by Peter Jensen
Below: Responding to Bali attack
In a significant decision, parish representatives overwhelmingly endorsed the Mission. The decision will only be historic if we act.
The Synod of 2002 has issued a call to the whole Anglican community of our Diocese to be involved in the Diocesan Mission. Elsewhere in Southern Cross you will see the wording of that call and you will note that it was personally signed by a great majority of members.
A call like this has never been given before. It is highly significant.
I am sorry that we all could not be present to take part. But the representatives of the churches have issued this summons very solemnly, and I suggest that in every church the news and content of the call will be conveyed and discussed. I trust likewise that each church and individual will give careful attention to their response.
It may be that you will decide not to be involved in the Diocesan Mission as such. That decision will be respected.
But such was the response of the Synod, and so significant is it that such a group should issue this invitation, that my hope is that there will be a ready and wholehearted positive response throughout the Diocese.
I trust the response will be prayerful. The Mission begins with prayer for the work of God’s Spirit in assuring our hearts and changing our lives through the gospel. This is indispensable. From this will come our willingness to lead godly lives and to make the sacrifices necessary for those who do not know Christ to come to hear about him.
The Synod also spent much time discussing ways and means for the Mission to go forward. All sorts of good suggestions were made and recorded. But now is the time for action. For myself, I will turn to the ten initiatives for the Bishops (and others) that the Mission Task Force began developing earlier this year, and setting to work. God willing, the Mission will be the main project in which I will be engaged from now on.
Some people have said that the recent Synod was historic. I believe that this assessment could be true, but it will depend on what we do with the call we now receive.
There were many memorable moments in the Synod. I suppose that the highlight was the vote of the Synod to accept the Mission and to invite the Diocese to join in. We did this after prayer, the ministry of God’s word and serious discussion led by the Bishops and Archdeacons.
But I think that the event which will stay in my mind was the conclusion. In the final stages, we had a time of open prayer, followed by the singing of the wonderful missionary hymn, ‘I cannot tell why he whom angels worship’.
It was a great moment, a wonderful way to conclude, and it sent us out ready to fulfil the commitment to mission that we had corporately made. Now it’s up to you: will you join us?
Responding to Bali attack
On the whole Australians reaction to the terror in Bali was strangely muted. It seemed different from our response to a natural disaster. Even our emotional response to the attack on the Twin Towers seemed stronger. It may be that we were numbed. For so many, life is just going on as ever with little change. The mood is far from sombre.
There may be a number of reasons for this. The attack was not actually filmed as it took place, as was the case with the Twin Towers in New York last year. This happened in a psychologically remote location, in the ‘east’ rather than the ‘west’. Perhaps, however, we were numbed by the closeness of it, and we are unwilling therefore to think deeply about the implications of what we experienced. It may be that we are fearful of what we can see before us, and in any case lack the language necessary to describe it accurately. The commitment to moral relativism that many people have these days is a poor training for understanding and analysing the real world, especially an ideological attack. But that is what our educational system offers most students.
In an address I gave last year, I made the point that all forms of fundamentalism are, in part, a response to the moral and spiritual vacuum of western culture.
The West persists in hoping fundamentalism will disappear when the advantages of liberal-democracy, capitalism, science and technology are known and shared globally. This is wishful thinking. What must replace fundamentalism is not ‘no religion’, but rather, true religion, that is, classical Christianity that finds its source in biblical teaching.
This is an extract from Archbishop Jensen’s Sunday Telegraph column.
