“On that first Palm Sunday there were joy, acclamation, and tears. Yet, five days later the unthinkable occurred: Jesus was put to death by crucifixion. The contrast between the first Palm Sunday when crowds acclaimed Jesus as king and the day he was strung up on a cross, could not have been more stark. …”

– John Mason reflects on the twin themes of Palm Sunday and Good Friday – at The Anglican Connection.

“Research on community attitudes has revealed some encouraging statistics on people’s willingness to attend church during Holy week.

The statistics come from the National Church Life Survey’s Australian Community Survey, taken at the end of 2022.

Asked if they would go to church this Easter if a close friend or family member invited them, 42 per cent of Australians said yes. A further 19  per cent of those surveyed said they were unsure. …”

– Here’s some encouragement from Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net.

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“How do we as pastors help people with addictions? Addictions to alcohol, gambling, narcotics, gaming and sex addictions.

How much is sin? How much is addiction?

Penny Wilkinson and her husband Andrew direct the Overcomers Outreach ministry and the Overcomers Place in Sydney.”

– Watch or listen at The Pastor’s Heart. Very very helpful.

Teams from Moore College are partnering with churches far and wide this week.

The College has this page with a feed of news from all the different teams.

It’d be good to pray for them, the churches where they are serving, and opportunities to share the saving gospel.

“When my appointment to St Andrew’s Cathedral was announced about 18 months ago, a godly old Methodist minister wrote to me. He kindly thanked me for my ministry in Wollongong but added this note of caution: ‘Don’t let your boast be, “We are a Bible teaching church”. But rather, like St Paul… “We preach Christ, and him crucified”.’

Was my older Methodist colleague right? …”

– Dean of Sydney Sandy Grant writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

(Also published in the current Southern Cross magazine.)

“The late Professor Chris O’Brien, after whom the Life House is named at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital said, ‘Everyone needs hope, we live on hope’.

We normally associate hope with resurrection and so preach hope on Easter Sunday, but this year I am going to preach hope on Good Friday.

The Christian life is full of hope because hope is based on promise, and God reveals himself as the God who makes promises to his people. His promises are the basis of our hope. …”

– David Cook has this encouragement for preachers at The Expository Preaching Trust.

Photo: David Cook at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in August 2022.

Here’s a Press release from the Bishops of the Anglican Network in Europe, 24th March 2023:

The Bishops of the Anglican Network in Europe have seen correspondence from the Most Rev’d Andy John and the Bench of Bishops of the Church in Wales to their clergy concerning the recent consecration of Rt. Rev’d Stuart Bell as a Bishop for the Anglican Convocation in Europe (ACE). In this letter they make clear that they do not recognise Stuart Bell’s episcopal ministry, and instruct Church in Wales clergy to “stand back from receiving communion at services held under the auspices of ACE”.

Archbishop John and his Bench are correct in their assessment that members of ACE are not under the oversight of the bishops of the Church in Wales. They are also right to locate the immediate cause of this division in the decision by the Governing Body of the Church in Wales in September 2021 to permit blessing of same sex couples in church. However, the background to that decision has been many years of promotion by Church in Wales’ leaders of a radically different interpretation of Scripture and Christian life, influenced by Western secularism, and not consistent with orthodox Christianity as recognised by the majority of the Anglican church worldwide.

Stuart Bell, in his powerful speech following his consecration, said that the emergence of ACE in Wales is a tragic necessity in the face of false teaching in the national church. The Archbishop and his Bishops may sincerely believe that all Anglicans in Wales should simply accept what has happened and “live with difference”. But this is not the view of the vast majority of the Anglican Communion. Both Gafcon and the Global South Fellowship of Anglican have stated clearly that the leadership of the Church in Wales have violated Lambeth 1:10 and further torn the fabric of the Communion.

Contrary to what Archbishop John and his Bishops have said, it is the the Church in Wales which has placed itself out of communion with the majority of Anglicans worldwide by departing the historic, orthodox, biblical faith. Faithful Anglicans living under such failed oversight need a spiritually safe home and a hope for the future. We are grateful that Gafcon has provided this by authorising ACE as a genuine Anglican jurisdiction.

As ACE develops in Wales under Bishop Stuart’s leadership, its members will continue to make plans for the future together, and enjoy fellowship, with those faithful Anglicans who remain in the Church in Wales. Our unity with them remains in the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in his word written, not in recognition by erring institutional structures.

ENDS

See also:

Watch Bishop Stuart Bell’s consecration last weekend – or skip straight to Bishop Bell’s speech following his consecration.

Earlier report.

Image: Bishop Bell speaks after his consecration.

“As faithful Anglicans in the Church of England consider how best to respond to the proposed Prayers of Love and Faith, there is much to learn from brothers and sisters in New Zealand. Not least because it was the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia (ACANZP) that was, according to the answer to Q177 at the February 2023 General Synod, “The example that [CofE] bishops considered in some more depth during their residential meetings.”

In a letter to his diocese, Bishop Jay Behan, of the Church of Confessing Anglicans, Aotearoa, New Zealand (CCAANZ), wrote recently …”

– Read the excerpts from Jay Behan’s letter, and his calls to prayer, at Anglican Futures.

Photo: Bishop Behan addresses the congregation at his service of consecration in Christchurch in October 2019.

From Dean of Sydney Sandy Grant:

Almighty God and Loving Heavenly Father, we humbly ask you to direct the hearts of those who seek election to our state parliament, and of us as we exercise our democratic freedoms.

May we vote unselfishly for the common good.

Protect politicians from the temptation of self-serving. Enable them to make realistic promises and help them keep their word.

Uphold those elected to serve in the new Parliament through all the heavy demands that come upon them, that they may serve with integrity.

May the decisions of our parliaments, state and federal, lead to the safety and welfare of this country, so that peace and happiness, truth and justice may be established among us. Amen.

Published by Anglican Mainstream:

“By A Group Of Ordinands Currently In Training.

During the debate on Living in Love and Faith at General Synod in February, the Archbishop of York spoke about the need for some settled way of ensuring that everyone has a place within the Church of England.

We agree wholeheartedly, and fully support the campaign by the Church of England Evangelical Council for a settlement that will enable those like us who cannot accept the recent proposals from the House of Bishops to remain in the Church of England by establishing necessary visible differentiation from those who support their use.

However, any such settlement is likely to take years of painstaking negotiation. Therefore, it offers no immediate solution for ordinands due to be ordained as deacons and priests in the near future. For this reason, we have written this short statement to raise awareness of our situation and to call on bishops to provide a temporary solution while we await a long-term one. …”

– Read it all here.

Dr Stephen Noll has concluded his series of 14 Theses suggesting ways forward for Biblically faithful Anglicans –

“These Fourteen Theses represent an attempt to sketch a providential history of global Anglicanism over the past twenty-five years. …

These Theses describe an ‘Ebenezer moment’ for the Anglican Communion and propose a critical next step: a costly but necessary separation from the Church of England as the mother church and from the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury as a focus of Anglican unity. In truth, this separation has been happening since 1998, as Global Anglicans have begun charting their own way forward.

Any genuine reform of the Church involves a threefold cord: renewal of faith and mission; reform of doctrine, discipline, and worship; and reordering of church polity at the local, regional and international levels. …”

– Read Theses 11 to 14 here.

“A Christian theology lecturer with five young children has been sacked and threatened with a counter-terrorism referral by a Methodist Bible college for a tweet on human sexuality that went viral.

Dr Aaron Edwards, 37, who is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, was last week sacked for misconduct by Cliff College in Derbyshire for allegedly ‘bringing the college into disrepute’ on social media. …”

– Story from Christian Concern.

And what will happen to evangelicals in the Church of England if it continues on its current trajectory?

Image from an interview with CBN News.

Related:

Pivoting to Surrender: A Warning for All Christians – Albert Mohler, 04 March 2021.

In NSW, Daylight Saving ends at 3:00am on Sunday 2nd April 2023.

Might be worth reminding congregations.

“The subject of death is not something we usually discuss. It’s too personal and confronting. Yet it’s the ultimate certainty we all face. It’s why literature, film and philosophy so often dwell on the themes of our mortality. But it’s rare that anyone claims they can do anything about it. Death is assumed to be the inevitable end for everyone. …”

At The Anglican Connection, John Mason reminds us that death is not the end of the story.

Sandy Grant, the Dean of Sydney, writes about the choice before NSW voters this Saturday –

“Friends in Christ, I encourge you to join me in this prayer for our State, with the election of a new Parliament this Saturday, 25th March:

Almighty God and Loving Heavenly Father, we humbly ask you to direct the hearts of those who seek election to our state parliament, and of us as we exercise our democratic freedoms. May we vote unselfishly for the common good. Protect politicians from the temptation of self-serving. Enable them to make realistic promises and help them keep their word. Uphold those elected to serve in the new Parliament through all the heavy demands that come upon them, that they may serve with integrity. May the decisions of our parliaments, state and federal, lead to the safety and welfare of this country, so that peace and happiness, truth and justice may be established among us. Amen. …

As you know, I have spoken strongly in favour of reforms to prevent and minimise harm from poker machine use, which currently sees people in NSW lose $8 billion a year. That’s about $23 million per day! And the worst losses are often in the poorer areas of our city.

I have been calling for reform for almost 15 years, since I first became aware of the dreadul damage done by poker machines on their users and families.”

– Read it all at the Cathedral website.

Image: If only modern poker machines took bets of just 25 cents.

The University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Theology to confer Honorary Doctorate on twenty-year-old activist Greta Thunberg.

What does the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Theology do? From the University:

“The Faculty of Theology prepares students for duties requiring expertise in religions, worldviews and values. …”

Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel has recorded this message to encourage churches as we come up to Easter.

Great to share.

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“We are not called to be entertainers, but preachers.  How might we as individuals and as leaders of God’s people tremble before him? And are we going soft on this?

What is the connection between the text and the preacher? As a preacher, how long since you have been rebuked and repented? How has your world view has been challenged recently?

Paul Grimmond is Dean of Students at Sydney’s Moore Theological College.

Phil Coglan is senior pastor at Sydney’s St George North Anglican Church.”

– Watch or listen here.

Archbishop Ben Kwashi has this brief message of encouragement for all who are going to GAFCON IV – a great reminder for us all to pray for the gathering.

For the latest issue of Moore Matters from Moore College, Tom Habbib shares his story –

“I remember reading through Isaiah 53 at my first Youth Group camp and being struck by how Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus’s death for my sins. Another time, I was convicted while reading Mark 8:36, ‘What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?’.

I realized that up until then, I had been trying to ‘gain the world’, and from then on, I wanted to live for Jesus. …”

– Read it all here.

See also: Various articles by Tom.