Essentials
Editorial Summer 2013
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- Written by: Dale Appleby
This issue of Essentials has two major focuses. Two reflections on GAFCON lead into other articles to do with mission and the state of the Anglican church. Kanishka Rafffel reports on GAFCON, that making disciples was the big idea, and Richard Condie contrasts the Jerusalem and Nairobi conferences. We include the GAFCON Statement from Nairobi as well.
Mark Short and Allan Bate help us think about mission and theology in a church that is focussing on mission.
The second focus is on indigenous life and ministry. Murray Seiffert writes provocatively about his experience of ministry in the Northern Territory, and Joy Sandefur has review articles on two important books to do with indigenous life. Her review of Peter Sutton’s book, The Politics of Suffering, is especially important I think. I hope we will have other articles in the future on these topics.
Steven Daly reviews Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book That Made Your World. And Andrew Malone reviews E. Randolph Richards, Paul and First-Century Letter Writing. Plus more.
EFAC Australia is considering making Essentials an electronic journal. We would like your feedback on this proposal. If you haven't yet responded please use the poll on the home page (among others) to register your opinion.
Dale Appleby is the Rector of Christ the King Willetton in the Diocese of Perth and the Editor of Essentials.
Sex and Marriage
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Five useful books reviewed by Cailey Raffel and Ben Underwood
Married for God: Making your marriage the best it can be
Christopher Ash IVP 2007 ISBN 9781844741892
167 pages, with discussion questions after each chapter plus a comprehensive list of books for further reading
This is not a book of commonsense wisdom about sex and marriage with a coating of Bible verses to make it Christian. Rather, Ash wants to start with God and have God central to his whole discussion about marriage. Recognising that disappointment is one of the biggest reasons for marriage breakdown, he starts with the question, ‘What are proper hopes and aims for marriage?’
Ash calls us to line up our goals behind God’s rather than expecting God to line up his energies behind my goals. His bottom line is: put God at the centre and strive to want what he wants, and you will have a better marriage.
Essentials Summer 2013
- Details
- Written by: Chris Appleby
Essentials Summer 2013
Reflections on China Revisited
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- Written by: Tony Nichols
Bishop Tony Nichols was one of nine from the Diocese of Perth who visited China in April. The main purpose was to visit the Amity Press in Nanjing, the largest publisher of Bibles in the world. The tour was organized by Dr Khoo Kay Keng and led by Archbishop Roger Herft. Tony, who admits to being a China watcher since his youth, reflects on his two visits to China, 50 years apart.
1963, first visit
Mao Zedung, ‘the Great Helmsman’, was at the height of his powers and piloting this great nation onto the rocks. Up to 50 million are thought to have starved to death in his ‘Great Leap Forward’.
Christians were no longer visible. They had numbered nearly a million in 1949 when the Communists took power. Church leaders had been executed or sent to labour camps. Church properties were confiscated and became factories or warehouses.
The Bible was banned (mine was confiscated). Christianity was declared to be a tool of Western imperialism. All Protestant churches had been merged in the ‘Three Self Patriotic Movement’ (TSPM) and placed firmly under Party control at every level. Subsequently, Mao’s ‘Cultural Revolution’ (1966–76) brought a further wave of persecution for Christians and plunged society generally into chaos.
God’s intention for sexual expression
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- Written by: Peter Brain
Peter Brain reminds us of the biblical foundations.
That there is an endemic confusion about our sexuality is clear in our society. So many are hurt by this confusion. Some nurse broken hearts as trust has been betrayed in serial sexual relationships. Growing numbers experience ongoing harm from sexually transmitted infections (evidenced by the alarming increase in chlamydia). Our deep longing for intimacy fails to find consummation since it is increasingly sought outside of the God-ordained parameters of a committed and mutually considerate, sexual relationship between a man and a woman, who are married to each other. Sex without commitment or even friendship can never deliver God’s gracious purposes.
The fundamental texts for the proper expression of our sexuality are to be found in Genesis 1:26–27 and 2:24. Being found in Genesis, they are creational, applying to all people of all cultures for all time. The two passages are found in the complementary creation accounts and teach us fundamental truths about ourselves, marriage and the sexual relationship.
Genesis 1:26–27 reminds us that God created both men and women in his own image, thus establishing our equality in God’s eyes and our dependence on God. The truth established here is that we are real people as individuals, independent of our being married or in a sexual relationship. Intimacy is not found primarily in our human relationships, but in our relationship with God. Procreation is clearly seen to be a reason for the male–female relationship, which is so clearly evident from our anatomical makeup. That same-sex relationships are unable to procreate is evident to all.
In and Out of the Gay Lifestyle
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- Written by: Haydn Sennitt
Haydn Sennitt shares experience and insights for ministry with those with same-sex attraction.
In today’s modern, liberal, western cultures, what is the number one issue dominating public discussion? Is it climate change, whaling, North Korea, or penal substitutionary atonement? While all those issues are important to differing degrees, particularly the latter, none at the moment are as important as homosexuality. Discussions about it are occurring with gay abandon and show no sign of abating. Gay and ‘straight’, Christian and non-Christian, young and old, liberal and conservative all have gay relationships on their radar. Its influence is occurring beyond western borders: South Korea is now considering proposed laws that ban discrimination against gays and recently the first Zulu same-sex wedding occurred. And although previously it was liberal churches that had embraced pro-gay theology, now other denominations are either embracing it or silencing God’s word on homosexuality, including evangelicals. Prominent American preacher Rob Bell recently announced, ‘I am for love, whether it’s [between] a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man… This is the world that we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.1 Emerging church pioneer Brian McLaren last year married his son in a same-sex marriage ceremony. This is raising many challenging issues regarding evangelism, church life, and the future of Christian witness.
Friendship
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- Written by: Peter Brain
Bishop Peter Brain proposes friendship as the challenge to our idolatrous exaltation of sex.
‘Friends will go anywhere with you, friends share the good and the bad,’ is a truth that resonates with us all.
Kenny Marks’s song squares with God’s intention, ‘It is not good for man to be alone’ (Gen 2:18), the proverbial wisdom ‘there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother’ (Prov 18:24), and the longing of every human heart for a ‘kindred spirit’.
My reason for writing this article on friendship is the long held conviction that friendships are the antidote to loneliness and the means by which God would meet our deep longings for intimacy and by so doing keep us from adopting the wrong strategy of seeking this intimacy in sexual relationships prior to or outside of marriage.
If we are to win the battle of encouraging sexual fidelity, we must demonstrate the wonderfully positive benefits of a whole range of friendships given to us by our loving Creator. In so doing we will understand the God given purpose of our sexuality, and the restraints he has put on it.