Southern Cross NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2023

SouthernCross THE NEWS MAGAZINE FOR SYDNEY ANGLICANS

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2023

Hands across the Diocese

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MINISTRY, PRAYER AND CARE AT SYNOD 2023

Foster care challenge • Prayer for the Middle East W o r d s a n d w i s d o m • 1 0 D e a d G a l s Yo u S h o u l d K n o w

Synod sets out diocesan purpose and priorities

Prayerfully working together: Members of Synod sing at the beginning of their afternoon meeting.

Tara Sing Sydney ’s Synod has

Drawn from God’s word, the The rest of the Archbishop’s collectively confirmed that our purpose and priorities include priorities have no particular main game remains unchanged proclaiming and commending order and, in summary, are to: – to make disciples.

Christ, establishing people in • Encourage deeper The Archbishop’s document, church life, equipping people collaboration between Purpose and Priorities for the for compassionate service in churches, schools and Diocesan Fellowship, was passed the world, sending some to organisations by members on September 12, serve beyond our Diocese, and • Strengthen and support recognising the direction and prayerfully seeking God’s work rectors in order to see focus for churches, schools and in all things. healthy and flourishing organisations within the Diocese.

This also includes the call to churches In the motion put forward by multiply Christian churches and • Recruit and train new Archdeacon Simon Flinders and leaders. ministry leaders seconded by Bishop Michael “To these ends,” the document • Grow and strengthen Stead, all in the Sydney Diocese states, “we long to see our children’s and youth were called upon to commit to fellowship marked by healthy ministries prayerfully working together communication, collaboration • Strengthen communications, to pursue these priorities – and co-ordination.” media and engagement carefully noting that this was • Plant churches not intended to be a mission KEY PRIORITY AREAS statement.

The Archbishop outlined nine key ORGANISATIONS AND “ I t i s , a t i t s h e a r t , t h e priorities for the Diocese over SCHOOLS SET TO Archbishop’s document… to the coming years – the top three COLLABORATE give expression to the kind of being word ministry, prayer and After the initial purpose and leadership he intends to offer,” mobilising and motivating the priorities document passed, Archeacon Flinders said. making of disciples. another motion was rubber

SouthernCross November-December 2023

volume 29 number 7

stamped that outlined ways schools and organisations could collaborate with churches and the Synod.

“The heart of this motion is that diocesan organisations and schools should, in addition to the core purpose of their work, wherever possible seek to further the broader purposes of the Diocese,” said Simon Miller, CEO of Anglicare Sydney and mover of the motion.

“These are things the Archbishop believes are of particular importance right now.

This does not mean they are the only things of importance to an organisation… We have particular roles to play as we seek God’s work amongst us to multiply Christians, multiply churches and multiply leaders.”

Mr Peter Fowler, CEO of The Anglican Schools Corporation, seconded the motion. SC

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November–December 2023

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF MOORE COLLEGE THIS YEAR

Hear from some of our students about their time at College this year.

Ongoing support for church workers.

“Incredibly helpful” pastoral supervision plans get green light Judy Adamson Church workers in the Diocese will be required to undertake regular pastoral supervision following the passage of the Pastoral Supervision Ordinance on the second Monday of Synod.

The Bishop of the South West Region, Peter Lin (right), said the bill had been brought to members in response to a request from Synod the previous year to prepare a proposal for mandatory supervision.

“The Royal Commission [into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse] recommends this as a measure for the protection of the vulnerable, but the research that we’ve looked at says it has enormous benefits for the wellbeing of ministers and gospel workers – such things as less feelings of isolation, less burnout, less stress and anxiety,” Bishop Lin said.

He added that a pilot study was undertaken to assess the benefits of pastoral supervision – involving rectors, assistant ministers, a bishop and female lay and ordained ministry workers.

Everyone in the study took par t in six to 10 pa storal supervision sessions (some individual, some in groups) with trained supervisors.

To analyse the effectiveness of the supervision, those involved answered a range of questions.

Bishop Lin said that “on the key question of was it helpful for ministry, 96 per cent of respondents were in the range of ‘agree’ to ‘strongly agree’” (see box, right, for more results).

“Our own research with our own people aligns with the other research across the world in this area: that pastoral supervision 4

is helpful for ministry and for wellbeing,” he said.

Giving a speech in support of the bill, lay member Jan CorbettJones spoke of her 18 years as a chaplain with Anglicare – where full-time staff are required to undertake pastoral supervision once a month – plus her work as a supervisor after achieving an MA in chaplaincy.

“I can say from both sides of the fence how absolutely, incredibly helpful it has been.,” she told the Synod. “It’s not any thing like coaching or mentoring... it’s a reflective practice.

“Clergy supervision will allow

clergy and church workers to reflect on what they do... in such a way that helps people not to react to situations, but to respond to situations. It’s a great learning tool for that.”

The director of Ministr y Training and Development, the Rev Gary O’Brien, also spoke in support of the bill – recalling the weight of responsibility he had felt as a first-time rector and the ongoing “big decisions to be made” in ministry life.

“I realised the importance of finding someone who I could meet with regularly, someone w ho wa s a go o d l is te ne r , someone who would ask good questions, someone who would make me see things from different perspectives,” he said.

“I needed support. I needed somebody who cared, but I didn’t need a friend. I didn’t need a group of college buddies.

I didn’t even need my wife in that way. What I needed was somebody who was more distant from my context, somebody who understood, but somebody who

was objective; somebody who wasn’t swayed by our friendship or relationship or history.

“And so, for the past 30 years, I’ve had someone just like that... I cannot describe how important that was in giving me perspective and thinking through what was happening.

“It was important for my personal life, but it was also important for the people that I was committed to serving.

Because pastoral supervision is not just for the wellbeing of the minister but the wellbeing of the church. A healthy minister leads to a healthy church. An unhealthy minister leads to an unhealthy church.”

The bill passed with overwhelming support and without amendment.

Implementation of pastoral supervision to different groups of church workers will be staggered to allow for the approval/training of more pastoral supervisors, but for some could begin as early as next year. SC

RATE YOUR EXPERIENCE

Regular pastoral supervision: • was helpful for my ministry = 96pc • developed my ability to be reflective = 92pc • developed my ability to be self-aware = 92pc • enabled me to gain insight into my approach to ministry = 96pc • developed my ability to be resilient = 76pc • developed my ability to see things from others’ perspective = 96pc • provided an environment to be supported in ministry = 100pc Results show the percentage of diocesan church workers in a pastoral supervision pilot program who agreed or strongly agreed with the questions posed.

SouthernCross

November–December 2023

Synod responds to gaming harm and the cost-of-living crisis.

Addiction, suicide and seeking to stay afloat Judy Adamson More than 400 suicides nationally each year and 90,000 poker machines in NSW. These were among the statistics shared with Synod on night two, as members threw their support behind two motions concerned with gambling harm.

The motions were split to allow for a separate focus on issues at a federal and state level – with the rector of Kogarah, the Rev David Yung, leading the charge Stay the course: Kogarah rector the Rev David Yung, Anglicare CEO Simon Miller and Dean of Sydney, Sandy Grant. on the motion to reduce harm from the pokies in NSW, as his The motion gave th anks the findings of this unanimous and broad-based reform of the parish is within the electorate of for steps taken by the State [You win some, you lose more] marketing and availability of Premier Chris Minns.

Government to address what Mr report.” tobacco... We know continual He said research had shown Yung called “the health crisis that He reminded members that vigilance is necessary.” that, in the Kogarah electorate is gambling”. However, it also the fight to minimise harm to alone, every pub and club called on State MPs to “request the vulnerable would not be won HUNGRY OR HOMELESS had poker machines – which, a Royal Commission into the through one reform. “It will be Dean Grant and Mr Miller also between them, accounted for conduct, integrity and influence won across decades. Just like it joined forces for a further gaming losses of $2.4 million of the gambling industry in took decades – about 40-plus motion in response to Anglicare each week.

NSW” and encouraged members years – for the far-reaching Sydney’s rep or t Hung ry or “By the end of my speech, our to write to their local MP. state as a whole would have lost The Dean of Sydney, Sandy close to $23 million today to Grant, brought to Synod the pokies,” he said. fe derally directe d motion “Even more tragically, at the concerning online sports betting. end of my speech, someone He thanked members who would have at least thought were already raising the issue about ending their life due to with friends, family, church pokies... sadly, over 400 people and MPs, but added that it was a year [in Australia] take their important to stay the course, life due to gambling.” as “the gambling harm done by Mr Yung said pokies had done online sports betting will only a lot of harm to people of all skyrocket from here unless backgrounds across the Diocese, action is taken.

We’re looking for Registered Nurses adding: “The poor, the weak, the “We should give thanks for the This is an opportunity to: fatherless, the oppressed, the almost miraculous occurrence of • Ensure that residents are given the alien, and the foreigners need unanimous cross-party findings highest quality care our defending. God tells us to from the Federal Parliament’s • Keep families connected through do so”. inquiry into sports betting, family conferencing Seconding the motion, the CEO online gambling,” he added.

• Be part of a welcoming team committed of Anglicare Sydney, Simon “They realised Australians lose to continuous improvement Miller, noted that our state had more than any other nationality If you share Jesus’ heart for older people, then Anglicare 90,000 poker machines – which in the world, not just on the is where you can do the best work of your life. caused a stir among members – pokies but on online gambling. but there was an audible gasp “Now we need to tell our Prime when he added that number of Minister and Opposition Leader Find out more pokies within NSW’s jurisdiction and every local MP in the Sydney 9421 5344 was second only to the US state Diocese... [that] there is no anglicare.org.au/jobs of Nevada (home to Las Vegas). excuse for failure to implement

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November–December 2023

5

Bible colleges in the world’s poorest places

Gospel support and relief aid in Madagascar: A woman waits for water in Ambovombe.

Tara Sing Theological colleges, schools,

“We preached the gospel there and did food distributions,” Mr Lainirina said. “There were many people converted to Christ. In less than six months, we were able to plant more than 20 churches… and we have baptised over 2000 new Christians.”

The big challenge the Diocese of Toliara now faces is the lack of human resources and trained of the power of long-term Bible teachers to shepherd the PHENOMENAL partnership and co-operation, young flock.

CHURCH GROWTH IN w i t h a re l a t i o n s h i p f i r s t To help, the Church Missionary MADAGASCAR established between the two Society (CMS) is sending its “The south of Madagascar dioceses in 2009. When the first missionaries to the diocese. has experienced tremendous south Madagascan Diocese of Adam and Avril Friend will head growth,” said the Rev Berthier Toliara experienced a terrible off with their two children early Lainirina (right), provincial famine in 2021, Anglican Aid next year, and are excited to secretary for the Anglican was quick to send relief to assist work with Malagasy locals, learn Church of the Indian Ocean. more than 200 families in the from them and support them.

Madagascar is a great example area.

“Us going does feel like a great health centres and biblical resources are the fruit of rich partnerships with Anglican dioceses around the world.

Synod’s Mission Hour for 2023 shared stories that told of some of the support and service from Sydney to the world, particularly in areas of great gospel growth and great poverty.

from page 5

Homeless – Tough Choices in a Cost-of-Living Crisis, with the confronting truths it contained about the struggle of lowincome households to survive amid increasing rental, food and energy costs.

Said Mr Miller: “[Those in the report] are absorbing rent increases – and we all know

6

expression and affirmation of the strengthening partnership between Sydney and the Toliara Diocese,” Mr Friend said. “We’re excited in particular to join them.

As we’ve gotten to know them, we’ve gotten to know how wise and gospel-hearted they are.”

RESOURCING THE CHURCH IN DR CONGO In the Democratic Republic of Congo, only 3 per cent of 10-year-olds can read. It is the fifth poorest country in the world, and home to 100 million people.

The Anglican Church of Congo runs more than 1000 churches, 700 schools and 90 health centres. A partnership began in 1986, which deepened in

the types of rent increases that family on Government benefits... social and affordable housing. have been pushed out in the last there’s no home that they As with the previous two few months – and they were could rent that was affordable motions, Synod and church going without food or clothing anywhere in the Diocese.” members were encouraged or medicine to make do.

The motion noted the report’s to contact Federal and State “If they did lose their house conclusion that a co-ordinated, members of parliament to urge because they couldn’t afford m u l t i f a c e t e d a p p r o a c h quick and practical action to deal the rent, there was nowhere was needed by all levels of with these issues. else for them to go. Our rental government to address the All three motions passed affordability survey found problems – including raising unanimously and without earlier this year that for a single JobSeeker levels and prioritising amendment. SC SouthernCross

November–December 2023

Ways Sydney is partnering with Anglicans globally.

generous donors, CMS Australia and Anglican Aid. Since then, Anglican Aid has continued to support the work of the Congolese church by renovating schools and supporting the Bible college.

“The standard of education in my diocese is very low, so you can help us improve our schools,” said the Bishop of Kindu, Masimango Katanda.

“I am very grateful and thankful for Anglican Aid for the way we work together in training new church leaders.

“We have a vision to improve our education system so that we can contribute to train the future leaders of this country.”

Excited to to serve: Adam and Avril Friend with their baby daughter Anna.

1992 when Sydney sent the late Peter Dawson (see page 29) as a missionary bishop to pioneer the Diocese of Kindu in a remote central part of the country.

Under God’s hand the Berea

Bible College was established in 2005 by Bishop Malcolm Richards – during the second period he and his wife Elizabeth spent as missionaries in the country – with help from

Theological Certificate has proved to be an invaluable resource for training Malaysian ministers.

I n 2 0 1 2 , a fo r m alis e d agreement between Moore College and the An gli can Training Institute in Sabah saw the PTC become a core part of the college curriculum, with translations into Bahasa EQUIPPING MALAYSIA’S Malaysia and Chinese.

BIBLE TEACHERS The Rev Wilston Trin (above) A deep gratitude was also added that his own Diocese of expressed from the dioceses of Kuching was now “beginning to Kuching and Sabah in Malaysia use PTC as part of our training... for the generous relationship I would like to thank Moore with Sydney over the past 70 College and Sydney Diocese for years, which has resulted in the your generosity and partnership training of many gospel workers. in the gospel, for your heart for Moore College’s Preliminary mission.” SC

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God grows his kingdom in our city and greenfields.

From living room church to multiple Sunday services

“This is what we were praying for”: A packed service at Grace City Church in Waterloo.

Tara Sing When the Rev Tim Clemens

cry, but we tell people, ‘This is planted a church in Waterloo what we were praying for when in 2014, he expected it to be we started the church!’” difficult. “It’s really hard to W he n C h a r l e n e * wal ke d grow a church in the city,” he into Grace City, she was not told Synod members earlier this expecting to encounter God. month. “It’s a very transient area.” She had been invited by a friend De spite this, Grace Cit y whose life had been radically Church has seen wonderful changed by Jesus, and she growth over the past eight years. wanted to know more.

What started in 2015 with 35 “I believed in God, but I didn’t adults and one child has become know what my God looked like,” three services with 350 adults she recalled. “I said to [my friend], and a Sunday school of more ‘If your God is that powerful he than 80 children. With a vision could change you like that” – to see thousands of disciples she clicked her fingers – “then throughout Sydney and beyond, I’ll just come and check him out.”

Grace City is looking to start a The week Charlene visited fourth service in early 2024. the sermon was on the topic of “We give thanks to God for idols. “For me, it was like a slap all of the growth,” Mr Clemens in the face,” she said. “This was said, adding that since the the stuff I had been dealing with church began, “we’ve seen pretty much my whole life. I was over 65 people make first-time like, ‘Is God communicating with professions of faith. Every time me?’ I decided to put my trust in somebody becomes a Christian Jesus and become a Christian.” at Grace City I find it hard not to *real name withheld

GEARING UP FOR GREENFIELDS GROWTH Synod also praised God for new land purchased to plant a church in Box Hill in Sydney’s northwest growth corridor.

More than 20,000 people are set to move into the suburb by 2041, and 9600 homes will eventually be built on its paddocks.

“If you’ve ever driven through Box Hill, you realise that Box Hill and its surrounds are a rapidly

growing area,” said the Bishop of the Western Region, Gary Koo. “We want a church there, don’t we?... We want a church there to tell people about Jesus Christ.”

The Rev Chris Mann (above) will head up the church plant, a fitting appointment given that he already lives in the area and has been praying for Box Hill for some years. SC

PRAY FOR BOX HILL Praise God for the acquisition of land in a growing suburb

PRAY FOR GRACE CITY Praise God for the 65 people who have turned to Christ Praise God for the growth in the church’s ministries – from services to children and youth Give thanks for those who have helped Grace City and its leadership along the way with prayers, guidance and support Pray as the church seeks God’s guidance for its next steps in ministry 8

Pray for Chris Mann and the team who will plant the church, that they will continue to form good partnerships with the churches at Rouse Hill and Pitt Town Pray for many good relationships and gospel opportunities as team members begin to get to know their Box Hill neighbours Pray for those moving into the area, that God will be preparing their ears to hear the gospel and turn their hearts to Jesus

SouthernCross

November–December 2023

Synod hears proposals to update policies covering Anglican schools and organisations.

Governance ‘gaps’ to be filled Russell Powell Synod has encouraged the co mmi tte e rev i e w i n g t he diocesan Governance Policy to continue its work on ways to bridge what has been described as a “governance gap”.

The policy currently covers diocesan schools and organisations, boards and councils that are subject both to church laws and external regulation. In debate across two sessions, Synod heard from Bishop Chris Edwards, A n g l i c a re ch a i r m a n G re g Hammond OAM, and senior lawyer Anne Robinson AM. Bishop Edwards, the chairman of the review committee, spoke of a gap in governance that had developed because the previous policies had become outdated.

“Diocesan organisations and schools were asked to report on their conformity with the Governance Policy,” he said.

“Twenty-two of 38 diocesan organisations and scho ols indicated they intended to amend their ordinances to achieve greater alignment with the Governance Policy – to try and close the gap. But the level of non-conformity was attention-grabbing.

“It wasn’t that the organisations were being recalcitrant. Many of our organisations operate in territor y th at is under government legislation and so-called quality standards; territory that is subject to ongoing review, revision and change – often rapid change… difficult territory for volunteerled organisations to navigate.”

The committee, on which Mr Hammond and Ms Robinson also serve, provided Synod with an exposure draft of the new policy and put forward three motions seeking an endorsement of the general direction of their work.

SouthernCross

Mind the (governance) gap: (from left) Anne Robinson, Bishop Chris Edwards and Greg Hammond.

“The committee is not asking leaders were of Christian faith Synod to approve particular and character. words in the exposure draft, as “ I a m n o t o p p o s e d to a that would be contrary to the statement of personal faith, but transparency we seek through we have to recognise it is not the consultation process,” Mr working,” said Bishop Edwards, Hammond said. “Rather, we are asking for more feedback seeking views as to the proposed on such statements and the approach.” proposed nomination process.

Synod endorsed the In speaking about the committee’s direction towards a four-tiered approach to organisations and scho ols covered by the policy. “The tiered model of governance responds to criticism of the current policy as ‘one size fits all’ when organisations are different,” Mr Hammond said.

proposed new commitment to orgnaisational faithfulness, Ms Robinson said it had been suggested that a definition of governance could be “how an institution organises itself in order to ensure that everything is done appropriately to fulfil its mission and its legal obligations”.

“Sounds pretty unexceptional,”

TRAIN PASTORS & EQUIP CHRISTIAN LEADERS

HOW IT WILL WORK Fo u n d a t i o n a l s t a n d a r d s of governance are proposed for the first tier (churches, unincorporated organisations and members of their governing bodies), while increasingly comprehensive standards of governance would apply to schools and organisations, as well as members of governing bodies, in the other tiers.

Synod was more cautious with the committee’s suggested move away from a personal statement of faith for organisational and school governors and leaders toward a new nomination process to ensure governors and

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9

Synod asks Anglicans to contact State MPs about impending legislation.

Bills could restrict preaching, teaching and prayer on sexuality Two bills proposed for State Parliament’s consideration pose a threat to Christian preaching, teaching and even prayer on matters of sexuality.

The bills concern so-called “gay conversion therapy” and are being proposed by Independent Alex Greenwich and by the Government of Premier Chris Minns.

While the Government bill is the subject of consultation with religious groups and others, the Greenwich bill is already public and is modelled on restrictive legislation passed in Victoria.

Synod, echoing a motion passed in 2018, declared it did not endorse “gay conversion therapy” – defined as psychological practices that “seek to reorient sexual attraction to heterosexuality”. But Bishop Stead (right) told September’s Synod that the Greenwich bill and the Government’s consultation paper proposals would make preaching, prayer and even pastoral conversations illegal in NSW. “Be clear, the primary target of these bans is p eople of faith,” Dr Stead said. “Despite the rhetoric, the bans are not because of harmful medical or

from page 9

s h e a d d e d . “ B u t w h a t is organisational faithfulness, which is the other term that we’ve put into this Governance Policy?

“We’d suggest it’s about the ways in which an organisation participates in God’s ongoing m i s s i o n . H ow t h i n g s a re structured and organised, its strategy, how people work, how we participate in what God is doing – putting God’s will into 10

psychological practices. There is no evidence that these practices occur anymore. The target is religious teaching. The target is parents who hold to traditional views about sex and gender.

Mr Greenwich was explicit about this in his second reading speech.”

Bishop Stead then provided examples of the Victorian legislation.

“If you want to see what the bill is going to look like in practice, you just look to Victoria. The Victorian Equal Opportunities and Human Rights Commission has made that very, very easy for us because they have pages of examples of prohibited practices and case studies.”

These, he added, included a vague concept of “suppression” o f s e x u a l i d e n t i t y . “A s

practice in the here and now, on earth as it is in heaven.

“So what’s been missing is actually the governance point.

It’s really, really important. We must, in particular, have an intentional commitment for those involved in our governance bodies of the Diocese to pursue the purposes for which they’ve been established.”

Re sp ondin g to concern s that personal faith might be de-emphasised for organisation

understood in the examples on the Vi ctorian website, suppression includes encouraging people not to act on same-sex attraction and be celibate, or prayer to do likewise.

“Suppression includes religious teaching that warns of the eternal consequences of acting in accordance with one’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Suppression includes church discipline measures for not living in conformity with the teaching of Jesus.”

W hile the Greenwich bill follows the Victorian model, Premier Minns and other Labor MPs made pre-election promises their bill would not to do so.

“They’ve acknowledged the overreach of the Victorian approach,” Bishop Stead said.

“They promised NSW wouldn’t do the same. Right now, we need to press the ALP on its preelection commitments.”

Anglican churches, had won commitments from candidates and they now needed to be reminded of them.

“Politicians do not know what we are concerned about or how many people are concerned until we tell them,” he said. “So many times I meet with an MP about something and they say, ‘Well, the churches haven’t talked to me about this. I haven’t heard about it from my electorate’.

They need to hear from us.”

Mr Southon suggested writing to and visiting MPs using resources created by Freedom for Faith – a coalition of faith groups that lobby for religious freedom.

“We put it in a URL that is easy to remember: contactyourMP. org.au,” Mr Southon said. “The website has a full guide with all the steps involved in going and having a meeting with your MP. Highlight it this Sunday… so that MPs are getting hundreds of HOW TO RESPOND emails from concerned people.”

The seconder of the motion, the As Southern Cross went to press, executive director of Freedom there were indications that the for Faith, Mike Southon, urged Government may introduce the Anglicans to contact their bills before the end of the year, State MP about the impending so Anglicans need to quickly l e g i s l a t i o n . H e s a i d p r e - make their views known to election meetings, many in parliamentarians. SC

and scho ol governors and objectives and to honour Christ.” leaders, Bishop Edwards said Synod stopped short of using the nomination process in the the word “endorsement”, instead exposure draft “is more rigorous resolving to encourage the than our current practice”. committee to continue exploring “We want to have evidence a statement of commitment to of their Christian faith and organisational faithfulness – ch a ra cte r , ” he co nt i n u e d . noting that it is not intended “There is a requirement for to be a substitute for requiring regular attendance and active governors and leaders to be of involvement in a Bible-based Christian faith and character.

Christian church. We want It also called for feedback as l e a de rs to fa i t h fu ll y l e a d the committee continues its work their organisation to fulfil its into next year. SC SouthernCross

November–December 2023

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Leura celebrates 125 years

Happy 125th birthday: Leura’s oldest parishioner, 102-year-old Lucie Cleary, cuts the cake with Cassie Geddes while the Rev James Delanty looks on.

The parish of Leura had its 102-year-old Lucie Cleary, who first informal service amid a cut the birthday cake. howling gale in 1897 – with just A sp ecial memorabilia two people in the congregation exhibition at the church also – when the village was still a showcased significant moments railway siding. The first service from the past 125 years. in the parish’s original timber “It was a moment to take stock church was held in September of how God has used our church the following year. to bless the village of Leura,” Mr Fast forward to 2023 and St Delanty says. “When bushfires Alban’s second church (a young ravaged our village in 1957, 114 years of age) was packed we were there. When war took to celebrate the parish’s 125th the lives of our young people, anniversary. we were there. And when an T h e s e n i o r m i n i s t e r a t arsonist burned down our St Alban’s – and youngest church in 1991, the village was rector in the Diocese – the there for us.

Rev James Delanty, was joined “Our beloved Archbishop made by state and local politicians, sure through his preaching that Archbishop Kanishka Raffel, the good news of Jesus was communit y lea ders and a central... as we reflected on the joyous congregation – including firm foundation we have – not the parish’s oldest member, in buildings but on Christ.” SC 12

A glimpse into the past: Historical objects from the past 125 years linked to the church, including a 1936 sixpence found in the ashes of the 1991 fire that destroyed the original timber interiors and stained glass windows.

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“Our campsites are places of significant gospel impact” Thousands of kids and youth, thousands of opportunities: Teens at a Leaders in Training conference at Chaldercot in January.

Judy Adamson In January this year, 138 campaign is seeking to raise it enables us to go deeper in our year – and, in a short video made young people made a commitment to Jesus at a Youthworks camp – a figure that the organisation wants to grow even further by completing the upgrades to its four-site centre at Port Hacking.

“Our campsites, which have served so well, have been in need of major upgrading to serve the needs of schools and keep up with modern community s t a n da rd s a ro u n d s a fe t y , hygiene and accessibility,” says the CEO of Youthworks, the Rev Canon Craig Roberts. “Churches and schools were voting with their feet.”

While new ensuite bathrooms have been installed over recent years at Telford, Rath ane and Deer Park – gradually bringing more people back – the modernisation of the Port Hacking site needs to be completed, and the main gap is at Chaldercot.

Launched in mid-September, the Complete in Christ SouthernCross

$2.12m to finish the upgrade work because, Canon Roberts says, “Youthworks can’t do this alone. We’re going to need the help of churches and faithful individuals to raise the funds needed”.

He adds that 58 per cent of churchgoers have a formative spiritual experience on a camp – a comment echoed by the rector of Wild Street in Maroubra, the Rev Rod Cocking, whose congregations always head to Port Hacking for the parish’s annual weekend away.

“We’ve been goin g away together as a church for 20 years – apart from COVID,” he says. “It is likely the most important weekend in the year for our church. We regularly refer to it as better than a month of Sundays.

“Probably the key word that describes the value of our weekend away is the word ‘deeper’. The value of a whole weekend away together is that

November–December 2023

relationship with God through his word [and] one another... As we invest in each other, it’s going to help us love each other for the long term. A weekend away together sets up our entire year.”

Over the past 15 years, Wild Street has also sent more than 50 youth to Youthworks’ Leaders in Training camps – something Mr Cocking calls “a gift... to the local church”. “[LiT] is arguably the most significant gosp el-shaping moment in young p eople’s lives,” he says. “We’ve watched our youth grow in discipleship as they’ve wrestled with God’s word together with peers. We’ve seen them trained to do word ministry to kids and at school.

And as a result, many of our kids are serving in exactly those ways in and outside of church life and in their schools.”

In addition to church and LiT camps, Youthworks Christian Outdo or Education camps minister to 16,000 children each

to coincide with the Complete in Christ campaign, former Sydney archbishops Davies, Jensen and Goodhew all spoke of the value of the ministry.

Said Bishop Goodhew: “It would be impossible to count the number of lives that have been transformed for Christ in this environment... It would be hard for me to think immediately of anything that I think is as significant as this”.

Adds Canon Roberts: “The p ro o f i s i nco nt ro ve r t i b l e .

Eighty per cent of Christians in church today made a firsttime commitment to Christ before their 18th birthday... Many leaders in our Diocese have come to Christ or been formed through leading on Christian camps. Our campsites are places of significant gospel impact.” SC Nearly $260,000 has already been raised for the Complete in Christ campaign. Those interested in donating can go to https://www. youthworks.net/complete 13

India and the world shocked by violence against Christians.

“Police are ignoring this injustice” Russell Powell There are signs that violence against Christians in India is moderating, although one Anglican leader warned that police have been turning a blind eye to attacks by Hindu mobs. The unrest, which began in May, has claimed at least 175 lives and injured more than 1100 people, with 32 missing and up to 70,000 people displaced.

A number of villages and lo calities were bu rned by mobs. President of the All India Christian Council, Archbishop Joseph D’souza, says violence in Manipur particularly targeted women but, due to a three-month internet blackout imposed on the area, coverage of the violence was limited.

“A m a s s i v e n u m b e r o f Christians in Manipur, who make up some 40 per cent of the state’s population, have been displaced, while Kuki Christians in particular have witnessed the destruction of hundreds of their churches and the brutal rape of their women,” Archbishop D’souza said in a statement for Religion News Service.

At the height of the violence he said, “It is obvious that Kuki Christians are under full-scale attack by radicalised Hindu groups and that the police are ignoring this injustice”.

Since the internet blackout was lifted, viral video of an attack on two Christian women in Manipur has circulated widely.

A woman in her 20s and another in her 50s were dragged from a police van by a mob before being stripped, paraded and gangraped. The younger woman’s brother and father were killed trying to protect them.

On Indian Indep endence Day in August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi (above) broke his 80-day silence on the violence, saying that India stood with the people of Manipur and “the state and the central government are working together to solve those problems and will continue to do so”.

Archbishop Raffel has written to NSW Premier Chris Minns, who recently hosted Prime Minister Modi, asking him to protest through diplomatic channels and to plead for the protection of Christians in Manipur.

Sydney’s Synod in September points to the horrors to come a l s o e x p r e s s e d c o n c e r n if we fail to awaken the global about the events, particularly conscience across religious and the sexual violence against caste lines,” he said. “Whether women. It asked the Australian it’s a Muslim, Christian, Hindu G o v e r n m e n t t o fo r m a l l y or Dalit woman who is raped or call upon Mr Modi and his killed, all of India – and the world administration to take immediate – must speak out for justice. and substantial measures to “Violence and sexual assault address the ongoing violence, against any woman is a travesty, and requested parishes to pray no matter the background of for the protection of our brothers the victim or the perpetrator. and sisters in Manipur as well as Yet if hate speech and bigotry supporting Anglican Aid’s tax- continue to rule the day, as we’ve deductible Aid for Manipur fund: witnessed in Manipur, the world https://bit.ly/manipur-aid. will descend further into chaos for women everywhere.” SC

“GOD IS WITH US” Amid the struggles, local Kuki believer Lhing Haokip said, “We believe that God is with us in this battle. Though the churches don’t function as normal, the church is open for the believers to come and pray and many believers are praying. We believe that the prayers from Christians all over the world have kept the tribal believers safe until now.

“Pray with us that God will strengthen Christians to be on their knees to pray and seek God.” Archbishop D’souza warned the violence may encourage lawlessness in other parts of India. “This violent assault and murder of women in Manipur

PLEASE PRAY For the quick restoration of peace in Manipur For healing for the women who have been attacked, especially the two women in the video and their families as they grieve the loss of their father and brother For the families of those who have lost mothers, sisters, and daughters That all perpetrators will be brought to justice That displaced families may be able to return home That God’s comfort will fill all of those affected by the violence

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Social Justice Reframed.

Dr Loane said. “If we keep the Bible’s focus on what it means to be a Christian, we’ll do better [at caring for the poor].”

MERCY AND COMPASSION On the ground in Madagascar, Mr Lainirina emphasised the need for a holistic ministry that combined the meeting of physical and spiritual needs.

“What would you have done if you were in such a context that people are dying?” he asked.

“Would we just tell them, ‘Be well, you will go to heaven’, or will we Keeping it real: (from left) Berthier Lainirina, David Williams, Helen Hoskins and Tim Swan. do something?”

Mr Lainirina and the Anglican In the south of Madagascar, a Lainirina asked almost 200 Tim Swan, “The message of Church in Madagascar has woman is married with three people at Anglican Aid’s Social Jesus Christ is truly good news been delivering food relief teenage children. Famine has Justice Reframed Conference in for the poor, as the church seeks packages in partnership with struck her area and they must September. to love her neighbour through Anglican Aid. This has opened move 78 kilometres north.

The Malagasy minister knows relationship and generosity. Our opportunities to share the hope They cut trees and make first hand what it is to lose care for the poor, motivated by of Jesus, and see many people charcoal, which they then sell. everything for the sake of the the character and activity of come into the kingdom.

They spend this tiny income gospel, and what it is like to God, is non-negotiable.”

With rapid church growth, The Rev Dr Ed Loane, intense discipleship is required on their daily food. They live preach Christ to those who visiting church history lecturer to ensure p eople’s hop e is far from a well, so do not wash hunger, thirst and suffer daily. at Moore College, said on the anchored solely in the gospel. their hands, faces or body with PREACH AMID POVERTY AND day that there was a rich “We have to teach them that water. Her husband leaves her PERSECUTION with the children in order to find The conference saw people history of evangelical while Christians have provided help. He dies on the journey. She from more than 65 leaders being involved in social food now, they have to follow is so weak from hunger, and her churches gather, sit under justice, and that many welfare Jesus forever,” he said. “Social children are so weak as well, that God’s word and hear how they activities and initiatives – such help and theological education could share the good news of as education, prison reform, the go together.” they all die on the same day.

“That is only one family, the gospel with those who are abolition of slavery and even Mr Swan prayed that the vulnerable and suffering. but many families [like this] fair work acts and laws – had conference delegates would “Responding to poverty is vital been influenced by committed take this message back to their died during the famine... The question is, how does that affect but complicated, but the Bible Christians. congregations, and many would gospel proclamation?” This is provides real hope,” said the CEO “Keep the gospel central, keep be motivated to serve and give to the question the Rev Berthier of Anglican Aid, the Rev Canon reading your Bible, which helps those who are suffering.

SC shape how we live our lives,”

Real hope amid poverty

A PRAYER FOR THE MIDDLE EAST God of the nations, whose kingdom rules over all, have mercy on our broken and divided world.

In the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bring peace in our time, O Lord.

In the land of our Saviour’s birth, banish the spirit that makes for war.

Please give wisdom to those you have placed in authority.

Rescue the captives, shield those in danger, and bind up the broken hearted.

For those fighting for justice, may they be strengthened by your grace.

For those walking in darkness, may the light of your face shine upon them.

We especially pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who have been caught in the crossfire in both Israel and Gaza. O Lord, preserve life and shelter for those who own and proclaim your name in those lands.

Above all, we pray that the peoples of Israel and the Middle East will find everlasting hope in you.

And in the land of your Son’s redeeming death and resurrection, turn hearts to look to the Saviour and live.

Bring peace while we wait for Christ’s coming and rule, when all people will beat their swords into ploughshares, when nation will not take up sword against nation, and when every tear will be wiped away by the Prince of Peace and Lord of Lords, Amen. (written by the CEO of Anglican Aid, the Rev Canon Tim Swan)

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Make and grow disciples “We seek to proclaim the gospel to every creature under heaven”: Archbishop Raffel delivers his Presidential Address to Synod.

Kanishka Raffel

L

ike most people, I can recall where I was on

September 11, 2001. I had visited a local family in Shenton Park, Perth to discuss the baptism of their child, and returned to my home around 9pm. I glanced at the television and noticed they were broadcasting some kind of disaster movie. I changed the channel and to my surprise found that the same movie was on the next channel.

A moment later, of course, I realised it wasn’t a movie. A plane had flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre in New York and before long I, along with millions around the world, watched horrified and disbelieving as a second plane flew into the South Tower. That night 2996 people from 80 countries around the world lost their lives in the most deadly of terrorist attacks, including 10 Australians.

The next day newspaper headlines proclaimed “The day the world changed forever”, above images of billows of smoke emanating from the Twin Towers, shortly before their devastating and gut-wrenching collapse. No doubt 9/11, as we have come to refer to it, has cast its shadow over the first two decades of this century, provoking – among other things – Australia’s 20-year military involvement in Afghanistan.

About 2000 years earlier, a Jewish teacher and healer was 16

executed by crucifixion, nailed to a cross by the Roman Empire.

On the third day, he walked out of the tomb in which he had been laid. Ever since, Christians have said this was the day that changed the world forever.

In the aftermath of 9/11, US President George W. Bush announced a military response that was originally called Operation Infinite Justice but later changed its name to Operation Enduring Freedom. These were names redolent of aspirations of cosmic, if not divine, magnitude. Infinite justice, enduring freedom. In reality, military operations are incapable of producing such results.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free,” the apostle Paul said to the Christians in Galatia; and, to the philosophers and sceptics of Athens, “[God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead”.

Raised from the dead, Jesus speaks to his 12 doubting disciples and launches his own mission: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

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The Archbishop’s vision for our fellowship of churches.

Jesus initiates a mission that expresses a fourfold comprehensiveness: 1 It is authoritatively presided over by the risen Lord Jesus himself.

2 It is a universal mission to all nations, offering personal and eternal relationship with the triune God – Father, Son and Spirit.

3 Its fruit is the obedience of faith; a community of disciples taught and obedient to the word of Christ.

4 Its timeframe is open-ended; this mission is to endure until the very end of the age.

All authority, all nations, all that Jesus commanded, ever-present.

Such has been the shape of Christian mission from the beginning.

And so it remains today.

PURPOSE Under God, the boundaries of our Diocese reach from Berowra Waters in the north, Norfolk Island in the east, Lithgow to the west and Ulladulla in the south. It stretches 300km from north to south along the coast and 150km west at its farthest point.

It encompasses the greenfield corridors in the northwest and the southwest of Greater Sydney; it includes the mighty Illawarra, SouthernCross

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the Southern Highlands, the Blue Mountains, as well as suburban Sydney from Vaucluse to Strathfield, Rooty Hill to Campbelltown, Kellyville to Manly and everywhere in between. The lands that are the traditional custodianship of the Eora in the Sydney Basin, the Dharawal in the Illawarra, the Yuin peoples of the South Coast and the Dharug, Gundungarra and Wiradjuri peoples of the western ranges. I acknowledge and offer my respect to them and to their elders, and to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters among us today.

Within this geographical territory, every local church is engaged in ministering to their specific community. Although we have one gospel of the Lord Jesus to share, we recognise that in different parts of Sydney there are particular challenges and opportunities associated with bringing the gospel to the people of that area. This is the work that every local church undertakes as you think about what it means to hold out the word of life in the place that God has put you.

What a joy it is, that across this complex and multicultural Diocese there are Anglican congregations seeking to love and serve their neighbours, making Christ known in every place.

Isn’t that thrilling? It is typically Anglican that we should seek to minister to every soul within the geographical territory that we call the parish – but it is also reflective of the Lord’s love and care for the one sheep that has gone astray, the Lord’s attention to every sparrow and to every human made in his own image.

We care about individuals because the Lord who made us all is personally concerned for everyone that he has made.

Here is one of the great strengths and gifts of our Anglican polity. We are mission-minded and comprehensive in intent. We seek to proclaim the gospel to every creature under heaven.

Making disciples is primarily the work of churches.

Foundational to the work of disciple-making is the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to call on those who hear to repent and entrust themselves to him for the forgiveness of sin and new life through faith in his name. Because we grow as disciples in the same way that we become disciples – hearing, receiving, trusting and obeying God’s word in prayerful dependence on his Spirit – this is the mainstay of churches.

In all kinds of word ministries, among believers and not-yet believers, churches engage in making and growing disciples. But as a diocesan fellowship of churches and other organisations, including schools, we ought to give thanks that in Sydney this is a purpose we share.

I am bringing before the Synod a statement of purpose and priorities for the diocesan fellowship. It is not intended to be a mission statement for your church. Nor is it intended to be a mission statement for the organisations, all of which have their own specific ministry purposes. But it seeks to recognise that the disciple-making purpose of the churches may be, and also is, served by the organisations and schools that, under God, are part of our diocesan fellowship. I invite us all to think creatively and intentionally about how as a diocesan fellowship of churches, organisations and schools we may collaborate in the broader purpose that we share – the enduring Christian purpose of making disciples until the end of the age.

FELLOWSHIP For us, the word “fellowship” has become sentimentalised and almost trivialised to the point where we hardly mean more than a pleasant cup of tea (or even a good chance of a lukewarm 17

cup of tea!) and an innocuous conversation after church. But in Scripture, fellowship and its synonyms – participation, sharing and partnership – are words full of vitality, promise and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul gives thanks for his partnership or fellowship in the gospel with the Philippian church “from the first day until now”.

It was first and foremost a sharing in Christ, a unity that was born from the Spirit as the Philippians put their trust in Christ and acknowledged him as Lord and Saviour.

The partnership of the apostle and the believers in Philippi consisted in their prayers for him and his gospel mission, and sharing in suffering for the gospel as they experienced the opposition he also experienced, and as they imitated the costly pattern of Christ, humbling themselves in service of one another.

It consisted in a financial partnership as their extreme poverty welled up in compassionate gospel generosity to support Paul’s mission and to bring aid to the destitute and desperate brethren in Jerusalem.

Such are the majestic contours of the word “fellowship”, just in the letter to the Philippians. So much more than a cup of tea!

So when I talk about the diocesan fellowship of churches and organisations, I am speaking in a shorthand way about the fellowship we share as Christian believers. In the biblical sense, organisations don’t have fellowship – people do. Even when we speak of the fellowship of churches – as we might to describe a denomination – we mean the fellowship of the believers who are united in Christ, who share in the Holy Spirit who binds us together and works in us to conform us to Christ and corrects, trains, encourages and equips us by his word.

As Sydney Anglicans who gather as churches, we have by ordinances of this Synod brought into being organisations and schools that, along with the churches, seek to serve the disciplemaking purpose of the Lord Jesus. Shaped by the gospel we share a common purpose.

The churches in Sydney have always sought to combine resources to advance the gospel in fellowship with one another, and created organisations to that end, as creatures of the Synod.

But today, it is neither certain nor especially common in Anglican dioceses – in Australia at least – that churches, schools and organisations share a common gospel purpose.

I met recently with the men and women who serve in Anglican schools in the Diocese as chaplains and teachers of Christian Studies. How glad and grateful I am for their dedication, imagination and heart to bring the gospel to the children and young adults with whom they interact many times a week, often over many years – the vast majority of whom have no other opportunity to hear of the love and sovereign grace of the Lord Jesus.

Another 70 or more chaplains are engaged by Anglicare to bring the word of God to those who live in seniors living communities or seniors care; or hostels, hospitals and prisons, as well as to those who serve in police or emergency services. About 6000 people meet weekly in churches run by Anglicare chaplains.

That we may say with some confidence that our Diocese is a fellowship of churches, organisations and schools shaped by the gospel and sharing a common purpose is something for which we ought, humanly, to thank our forebears who have laboured to articulate a biblical vision of Christian mission and ministry, which has been so fundamental in the devotion and discipleship of so many of us Sydney Anglicans.

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But we ought also, under God, to recognise that this is a rare and precious legacy and a vital stewardship. We have, if I may put it this way, been given five talents. We might reverently recall the Lord’s saying, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked”.

What might we then do in partnership with one another for the sake of the gospel in which we share? What are we hoping to see?

MULTIPLICATION Under God, we seek to see God multiply believers in Christ, multiply churches and multiply workers for the harvest field. The multiplication of faithful Christians, Bible-believing churches and servant-hearted, gospel-minded leaders in the church, family and community at large is the work of God, work that only God can bring about – and we may only dare to articulate such aspirations in prayerful dependence on God’s Holy Spirit to work first in us, changing our own self-centred and self-promoting hearts to hearts broken by the Lord of glory and grace, and hearts broken for the world, alienated from God and facing his just judgement.

We need the work of God in us so that we long for the welfare of our neighbours and friends and fellow Sydneysiders with the longing of Jesus, who wept over Jerusalem, though it was hardened against him.

CONTEXT The Synod business paper describes some of the context in which we seek to proclaim Christ as Lord, and our community’s great need for the light, life, health and hope of the gospel. I am very grateful for the sustained efforts of Dean Sandy Grant along with others in the Diocese and beyond it (including notably our host in this place [Wesley Conference Centre], the Rev Stu Cameron), for their efforts to see legislative action to restrict the accessibility of online gambling services and poker machines, both of which target the most vulnerable and cause immeasurable grief in hundreds of individual lives and families.

We join all Australians in being grieved and outraged by the number of women, especially, who experience violence in their own homes. Our Domestic Violence Monitoring group reports to this Synod.

The Anglicare report Hungry or Homeless – Tough Choices in a Cost-of-Living Crisis records the vulnerability to homelessness experienced by increasing numbers of young people, as well as women and children affected by family violence, and by working Australians sometimes with more than one job who are unable to access affordable housing. I thank God for all that our ministers, churches and agencies, including many of you, are doing to bring practical help, compassion and hope to people in all kinds of vulnerable circumstances. Thank you.

The context of our mission is no less needy than it was at the beginning but, at least in some places, it is arguably less open.

Among other things, the widening gap between the individualism of the wider culture and the biblical ethics of humanity put us at odds with the dominant culture’s primary virtue of autonomous self-expression.

However, this is hardly new. Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person” SouthernCross

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(Mark 7:20-23). We hear the word of the Lord and instantly know the conviction of his Spirit.

I have no hesitation in saying that the disciple-making mission that the Lord entrusted to his disciples was intended by him to be an expression of obedience to the great command to love God with our whole selves and to love our neighbours as ourselves. What greater gift could we offer our fellow Australians than just what we ourselves have received? The experience of God’s rescue from the coming wrath, forgiveness of sin and adoption into his family through the atoning sacrifice of the Lord and his Cross.

What greater treasure is there than the riches of God’s grace to be known in the gospel of his Son? What greater refuge is there than the rest offered by the one who is lowly and gentle in heart?

What greater freedom than the light and easy yoke of the Lord who loved us and gave himself for us?

PROCESS In pursuing a common purpose as a fellowship of churches and organisations and schools, I am urging upon us more intentional commitment to communication, collaboration and co-ordination.

The three Cs! Talking together, working together and planning together. As the Funding Principles report says, such things do not require funding! But they do require an investment of time in relationships, prayer that might build trust and a mutually encouraging sense of partnership, a willingness to forgive and to persevere.

Can we cultivate instincts of communication, collaboration and co-ordination? I believe there are many benefits from doing so, including the potential to multiply our impact, identify opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed or unattempted, and avoid overlap and duplication.

And I believe it is urgent that we do so. Few people have any reason to visit a church, and the vast majority of people in Sydney have no real likelihood of encountering the gospel of the Lord Jesus in the ordinary course of events. Collaborative effort can multiply the opportunities for people to develop friendships with Christians or encounter the gospel message.

Of course, such collaboration already exists in spades!

PRIORITIES In order to see a multiplication of believers, churches and leaders, we have identified several priority areas in which we hope to facilitate greater collaboration as a diocesan fellowship over the next five years.

Our highest priorities arise from our most fundamental commitments. As Sydney Anglicans, we are committed to the truth, authority, clarity and unity of the Bible as God’s word, our rule in life and faith, and we rejoice that through the ministry of the word, God works powerfully in the lives of his people by his Holy Spirit as we “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” Holy Scripture.

We are committed to prayer as a gift and privilege of the children of God to ask for what we need for life and service of God, and a means of grace by which God is pleased to bring about his purposes in the world.

We are committed to obeying and prioritising the command of Jesus to make disciples of all nations by going in love to all those who do not know Christ – whether our near neighbours or those overseas, whether sharing our culture or from diverse backgrounds.

We are committed to the local church as the gathered people of God, an outpost of the gospel in every community (being

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transformed by the truth, grace, love and joy of the Lord), which has the responsibility to proclaim the gospel in the community and make Christ known in word, in loving relationships with others and in works of service.

If you were to ask me what I hope might be the lasting impact of this Presidential Address, I would say a renewed commitment to partnership in prayer for the work of making and growing disciples. That as the churches of the Diocese we would not only be concerned for prayer for our own ministries and the work and witness of the members of our church, but also for the disciple-making and disciple-growing work of the neighbouring churches and our gospel impact on our local area.

That we would pray gladly for our partners CMS and Anglican Aid in seeing the world transformed by Christ, and for our college in its vital work of training men and women to serve in word ministries in our churches, schools and many other settings.

And that we would pray for the ministry of our schools and organisations in all the ways in which God uses them to proclaim Christ, to serve the community, to make and grow disciples of Jesus.

How would God answer our prayers for the spread of the gospel and the building of his church if our prayers were as wide as his concern for the world into which he sent his Son? How wonderful it would be if, as a diocesan fellowship of churches and organisations and schools, we embraced the fellowship of prayer more deeply, more consistently and more expectantly. Who knows what the Lord might do? We make our plans and I hope that the plans before you will be welcomed. But God will have his way with us – and fulfil his purposes among us – as we pray.

From such fundamental commitments arise our highest priorities of the ministry of the word, prayer and every Christian pursuing the works that God has prepared for them to walk in.

But in addition to these ever-present priorities, over the next five years we have identified several other priority areas for collaboration across the diocesan network. They are rector wellbeing; recruitment of new leaders for new ministries; collaboration of schools and churches; media engagement and church planting.

INDIGENOUS MINISTRY We are also seeking to make Indigenous leadership and ministry a priority for our diocesan fellowship. I’m delighted that one of the interns enrolled in The Well is Brendon Garlett, who is pastor of Shoalhaven Aboriginal Community Church in Nowra. Another Indigenous man is enrolled at Youthworks and involved in ministry

at Living Waters Church in Redfern. This, too, is a source of encouragement in the life of our Diocese. The Synod will consider the request of the Sydney Anglican Indigenous Peoples Ministry Committee to appoint a committee to report on how to support the leadership of Indigenous ministry in the Diocese.

Sydney has the largest urban population of First Nations peoples in the country and we are grateful to have four Indigenous-led ministries, including three churches. But there are numerous challenges, including that some of the elders of the Indigenous Christian community, many of whom have served faithfully with very little support for many years, are now reaching an age where they cannot be expected to continue to shoulder the greater part of the work. And yet we have few in the wings and no pathway that accounts for the demands and obstacles faced

by Indigenous brothers and sisters who seek to serve the Lord in pastoral ministry.

In recent years, the Synod has acknowledged past failures in relationships with First Peoples and committed to finding ways to be more intentionally involved with the ministry of the gospel to and with Indigenous peoples. We are bound to do so. As Archbishop Robinson said in 1987, anticipating the bicentenary, “One of our failures in Australia has been our inability to come to terms adequately with the Aboriginal people whose lands we annexed and made the basis of our prosperity. We cannot undo the past or be charged with the offences of our forefathers but… if we are humble to God’s Spirit we may find the way to live in the land together for his glory”.

As we live with the gains of previous generations built on the dispossession of First Nations people, so they live with the losses and their ongoing impact – reflected, not least of all, in what we have come to refer to as “the gap”: the marked and pervasive discrepancy in virtually every measure of health, education and standard of living. I hope Synod will warmly welcome the conversation about the best way to support Indigenous ministry into the future, including the appointment of significant leadership roles.

PLANTING CHURCHES Last year, Synod agreed to three significant property proposals relating to our commitment to plant churches in Sydney’s expanding greenfields areas: 1 that the land acquisition levy should continue for another 10 years. This has allowed the ACGC to progress property acquisition opportunities in a timely way. In the past year properties at Box Hill and Catherine Field have been

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acquired. This is a great answer to prayer and a direct outcome of Synod’s decision to partner in this way; 2 that we should seek to develop a diocesan-wide, ministrydirected property strategy so as to harness our property assets to ensure we are able to provide Anglican ministry in greenfields areas; 3 that under certain circumstances, where there are property assets surplus to the needs of local ministry, they may – with the agreement of the parish – be held in trust for the wider purposes of the Diocese: our wider disciplemaking purpose.

This relates to the proposal in the draft property strategy for the South-West Region that we allocate our property resources in the southwest, working on a ratio of one parish to every population of 30,000 people – and consider amalgamations of parishes where: • there are significantly less than that number of people in the parish catchment, or • parish property resources are not fit for purpose, since they were built at a time when the needs of the area were far different than they now are – or soon will be, given the projections for the southwest to experience very considerable and sustained population growth of more than a million people over the next 30 years.

The time frames in which we are speaking necessarily mean we are casting our minds and our prayers to times, ministry needs and opportunities we may never see ourselves. Certainly, almost none of us in this Synod who make these decisions will be the decision makers in 30 years’ time.

In considering the draft property strategy for the southwest, in anticipation that we will undertake similar work for the whole Diocese, we are faced with the challenge of making provision for the ministry of Sydney Anglicans three decades from now.

If we cast our minds back three decades, that takes us just to 1993. I was in second year at Moore College. I’d been a Christian for seven years. I would not have anticipated I would be making this speech – and we cannot anticipate what ministry will be like in 30 years. But we can commit ourselves to being a disciple-making church that seeks to proclaim Christ as Lord and ourselves as servants of others for his sake. We can prayerfully commit ourselves to such decisions today in the prayerful hope and expectation that those who follow us will share our vision of the glory of Jesus and our purpose to serve him by calling our neighbours to repent with us, to put our faith in Jesus, to know the assurance of his love and to live for him and his coming kingdom.

We may need to make decisions that make us uncomfortable or

sad, especially where we have personally benefited or contributed to the ministry of a local church over a long time. These are the very things we long for and build as Sydney Anglicans.

POSTURE Outside my office, painted on the wall in large letters so it can be seen by everyone, is 2 Corinthians 4:5: “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake”.

Here is what I pray will be our constant posture. We proclaim another, not ourselves. We are Sydney Anglicans but we’re for Jesus, not ourselves. There is a Sydney Anglican heritage of faithfulness and gospel fruitfulness for which we ought to give hearty thanks to God, and which we ought to commit ourselves to stewarding with prayerful, joyful, urgent and deliberate intent.

Yet we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. He is our great obsession, he is our heart’s delight, his mission is our great concern, his honour our highest goal, his Kingdom our true home and happiness.

And we are the servants of others for his sake. We do not seek to be servants of the Lord to make ourselves great but to declare the greatness of him whom we serve. We do not proclaim his Lordship to secure lordship for ourselves in his service. We make ourselves servants of others for his sake. Not only for their sake, though we long that they may know the wonder of his love, the beauty of his truth, the fullness of his life; but foundationally that he may be glorified as people turn to him and trust in him – him who alone is worthy of all honour and praise and glory, and dominion and blessing and riches, now and forever. Amen. SC This is an edited version of Archbishop Raffel’s Presidential Address on the first night of the diocesan Synod in September.

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21

Wise words in good faith

David Höhne

T

h e s e are the words of

Words like violence, break the silence Come crashing in, into my little world Painful to me, pierce right through me Can’t you understand? Oh, my little girl All I ever wanted, All I ever needed Is here in my arms Words are very Unnecessary; They can only do harm

names mentioned, Solomon was King in Vows are spoken to be broken synth-pop band Depeche Mode, Israel when the nation was at its height.

Feelings are intense; words are trivial circa 1990. Even three decades The land was like the Garden of Eden; Pleasures remain, so does the pain Words are meaningless and forgettable. later, the song could be an the people were at rest. The incredible anthem for our Romantic age.

Exodus journey had finally ended as We are constantly told that truth is a God moved into the temple to dwell with feeling: even pains that leave an indelible mark are more reliable Israel and be their God. It was a time of good faith in Israel. than the words we use to describe them. Vows and promises are Solomon’s reign began with a potentially history-changing meaningless unless they feel true to us. The most reliable form of event: “At Gibeon, the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by truth is the experience of pleasure born in the desire for physical night, and God said, ‘Ask what I shall give you’. And Solomon said... intimacy.

‘Give your servant… an understanding mind to govern your people, Ours is an age of bad faith; failed institutions and fallen heroes that I may discern between good and evil” (1 Kings 3:5-6a, 9, ESV). have left the Western mindset fumbling for words. How can we Did you notice what Solomon asked for? He asked God for the have faith in words in such an era? knowledge of good and evil –the very thing Adam failed to do In the age of Proverbs, we have the opportunity to reflect on the in the Garden of Eden! From Genesis 3, the man and the woman words of Solomon and a way back towards faith in words. listened to the serpent instead of God and took for themselves the knowledge of good and evil. They defied the Lord’s words and WISDOM FROM A TIME OF GOOD FAITH ignored his warning, following their envious design.

As pithy and applicable as various proverbs appear, placing them Solomon becomes the poster boy of wisdom and Israelite in a historical context takes more work. Thankfully, hints here kingship. More importantly, he is potentially the one who will and there assist us in locating these general observations in the overcome the curse on humanity, the one who will crush the flow of the Old Testament story and, therefore, in relation to the serpent’s head, and the one who will, under God, rule the world Lord Jesus. as Adam and Eve should have.

The most important of these markers are the ones that associate From this perspective, we begin to understand some of the Proverbs with the story of Solomon, Israel’s wisest king. The theological significance of the book of Proverbs. The sayings it ascription “The proverbs of Solomon” appears twice in the book contains are more than just a series of canny observations about (1:1, 10:1) along with various other authors, but unlike the other life in the world – they are an aspect by which human beings can 22

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What the Book of Proverbs says about the words we speak and the words we hear.

rule their world by creating meaning within it.

The wisdom of Proverbs enables the Israelites to exercise something of the mandate that God gave humanity in the Garden of Eden when he created them in his image. But that was then, and this is now. How shall we find our way towards such proverbial optimism when it comes to the battle between words and feelings?

FOOLISH WORDS AND THEIR POISON The tsunami of words that washes over us every minute of every day trains us to filter out much and attend to specific voices. We love them and we hate them as they needle our weakness and flatter our fears.

And yet, Proverbs has anticipated such a state of affairs and we read: A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger (15:1).

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit (15:4).

Of course, when we lay them out like this, the value of wise words over foolish ones seems obvious – yet, so often, that is not our experience. The passing of time and the poison of fear, guilt or shame mean that some foolish words seem to have an irresistible power, a command we must obey. These words pierce us with barbs that leave us feeling belittled and bereft of faith or future.

We see ourselves in these foolish words as weak and naive or false and foreign. Their voices leave stains in our hearts such that we can only see ourselves as unwanted, unlovely or impure – imposters. Foolish words leave scars that become callouses of bitterness and resentment, envy or self-loathing: A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed (15:13).

The tragedy of the situation is that, in our misery, instead of turning away from these foolish voices towards wisdom, having turned inward we seek different forms of foolishness – the voices of false comforters. Some voices we love and long for as they veil our greed or pamper our pride, soothe our hesitations and enfold our consciences in silky sounds that silence doubts and numb our regrets. They can be as simple as advertising and as subtle as a chat group of friends.

Amid these forums of favour, the foolish voices shout for our rights even as they croon and coo over our “needs”. They are within and without – feeding our fantasies, reshaping our memories. In such words, we are always innocent and always aggrieved, always deserving and never demanding, always precious and never presuming.

As Solomon says, “the mouths of fools feed on folly” (15:14), or “Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense” (15:21). Whether it’s Instagram, Reddit or some other feed algorithm, foolish words guide and govern our deep dives down the rabbit hole, where the echoes of foolishness fill the chamber of our discontent. At the bottom we realise, to our shock and horror, what we have become: “A scoffer does not like to be reproved; he will not go to the wise” (15:12).

HOW TO BE A WISE LISTENER Proverbs is full of warnings concerning the perils of listening to the foolish. To avoid this, we must learn to be wise listeners. The wise can hear rebuke.

A fool despises his father’s instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent (15:5).

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Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future (19:20).

Wise listening is a lost virtue in the era of consumer confidence and focus groups where the customer is always right. To correct someone is to violate their rights, restrict their freedoms, or breed hatred. Our social imagination sees no gap between the reality of an individual’s perception and his or her perception of reality.

And so, here is our dilemma: the one piece of wisdom we need to hear is the one to which we listen the least. Ironically, it doesn’t matter how intelligent or educated you might be; refusing to hear correction affects everyone. If you are highly educated like me, naturally you already know everything and are therefore never wrong. Those who would correct you obviously haven’t thought hard enough about the issue.

So Solomon warns me (us): There is severe discipline for him who forsakes the way; whoever hates reproof will die (15:10).

THE WISE LISTEN TO GOD From the perspective of Proverbs, there is one voice whose word we must attend – the Lord who made us – if for no other reason that no one has God’s perspective on the world and everything in it: The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good (15:3).

If we take Solomon’s advice, wisdom should be as simple as reading the instructions before using new home technology like a coffee machine or a dishwasher. But there’s the rub: these things seem so straightforward or self-evident that we think, “I’ll be all right; I don’t need any help”. Like the way that men never ask for directions or speak to a sales assistant.

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To hear a rebuke, we need to feel secure and significant; we need to hear loyalty and the offer of embrace rather than dismissal and isolation: By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil (16:6).

Here, then, is where the wisdom of God stands out before all other words. For us to make our way back towards good faith, we need the wisdom of one greater than Solomon.

THE WISDOM OF THE CROSS Here is the rebuke that kills us even as it gives us life. In the Cross, we hear of what we deserve from God and what we need from God in the one promise. The wisdom of God deconstructs our reason, denies our denial, rejects our rejection, diffuses our conceit and addresses our evil for the sake of our good. As Paul tells the Corinthians, God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor 1:27-30).

In the promise that Jesus died for our sins (our foolish disregard for the word of God) we hear the rebuke that we need, not the one we deserve. In the broken and bloodied body of Jesus of Nazareth, we see the total sum of human folly that seeks to live in the world without God – yet at the same time, we see a lamb offered by God as a sacrifice to acquit us of the punishment we deserve.

Here is the loyalty of God to us; here is the connection of one who stands in our place – hear this rebuke and live! In his grace, God cannot wait for us to comprehend the wise rebuke he put before us at the Cross, and so his Spirit gathers us and prepares our hearts to hear.

But, as it is written, “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” – these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit... we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us

by God (1 Cor 2:9-10a, 12).

It is the power of God’s Spirit that raises us from the death of our discontent, that turns the ears of our hearts away from the foolish words to hear the one true Word of God. Through the crucified Christ we are given the gift of good faith that enables us to entrust ourselves to words again such that Solomon’s words can ring true for us: The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise (15:31).

SC

The Rev Dr David Höhne is the Academic Dean at Moore College and teaches Christian Doctrine and Philosophy.

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Don’t fail to consider foster care Matthew Wilcoxen

I

will never forget the night I became a foster carer. It was

just after midnight on Maundy Thursday in 2018 when the social worker arrived with an 18-month-old boy who was scared, sick, and suffering from 12 fractures throughout his body as well as numerous cigarette burns on his forehead.

As I changed my first ever dirty nappy that night I said, halfjokingly, “Lord, I bet the disciples’ feet weren’t quite as bad as this”.

From there, we were off to the races as temporary carers of this child, tasked with all the normal things parents do: feeding, clothing, playing, teaching, dropping off and picking up, but with the added difficulty of special medical appointments, parental visits, social worker home inspections, learning to care for a child from a different cultural background, and the uncertainty of never knowing how long this arrangement would be in place.

It all got more complex three months later when we found out our foster son had two older half-sisters, aged 7 and 8, who needed placement. We couldn’t refuse the opportunity to give the girls a good home and to reunite the siblings, so a few days later there were three children in the house.

In our case, this temporary arrangement went on for nearly two years before, having exhausted every avenue for reunification or placement with kin, the agency asked us if we would be willing to consider adopting all three children. Of course, we said “Yes”, and today you can see the children getting their education at St Andrew’s Cathedral School or coming forward for Holy Communion on Sundays at Darlinghurst.

They are wonderful, joyful children who are growing and developing, and have already overcome more than many men and women deal with in a lifetime. All they needed was safety and unconditional love.

According to a September 10 report in The Sydney Morning Herald, SouthernCross

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School pick-up: The Rev Matthew Wilcoxen with his wife Annie and their three children (from left) Ziyra, Christopher and Caira.

there are 15,000 children in the NSW child protection system.

Some of them are in good foster homes, to be sure. But many are not, I assure you.

Increasingly, there just aren’t enough foster carers at all. A growing number of children are being placed into emergency care in hotels, motels and other group accommodations.

According to the Herald article, “The Department of Communities and Justice estimates that an extra 600 foster carers are needed each year to take care of children who cannot live safely at home”. Kate Washington, the NSW Minister for Families and Communities, is quoted as saying: “There are amazing foster and

kinship carers right across NSW, but we desperately need more”.

There is a desperate need in our city and our state for more people who can welcome children into healthy homes. And my question is, who better than Sydney Anglicans? Who would we rather see do this work?

This isn’t something you can accomplish with laws or letters to your local member. This requires faith and hope and love in action.

If we can’t do that, who can? If we won’t do it, who will?

SC

The Rev Matthew Wilcoxen is the rector of St John’s, Darlinghurst. This is an edited version of a speech he gave at the recent diocesan Synod.

PRACTICAL WAYS TO CHAMPION FOSTER CARE IN YOUR PARISH • Make people more aware of the need. Kids do not walk around with signs on them indicating that they are in foster care, and so the need can remain invisible if we don’t help people to see it.

• We should help our congregations see something like foster care as a practical outworking of the gospel and ask them to consider whether it might be something they are called to. My wife Annie and I tried for years to have children naturally but couldn’t, and it was our Christian faith that led us to the conclusion that God was closing the womb so that we might open our home in a different way.

• We need to familiarise ourselves with, and to make familiar to others, the Anglicare resources that can help people go through the screening, training and licensing process required to become a foster carer.

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• Think about foster care families as something that your wider parish can get behind. Foster care was, by far, the most difficult thing Annie and I have ever done, and I don’t think we could have got through it without the people in our previous parish, the Church of the Resurrection in Washington, DC. They prayed for us, cooked us meals, babysat our kids, paid for us to go on holiday and all sorts of other practical help. We couldn’t have done it without them, but it’s also true that it paid immense spiritual and relational dividends for the church.

• Mark your parish calendar each year in September for Foster Carer and Kinship Week as a time to give special attention to this issue – to bring it before our people, to pray, and to celebrate those among us who open their homes in this special way.

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The value of the local church

Simon Flinders

A

fter 12½ years at Northbridge, my final service

as rector was on Christmas morning, 2022. I cried for most of Christmas Day. And I cried on and off through January. And though the shape of my grief has changed as time has gone on, it’s nevertheless been my constant companion throughout this year.

I suspect it will continue to be for some time. And that’s because I absolutely loved being a pastor in the local church at Northbridge.

It has always seemed to me to be a spectacular privilege to be set apart for service as a shepherd of Christ’s flock.

Of course, the work of leading a church is often hard, stressful and emotionally taxing. But it’s also full of encouragement and joy and, even on the toughest days, it remains an immense honour to serve the Lord Jesus in that way. On many occasions through the course of this year people have asked me whether I miss pastoral ministry now I work in a very different role. And the answer is always the same: you bet I do. I miss it terribly.

THE LOCAL CHURCH IN THE PURPOSES OF GOD So, to begin, let’s talk about the importance of the local church in God’s purposes.

The fruit of his saving work All of us were at one time dead in our sins, yet in his loving mercy God sent the Lord Jesus to save us. But he didn’t just rescue us to be individually right with him. Rather, his gift is our adoption into his family (Ephesians 2:1-10, 1:5).

God’s purpose, according to Ephesians 2, is the creation of one new humanity in which every hostility, and especially the hostility between Jew and Gentile, is put to death by the cross.

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Paul describes this new humanity as a “household” (2:19), and the chapter climaxes this way: “in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (v22).

This is the end towards which the saving work of Christ is directed – the unification of all under Christ, particularly the unification of his people in his house. This is why when Paul speaks of headship in chapter 5, he points husbands to the model of Christ who is “the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour” (v23). You notice that he’s not simply the Saviour of individual believers but the Saviour of his church.

The church, then, is the fruit of God’s saving work through Christ and becomes a demonstration of just how wise God is.

This is God’s eternal purpose in Christ (3:11). Yet people in our circles often speak as if the local church has a primarily missional value. The kind of input that often seems to come from church consultants also has this flavour.

This thinking troubles me. Of course, the gospel of Jesus that forms the church also enlivens it and propels the people of God to be zealous for the work of his gospel in the world. And the local church proclaims the gospel and expects outsiders to come into her midst, be exposed to the gospel and so fall down and worship God (1 Cor 14:25).

Yet the idea that the local church has a primarily missional purpose is hard to find in the pages of the New Testament. When we speak as if this is its purpose, I worry that we confuse church and gospel. Because it’s the gospel that is the primary agent of God’s mission in the world, not the local church. And I worry, too, that when we think and speak like this, we become foggy in our thinking about church in ways that might have a number of unhelpful implications. Church is not merely a means to an end, but a glorious end itself.

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How God works through the local church.

THE LOCAL CHURCH IN THE LIFE OF THE DIOCESE In a sense, we’re all united to Christ and thereby each other, yet the language of “unity” in the New Testament is primarily reserved for the oneness experienced in the local congregation. But it’s the language of “fellowship” that the Bible usually uses when it speaks of the relationships between different churches. This fellowship is characterised chiefly by generosity, expressed in prayer for other Christians and churches, financial provision for one another, the sharing of leaders and occasionally leaders meeting together.

This is the New Testament’s vision for generous fellowship in the mission of God.

A heavenly reality Because the local church is the fruit of God’s saving work, we also need to say it is an earthly manifestation of a future and present heavenly reality (Eph 2:6-7). In the coming ages the members of the heavenly church will taste even more of God’s grace. This is our future hope but also our blessing right now because of our union with Christ. We have been raised with Christ and are seated in the heavenly realms in him. A present reality. In Christ, we’ve come to the heavenly Jerusalem. We’re there.

So, our local churches are visible manifestations of that invisible heavenly reality. This is a wonderfully profound double truth: that as we meet physically, week by week, Christ is spiritually present with us where we are, and we are present spiritually where Christ is.

For the sustenance of his people The local church is not only a signpost to the wisdom of God and the heavenly gathering all God’s people enjoy, it’s also his provision for the sustenance of his people.

The church in heaven is singular and continuous. The churches on earth take many forms and only gather intermittently. And yet in every place where the Lord’s people gather, the risen Jesus empowers them to serve one another in love as his word works within them. So, by our nearness to one another we comfort, encourage, teach and correct each other for our maturing in the likeness of Jesus.

Not only is God’s church an earthly expression of the eternal unification of all the saints under Christ, it is the chief locus of his sanctifying work in his people – the arena in which we taste his love in the love of others, and in which we bless others just as we have been blessed. May God be praised!

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A Diocese like ours can rightly be seen as one expression of this kind of biblical fellowship, yet the distinction between the Diocese and the churches remains important. The local church is God-ordained and entails God-ordained responsibilities for its members and leaders. A diocese, on the other hand, at least as we experience it, is not ordained by God since it is not envisaged by the New Testament writers, and so its responsibilities are determined simply by godly wisdom.

Of course, in our Diocese the fellowship includes organisations and schools with whom we work to make disciples for Jesus.

They’re not churches. And, like the Diocese, these organisations and schools are not God-ordained, though they are, by virtue of history and providence, a gift from God in our gospel collaboration.

Our diocesan fellowship is a wise way for us to organise ourselves in the last days, and it’s an endeavour filled with promise and possibility as we seek to see the gospel grow together. The New Testament invites us to creativity and imagination as we think about how this kind of fellowship might flourish between us, with a generosity that really does cause the gospel to grow.

But the Diocese will always be, at its core, the wisdom of people in service of the churches – which are the wisdom of God.

THE LOCAL CHURCH FOR EVERY BELIEVER It is God’s gift to belong a Diocese that honours Christ and his word – which seeks to preserve the gospel for future generations and seeks the fruitfulness of the gospel in this generation. But is it not an even greater gift to belong to a local church where the deep riches of God’s wisdom and grace are seen and experienced like nowhere else?

The local church is where God’s people benefit from the gift of the Spirit in the life of others, not just their own. It’s where we hear the truth of God spoken by others in words we would not have chosen ourselves. Where we taste Christ’s love in bread and wine, in the same moment as those who taste it with us. Where the word of God is not just discussed but preached so that at least once each week we listen with the humble silence of those who hear their Father’s voice.

The local church is where we confess our sins in the company of fellow sinners and learn that we are not alone in our failures, nor in our forgiveness. Where we pray together for those things we often fail to pray for on our own, and where we intercede for others and they for us. Where we find older saints who’ve walked our road before us, and younger saints who remind us of how wide our eyes were when we first believed.

The local church is where we laugh with some in their delight and mourn with others in their grief, and where we find the precious comfort of people rejoicing and weeping with us amid our 27

darkest trials. Where we find brothers and sisters, familial affection, even among those we barely know. Where we come into conflict with each other and learn forbearance, repentance and reconciliation, by which the Lord refines us.

Where we are rebuked in love for our maturing.

It is where people find salvation, truth, hope, joy. Where the word of Christ dwells richly. Where people who would never rub shoulders but for the precious mercy of Jesus learn to love each other deeply from the heart; and where that love covers over a multitude of sins. It is both painful and sweet, at once turbulent and a place of peace, simultaneously full of brokenness and a stunning foretaste of what’s to come – precisely because it is the very wisdom of God. I said before that when people have asked me whether I miss pastoral ministry, the answer is always that I miss it terribly. But what I usually add is that it’s not so much the work of pastoral ministry I miss. It’s not so much the role I had and its blessings. What I really miss are the Lord’s people – the precious brothers and sisters who were for so long my family in the Lord, those who were as much a gift to me as I ever was to them.

This is the importance of the local church. So much so that “important” doesn’t feel like quite the right word. This is the glory of the local church. The astounding beauty of the local church. The wisdom of God. SC

The Ven Simon Flinders is Archdeacon to the Archbishop of Sydney. This is an edited version of a talk he gave at the September ACL dinner.

Atwood farewelled

Archdeacon Neil Atwood’s many decades of ministry across the Sydney Diocese – and his more recent work as parish consultant for the Office of the Director of Safe Ministry, where he also led the production of online Safe Ministry training – were celebrated on the final day of Synod in September, prior to his retirement.

Normally, once a clergy member’s time as archdeacon has ended, they revert to their previous title (usually “the Rev”), but Archbishop Raffel announced to much applause that he was conferring on Archdeacon Atwood the title of Archdeacon Emeritus: “in recognition of Neil and Robyn’s 45 years of service in the Diocese in parishes, in assisting the Bishop of the Western

Region as assistant and then archdeacon, as well as your contributions to safe ministry in the life of the Diocese”.

Archdeacon Atwood trained in youth ministry in the 1970s and served in the parishes of Dapto, Normanhurst, Willoughby, Tregear, Mt Druitt, Toongabbie and Springwood.

He wa s ma de deacon in 2007 shortly after moving to Springwood Anglican, where he remained as assistant minister until 2011, when he became assistant to the Bishop of the Western Region, Ivan Lee. He was made Archdeacon of the Western Region in 2019, and then worked under the area’s next bishop, Gary Koo. The Rev Roger Cunningham, rector of Emu Plains, spoke of his gratitude for Archdeacon

VACANT PARISHES List of parishes and provisional parishes, vacant or becoming vacant, as at October 6, 2023: • Baulkham Hills • Belmore with McCallums Hill and Clemton Park • Beverly Hills with Kingsgrove • Castle Hill • Centennial Park • Concord and Burwood • Eagle Vale** • Epping • Glebe*

• Helensburgh and Stanwell Park • Liverpool South** • Lugarno • Regents Park* • Rosemeadow* • Shoalhaven Heads • South Head • South Hurstville • Westmead

* denotes provisional parishes or Archbishop’s appointments ** right of nomination suspended/on hold

28

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SouthernCross

November–December 2023

Clergy moves.

Atwo od’s friendship and partnership in the gospel.

In his subsequent prayer, M r C u n ni n g h a m t h a n ke d God “for the gift to us, and the proclamation of your gospel that you have brought about, through the dedicated service of Neil and Robyn – whether in the southern end of the Diocese, the northern, or [for] many years, in the west... We thank you for the contributions that you have brought through Neil in our shared vision of seeing lives transformed through Jesus”.

The Rev Matt Dodd moved from assistant minister of Lakemba to rector on June 28.

Rector of Helensburgh and Stanwell Park, the Rev Steve Carlisle, will become the new director of Youthworks’ Year 13 program on November 27.

Mr Joshua David Murphy has relinquished his holy orders, effective August 21, 2023.

VALE

The Rev Don Wilson died on July 26, aged 80. Born Donald Keith Wilson on September 16, 1942, he grew up in Dorrigo and Armidale before the family moved to Sydney, where he attended North Sydney Boys’ High.

Mr Wilson lived in Willoughby and was part of the congregation at St Stephen’s – where he gave his life to Jesus on a camp when he was 15. He joined the men’s group, was mentored by older Christians and heard the stories and testimonies of many visiting speakers.

By 1968, Mr Wilson was a SouthernCross

counsellor and chorister for the Billy Graham Crusade while studying and working in accountancy – yet his heart was in sharing the gosp el and making disciples of Jesus.

Encouraged by his minister, he began study at Moore College.

In 1970 he married his wife Libby, was ordained and became curate at Darlinghurst. They moved to Engadine in 1972, where Mr Wilson was assistant minister in what was then a fivechurch parish, and he became rector of South Canterbury with Clemton Park three years later.

In 1978, the Wilsons were called to minister in the Western Australian mining town of Newman with BCA, where they remained for four years. Mr Wilson was involved in a piece of land being set aside to build a church and rectory, but there was no money to build either.

In God’s providence, only two years after the family returned to Sydney and Mr Wilson became rector of Padstow, the NSW secretary of BCA became rector of Mr Wilson’s old church of Willoughby – which was looking for a new project to fund. The parish paid for the construction of the church in Newman.

Mr Wilson was rector of Padstow until 2002, although a life-threatening struggle with pancreatitis kept him on sick leave for more than a year from late 1999.

Mrs Wilson told people at her husband’s funeral that the most important thing about their “20 wonderful years [at Padstow] has been ref lected in the messages I have received from those who were children and youths during that time, who have told of their acceptance ‘as much as the adults’ – or that things they learned from Don have stayed with them and are just as valid today. We praised God and prayed for you all”.

Recurring illness kept Mr Wilson from returning to work after 20 02 and the couple retired to the southern

November–December 2023

Illawarra and joined St Paul’s, missionaries in many countries.

Shellharbour, where Mr Wilson In 1987, he became rector of served in an honorary capacity Shellharbour, and was made a as health permitted.

Canon of St Michael’s Cathedral, Said Mrs Wilson, “Though we Wollongong in 1989. will all miss him, we know he is The year Canon Wilson turned finally with his Lord and Saviour 60, he and Mrs Wilson packed Jesus Christ... He has met him their bags to serve the people of face to face: no more pain or DR Congo – then Zaire – with suffering, now healed and whole. CMS. He was made assistant And God’s great faithfulness will bishop of Bukavu that year. carry us through the future.”

T h e D a w s o n s ’ da u g h t e r Deborah West said this new role required her father to learn French in Maniema before moving to Kindu. “Dad had many experiences in Zaire, travelling around the villages and rainforests to strengthen the churches,” she said. “In 1996, Mum and Dad were evacuated b y t h e M i s s i o n Av i a t i o n Fellowship because of the war – they were unable to return and grieved leaving Zaire and their Bishop Peter Dawson died on friends so suddenly.”

August 9, aged 91.

Bishop and Mrs Dawson Born Peter Donald Dawson returned to Australia in 1997 on April 18, 1932, he grew up and retired to Shellharbour, but in St Peters, attending school kept serving however they could. locally but not church – until The rector of Shellharbour, a neighbour took him to youth the Rev Nigel Parker, described group at St Peter’s, Cooks River, Bishop Dawson as someone of where he gave his life to Christ “profound faith... [who] wanted at the age of 18. everyone to come to know Jesus.”

A call to ministry a few years Bishop Dawson’s funeral later meant Mr Dawson needed service, he added, was “clearly to obtain his Leaving Certificate, set on his certainty and hope in which he studied for at night Christ’s resurrection. And he did while working during the day. this with a beautiful idea in mind He began at Moore College that springs from his beloved in 1954 and, after ordination in East Africa: kusindikiza.

1957, was curate at Penrith and “It’s a lovely east African Mascot before he and his wife tradition that once a visit to Marie became missionaries in a friend’s home has finished, Tanzania with CMS in 1959. They as a gesture of kindness and served in Mwanza, Morogoro and respect the host will walk with then Msalato, north of Dodoma, his departing friend part of the where Mr Dawson (who became way home. Whenever I visited a Canon of Dodoma Cathedral in Peter, he would walk with me a 1970), served at the Bible School little way as I departed... and often went out on safari to “At his thanksgiving service, share the gospel. we recognised that we have T h e fa m i l y re t u r n e d to visited with Peter, he warmly Australia in 1975, and Canon welcomed and served us in Dawson became the “overseas” Christian love and fellowship, secretary of CMS. He spent and he travelled this far with more than 12 years in this us – but now, he has left us to role, travelling across the return home: home to his Lord. globe to support the society’s Kusindikiza!”

29

Book reviews

Voices of the faithful Judy Adamson 10 Dead Gals You Should Know – Leaving an Enduring Legacy

By Rachel Ciano and Ian J Maddock (Christian Focus)

I

f the title of this book sounds vaguely familiar, that’s

because in 2021 its authors – Sydney Missionary and Bible College lecturers Rachel Ciano and the Rev Dr Ian Maddock – published 10 Dead Guys You Should Know to introduce readers to a group of faithful Christian men, some of whom aren’t as widely known as they should be.

While you could say it’s only right there should now be a second volume highlighting the noteworthy faith lives of 10 women, the authors observe in their introduction that this hasn’t been done simply to “balance the scales” but, rather, because women have equal value and honour in God’s eyes and receive salvation and his Spirit equally.

“If our assemblage of dead guys was intended to encourage both men and women in their faith, then our desire is that the ‘gals’ will do precisely the same,” they write. “In other words, this isn’t a book only for women – it’s a book for everyone about women, whom God has used to accomplish his purposes in this world.”

Every story in the book is extraordinary. The women chosen lived from the 1st century to the 20th century. Some were highborn; others were not. Some were long-lived and influential, while others were martyrs or outcasts. Some names you will know well, like Jesus’ mother, Mary; others, like Selina, the Countess of

Huntingdon or Anne Dutton, may be completely new.

The central thing about each of these women, of course, is that their lives were lived for the glory of God through their trust in Jesus.

Having said that, Ciano and Maddock have not sought to present the “gals” as plaster saints. Each of them made mistakes – for example, the extreme asceticism of Catherine of Siena (13471380) meant she basically starved herself to death – and they also get into plenty of heated theological arguments. Yet, in all things the women seek to honour Christ within their spheres of influence.

They teach, write, speak and travel in order to share the news of salvation. They cling to the teachings of Scripture, pray earnestly and speak out against corruption, apathy and false teaching.

Each chapter is self-contained, so while you can read the book straight through you can also take it in bite-sized pieces, and then perhaps stop to reflect on each woman’s life and faith. It’s an easy read on the whole, and although some theological terms might require a quick Google search there are also plenty of notes along the way in order to explain less familiar concepts, plus helpful historical context to ground each story within its time period.

But back to these 10 amazing women. Consider the Countess of Huntingdon (1707-1791), whose chapels, chaplains and evangelistic

The challenges of the Christian walk Russell Powell His Workmanship – Reflections on living in Christ

by Professor John Clark (Ark House Press)

One of the key aims of the Southern Cross magazine is to encourage Sydney Anglicans to read Christian books. We are, by and large, good readers. Most of our ministry leaders challenge themselves, and each other, with Christian writing of all types.

Perhaps most encouraging of all, many Sydney Anglicans have taken up the pen (or keyboard) to write on a wide variety of topics – from commentaries to testimonies and books on living the Christian life. We regularly review books from Youthworks, Matthias Media and their various imprints, as well as great works by Moore College authors.

written helpful books. This brings me to Professor John Clark, a former lecturer, university researcher and university president who has chosen to produce a Christian book in his retirement.

Drawn from occasional Bible talks he has given, Professor Clark says he has “tried to use the light of Scripture to examine some of the basic challenges of our Christian walk, which I think we should try to understand and integrate into our daily lives. This book is therefore simply intended as a general – and, I trust, Biblically faithful – encouragement for my fellow everyday adult Christian believers, or… genuine inquirers.

This is not confined to the experts. As I said “I wanted it to be something folk could dip in a review last year (“Faith Revisited”, SC, into as time and circumstance allowed, Nov-Dec 2022), we can be encouraged but not feel they would lose its thread by the number of laypeople who have between reads.”

30

SouthernCross

November–December 2023

from page 32

Some episodes are crisp and clear; others require fiddling with the volume knob every time the speaker changes.

In the same way, the information contained in some episodes is easy to take in while, at other times, it can be hard work to decipher what is being said. It’s worth it, though, as the content is fantastic and very helpful.

Episodes average around the one-hour mark. Aware of the effort required to keep taking the information in, Mrs Ling helpfully flags intermission and encourages us to pause, reflect, jot down notes or take a brain break so we are refreshed for the second half of the conversation.

If you’re one of the people in your parish who cares deeply about the ministry team and wants to support them and see them thrive in a lifetime of service, listen to this pod.

SC zeal increased Christian witness to the English aristocracy – and of whom George III said, “I wish there was a Lady Huntingdon in every diocese in my kingdom”!

Or Anne Dutton (1692-1765), who wrote that “the Lord that call’d me to feed his Lambs, has extended my Usefulness to many at a great Distance, by Writing, and Printing, far beyond what I thought of”.

Or imprisoned English teenager Lady Jane Grey who, shortly before her execution in 1554, composedly refuted the argument of a Catholic theologian about transubstantiation: God forbid that I should say that I eat the very natural body and blood of Christ, for then either I should pluck away my redemption, or else there were two bodies, or two Christs. One body was tormented on the cross, and then if they did eat another body, then he had two bodies. Or if his body was eaten, then it was not broken upon the cross... I pray you answer me this one question: Where was Christ when he said, ‘Take, eat, this is my body?’ Was he not at the table when he said so? He was at that time alive, and did not suffer until the next day... What did he take, but bread? What did he break, but bread? What did he give, but bread?

Each story in 10 Dead Gals You Should Know is a challenge and an encouragement to all Christians to live more humbly and wholeheartedly for Jesus. The book is well worth the read. SC

With that aim in mind, I feel he has been largely successful.

I am still looking for a book that a total and complete novice could pick up and start to understand the Christian faith.

For the majority of people, there is now so much distance between them and any basic knowledge of God, Jesus and the Bible that I think we start too far ahead of them. We have been so Christianised in our understanding that we take sin, biblical inspiration and even basic history for granted.

That being said, the readers of His Workmanship will presumably have more background, as is reflected in the fact that the chapters started out as talks to a “churched” audience.

Professor Clark acknowledges that he is no theologian but his understanding

SouthernCross

November–December 2023

TWO TIDBITS TO TAKE WITH YOU Episode: From Corporate to Parish HR: “I thought it would be different” “I think there are ministers out there who are really burdened, and love their staff and God’s people to the point of laying awake at night and worrying about them.

Being burdened, and not in a bad way. I see that all the time.” (Vikki Napier, parish human resources partner for the Sydney Diocese) Episode: Transforming the Narrative on Ministry Formation “We had so many pastors [in our US research] tell us that some of their closest friends weren’t just outside of the church, but they weren’t even Christians… they had to get all the way outside the system, and that’s where they found personal relationships and connections and couple relationships and connections.” (Professor Donald Guthrie, Trinity International University and coauthor of Resilient Ministry: What Pastors Told Us about Surviving and Thriving.)

as a product of God’s workmanship and refining for more than 50 years shines through each page. The style is engaging and the layout of chapters is helpful. Headings like Grace, Faith, Trust and Assurance ensure that each topic is focused and, like he said above, can be dipped in and out of with great profit.

I particularly liked the chapter on assurance as I learned of two scientists who I didn’t realise were also Christian, and the chapter on doubt that starts with an arresting anecdote to draw the reader in.

Professor Clark has a talent for illustration, no doubt born of the years he spent drawing in university students and the occasional church audience. Given his background in electronics, science also gets a lot of space in the book. This

is helpful in these days, when people are confused about the place of science in Christian faith and often see it as an alternative (and potentially regard the two as mutually contradictory).

His Workmanship would likely most benefit the person who has some experience of church but is yet to understand God’s big picture. Bible quotes are copious and well linked to the argument of each chapter, but you need to at least have some idea of the Bible as authoritative for it to make an impact.

The book would also benefit new Christians as a way of giving them some apologetics and a coherent approach to each of the issues Christians face.

I enjoyed reading His Workmanship and pray God will use Professor Clark’s work in the way he intended. SC 31

SouthernCross

To thrive in service

Insightful conversations: Psychologist and podcast host Valerie Ling.

Tara Sing Clergy Wellbeing Down Under Valerie Ling and guests Available on all podcast streaming services

C

linical psychologist Valerie Ling’s findings shocked

us when it was revealed that more than one in three pastors had considered quitting ministry altogether in the past year due to the high level of stress and burnout they experienced. Now, stemming from that vital research into the wellness of our pastors, is the Clergy Wellbeing Down Under podcast.

The first thing to note is that this is not just a podcast for pastors. It’s for those who are church leaders, involved in church governance or who simply care about their ministers and want to see them thrive long-term as they do the Lord’s work.

Each episode’s discussion aims to leave ministers with the tools to manage stressful times and recognise when they need extra support, as well as equipping those around them to notice when the engine light begins to flash so they can step in before the motor needs major repair.

For her research, Mrs Ling interviewed 200 Australian pastors about issues such as stress, leadership behaviours and personal safety. She identified that the key three reasons pastors considered quitting included stress, loneliness and the impact of the job on their family.

The most enjoyable thing about the podcast is the privilege of

being a fly on the wall for some insightful conversations between very clever cookies. These discussions are fun, lively, rich in knowledge and deep in wisdom.

Each episode asks a professional to deep dive into one aspect of the study’s findings. Experts interviewed include psychologists with a special interest in pastor wellbeing, human resources professionals, researchers who have conducted similar studies overseas, and theological lecturers.

Expect to grow in empathy and understanding. There is so much unpacked in each episode that it can be hard to know what to do with all the information. Mrs Ling is warm, charismatic and feels like the kind of person you could spend an afternoon with over a cup of tea.

As she chats, Mrs Ling never forgets about the diverse range of listeners she attracts. Each episode ends with her asking for tips and takeaways for ministers, those in church governance and general church congregants. Whoever you are, there is something to be learned and a new skill to be tucked away for when it is next needed.

The main issue with the podcast is the varying quality of sound.

Continued on page 31