Author Archives: Sandy Grant

About Sandy Grant

Sandy is the senior minister at St Michael’s Anglican Cathedral in Wollongong. He is married to Karyn with three young daughters. Prior to entering full-time ministry, his only other job has been in a bottle shop! Sandy enjoys reading theology, biography and crime fiction.

Rowland Taylor, Protestant martyr

Life, Sola Panel

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This month, on October 6, it was 500 years since the birth of the Protestant martyr, Rowland Taylor, in 1510. From Northumberland, Rowland Taylor earned his law degree and then a doctorate from Cambridge in the 1530s. He also married Margaret, niece of William Tyndale (who translated the Bible into English, and for it, was burnt by Henry VIII in 1536). But as evangelical thought developed under Henry and flourished under Protestant King Edward VI, Taylor served each of the three great Bishops of the English Reformation: Latimer, Cranmer (who ordained him) and Ridley. From 1544 he was the Rector of Hadleigh in Suffolk, a post he remained in till his arrest. He also served more broadly as Archdeacon.

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Connecting in your street

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

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I loved Ben’s 10 in 2 post the other day. But I have to admit I’m more a 2 in 10 guy. I find evangelism hard. My courage fails easily. But one of my biggest problems is just not spending time with those outside the kingdom.

In my neck of the woods, the Connect09 campaign last year at least had the impact of making me think about getting to know the people in my own street.

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General Synod 7—How does your Synod sing?

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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It’s sometimes said, “Show me your songs, and I will tell you your theology”.

There was very clear theology being expressed in the songs chosen for the services of Morning and Evening Prayer each day for this General Synod.

Take this …

Jesus calls us to each other:
Found in him are no divides.
Race and class and sex and language
Such are barriers he derides.

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General Synod 6—Gambling at Synod

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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Forgive me the self-indulgence, but I’m pleased to say we finally reached a motion I gave notice of on the first day of Synod on the last day! After a bit of debate, it was passed unanimously.

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General Synod 5—Eggshell unity

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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If there was a theme for today at General Synod, it was the search for
unity.

For example, we sought unity in encouraging a wide variety of ‘fresh
expressions’ of church. In other circles this covers what might be called
church planting and innovation, as well as other initiatives like “Back to
Church Sunday”.

There was an agreed desire to give permission for new and creative Christian
fellowships and ministries. In this, we heard of some impressive and
sacrificial examples of meeting human need. People felt we were talking about
core business.

However the emphasis was all about how to do it, especially on what
leadership skills were needed. Agreement in the gospel was taken for granted,
yet is the very thing that appears to be lacking across the denomination.

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General Synod 4—Evangelical progress, I think

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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It’s really hard in a political environment to accurately assess spiritual progress. Synod is about politics, and I do not mean that negatively.

But it means it’s tempting to assess everything in terms of what you won and lost in the debates. And overall this General Synod has been going pretty well for evangelicals, I think.

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General Synod 2—Limits to diversity?

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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Here are my reflections on the first two days of General Synod.

The Archbishop of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall, is the Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, and so chairs the General Synod. He sent a very clear message in his opening Presidential Address.

According to the official media release, he “called for unity”, advocating “respect for diversity and the importance of continuing to belong together in a greater whole”.

But are there limits to diversity?

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General Synod 1—What is a synod?

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia begins today, Saturday 18 September 2010, in Melbourne, and I’m one of 61 of the Sydney Diocesan representatives: 30 lay, 30 clergy, and 1 bishop of the diocese.

It only meets every 3 years, and just like last time, I plan to blog my way through!

One good thing is that it’s a day shorter this time than the seven last time! Finances not in such good shape I think!

I’m looking forward to Melbourne’s trams; to seeing if the coffee’s better than Wollongong’s; to catching up with an old student minister friend, now serving with AFES in Melbourne; to meeting a Melbourne Diocese rep I’ve got to know via the web; and hopefully a chance to visit a second hand bookshop or two (but there’s not much spare time!).

As we commence, here’s a good question: what is a general synod? Or, if you belong to another denomination, what kind of thing is your general assembly, or whatever you call it?

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Jesus, the marketing specialist

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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Jesus Christ was a marketing specialist. (George Barna1)

Recently, a thoughtful Christian blogger raised the question of why a lot of pastors are so suspicious of marketing and are reluctant to use congregation members with professional skills in the area (whereas we are happy to use the plumbers, IT guys and musos).

I sympathized. In the past, I have been grateful to have graphic designers (some within our congregation) design a good website for our church, as well as brochures and invitations. But to answer the blogger’s question, here is why we are suspicious.

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John Newton and ‘Amazing Grace’

Life, Sola Panel

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It’s well known that John Newton was the captain of a slave trading ship who converted to Christ and eventually became an Anglican minister. Some people condense the whole story romantically by implying the horrific storm at sea that spurred Newton to first turn to God immediately led to a mature and complete repentance from his evil ways—such that he wrote ‘Amazing Grace’ as an expression of his gratefulness for being saved. But for some time after Newton’s storm-driven adoption of Christianity, he continued to make his living from the slave trade.

However, I believe it is accurate to say that soon after his conversion, he did begin to treat his slaves better. Yet it was only 32 years after his conversion—long after he’d given up seafaring and become an Anglican minister, and some years after he wrote ‘Amazing Grace’—that in 1780, Newton began to express regrets about his part in the slave trade. In 1785, he began to fight against slavery by speaking out against it, and he continued to do so until his death in 1807 (the year of the trade’s abolition).

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Hymn of the month

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

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(Updated with correct link to ‘To God Be the Glory’ and link to Sandy’s post on ‘Amazing Grace’.)

Nothing gets a debate going like opinions on church music. But here’s an idea that’s found very little resistance at church; instead, it’s received lots of support: the hymn of the month.

The idea originally came from Covenant Life Church (founded by CJ Mahaney and now pastored by Josh Harris). Rather than relying just on contemporary songs, they saw value in hymns that have proven themselves over generations as true and powerful. They also saw memorizing hymns as one way to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col 3:16). They used a different hymn over 10 months, providing a brief background to each hymn and also making a recording of these hymns available for MP3 download on a free or “pay what you think it is worth basis”.

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On casting stones and sinning no more

Life, Sola Panel

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Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. He also said, “Now go and sin no more”.

Keen Bible readers will know that Jesus said both things on the same occasion. (See John 8:3-11—especially verses 7 and 11 respectively.1) My question is how do we hold and communicate both truths together to a society that denies the second statement’s relevance and does not think we Christians believe the first?

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Creedal conundrums (part 3)

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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This is the third and final part of a three-part series. Read parts 1 and 2.

 

As I said in my last post, in this final instalment, I am going to touch on some of the pitfalls or common objections to the use of creeds.

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Creedal conundrums (part 2)

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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This is the second part of a three-part series. Read part 1.

Recently I received the following comment after a sermon series on the Nicene Creed:

The Nicene Creed is like a favourite old horse that has died. No matter how you flog it—no matter how well you groom it—it needs to be buried and a new horse bought. It was good, but now it’s dead!

Here is my reply: thank you for the colourful (but anonymous) expression of your opinion. However that’s all it was: an expression of opinion without any reasons why the opinion was valid! I would have been helped by less certainty about your conclusion and more evidence for why you consider the Nicene Creed to be obsolete.

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