Every couple of months my column in EN just consists of reporting news from Australia. April’s is of significance – not only for Australians…
Evangelicals Now – News From Australia – April
The Floods – Having gone from drought to bushfires, then plague and war; many Australians were caught up severe floods in New South Wales and Queensland. It is little wonder that some Christians feel that this has an ‘endtimes’ feel. The floods were the greatest for 40 years. But there are other seismic events shaking Australia as well.
Ordination in Perth – On Thursday 24th February Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy of Perth Anglicans presided over an
ordination of four new deacons. One of those was of a man who had been living in an unmarried relationship with a woman for several years (they have children); and the other was of a man in a civil partnership with another man. This was done in contravention of both the Anglican and biblical teaching on marriage. Meanwhile in NSW Bishop Rod Chiswell is being taken to court because he asked a gay organist in a civil marriage to desist either from playing the organ, or his ‘marriage’. https://ap.org.au/2021/10/15/the-final-stone/
(For more info on the Perth ordination – see this – https://davidould.net/archbishop-of-perth-set-to-proceed-with-ordination-that-will-split-the-diocese/
Victorian Laws – In the State of Victoria the ‘Change and Suppression’ bill has come into place. This is a deeply disturbing and authoritarian law. For example, under this Act a Christian pastor meeting one-on-one with a member of their congregation would break the law if he encouraged them to be celibate and thus suppressed their feelings of same sex attraction. A parent who refuses to support their child’s request for medical treatment to enable them to ‘gender transition’ would be breaking the law. And a Christian leader who tells a member of their congregation that they will be excommunicated if they continue their same sex relationship, will also be breaking the law. We have now moved to the situation where the State tells the Church how we should pastor, what we should teach, what we can pray, and who can be members of the Church.
Upcoming Election – The Australian general election will take place this May. The pollsters and pundits think that the Labor opposition will win (mind you they thought that last time – one suspects that the wish is father to the thought!). This will have significance for the church particularly on the issue of religious discrimination. A bill was supposed to have been passed by the government before the election was scuppered, largely by progressives within the Liberal (i.e. Conservative in UK terms) party – largely because of fears about transgender students being discriminated against. It appears that in order to protect the transgender ideology which is reaping havoc in so many areas of Australian life, the political class are prepared to sacrifice the Christian ideology on which this nation was built.
We Need a New Generation of Prophetic Preachers – Evangelicals Now
Anglican choirs and music department often have agnostic or atheist members. It’s a bit crazy to sack a musician on the basis of their sexuality and gay marriage. Is there an organist anywhere without a few lewd thoughts? Contrast this with the Anglican response to abortion! We have created a nonsensical straw man parody of the Apostle’s Creed faith, where same sex attraction is the epitome of sinfulness, yet the greatest mass murder genocide in human history [the modern abortion holocaust of over one death per second] hardly gets a mention from the pulpit or in Church magazines. With chemical abortion now so commonplace, via our GP surgeries and High Street pharmacies, it’s nonsense for evangelical Christians to focus so much fire on people in same sex relations-the group with least responsibility for the abortion holocaust. What about progestogen morning after pill use, too?
David, before you wrote about the ordinations in Perth, did you consider Archbishop Kay’s request: ‘I ask all of us to speak with courtesy and discretion at all times’ after her deep grief at ‘the level of gossip, assumption, generalisations and innuendo that has been circulating’?
Yes – and I still say she is a false teacher who is undermining the church and being dishonest in what she does. My deep grief is at the way she has misled the people of God – and is watching her church decline into the pit. If that upsets you – I am happy to class you with the Pharisees, who Jesus called ‘white washed tombs – twice dead’ – hardly what Archbishop Kay would call speaking with courtesy and discretion – but then of course she does not follow Christ.
Lambeth 1:10 lays out fair boundaries for Anglicans based on biblical teaching. But do liberal and evangelical hardliners show scant regard for it at times?
I once heard a senior evangelical Anglican statesman talk about how (paraphrasing) he didn’t like the prevalence of Liberal Theology in the Anglican Church in Melbourne, but that he expected it since that was the case in the early church too. For some time I thought that there was something insightful to what he says, but I am more and more questioning as to whether this toleration (albeit with the long term view to change) is following a Biblical model. I welcome someone changing my view, but I see much more rebuke, strong and passioned condemnation of false teachers/wolves, church discipline (including restoration upon repentence) and the zeal for holiness of God’s people/church. This seems in stark contrast with what at least outwardly appears to be the pussy-footing around sin, false teachers and wolves- and actually in reality having things to do with those who practice and endorse immorality.
Why does there not seem to be many more voices zealously and publicly denouncing un-godliness before the whole council of church leaders (not JUST in the safety of a corner of the online world… and not actually refering to you David for what it is worth!).
It seems to be much more pragmatic in the Anglican Church at least in Melbourne – you do your thing over there, you stay in your court and we’ll be somewhat cordial when we meet together. We don’t have to wonder what the Apostle Paul thought about such, or Jesus’ letters to the churches in Revelation.
There really seems to be few in high-up leadership with any backbone to protect God’s people from false teachers and wolves. You don’t work alongside a wolf and pretend that all is well!
But maybe I am wrong, I welcome correction. I am not in the Anglican Church any more so maybe I don’t see or understand what I should.
God bless you and thank you for your concern for God’s church and his message that you faithfully proclaim David!