One piece of good news

Amidst all the mess in the Episcopal Church, I read one piece of great news this week. The Diocese of Northern Michigan had elected a new bishop who holds both Buddhist and Christian Ordination. He denies many of the basic doctrines of the Christian Church, but had still been elected as their next Bishop.

The good news is, that it appears that when the nomination was brought to the General Assembly he was unable to achieve the votes he needed, and so the election is now declared null and void and they have to start again. Praise God for this protection of His church. Read more here.

For a really interesting comment on the International Anglican scene, and especially on the recent communique from the Archbishop of Canterbury, try this article by Charles Raven.

Passion 09

We are very excited about the St Jude's Passion 09 Weekend in Inner Northern Melbourne. This a great event for our church to make good connections with the local community. We are running a series of connection activities over the weekend of August 7-9 that hopefully will be attractive to the local community. The program is here. It is our hope that through these connections we might see spiritual renewal taking place.

Anglican Disintegration?

The move this week of the General Convention of the TEC to repudiate the moratorium on the consecration of openly homosexual Bishops is another nail in the coffin of Anglican Unity. Whatever you think about the issue, to openly and clearly reject, not only the direction of the Lambeth Conference, but also the personal pleas of the Archbishop of Canterbury is a sign that the game is now up. The TEC continue to walk apart from the rest of us. Read here for more information.

Yes you might say, that the GAFCON inspired new province for North America is also a sign a that the game is up, and you'd be right! This is a serious attempt to preserve a place for traditional mainstream Anglicanism in North America, and an acknowledgement that the Communion as we knew it is disintegrating before our eyes. The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is a serious voice for those who wish to keep walking the path of our forebears.

Great article

Richard Shumack from our Estates minsitry team has a great article published on the ABC online this week. Have a read about what he is thinking.