Atheism in Melbounre

The Global Atheist Convention hits Melbourne on March 12. That got me thinking about how well prepared I am to engage with the big questions about why I believe in God. Someone recommended A friendly Letter to Sceptics and Atheists, by David Myers. I have just started the book, and am enjoying it a lot. (Don't agree with it all, but general approach is good.) I have another book recommended to me on order as well.

I simply won't do, for Christians to contend for their faith by answering the question why we believe, with "I just do". That is intellectually sloppy.

One of the things I love about St Judeans is that they want an intellectually robust faith, that stands up to reason and scrutiny. Sometimes this means we are a bit heady and forget where our hearts are. But the upside is that debates about the existence of God, are well and truly within the scope of normal.

We have decided to respond to the Rise of Atheism conference with a series of events called The Resurrection of Theism. These range from equipping Christians to engage with Atheist thought, through to events designed to promote further conversation. Have a look here for some more information.

CofE recognises ACNA

Last year at the Melbourne Synod, I moved a modest motion to recognise the newly formed Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) as authentic Anglicans, and to extend the hand of fellowship to them, expressing our desire for them to become part of the Communion once again.

(ACNA is the new grouping of Anglicans formed, who hold the historic Anglican faith, rather than the novel new faith espoused by the leaders of The Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Church of Canada)

Sadly the Melbourne Synod declined (by the narrowest of margins) to take this step. It was argued by more than one person on the Synod floor, that this was "premature" given that ACNA is so new. I am amazed by this, because the motion simply asked the Synod to recognise other faithful Anglican believers, and extend the hand of fellowship to them. How could Christian fellowship be "premature"? Still this was the mind of those gathered.

How encouraging to read today that the Church of England showed itself big hearted enough to to do exactly this. You can read more about this here. Maybe the Melbourne Synod will one day have the same generosity of heart!

Australia Day

I have a love / hate relationship with Australia Day.

I love living in Australia. I love the people who live here. I love the lifestyle. I love the opportunities and freedom. I love it that there are people from every nation on my local tram, who either do or aspire to call themselves Australians. I love lamb! And I love having a day off to celebrate it all. "Break out the thongs and light the barbie", I say. I am very thankful to God for allowing me to be here.

But Jan 26 seems a sad day to be celebrating this. A friend always wishes me a "Happy Invasion Day" on this day each year.

Fundamentally I struggle with a celebration that recalls the day when the British Empire decided that this was terra nullius - land "belonging to nobody". I hate that disregard for the inhabitants of the land. I hate the fact that Australia was taken from the Indigenous people of this place, and that we stole what was theirs. I hate the fact that there are still deep inequalities between indigenous and other Australians. (See here for an interesting view from Peter Adam - my good friend and Principal at Ridley)

Psalm 145 is the reading in the lectionary for Australia Day this year. Here are verses 8-9 - a true promise for our country:

The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.

May he continue to show his steadfast love and faithfulness to us and exercise his compassion and mercy on us. May we become a just nation, and not forget the God who made us.

Summer Under the Son

We got back from "Summer Under the Son" conference on Wednesday. What a great 5 days it was too.

Bible expositions from Acts 9-11 by Kanishka Raffel. I found these very challenging. A couple of highlights -

• In Acts 9 thinking about Paul's Conversion on the Damascus Road. How easy it is to give up praying that God will move in some people's lives, yet here is a story of how he turned an arch enemy of Jesus around in a moment. We so often want to see people take little steps towards Jesus, little signs that God is at work - but of course in Paul's case there were none. I have a renewed desire to pray that even the most resistant of my friends can be converted to Christ.
• In Acts 12 considering the secret sovereign hand of God at work behind the scenes: rescuing Peter from prison, but letting James die. We so often can't fathom what he is up to, but assured that his purposes are good. There were lots of damp eyes as KR reminded us to hang in, trusting in God even when we can't see his purpose.

Then there were terrific missionary talks. So inspiring to hear ordinary people talking about the work they do for God around the world. There is so much need - in so many places. I often found myself wondering if we should pack up and go overseas. But for the time being think that staying at St Jude's and raising up more missionaries from the congregation is probably the right strategy.

It was great to see so many St Judeans involved: from the tech team to music, to leading among youth, to leading sessions in the auditorium, serving on branch council etc. Praise be that we have a mission minded church. However it would be good to see more St Jude's folk at SUTS each year. Watch out for 2011!

A long silence

I have been away from my blog for ages.

Last year got caught up finishing my D Min thesis on Church Culture. I submitted it on Nov 30 and now await the examiners reports. They give no indication of turnaround time. So a good exercise in trusting patience.

Since then I have been on holidays enjoying God's creation in northern NSW (Byron Bay) and south east Qld (Gold Coast and Brisbane) and have just returned from two weeks on a Theos Beach Mission in Mallacoota.



My wife and I were team parents for a team of young adults running programs to reach 15-25 year olds on holiday or living in Mallacoota (in far eastern Victoria) with the good news about Jesus. It was such a privilege to spend time with energetic committed Christian young people, who give up their own time to reach out like this. It was a great boost for our faith too.



I got to teach through the whole of the Book of Judges. Such an amazing story of the stupidity of God's people. Yet so close to our own stupidity. How often we find ourselves doing "what is right in our own eyes" and ignoring what God wants of us. How slow we are to learn.



Now we are about to spend 5 days at the Summer Under the Son conference at Philip Island run by CMS Victoria.It promises to be a great week of good teaching and hearing from CMS Missionaries around the world. The kids are off to the youth program.

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.

Considering Minsitry

Long time no post! Been a little bit busy!

A few weeks ago we had a terrific evening when we invited a whole bunch of people from Church to a "Consider Ministry" night. 35 people turned up to think about Vocational Christian Ministry. It was so great to be a room with so much talent and energy.

I spoke from Matthew 9:35-38 about the need for the laborers in the harvest. It struck me that when Jesus saw the crowds in the world, he was moved because they had no "shepherd" which is the same word as in Eph 4 for "pastor". What the world needs is shepherds and pastors.

We had two testimonies from current Ridley Melbourne students who are on placement at St Jude's. We talked about how you might make a decision for ministry, and pathways for preparation.

It was a great night for people thinking about Mission, Ordination and a variety of vocational lay ministries. It is such a privilege to work in a church where you can get this many people coming to a night like this. Now we need to "ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest".