EFAC Australia
When Memory Fades Memory Remains
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- Written by: Sarah Bull
Imagine, for a moment, what it might feel like if your mind began to slip into confusion and forgetfulness. Imagine the disorientation of not being able to attend Sunday services week by week, to no longer participate in the ministries that once filled your heart with joy, or to miss the regular fellowship of believers who have long been your church family.
Now imagine knowing that others think you are “faithful and solid” in your faith—someone who has walked steadfastly with Christ for decades. They assume you are fine, confident you will endure to the end. But quietly, you begin to doubt. Bible passages you once recalled feel lost. You find it difficult to bring the right words together in prayer. You long for the closeness of God’s Word and His people but feel your capacity slipping away.
This is the reality for many older saints among us. And this is where the beauty and necessity of seniors’ ministry comes into sharp focus.
Authentic Anglicanism
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- Written by: Sydney Anglican Doctrine Commission
A REPORT OF THE SYDNEY DIOCESAN DOCTRINE COMMISSION
‘Anglicanism’ is the label attached to a form of Christian corporate life that traces its theological convictions and ecclesiastical practice to the New Testament, with an especially formative moment of clarification and development at the time of the English Reformation. Its congregations are particular instantiations of the one holy catholic and apostolic church confessed in the ecumenical creeds, yet they share distinctives that mark them out from other communions and denominations. These distinctives could be defined and described in a number of ways, of which two are most common: a phenomenological approach and a theological approach.
A phenomenological approach often begins by drawing attention to the diversity of practice that has emerged over the past 500 years, despite numerous Acts of Uniformity. It then proceeds to infer from this a distinctive ‘ethos’ of Anglicanism that claims for itself apostolicity, catholicity, comprehensiveness, and so on. The advantage of this approach lies in its attention to history and the way canon law has or has not shaped the practices of the church. In other words, it emphasises description. Its disadvantage lies in the way it sidesteps the question of what Anglican respond to the changing context of the church in its ministry and mission.
Global Anglican Update
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- Written by: Stephen Hale
This article is an attempt to capture the current situation in global Anglicanism. It needs to be borne in mind that the current situation is very fluid and between this being written and published another shift could have taken place! The writer is seeking to convey the broad picture and is not offering a commentary on the various developments. All Statements referred to here are to be found on the EFAC Global website.
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
The actions authorised by the General Synod (by the barest of majorities in the houses of clergy and laity) have been deemed to be illegal. As such the provision of standalone services for same sex blessings and any attempt to authorise same sex marriages are on hold. They therefore need to resolve at the next General Synod in February what to do next.
EFAC Global response to the Church in Wales
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- Written by: Stephen Hale
Statement by 
THE EVANGELICAL FELLOWSHIP IN THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION
in support for Evangelical Fellowship in the Church in Wales (EFCW)
In July this year Archbishop Cherry Vann was installed as Primate of the Anglican Church in Wales. At the time of her appointment there was both local and global shock and disappointment, given that she is in a same sex relationship which is contrary to Lambeth 1.10. The responses of Gafcon and the GSFA reflect these concerns.
Since then the position of faithful and orthodox Anglicans in Wales has become acutely challenging.
A cultural change to evangelism: the election of Ric Thorpe as Archbishop of Melbourne
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- Written by: Peter Adam
I read in a book on management that minor technical changes are easy to achieve, but cultural changes are hard to achieve! And if cultural changes take a long time to achieve in a church, they take much longer to achieve in a larger and looser structure such as a diocese. But cultural changes in a diocese have a great impact on local churches.
WHAT HAPPENED?
In this election, we saw a massive cultural change to focus on evangelism!
Who did we elect? 70% of the Melbourne Anglicans who were members of Synod voted for Ric Thorpe, an effective personal evangelist, experienced in planting churches with the gospel, and reinvigorating churches with the gospel, the gospel of God’s free gift of grace and love in the Lord Jesus Christ. We voted for an Archbishop to transform the culture of the diocese and our churches from maintenance to mission, and a cultural change to prioritise evangelism!
Read more: A cultural change to evangelism: the election of Ric Thorpe as Archbishop of Melbourne
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