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Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby questions the existence of God
September 19, 2014 | John Bingham
London: The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, has disclosed that he questions whether God exists.
Britain’s most senior churchman, who is effectively the leader of almost 80 million Anglicans worldwide, admitted that there are moments when he asks himself “Is there a God?” and “Where is God?”
Priest raises eyebrows with Gosford Anglican Church signs on race, gay marriage and the media
By Monique Schafter | Wed 27 Aug 2014
Father Rod Bower is not your average priest. The Anglican Church minister is on a mission to keep religion relevant, and is using his parish notice board in Gosford on the NSW Central Coast as a way to get noticed.
“We have a voice out into the wider community that a lot of other parishes don’t have,” Fr Bower told 7.30.
If ‘evangelical morality’ harms others and can’t justify itself, is it ‘unfair’ to mention that it’s losing the argument?
July 14, 2014 By Fred Clark
Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that Alan Noble is not being disingenuous in his recent Atlantic essay, “Is Evangelical Morality Still Acceptable in America?”
That stipulation is a bit of a stretch, since Noble generally seems like a fairly bright man, and thus the self-serving obtuseness he affects here seems to be a pose. But let’s pretend the pretense is genuine and treat his faux-naive argument as genuine naiveté. Let us answer his question as though he didn’t already know.
Noble presents “evangelical morality” as under siege. He isn’t responsible for the subtitle of his essay, but the copy editor who supplied that did a good job summarizing Noble’s question: “People who disagree with same-sex marriage and birth-control use have been met with accusations of bigotry. Are some Christians being unfairly shamed out of the public square?”
Church of England votes ‘yes’ to women bishops
July 15, 2014 | Tess Little
London: The Church of England voted on Monday to allow women to become bishops, a historic decision which overturns centuries of tradition in a Church that has been deeply divided over the issue.
Two years ago, a similar proposal failed narrowly due to opposition from traditionalist lay members, to the dismay of modernisers, the Church hierarchy and politicians.
But after a five-hour debate on Monday, the General Synod, the governing body of the Church of England, voted overwhelmingly in favour of an amended plan at its meeting in the northern English city of York.
Gosford Anglican Church’s Father Rod Bower and his signs of the times
July 7, 2014 | Damien Murphy
The leadership of Australia’s mainstream churches may sometimes seem slightly silent on boat people, but a Gosford Anglican reverend is at the forefront of a grassroots movement impatient with waiting for religious hierarchies to get their acts together.
Father Rod Bower’s pithy and sometimes trenchant musings appear daily on the notice board outside his church in Mann Street, Gosford.
They’ve gone viral thanks to Facebook and Twitter.
At Hillsong, religious expression is a global corporate brand
4 July 2014 | Matthew Wade | PhD Student at Australian National University | Maria Hynes | Australian National University
The Sydney-based Hillsong Church will today wrap up its annual conference, an enormous production of spectacle and a heady mix of the sacred and the secular. In Australia, where religious expression tends to be muted and reserved, such exuberance is a surprise.
Yet each year the Pentecostal megachurch takes over the Allphones Arena and surrounding facilities in Sydney Olympic Park for a week. More than 20,000 people attend each day.
Footscray Church offers Miracle Healings
Posted: 12 March 2013, Melbourne, Victoria
The Potters House Christian Fellowship of Footscray, in the western suburbs of metropolitan Melbourne are offering “Miracle Healing Meetings”. They state “Arthritis healed!” “Deaf ear healed!” “Injury healed!” and more, see flyer.
- Associated story: ACCC drops the ball in faith healing case – read more
Street preachers banned from Rundle Mall after High Court upholds Adelaide City Council bylaw
Chief Court Reporter Sean Fewster, From: adelaidenow, February 27, 2013 6:50PM
ADELAIDE’S controversial street preachers have lost their fight against council bylaws that ban them from holding prayer meetings in Rundle Mall.
But the preachers say they will be able to return to the mall because the ruling means the council must give them permits to preach if they promise not to obstruct shoppers.
The High Court of Australia this morning overturned a South Australian court’s ruling that the bylaw was unconstitutional.
In a majority decision, the court ruled Adelaide City Council had the right to make bylaws over the proper use of roadways – including a requirement persons seek permits to preach.
Christ Church chaplain says he never told sex abuse victim to ‘forget about it’
February 15, 2013, WA Today, Rania Spooner
The chaplain of an elite Claremont boys’ school has denied claims he advised a former student and victim of sexual abuse at his school to “forget about it”.
Canon Frank Sheehan has spoken out after allegations of a cover-up emerged during the child sex trial of Christ Church Grammar’s former music teacher Lindsay Hutchinson, 63.
Hutchinson was yesterday found guilty of 12 sexual abuse offences concerning students at the school, after a two-week Perth District Court trial.
The offences took place in the mid-1980s and largely concerned one student, then aged 13, who went on to testify against Hutchinson at trial.
The Gay Debate: The Bible and Homosexuality
Published on 10 Mar 2012
Matthew’s book, “God and the Gay Christian,” is now in stores.
Evangelization of Children
Lausanne Occasional Paper No. 47
Produced by the Issue Group on this topic at the 2004 Forum for World Evangelization hosted by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization in Pattaya, Thailand, September 29 to October 5, 2004
“A New Vision, a New Heart, a Renewed Call”
In encouraging the publication and study of the Occasional Papers, the Lausanne
Committee for World Evangelization does not necessarily endorse every viewpoint
expressed in these papers.
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