalem Declaration.
Bp David Mulready’s Presidential Address to the Synod of North West Australia
Posted on October 20, 2008
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Bishop David Mulready’s Presidential Address to the Synod of the Diocese of North West Australia last weekend has now been made available.
“Our Diocese is committed to the Bible as The Word of God. We are committed to teaching God’s Word and obeying it, living it out in our lives. As the Bible is taught during sermons and at Bible Studies, our teachers consistently seek to bring God’s Word to impact on every area of our lives.
One of the most important exhortations in the Scriptures is for God’s people to make God known to those who do not know Him. So we know that God is a ‘missional God’ and we are to be ‘a missional church’. At every opportunity and in a great variety of ways our churches are to be reaching out with the Good News of Salvation found only in Jesus Christ and His atoning death. …
There are many worthy causes to which our Church could turn our attention: climate control, improving the environment, justice for refugees to name just three. These are important matters and I hope that some members of our Churches are involved with a Christian voice. However, they are not the ‘core business’ of the church.
We must keep our minds and our energies on the main event: The Gospel. It is by proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and repentance and faith in Him as the means by which people are rescued from hell and come into friendship with God. This is the main event. This is our core business. This is why we exist. Let’s do all that we can in our local Churches to be calling people from darkness into God’s wonderful light.…”
If only every Anglican bishop could affirm these things!
Download Bishop Mulready’s full text as a PDF file. (Photo: Russell Powell.)
Sydney Synod set to support GAFCON
Posted on October 20, 2008
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This evening, Sydney’s Synod will vote on whether or not to endorse the Jerusalem Declaration, a statement overwhelmingly supported by those who attended GAFCON in June. …
This week, as some GAFCON churches continue to be targeted by the liberal dioceses in which they find themselves, Sydney Synod is likely to uphold the historic communiqué…
– Report by Nathasha Percy at SydneyAnglicans.net. (GAFCON photo: Russell Powell.)
Got an iPhone? Get this.
Posted on October 20, 2008
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If you have an iPhone – or an iPod Touch – the people at Desiring God have now formatted John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life for your device. Of greater eternal significance than playing Cro-Mag Rally on the way into work.
You can get Don’t Waste Your Life for iPhone at Desiring God. (Hat tip: Justin Taylor.)
And if you don’t have an iPhone, you can still read the book online.
From the book:
For me as a boy, one of the most gripping illustrations my fiery father used was the story of a man converted in old age. The church had prayed for this man for decades. He was hard and resistant. But this time, for some reason, he showed up when my father was preaching. At the end of the service, during a hymn, to everyone’s amazement he came and took my father’s hand. They sat down together on the front pew of the church as the people were dismissed. God opened his heart to the Gospel of Christ, and he was saved from his sins and given eternal life. But that did not stop him from sobbing and saying, as the tears ran down his wrinkled face – and what an impact it made on me to hear my father say this through his own tears – “I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!”
Anglican TV interviews J I Packer
Posted on October 19, 2008
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Kevin Kallsen at Anglican TV has posted an interview with Dr J I Packer.
Topics include the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the problems in the Anglican Communion; the ‘episcopal autocracy’ in the Canadian dioceses; and the so-called ‘Instruments of Unity’.
Recorded at the Anglican District of Virginia second annual Synod Council earlier this month. The video interview runs for 16 minutes and is available at Anglican TV.
The Essential Jesus – a preview
Posted on October 19, 2008
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As part of Connect09, The Essential Jesus, a translation of the Gospel of Luke, will be mass produced for distribution throughout Sydney.
The Connect09 website now has a preview as a 412kb PDF file (direct link). Sydney parishes want to have their orders in by the end of October.
Our aim is one hundred percent
Posted on October 19, 2008
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This week’s Synod was focused on our Diocesan Mission.
There is much to praise God for in the work of the last six years. But there is still a long way to go. There is no sign yet that multitudes of Sydneysiders are beating a path to our door. Nobody promised they would.
A mid-point review gives an opportunity to understand where we are up to in the Mission process, and to make any necessary adjustments to our plans. Two issues are coming to the fore: “the population” and the “ten years”. These are critical issues that we keep trying to ignore but lie at the heart of the Mission.
Most people hearing of the Mission have focused on the wrong part of the aims and goals. The critics and the supporters alike have emphasised the ten percent that we are aiming to reach. Not understanding what it is about.
They tend to think that success or failure will be measured by this ten percent. They fail to notice that the aim is actually one hundred percent…
– Read the whole article from Phillip Jensen, published in the Cathedral newsletter.
A New Anglican Province in a Culture of Death
Posted on October 19, 2008
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“I freely admit my intention to describe the abortion industry found on this continent as I believe it really is: an enterprise that is as bad as, and perhaps worse than, the Third Reich’s T4 system of extermination.
While I fully appreciate the gravity of the Episcopal Church’s decision to certify Gene Robinson’s election as a bishop in the Church, I am far more disturbed by the fact that for too many years, the majority of us who cut our teeth on Episcopal Church altar rails failed to speak out against a far more insidious evil, the sin of pre-partum homicide…”
– Dr Briane Turley writes at VirtueOnline. (Photo: West Virginia University)
The Cries of the Helpless
Posted on October 18, 2008
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On Thursday, Dr. Russell Moore, Dean of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, pulled no punches in a sermon on Matthew 2:13–23 and the slaughter of the innocents.
His topic? “Joseph of Nazareth Is a Single-Issue Evangelical: The Father of Jesus, the Cries of the Helpless, and Change You Can Believe In”. Hear the 37 minute sermon via this 8.5MB mp3 file. Chilling – but recommended.
(Related: The Abortion Question and the Future.)
Invitation to members of all Anglican Churches globally to sign Vancouver petition
Posted on October 18, 2008
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Ahead of expected action by the Diocese of New Westminster against the churches of Good Shepherd and St. John’s Shaughnessy, a new petition has been made avialable, so that members of the Anglican Communion worldwide (and not just C of E members as on the previous petition) can express their support.
This new petition reads,
We, the undersigned, as active clergy and lay members of the Anglican Communion, stand with those parishes in Vancouver that are part of the Anglican Network on Canada, affirming that they are authentically Anglican.
Please consider adding your support. Helpful background here.
Dr Phillip Aspinall re-elected Primate
Posted on October 17, 2008
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“The Anglican Church of Australia has re-elected Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall as the Primate of the Church for a further term of six years.
A meeting of the Primate Board of Electors in Sydney today re-elected Dr Aspinall following his election in 2005 for three years…”
– Full press release (PDF) from the General Synod Office.
(Note: The Primate’s main role is to chair meetings of General Synod. Unlike, for example, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church of Australia does not have a ‘head’, other than Christ. Each diocese operates largely independently. Dr. Aspinall is Archbishop of Brisbane.) Photo: General Synod Office.
Joint Statement made at City of London Deanery Synod
Posted on October 17, 2008
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The latest from London –
“All of us who sign this statement are sinners and celebrating any of our sins would have just the same serious consequences.”
Joint Statement from the City of London Deanery Synod representatives from St Helen Bishopsgate, St Peter-upon-Cornhill, and St Botolph-without-Aldersgate, made at the Deanery Synod on 16th October 2008.
On 31 May 2008 at The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great the Revd Dr Martin Dudley conducted a service of blessing for the Revd Peter Cowell and the Revd Dr David Lord, subsequent to their civil partnership ceremony. We are grateful that the Bishop of London has called for an investigation, but given that our Deanery Synod meets on Thursday 16th October 2008 for fellowship and prayer we want to explain the degree to which that fellowship has been fractured. Read more
Manitoba parish votes to join ANiC
Posted on October 17, 2008
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The congregation of St Bede’s Anglican Church in Kinosota, Manitoba voted overwhelmingly yesterday, October 15, to come under the episcopal oversight of Bishops Donald Harvey and Malcolm Harding of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) and under the Primatial authority of Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. …
– Full press release at the Anglican Network in Canada.
Invitation to CofE members to support Vancouver churches
Posted on October 17, 2008
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Members of the Church of England have been invited to express their support for the Anglican Network in Canada parishes, including St. John’s Shaughnessy, where David Short is Rector.
The petition, and background information, is available at this link. The actual petition reads:
We, the undersigned, as active clergy and lay members of the Church of England, stand with those parishes in Vancouver that are part of the Anglican Network in Canada, affirming that they are authentically Anglican.
Australian readers (who therefore cannot sign this petition) are urged to continue in prayer. Formore information, please see the St. John’s website.
(Photo: David Short and James Packer at St. John’s Shaughnessy.)
The ESV Study Bible – A Review
Posted on October 17, 2008
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“The ESV team has done an excellent job of generating excitement for the ESV Study Bible and particularly so among the type of person who tends to read my book reviews. So in this review I will try to cut through the hype and, to the best of my ability, judge this new Bible on its own merits.…”
– Tim Challies offers his review of the just-published ESV Study Bible.
Also, learn about the ESV Study Bible Online – the full text of which will be available to owners of the printed version. The site explains –
“Even if you don’t have a registration code, the ESV Online Study Bible offers you several features:
- Create a personal account
- Search the ESV text
- Write personal notes
- Highlight Scripture
Basically, without a registration code you can do everything except access the ESV Study Bible notes and resources. If you buy a print ESV Study Bible later, you can unlock these notes and resources. One of our goals is to make the ESV Online Study Bible useful to you, even if you don’t yet own a print ESV Study Bible.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…