ESV Gospel of John free audio
Posted on May 12, 2008
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The publishers of the English Standard Version of the Bible are selling audio versions of the entire Bible in MP3 format read by Max McLean – downloadable from their website.
Some will find it helpful, others may not (it’s not an Australian accent – and there’s background music), but you can find out by listening to samples or by downloading the free copy of John’s Gospel – from Good News & Crossway.
Ontario churches to meet elsewhere
Posted on May 11, 2008
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Members of two Anglican churches are choosing not to worship in their buildings tomorrow in the wake of a court order that they share the facilities with the diocese they have left.
A Superior Court ruling on Monday required three breakaway churches to share the property Sunday mornings until ownership is decided…
– Report from The Hamilton Spectator.
See also St. George’s Lowville and St. Hilda’s Oakville. (Photo: Rev. Charlie Masters, St. George’s Lowville)
Warning for Christian polygamists
Posted on May 10, 2008
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Nigeria’s Anglican leader has told the country’s many Christian polygamists to give up their extra wives.
In a letter to the faithful, Archbishop Peter Akinola warned the issue could “make a mockery” of the church. …
– Report from the BBC.
Philippi or Corinth: Where is the Anglican Communion?
Posted on May 10, 2008
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As I sit here at the beginning of May, one major question is facing all those who want to uphold the truth of the gospel in the Anglican Communion: should we go to Lambeth? Of course, for most of us that’s an academic question – we don’t have an invitation (although that’s not stopping some).
Nevertheless we have an emotional investment in the issue, for the question of how much we associate with those that we disagree with is (or at least should be) a constant dilemma for those who take the Scripture seriously, especially where there is clear evidence of willful unrepentance in the matter of public sin. …
– David Ould responds to those who “make a case for orthodox attendance at Lambeth by framing the current divisions in the context of Paul’s letter to the Philippians”. Read it at Stand Firm.
GAFCON: 267 bishops signed up so far
Posted on May 9, 2008
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Organizers of the June Gafcon meeting in Jerusalem report that as of April 25, 267 bishops have registered for the June meeting in Jerusalem. …
Approximately 150 bishops and conferees from Muslim majority countries unable to travel freely to Israel along with the Gafcon leadership team will meet at a resort on the Dead Sea in Jordan from June 18-22, while a further 600 are expected to join the self-styled “pilgrimage” in Jerusalem from June 22-29. –
– Report by George Conger for the Church of England Newspaper.
Episcopal Bishop opens old wounds
Posted on May 9, 2008
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Seven years after 18 priests in the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado left the diocese and were given Letters Dimissory to the Province of South East Asia by then Episcopal Bishop Jerry Winterrowd, the present Episcopal Bishop of the diocese, Rt. Rev. Rob O’Neill, has decided to reopen old wounds. He has sent letters to the priests saying they must either renounce their orders in the Episcopal Church (TEC) or he will officially depose them. …
[The Rev. Dennis Garrou] esponded to O’Neill’s letter asking what was the “need to resolve” his status in TEC. “I am at a complete loss to guess why this unstated ‘need’ now arises for you, but hasn’t for over seven years. Has something recent occurred of which I am unaware that now arises the issue of my status to a point of concern for you?…”
– Full report from VirtueOnline. (Photo of Bishop O’Neill: Episcopal Life Online.)
Archbishop Peter Jensen in The Australian
Posted on May 8, 2008
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I did something really odd the other day. I looked up the dictionary definition of marriage, just to make sure that my understanding was not too off-line. I was relieved to find that it is called the legal union of a man with a woman for life. It is a public, lifelong and exclusive relationship. There is no hint in the dictionary that the word can extend to two men or two women in a public, lifelong and exclusive relationship.
Of course, dictionaries change to mirror the times, and governments do all sorts of things with words, but changing the definition of marriage would be as fatuous as declaring that Perth is Sydney or that the moon is made of ice cream. We would then need a new word to describe the reality that occurs when a man and a woman publicly promise each other to live in lifelong and exclusive relationship, “in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others so long as you both shall live”. …
– Read the full article in The Australian.
Sin and Grace
Posted on May 8, 2008
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“We can think of forgiveness as something real only when we hold that sin has betrayed us into a situation where we deserve to have God inflict upon us the most serious consequences, and that it is upon such a situation that God’s grace supervenes.
When the logic of the situation demands that He should take action against the sinner, and He yet takes action for him, then and only then can we speak of grace. But there is no room for grace if there is no suggestion of dire consequences merited by sin.”
– Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (London: The Tyndale Press, 1955). (From Firstimportance.org)
Faith Today Interviews J.I. Packer
Posted on May 7, 2008
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Faith Today, the magazine of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, has interviewed Dr J. I. Packer for its current issue –
I could have said ridiculous. I could have said fantastic. I could have used other adjectives but I’ll stick with grotesque. I do not think a bishop who has not convicted me of grave moral or heretical practices is in a position to revoke my spiritual authority in Word and Sacrament. The most he can do is withdraw my permission to minister in The Anglican Church of Canada.
Since the thing that has occasioned this is the decision St. John’s and other churches have taken to leave The Anglican Church of Canada, revoking my authority to minister in the ACC changes absolutely nothing.
So I’m not losing sleep over it. Though over age, I am still a professor at Regent College and director of the Anglican studies program at Regent. No action on Michael Ingham’s part can change either of those things.
It’s worth reading the full interview here. (Photo: Ed Hird.)
Communion ‘breaking up because nobody is leading’
Posted on May 7, 2008
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At a meeting in the Diocese of Fort Worth last week, Archbishop Gregory Venables said that “the Anglican Communion in the United States has been hijacked” by an Episcopal Church leadership that doesn’t “mind what happens as long as they control it”.
“I am astounded that in America, the land of the free, so many people have been robbed of their freedom,” he said.
– See The Living Church for the story.
Pittsburgh Bishops to attend Lambeth
Posted on May 7, 2008
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Bishops Robert Duncan and Henry Scriven confirmed today that they will be attending both the Global Anglican Future Conference in Jordan and Jerusalem in June and the Lambeth Conference of Bishops in Kent, England, this July and August. …
– More at the Diocese of Pittsburgh website.
Don’t waste your pulpit
Posted on May 7, 2008
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John Piper exhorts preachers to do what they ought to be doing, in this 4 minute video from Desiring God. (Thanks to Between Two Worlds.)
Why ‘evangelicals’ are returning to Rome
Posted on May 7, 2008
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The February 2008 edition of Christianity Today ran a cover story about evangelicals looking to the ancient Roman Catholic Church in order to find beliefs and practices. What was shocking about the article was that both the author of the article and the senior managing editor of CT claim that this trip back to Rome is a good thing. …
– Seeing strong parallels with Hebrews, Bob DeWaay writes, “The Roman Catholic Church has tangibility that is unmatched by the evangelical faith, just as temple Judaism had.”
Abp of Canterbury and Pope meet
Posted on May 7, 2008
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Pope Benedict XVI held a private meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams at the Vatican May 5 to discuss ecumenical and Muslim-Christian relations. … During the visit… it was announced that India-born Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, would be among the plenary speakers at this summer’s Lambeth Conference of bishops.
– Story from the Episcopal News Service. (Photo: ACNS / James Rosenthal)
‘Stunning’ creed from Toronto Youth Synod
Posted on May 6, 2008
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“We believe in Jesus of Nazareth, who is our brother, who wants not to be idolized but to be followed.
We believe that we dwell in the presence of the Holy Spirit; without her we are nothing;…”
– a prayer used as a creed at the recent Anglican Church of Canada’s Toronto Youth Synod. (Graphic: Anglican Church of Canada.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…