EFAC Australia
Vale JohnStott
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- Written by: Peter Jensen
EFAC Australia recognises with great sadness the passing of John Stott, the driving force and inspiration behind the founding of EFAC in London in 1961- exactly 50 years ago.
See the EFAC blog for more comments than those below or to add your own contribution/tribute.
You might also like to go to the John Stott memorial site to read and even add to the tributes that have flowed in from around the world
John was renowned around the world as the author of more than 50 books including Basic Christianity (translated into 63 languages), the Cross of Christ, Issues Facing Christians Today, and commentaries on many books of the New Testament in the Bible Speaks Today series. He was one of the authors of the Lausanne Covenant and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2005.
The President of EFAC Australia, Archbishop Peter Jensen, has written the following about the influence of John Stott.
John R W Stott
There are a few, a very few, who deserve to be called a Prince among the people of God. John Stott was one such.
Paddison defends “proselytising” remarks
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- Written by: Sophie Giles
Paddison defends “proselytising” remarks
From "Eternity" Magazine
5:17pm Friday, 13th May 2011
Sophie Gyles
Opposition to Christian Religious Education in Victorian schools is heating up, after the Age ran a front page story today accusing the CEO of ACCESS ministries of going against national guidelines by promoting evangelism in the classroom.
The article refers to a talk given three years ago by CEO, Dr Evonne Paddison, at the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion national conference in Melbourne. She's quoted as saying "we need to go and make disciples" in schools.
The Victorian and Federal Governments are investigating whether ACCESS is in breach of the National Schools Chaplaincy Guidelines, which bans "proselytising".
Read more: Paddison Defends "Proselytising" remarks
N.T. Wright on New Perspectives on Paul
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Here is a link to a paper presented at the 10th Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference: 25–28 August 2003, Rutherford House, Edinburgh, by Bp Tom Wright
Introduction
I am grateful for the invitation to this conference, and for the sensitive way in which
the organisers responded to my comments on the intial outline of the programme. I am
aware that fresh interpretations of Paul, including my own, have caused controversy in
evangelical circles, and particularly reformed circles. My own name has been linked
with proposals which have been variously dismissed, scorned, vilified and
anathematized. Having heard the papers yesterday morning and afternoon I suggested
to David Searle that I should take two hours not one to say what needs to be said just
now; but when I heard Tony Lane last night I realised I would need, like Cardinal
Seripando at Trent, two days to establish my own orthodoxy. We shall see.
Read more: New Perspectives on Paul
Vale Bishop John Wilson
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- Written by: EFAC Aust
EFAC Australia recognises the untimely death of Bishop John Wilson, retired assistant bishop in the Diocese of Melbourne and a committed evangelical and supporter of EFAC.
Click here for a recent article that John that wrote for Essentials.
The following is written by Tim Foster of Ridley Melbourne as a tribute to John.
John Wilson was a former student and long-time friend of Ridley Melbourne. He studied at Ridley from 1960-1962 and tutor 1963-1964. Deaconed and priested in 1964 he served in the Diocese of Armidale. He went to the USA for his doctoral studies, setting out to focus on Hebrew and Aramaic, but after his intended supervisor moved he wrote a dissertation in early church history entitled, The First Epistle of Clement : a theology of power studies. John returned to Ridley as a lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew from 1973-1985. He left in 1985 to become Bishop of the Southern Region, continuing to support the college as a member of the Council from 1987-2006.
The decline in the Australian Protestant Church - how we got where we are.
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- Written by: Peter Corney
The main stream Protestant churches in Australia are in serious decline and have been for some time. To give but one example: attendance at worship on an average Sunday in the Anglican Church in Melbourne has dropped from an estimated 50,000 in 1981 to 21,000 in 2006. How did we get to this point so quickly?
As accelerating secularism began to hit Australian society in the 1960’s the churches were not only unprepared they were also weakened by several trends that had been developing for some time.
One of the most significant was the trend in clergy training to become overly focused on pastoral maintenance rather than pastoral leadership, ministry skills and growth. The times called for new initiatives, new models of ministry, the ability to initiate change, new styles of worship that related to the rapidly changing culture. The training of clergy has properly always had a strong pastoral care element but three influences exaggerated this: the psychological counseling movement that developed momentum post war; the Christian Education movement; and the undermining of preaching and teaching by Liberal theology. As secularism and rapid social change hit these influences coalesced to fatally weaken pastoral leadership.
Read more: The decline in the Australian Protestant Church - how we got where we are.
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