Do I really recommend a book of nearly 800 pages and costing over $80? Certainly I do. Bishop Tom Wright's Resurrection of the Son of God is one of the most significant books on the resurrection and the heart of the Christian gospel published in my lifetime. It has an important message to Christian liberals, to us evangelicals, and to unbelievers as well.

A group of Christian bikers who work on the streets of Western Sydney say local youth involved in ‘gang culture' want to hear about Jesus as a result of Scripture classes in local high schools. The Street Level Christian Community and its ministry arm, Brotherhood Christian Motorcycle Club, have joined forces with local Anglican churches to build a long-awaited drop-in centre as a base for their outreach work, which is designed as a stepping-stone to establishing local young people and biker club members in Bible-based youth groups and churches.

The major business of the coming Synod is the Mission that we have been talking about since the last Synod. The Presidential Address will explain the Mission. The debate on the first evening will centre on the Mission and will give Synod the opportunity to accept the Mission as the major task of the Diocese, or to reject it. If the members accept the Mission, it is my hope that the Synod will make further opportunity later in the week to discuss the details of Mission strategy at considerable length. On the second evening of Synod we will debate the budget, which has been prepared in line with the strategy of the Mission.

Synod adopts the Mission Strategy for the Diocese of Sydney with its Mission Statement, Initial Goal, Fundamental Aim and Fourfold Policy as set out in the Mission Strategy Document and explained by the Archbishop in his Presidential Address.

I begin by stating that I have committed myself in unity of heart and spirit with my colleagues, the regional Bishops, under the leadership of the Archbishop, to give example, energy and leadership to this Mission.

The world of crime – at least in its cinematic form – has its own particular idioms and terminologies. From bean shooters and stool pigeons to the more recent verbal offerings of mullinskis and pikies, language has long been a key part of the underworld culture. For years we've become accustomed to the dialect of the crim, grifter, flim flam man and gangster. The latest celluloid moniker for a con man is ‘matchstick man'. As far as job titles go, Roy (Nicholas Cage) can live with it, but he prefers to think of himself as a con artist. He doesn't take people's money, they give it to him.