Analysis by Bishop Glenn Davies

One of the signs of a healthy church is the need to expand facilities for meeting together around God’s word. Of course it is not an essential sign of health, as some choose to subdivide when growth outstrips facilities, but it is usually an encouraging sign.

Ascension Day, like Easter Day, always falls on the same day of the week, moving around the calendar within its own orbit of a possible 35 days.

The legal process that led to the approval of women bishops was extraordinarily complicated and difficult to report in a short news article. Bishop Glenn Davies explains.

This collection of essays is not so much about the so called 'seven deadly sins' as the ancient cures that exist for those deadly trespasses.

Polygamy may only seem to be an issue for Mormons and actors in the series Big Love for western Christians. But Bishop Glenn Davies reveals how it remains a vexed issue for the international church, whose answer has to be found in the pages of the Bible.

It is fitting that the project to publish the Selected Works of Broughton Knox, begun in 1998, has been completed with the publication of this third and final volume of the series in the 150th anniversary year of Moore College and the 90th anniversary of Dr Knox’s birth.

The fifth session presented at the 2006 Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC) Conference held at Port Hacking.

This year's theme was Growing Gospel Passions: Building Evangelical Networks across Australia.

One of the chief purposes for meeting together as Christians is to hear God’s word. The risen Jesus opened the mind of his apostles to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45), which formed the core of their teaching, to which the early church was devoted (Acts 2:42).

One of the most important resources we have is our human resources. And I don’t just mean volunteer time. I also mean our intellectual resources. As society changes, so we must ‘reinvent’ our ministry methods. In earlier days the church bell would ring and people would come. That no longer works. We still need to do the same things, but reinvent the ‘how’. We need to invite people to church. We need to reach children. We need to teach the Bible. The question always is, ‘how’?

What should Christians do when they disagree? All too often Christians make no effort to resolve their disputes, preferring to harbour resentment and ill will towards another brother or sister.

The psalmist exclaims, “children are a heritage from the Lord” (Ps 127:3), a gift of God’s grace to parents that they may train their children in the ways of the Lord (Ps 78:5-7). Yet it is often asked: Are my children saved? This question, of course, reaches its sharpest focus in the sad event of an infant’s death. Even unbelievers frequently seek some reassurance that their child is with God. What can we say to such parents, whether they be Christians or non-Christians? How are we to view our children’s relationship to God?

We all know the importance of food for the family, because we know it is important for ourselves that our bodies are fuelled with energy for life. While some live to eat, we all eat to live. Yet as Christians it is not only our physical nourishment that is important but our spiritual nourishment as well. That Jesus should institute a meal of remembrance for his disciples, whereby the reality of feeding on Christ was not only pictured but also conveyed, is of great significance for the family of God.

Every parent knows the joys of bringing up children, but is not always prepared for the pain of their departure. Those of us who remember what it was like to live in our own family home know what it is like to yearn for independence. We eventually leave home, set up our own independent living and never think of what it’s like to be the parent who bears the pain of losing a child – until we become parents ourselves!

An exciting initiative for church planting in the Northern Region has been approved by the Northern Region Council. The initiative involves offering any suitable church planter with vision and know-how $120,000 over three years as seed funding to make their dream a reality. Richard James discussed this initiative with Bishop of North Sydney, Glenn Davies.

It is encouraging to see in many of the churches of the Northern Region the words of the Diocesan Mission displayed prominently in the foyer or on the notice board: ‘To glorify God by proclaiming our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ in prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit, so that everyone will hear his call to repent, trust and serve Christ in love, and be established in the fellowship of his disciples while they await his return.’

The celebration of Easter in the Christian calendar is preceded by the season of Lent, which begins with Ash Wednesday.

Have you ever received some wonderful, exciting news that you had to keep to yourself? A secret, which could only be revealed at the appropriate moment?

They say that charity begins at home. Well, the same is true for mission. Our first priority in mission is our family.

The sight of 50 fire fighters, police, paramedics and emergency services personnel swarming into a church building on Sunday morning might be cause for alarm. But the presence of police cars, ambulance, fire engines and police rescue truck at St David’s, Forestville recently was not the result of a disaster but rather a new initiative to reach out to the emergency services that serve the local area.

There was cause for celebration recently, when a 57-year-old former IT executive was ordained a deacon at St Alban’s, Epping. More than 400 people witnessed Cliff Stratton’s ordination at Epping in August. Mr Stratton is now assistant minister at St Alban’s.

This was the question St Paul’s, Wahroonga asked when they first had the idea to run a weeknight healing service. Some years ago a book was published called How to have a healing ministry without making your church sick (by Peter Wagner, Regal Books). It highlighted that the very word ‘healing’ can be unhealthy. It conjures up images of fast-talking personalities, or Christians suggesting that lack of healing is due to ‘stubborn sin’.

Northern Region churches are finding new ways to build on the success of traditional ministries to reach local children and families as part of the Diocesan Mission. Organisers say their efforts show that creativity and diversity are needed to realise the goal of evangelising all of Sydney.

In the Bishops’ Statement of 19 June, 2003 on sexuality and the Anglican Communion issued by the Archbishops and Bishops of Sydney, reference was made to Canon Gene Robinson, the Bishop-elect of New Hampshire.