Southern Cross MARCH-APRIL 2025

SouthernCross

A thousand tongues, 27 hearts

The privilege of ministry: Archbishop Raffel and the new deacons pose for photos on the front steps of the Cathedral.

Russell Powell

With more than 1000 people in the congregation and 27 servant-hearted men and women, St Andrew’s Cathedral echoed with the sound of singing, fulfilling Charles Wesley’s hope for “a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise”.

Newly ordained, the deacons then made their way through the crowds for a group photo on the steps of the Cathedral, before celebrating with family and church members from across

Sydney, Wollongong and beyond.

“I’m really excited,” said new deacon the Rev Lauren Dewhurst, serving the parish of St Ives.

“It’s a huge blessing and encouragement to know that, yes, I’ve made big promises, but I’ve got the backing of church and family behind me.”

In his address, the director of Ministry Training and Development, the Rev Gary O’Brien, spoke of the responsibilities and privileges

SouthernCross March - April 2025 volume 31 number 2

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the new deacons would face.

“We are not ordaining men and women at the front of this church to a new job,” he said. “We are ordaining them to a life – a life of service. We are not just people who perform functions, jobs, and then go home at the end of the day. We live and work in community with men and women, boys and girls.

“So I want to exhort you, brothers and sisters, to share your thoughts, your struggles, your aspirations, your hospitality,

Publisher: Anglican Media Sydney

to listen – to engage in the lives of others. What a wonderful privilege it is to be a Christian minister, to share your lives with others, and to bring into those relationships the sacred gospel message of Jesus.”

The ordinands walked to the centre of the Cathedral, one by one, and the Archbishop and bishops placed their hands on them to signify receiving “authority for the office and work of a deacon in the church of God”.

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SHARIN G STORIES OF FAITH LOV E AN D HOPE

Ministry an “inevitable step”

Becki Philip Head of Christian Development, St Andrew’s Cathedral School

On July 20, 2013, I had what I would describe as a moment where the Spirit lifted the veil. It became true to me that God was real and that the gospel was true.

I had been reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. In it, the senior devil talks about how God gives humans a little glimpse into his true presence, often at the beginning, to get them across the line. That resonated with my experience. There was a lot in the lead-up to that moment. I grew up with a Catholic mum. I thought Jesus died on a cross, yet never spent time thinking about what that meant for me or my worldview. I didn’t understand grace. I was at uni, studying teaching. My close group of friends at uni were all evangelical Christians. It wasn’t until fourth year that a friend wanted to move to a church in the city and asked me to go with her. We ended up at Newtown-Erskinville Anglican. After we left, I said to her, “I think we should go there”

from page 2

The Bishop of North Sydney, Chris Edwards, beamed as his son Tim came forward.

“It’s a very special opportunity,” the Rev Tim Edwards said later.

“I’m thankful to be even wearing the robes [my dad] was ordained in himself.

“Really special to be following in his faithful footsteps, and to be continuing on and sharing the gospel with others.” SC”

Watch the ordinations, and the commissioning of the Rev Michael Duckett (see p 8), at www.youtube. com/watch?v=OKLMZLLJRaU

– and used “we”. That made up her mind, and we went every week.

Two months later, I asked if I could join a Bible study. People gave me time and space to ask questions and have conversations. There was wonderful preaching that exposed the cracks in my life and how I understood things. I didn’t see my need for Jesus very clearly until sitting under faithful preaching, week after week. I got to a point where I thought, “I’m not as good as I perceived”. My faith has been a real gift from God, and a real anchor since that day in July. What became apparent to me is that life is really uncertain. That feels more true today than it did then. But Jesus is really certain and consistent. He is the same and he is reliable. He is a steady and sure presence in my life.

Ministry was an inevitable next step. During my PhD, it became obvious I would much rather be reading theology than

the things I was reading and researching. I really wanted to go to Bible college – not to go into ministry initially but to spend time learning.

At the end of my time at Moore College, a job opened up at St Andrew’s Cathedral School. God was tying all the threads of my life together... My PhD research was in curriculum development and the school wanted someone to redo the curriculum for Christian Studies. I hadn’t planned any of this. It definitely felt in God’s plans.

In the lead-up to ordination, I was trying to explain to my toddler that Mummy was going to make promises to serve God and his people for the

Ordinands and their appointments

Micah Beel

AM* Eastwood

Andy Bell

AM Pymble

Luke Bird

AM Pennant Hills

David Burdis

AM Richmond

Matt Capel

AM Wahroonga

Peter Chan

AM Kogarah

Joey Cheng

AM Soul Revival (Ryde)

Mike (Man Hin) Chin

AM Enfield and Strathfield

Tim Cornford

AM Campbeltown

*AM is assistant minister

Lauren Dewhurst

AM St Ives

Tim Edwards

AM South Head

Edward Happer

AM Gerringong

Dylan Hood

AM Centennial Park

Joshua Hoole

AM Sans Souci

Toby Knights

AM Broadway

Peter Ko

AM Bankstown

James Muggeridge

AM Kellyville

Becki Philip

Chaplain, St Andrew’s

Cathedral School

rest of her life. That’s already something that I want to do and am doing, but I have a particular opportunity to be able to promise that to God and his people.

Part of it is giving back to the communion of God’s people who have been so supportive of me. I’ve been nurtured, trained, loved and discipled by people in this Diocese. It feels like the right thing for me to do is to commit myself to God, and then to them in particular. It’s a privilege to make that commitment.

What the expression of these promises will look like over the next few years is less clear. Pray I would be creative and committed to keeping these promises. SC

David Reynolds

AM Enfield and Strathfield

James Russell

AM Sutherland

Retchie Salvador

Chaplain, Mission to Seafarers

Simon Sheel

AM Unichurch

John Sheldon

Chaplain, Shore

Mike Snowdon

AM Willoughby Park

Phillip Witheridge

AM Carlingford

Julian Yin

AM Kirribilli

Andy (Lie) Zhang

AM Paramatta

I didn’t want to go, but God had other plans

Mike Chin Assistant minister, Enfield and Strathfield

When I started university, my older sister encouraged me to come along to some Bible talks and to the campus Christian group’s mid-year conference. I was not interested. However, my parents said, “You should go; it will get you out of the house and stop you playing video games”. They paid for me to go. I remember not liking it –there was too much Bible study! I thought it was strange to give up my holidays to do more study. There was a talk on the Cross, and at some point in that talk I recognised my own sin before God. It was a moment of clarity. I needed forgiveness in Jesus. God decided, by his Spirit, to open my eyes. I felt the weight of my sin, but also the significance

of Jesus being able to wash me clean. That was the beginning point of my journey.

A key influence in my Christian faith was my university worker, Paul Grimmond. He was the one preaching when I became a Christian. I grew a lot under his ministry. He ended up training me as well when I did my ministry apprenticeship. He would invite my wife and I to come over and have dinner with his family. That sticks in my mind. It was the first moment we just observed hospitality, and also, after the meal, they did dinner devotionals with their kids. It was significant to observe how he lived and how he was in his family. We learned the importance of modelling the

Even during my time as an apprentice, there were times I thought, “Is ministry really what I want to do?” I had doubts. People identified that I was somewhat competent and

I threw myself into running events, following people up and teaching the Bible. Yet there was still a part of me thinking, “Is this something I should be doing, or am I here because people said I should do it?”

I was looking for some sort of feeling to confirm what

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“We love because Jesus first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19

Christian life – those are the memories that stay with us for some reason!

I definitely should be doing. I was looking for a feeling that wasn’t a realistic expectation. As I’ve gone on in ministry, I’m much more comfortable with how I feel. [Being in ministry] is something God has prepared me for.

At the end of the day, I really love people. I love that the gospel speaks to their deepest need. I can have a depth of relationship with people as we talk about who Jesus is.

People are built for knowing God. The job I get to do, reading the Bible with people and talking about their faith, is the most satisfying work to be doing.

My prayer is that I would not be comfortable. I love my [current] role and my team, but I am praying that I would keep having costly conversations with my family and making costly decisions, if there is another place we could serve that would be beneficial. It’s a prayer for a broader vision of God’s work, around Sydney especially. SC

I think you’ve got the wrong guy!

Luke Bird Assistant minister, St Mark’s, Pennant Hills

I never understood how to read the Bible myself. I had the view that Jesus died for me, so I had to be a good boy. But I knew I wasn’t really good. I thought, I’m a bad Christian – which gave me license to do whatever I wanted. I stopped going to church in my teens, and my life looked very similar to my friends.

When I turned 21, I came to Sydney from London on exchange. I thought, “I’m older now, I should take myself to church, pull my socks up and be better”. I met people at St Matthias’, Centennial Park, who were my own age and taking the Bible seriously. That was a surprise!

The gospel was taught

faithfully, and I remember thinking, “I can use my brain to read the Bible”. I became a Christian that year through the faithful teaching of the Bible and reading it with others.

I used to say that I was a bad Christian, but when I read 1 Timothy where Paul says, “Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am the worst”, I got it. I finally understood grace. If we were able to be good, Jesus wouldn’t have to die. We are all bad Christians!

One key person who walked alongside me was my now-wife, Gemma. I saw the way she took the Bible seriously. One time, I was struggling to understand election and predestination. We were having lunch [and] she explained that nobody deserves to be saved. I remember suddenly seeing it the other way around. God’s fairness would mean that nobody would be saved, but God’s grace means that he chooses to save some.

Before I returned home, my minister asked me about my plans after uni. I said, “I’m thinking of retraining as a teacher.” My minister said, “I think you should finish your degree, then come back out here and do a ministry apprenticeship”. I laughed, “Sorry, I think you’ve got the wrong guy!”

But it planted a seed. I couldn’t shake it. I began talking with people. It kept being confirmed that it was something I should think about. I thought, “I want to use my life for Jesus. How could I best use the gifts and what God has given me?”

For me, a big thing has always been being able to read the Bible well. It’s a passion of mine to see people have that same experience, to read the Bible well for themselves. It’s something I want to help people with. There was an opportunity to serve and teach, and it didn’t go disastrously, so here we are! God has been very kind. Part of the joy of being ordained in the Sydney Diocese is that it’s here I was first taught to read the Bible. I’m grateful, not just for the church I went to all those years ago, but for the hundreds of people who have been involved [in it] for years and years, from the First Fleet – people who are trying to faithfully teach the Bible and preach the gospel.

I feel very grateful to be a recipient of that and now be able to be a part of that in a more formal sense.

Pray that I would never forget God’s grace shown to me in Christ, and keep faithfully teaching his word and helping others to read it and understand it themselves. SC

God kept opening doors – I kept walking through them

Lauren Dewhurst Children’s minister, Christ Church, St Ives

When I was 12, I was invited to a youth group where I heard the gospel. Jesus was so compelling to me. Every week there was something new to learn about him. I was captivated by his compassion and his power. He was so powerful, yet so personal. So human and so God.

That Christmas Eve, as I was thinking about why we celebrated Christmas, I prayed, “Jesus, I want to follow you all of my life”.

I was working as a primary school teacher when my minister at Jannali asked me to be the kids’ minister. My first thought was, “I don’t want to do that!” However, when I thought about my week, I was already doing so much kids’ ministry in all the gaps outside of my fulltime job. I didn’t know what else the ministry job entailed, but I said “Yes” anyway and took my teaching skills and used them to do kids’ ministry.

[The parish] supported me as I studied a Diploma of Theology part-time at Moore College while doing kids’ ministry. I worked at Jannali for 5½ years, before Christ Church, St Ives rang and asked if I would come and work with them to raise up kids’ ministers.

I’m one of five siblings, and I have 10 nieces and nephews. When I looked at my week before jumping into teaching and kids’ ministry, everything in the gaps was with children. I like working with them – they’re honest and fun and it is a joy to see their faith. Sometimes children teach us more than we teach them.

Once I was with a kid, and he said, “I pray that the whole

world will become Christian!”

I thought, “Wow, I never pray like that but I really should”.

The other day at church we had the communion cups out. Three primary school boys walked in, saw them, and said, “Yes! We get to do communion!” They were so excited. It really shows us what joy in the Lord is and what faith looks like.

I was invited to be ordained and I thought, I’ve made the promises in my heart to serve Jesus. I had never really thought about doing it formally. However, two years ago I paused my job at St Ives after six years to go back to Moore College and finish the theology degree. I entered the ordination pathway then.

Ordination is one of those moments in your Christian life where you say “Yes” publicly. Those moments are significant, like baptism and confirmation. This is a significant promise. I’m saying, “God has led me to this place and with his help, I want to keep serving him”.

It’s dual isn’t it? The church affirms that I’m fit for ministry, and I say I want to serve Jesus with all that I have. The more I think about this, the more beautiful the concept is – to say this out loud with people. When things are hard, I can look back on these big and beautiful promises.

I think you just keep walking through the open doors. God has presented opportunities to me, and I just kept stepping forward. When I get the opportunity to teach Scripture, or present the gospel on a camp, or lead kids’ church each week, they’re such

precious opportunities.

I’m not doing this alone. There’s a network of people that prayed, gave, encouraged, and nurtured me as a Christian, as a minister, and now into this step. I’m so indebted to them and so thankful for their partnership. This whole time I’ve had the

backing of the church, and I didn’t ask for that – it was generously given.

Please pray that I will teach the Bible faithfully. Pray that God will raise workers for his harvest from this ministry, and that our church can keep sending out people. SC

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“God sets the lonely in families” Psalm 68:6

Advancing Indigenous ministry

In a boost for ministry to Indigenous peoples, Archbishop Kanishka Raffel has commissioned the Rev Michael Duckett as the first director of Indigenous Ministry in the Sydney Diocese.

Synod last year voted overwhelmingly to create the position, after a recommendation from the Sydney Anglican Indigenous Peoples’ Ministry Committee that it would greatly impact the growth and oversight of ministry by, among and for Indigenous people in Sydney and the Illawarra.

In an impassioned speech at Synod last year, Mr Duckett told members: “We need to have a structured plan for Indigenous ministries, otherwise we will never have a genuine effect in the Diocese… my dream is that not only will we impact this Diocese, we will impact this nation”.

In making the landmark announcement, Archbishop

Raffel said, “Michael is well known and highly respected, not only among the Sydney Diocese Indigenous community but more widely – including as a member of Synod and as a cultural advisor frequently sought after to consult with local churches, agencies like Anglicare, and in many schools.”

The Archbishop said the appointment of Mr Duckett recognised his wider leadership role in addition to his 18 years as pastor of the Macarthur Indigenous Church.

“I am grateful for Michael’s gospel heart for his people, his gracious advocacy of the challenges and opportunities for ministry among Aboriginal people, and his love and pastoral concern for the churches, ministries and communities serving his people.”

The commissioning took place during the annual ordination of deacons service in February.

“Michael, my dear brother in

Christ, you have been nominated to me for appointment as director of Indigenous Ministry in this Diocese of Sydney,” Archbishop Raffel said, as Mr Duckett stood before him in the Cathedral.

“Are you willing to serve in this way, humbly relying upon God and conducting your ministry in accordance with the promises made by you when you were made a presbyter in the church of God?”

“I am willing, the Lord being my helper,” was the reply.

The Archbishop then handed Mr Duckett his licence as director of Indigenous Ministry to loud applause from the congregation and the Indigenous pastors surrounding him.

Dean Sandy Grant prayed in response to Mr Duckett’s own prayer request:

“Grant him your wisdom as he establishes himself in his new role. Help him remain obedient to the leading of your Spirit, that he might walk humbly with you and

your son, our Lord Jesus, before walking with others.”

The director of Indigenous Ministry will also be a member of the Standing Committee, a position the Archbishop says will allow Mr Duckett “the opportunity to contribute to the governance of the Diocese and keep before us the needs and opportunities for gospel ministry in Aboriginal communities in the Diocese”.

Said Mr Duckett: “I feel honoured to serve God in this new role, acknowledging I stand upon the shoulders of those who have gone before, serving within our Diocese – those who have shared blood, sweat, tears and much prayer over many years to see the gospel shared among our Indigenous people throughout Sydney and this great country”. There will be a more extensive opportunity for prayer and thanksgiving for Mr Duckett and Indigenous ministry later in the year.

Celebrate: the Rev Michael Duckett and Matiu Duckett; Archbishop Raffel; Indigenous pastors and elders; members of the Indigenous people’s ministry committee.

Russell Powell

To bless Sydney and beyond

Judy Adamson

Dr Veronica Hoyt loves the ministry of Moore College’s Priscilla and Aquila Centre so much that, when she lived in New Zealand, she travelled to Sydney two years in a row for P&A Centre’s annual conference. So, it’s a delight for her to now become director of a place that focuses on encouraging the ministries of women, particularly as they partner with men in gospel work.

“I know there is a focus on training women at various Bible colleges across Australia, but [having] a college centre that focuses on encouraging the female and male students, and also encouraging the Diocese to be thinking about the theology of complementarian ministry and how we can apply it well –I feel like that’s unique and has the potential to be a tremendous blessing in Sydney and beyond,” she says.

After 10 years of church work in New Zealand, Dr Hoyt and her husband moved to Sydney, where she served as women’s minister at North Sydney – until she heard the founding director of the Priscilla and Aquila Centre, Jane Tooher, was moving back into parish ministry.

“Various people encouraged me to apply,” she says. “I was hesitant initially, for several reasons, but at the same time my high regard for the P&A Centre – and Moore College – led me to think, ‘If this is where the Lord would like me to serve, then I would be really happy to do that!’

“I have really enjoyed my time walking alongside women, partnering with them in the gospel, and supporting men and women working together

in parish ministry. But I can see the P&A Centre is offering an opportunity to both influence current students and also be in contact more widely within the Diocese, partnering with churches more generally by encouraging men and women to work together.”

Dr Hoyt believes that, in Sydney, complementarian ministries are understood as being more than “men and women operating in different spheres – you know, men preach, women do kids. I feel like there’s a sense that men and women partner together in the gospel.

“At the same time, it seems to me that work needs to be done in creating spaces for women to minister, and working out how men and women can partner well in the gospel. I think there’s room for growth in how we apply it well to the local church.

“Practical things like the P&A conference provide a place where we can wrestle with these issues together.”

In addition to her Priscilla and Aquila Centre role, Dr Hoyt –also an experienced high school and TAFE teacher – is excited by the prospect of lecturing in ministry at Moore College.

“The ministry course really helps the students to put their theology into practice,” she

says. “I’m looking forward to seeing students grasp their need to grow in this area in order to serve God’s people better when they come out of college... and also, because I’ve been in ministry, I know it will actually make a difference – not only for them but also for the people they will serve down the track.

“What I’m praying for this year

is the work of the college, which is tremendously important for the sake of the gospel and gospel witness here in Sydney.

“I’m also praying for the students, that they will not just learn a lot of facts but grow in their love for the Lord Jesus and in their love for people as they prepare for ministry beyond the walls of Moore College.” SC

Delighted by new role: Veronica Hoyt speaks with attendees at the Priscilla and Aquila conference last month.

Veronica Hoyt’s hopes for the Priscilla and Aquila Centre at Moore College.

Children caught in Congo chaos

Horrific reports are emerging from the Democratic Republic of Congo as the nation is torn apart by fighting that has echoes of the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s.

Rwandan-backed M23 rebels and DRC government troops have clashed in North and South

Kivu, with thousands dead, more than six million people forced from their homes and thousands of others fleeing to neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda.

The conflict has links to the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s with the rebels led by ethnic Tutsis. In the isolated city of Protection and care for everyone

Goma, rebels have conducted a campaign of looting, rape and indiscriminate killing.

The Archbishop of Sydney’s Anglican Aid has launched an emergency appeal to provide food, clothing, and medicine to those in extreme need.

“This week I received some distressing photos from our partners in DRC,” said the Rev Canon Tim Swan, CEO of Anglican Aid. “We had asked what their situation was, what they were seeing there, and what they showed us was truly horrifying. Mass graves.

Men and women with terrible wounds, lying on stretchers. A baby still clinging to its mother, who had been slain in the streets.”

The photos, too graphic to publish, also showed family

members searching for their children and other relatives in makeshift morgues.

International media is carrying reports that the M23 rebels have also executed children who picked up the weapons of the retreating government soldiers.

“I am grieved to the core,” Canon Swan said. “Anglican Aid has trusted, long-term partners in Goma, many of whom I visited and prayed with when I travelled there in 2023.

We have sponsored dozens of Bible college students there, and helped others provide for their families through our microfinance project.

“Pray that our Lord will bring comfort and strength to our Christian brothers and sisters. Pray that they may spread the

Russell Powell

Safe for now, but without a home: children in the Kanyaruchinya camp for displaced persons in Munigi, North Kivu. photo: MONUSCO/Aubin Mukoni

CHURCH MASSACRE AMONG DEADLY CONGO ATTACKS

An ISIS-linked group executes 70 people in a church.

As the Democratic Republic of Congo endures scenes reminiscent of the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s, reports have emerged of an attack in the northeast of the country.

While the rest of the country is under attack from Rwandan-backed M23 rebels, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – an ISIS-affiliated group with Ugandan roots – staged a raid on Mayba in the Lubero region of the DRC. The Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors reported that the group silently approached 20 men and women and captured them. As the local community was trying to respond to the kidnapping, Open Doors reported that ADF militants surrounded the village

hope of justice and peace that the Lord will bring at his coming.”

NEEDS ON THE GROUND

The Rev Jean-Paul Muhindo, the Congo director for Anglican Aid’s partner, Life in Abundance, explained that “many internally displaced people found in South Kivu, especially in Idjwi, Bukavu and Kalehe and those locked down in Goma town, require humanitarian assistance in the form of food and non-food items, and trauma healing.

“Water, electricity and internet connections have been cut in Goma, a city of more or less a million inhabitants and where weapons are currently crackling by rebels looting properties, raping women and killing innocents.

and captured a further 50 people. The 70 men and women were then taken to a Protestant church in Kasanga, where they were later found beheaded. Among the victims were members of the CECA 20, or Communauté Evangélique au Centre de l’Afrique – an evangelical community of Christians founded by the Africa Inland Mission in 1912.

With attacks expected to intensify, Open Doors has called for prayer for Christians in the DRC, quoting one CECA 20 elder as saying, “We don’t know what to do or how to pray; we’ve had enough of massacres, may God’s will alone be done”.

“At Life in Abundance, we have gathered information of the displaced presence from our local volunteers in Kalehe, Katana, Kavumu, Idjwi and Bukavu.

“Identified displaced are located in host families. Some of them are hosted in local churches and other public structures such as schools.”

Items being shipped to the needy include cornflour, rice, beans, oil, salt, loincloths, children’s clothes and soap.

Added Mr Muhindo: “We also plan, with our partner churches, to run sessions of trauma healing and, with local health centres, some urgent care for the sick” . SC

Donate to the appeal at https:// anglicanaid.org.au/drc-aid/

A PRAYER FOR THE DRC

Mighty God, our Lord and King, while the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain, we know that you have authority over all things. All who take refuge in you are blessed.

We pray for our brothers and sisters in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where violence has again flared. Please bring comfort, healing, and restoration to the people of this city, now under the control of a rebel group. Would you restore order and install leaders who will govern wisely, and for the good of the people.

Thank you for our brothers and sisters from Anglican Aid’s partner, Life in Abundance, who are caring for people who have been displaced in the conflict. As Life in Abundance workers show your love through providing food and other essentials, help them to share the hope they have in you.

We pray that the gospel will go out in DRC, and many will find new life in Christ. Would you enable Bible college students who are supported by Anglican Aid to learn how to correctly handle the word of truth. Prepare them to build up the body of Christ, so your people are united in the faith and in the knowledge of your Son.

Please change hearts to bring lasting peace to this troubled country. Our Lord Jesus, Prince of Peace, we pray in your name and for your glory.

Amen

A church in Lubero, North Kivu.

Guess who’s coming to podcast?

The former Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, has been joined by his brother, former Archbishop Peter Jensen, in a refashioning of the Two Ways News podcast. The podcast was previously hosted by Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne.

Mr Payne said in the final episode of 2024 that “the ‘Yes’ that I gave to joining the faculty at Moore College, unfortunately, entails a number of ‘Nos’ – and being able to drive this weekly podcast with Phillip is one of them.

“I will miss it! It’s been an enjoyable privilege to interact not just with Phillip but with you, our readers and listeners, over the past 100-plus episodes. But God has something new for me to do at Moore, including taking up the directorship of The Centre for Christian Living once

Camaraderie and chequered shirts: Phillip and Peter Jensen at their microphones for the Two Ways podcast.

again – so I will not be entirely done with podcasting.”

In the first episode of 2025, Mr Jensen introduced his brother Peter as co-host. “This year we’re looking at Genesis,” he said. “Last year we worked our way through Romans and we just thought, well, the opening chapters of Genesis open up so many questions for us that it’ll be a great passage to have as the backbone of the year.”

The first few episodes continue

the Genesis examination, with the pair bringing their own perspectives and challenging each other.

The camaraderie of the brothers is evident, although subtle. “Peter is at least enjoying it,” Mr Jensen joked in episode one. “I saw a smile on his face.”

The combination of two of the most senior figures in Australian Christianity is set to boost subscriber numbers. Peter Jensen retired as archbishop in

2013 to concentrate on work for the Global Anglican Fellowship, or Gafcon, and Phillip Jensen stepped down as Dean in 2014 to move to Two Ways Ministries. Both men have also continued on with extensive speaking ministries.

Public episodes of the podcast are available to all, but a subscriber option also gives access to more episodes and resources through Substack. SC

https://www.twoways.news

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Overview:

A great place to live and work and a base for South Pacific experiences.

Ambassadors for Christ (South Pacific) is seeking a qualified optometrist or ophthalmologist with a heart for Christian missions to join our ministry in Fiji The candidate will work with Christian Helps a division that demonstrates Christ s love through both word and action addressing physical needs as a means of sharing the Gospel

We are seeking a qualified optometrist (maybe retired or Final Year placement) or ophthalmologist, with a heart for Christian mission, to join our team in Fiji. You will work with Christian Helps, who demonstrate Christ’s love by meeting physical needs. Another division is the College

Role and Responsibilities:

• Provide optometric care in our optical centre, meeting the physical needs of local communities

• Partner with the AFC(SP) team to bridge healthcare services with evangelistic outreach Assist in community development initiatives and programs aimed at promoting eye health and general well-being

Provide optometric care in our well-equipped and staffed Optical Centre/Shop. Partner with AFC(SP) to provide healthcare services and evangelistic outreach.

Participate in Bible studies prayer meetings and other spiritual activities of the ministry

Qualifications:

• Optometry or Ophthalmology degree

• Licensed or eligible for licensing in Fiji

• Previous experience in mission work (preferred but not required)

• A strong personal faith in Christ with a desire to share His love with others

Other Information:

Conditions of employment include salary or cost of living support

Visa applications will be processed through AFC(SP) After 3-5 years of service the ministry will cover the cost of a return ticket to the missionary’s home country

As part of Christian Helps this role provides both healthcare services and an opportunity to share the love of Christ

“This Bible has changed lives”

Russell Powell

“I love considering all the people who might have owned this book, who have had their lives transformed by God’s word personally,” says the Rev Dr Mark Earngey, Moore College’s head of Church History, as he looks down at a leather-bound Zurich Bible printed in the 1540s.

“It’s God’s word… ministers would have used it to preach from, read it themselves, shared it with their family.”

The Bible, with Biblia sacrosancta Testamenti Veteris & Noui on the title page, is the latest acquisition for the rare books collection in the college’s Donald Robinson Library.

The collection holds many Reformation-era works, including a 1550 English Bible

translation, and prayer books from every English monarch since the teenage Edward VI.

“The rare book collection of our library has grown considerably in recent years and the latest acquisition is a real gem,” said Moore’s principal the Rev Dr Mark Thompson, who is thrilled by the new arrival.

“It is a Latin translation of the Bible produced in Zurich during the ministry of Heinrich Bullinger, in either 1543 or 1544. Almost as valuable as the work itself are the marginal annotations by one of the book’s original owners.

“This volume is incredibly rare and it provides us with a further glimpse into an important centre of Reformation ministry and

“It’s God’s word”: the Rev Dr Mark Earngey explores the Zurich Bible.

thinking in the 16th and early 17th centuries.”

Dr Thompson says the collection of rare Reformation works supports the college’s long-standing commitment to serious Reformation scholarship.

The Bible has been rebound, has brass clasps and is heavily annotated with at least three different handwriting styles. It also bears the stamp of an

Augustinian library from Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The single volume version is believed to be the only one of its type in Australia.

“This Bible has changed lives,” Dr Earngey says, as he carefully turns the well-worn pages. “Maybe laypeople, men and women, have had their lives transformed and their eternities changed through this Bible.” SC

DISCOVER GREAT BOOKS AND RESOURCES FOR YOU AND YOUR CHURCH

Find Bible commentaries and gospel-centred resources for youth and children’s ministry, along with books for kids, teens and adults at youthworksmedia.net

It’s all Greek to this class

Judy Adamson

Ever found yourself wondering why versions of the New Testament differ when translating the same Greek words into English? And what it felt like for members of the first churches to have the spiritual lights switched as they read a letter from one of the apostles?

These are some of the things that have brought a group of keen learners together, from different congregations at Lower Mountains Anglican Parish, to study New Testament Greek.

“To actually see something the way it was originally written down is quite inspirational –going back to the source,” says Don Taylor, who attends the class each week with his wife Glen.

“It can be challenging, because you say, ‘Why has [the writer] chosen this word?’ It’s a word only used six times in the New Testament; five times it’s got a particular connotation, and the sixth time it’s a different connotation, and why is that the case? It’s not the translation; it’s the way it’s understood by the church. [By understanding the Greek] you see challenges that you weren’t aware of before.

“It’s so interesting.”

The classes are led by fellow parish member David McKay, a former high school music teacher who also spent four years at Bible college in his youth.

He loved learning the biblical languages so much he has kept up his Greek reading ever since, and wondered if sharing some of this might interest others at his church.

It did. The class began early last year, and while some found it heavy going and dropped out, eight people still meet each Monday night in Mr McKay’s home.

“Those who’ve remained all had some background in learning a language before, which does make it a little easier in some ways,” he says.

“We began with learning the characters and a few very common words, then had a go at reading from the beginning of John and from the beginning of Mark – those are quite accessible and easy to read –and then we learnt a little bit of grammar. This year we’re using a 1 John reader linked to a second-year Greek book.

“I can see my students are making progress when they discover I’ve made some

mistakes! You feel bad about making the mistake, but it can actually be a teaching moment.”

After more than a year of learning, Mr Taylor not only feels the class is enhancing his understanding of Scripture, but says with a chuckle, “I’m a bit more sympathetic now to the challenge of translating the Bible!”

Adds Mrs Taylor: “I’m really interested in translations of the Bible... and why the words are translated differently. I’m finding learning the Greek is helpful for that because the words don’t translate one-for-one. There are words in Greek that we don’t have a corresponding word for in English.

“I like being part of a class and learning together. I like spending more time looking at the Bible in a different context – and we are

definitely spending more time with the Bible than we would be otherwise.”

For those encouraged to have a go at learning Greek themselves, or with a group in their church, Mr McKay suggests a new course called Greek Word Studies for Everyone, or the “Daily Dose of Greek” found online.

“We can really enrich our understanding of the Bible through reading it in the original languages – and I think it’s good to have people in our churches who’ve done some study that helps them with that,” he says.

“A lot of people would think that we don’t need to do it because it’s all been done for us. Scholars have given us very good English translations, and we’ve got so many. But it is very good to see it for yourself – a bit like the Bereans in Acts!” SC

Enriched: (from top): John McQueen, Don and Glen Taylor, David McKay.

Shepherding, service and selfies

Russell Powell

More than 700 student leaders filled St Andrew’s Cathedral for Archbishop Kanishka Raffel’s annual commissioning of Anglican prefects.

“This is a recognition in you of qualities of service, reliability and integrity from your teachers and peers, and that is something that ought to bring you a sense of satisfaction and encouragement,” he told the students.

“It is also a weighty responsibility, and leadership is, in part, a matter of the way in which you bear responsibility and discharge your responsibilities. So it is entirely appropriate to seek God’s help, and that is why we have invited the student leaders of Anglican schools to come together at the Cathedral for this service of dedication and commissioning.”

The Archbishop took as his text the feeding of the 5000 from Mark 6. Conscious that Anglican schools encompass

both Christian and nonChristian students, he spoke of the miracles and the compassion of Jesus, drawing out a gospel message.

The service was broken by morning tea in the Cathedral

Square, a chance for prefects from different schools to meet and mix. When they reconvened inside, the Archbishop took questions on leadership – his own leadership as Archbishop and his conversion to the

Christian faith from Buddhism.

Revealing that he also was a prefect in high school, the Archbishop empathised. “I know how they feel!” he told SC after the service.

In what has become a tradition, he then stood on the chancel steps to take photos with school groups, and even selfies with those bold enough to ask. The students left the Cathedral with his final charge ringing in their ears.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the work that you do is not miraculous, mostly. God uses means. That is to say that he works by his appointed agents.

“To those who are his, he gives his Spirit that they may do the works in the world he has prepared in advance for them to do. In his common grace to all humanity, there is good that can be done by any who are willing.” SC

A Christian prefect shares her testimony – see page 25.

Young leaders: Students leave the Cathedral following the prefects’ commissioning service.

Commissioned: Danebank prefects take a selfie with Archbishop Raffel.

Archbishop writes

Don’t let prayer be our last resort

Kanishka Raffel

On Sunday, May 4, I have invited all of our churches to share in a day of prayer for the spread of the gospel across our Diocese – from the Hawkesbury to the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands to Wollongong and the South Coast, and Greater Sydney. A day of prayer for our friends, family, neighbours and colleagues who don’t know Christ, to come to know him and his redeeming love.

We’ll be sending material to every church to help you pray in your Sunday services for an open door for the message of Christ, open hearts, and for all of us to be ready to declare his praises. I hope every parish will be represented at the Cathedral that afternoon as we join together in prayer for the lost.

The apostle Paul writes to the fledgling Christian community at Colossae and says:

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should (Col 4:2-4).

See the necessity of prayer for the mission of Jesus. If the gospel is going to get out, it has to be prayed out. Prayer is essential for gospel ministry. This is a letter from Paul – the mighty apostle, church planter, troubleshooter and human author of Scripture, to whom the risen Lord Jesus himself had appeared! But Paul says to the Colossians, pray for me that the message would get out and that I would be clear.

And whose prayers does he seek? The prayers of the Colossians. Young Christians, themselves confused by false teachers and unsure of their faith. The city was unremarkable – a backwater in the empire. Paul had never met them and, as far as we know, he never went to Colossae. But Paul asks them to pray for him.

Sometimes we think that if there isn’t anything else we can do then “at least” we can pray! But the perspective of the New Testament again and again is that prayer is the first plank of our fellowship in gospel proclamation.

We are not all expected to be proclaimers like Paul, but he expects every Christian to be “making the most of every opportunity” (Col 4:5).

And the whole church is called to pray for the proclamation of the gospel as a participation in mission with those who are proclaimers. Real, powerful, effective and indispensable partnership.

Don’t let prayer be our last resort – be devoted to prayer, Paul says. If you are devoted to anything, you know what that looks like. You give time to what you are devoted to; you give energy and enthusiasm to it, learning the habits, practices and skills. When you are devoted to something, you establish goals and targets for it. You give yourself wholeheartedly to it.

At last year’s Synod I suggested that we might adopt the habit of praying for five people over five days – people who don’t yet know Jesus. If you missed it, or need a reminder, here it is:

Day 1: pray for a member of your family who doesn’t follow the Lord.

Day 2: pray for a friend who doesn’t know the Lord; a work colleague, a sporting buddy, someone from your book club, the parent of your child’s school friend.

Day 3: pray for your circle of acquaintances – a neighbour, your doctor, or people you see frequently but only fleetingly like your barista, or the person from whom you buy your bread and milk.

Day 4: pray for people you used to know but no longer see regularly. God can work in their lives through others, in response to your prayers.

Day 5: pray for those you know who have drifted from Christian fellowship or from faith in Christ, that the Lord would speak to them as he did to the younger son, and bring them to their senses.

Can we pray each week for five people to come to know the Lord or know him better?

Paul makes clear what he wants the Colossians to pray for. He requests two things: a door for the message and clear proclamation.

When he says “a door for our message” I think he means an opportunity for the gospel. He mentions in passing that he is in chains. He’s in prison – but he doesn’t ask for prayers to be released! He asks the Colossians to pray for a door for the gospel.

I suppose he wants to share Jesus with his fellow prisoners, or his guards, or those who will hear his case in court. It’s the message that is important.

Paul also asks them to pray for clear proclamation, because Jesus has promised to come to people in the message about him. To receive the message is to receive him and to reject the message is to reject him. So, Paul says, pray that I’ll be clear. And that’s got to be a good prayer, doesn’t it?

Will you pray for me, and for your church’s senior minister and

ministry team, for chaplains in schools, hospitals, prisons and Anglicare villages, for your SRE teachers and youth and children’s leaders, that we would be clear in speaking of Jesus to others?

I am praying for you, as a “proclaimer”, in the opportunities, conversations and relationships in which God has placed you. Please join with me in praying that Jesus would save the people we know who don’t know him. And that he would help us all “declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness, into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). SC

Lament, repentance and restoration

In the church’s calendar, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a season; the season of Lent. A season that calls us to face up to the truth about our sin in the eyes of God.

Of course, in setting aside a season like this, it was never the intention to suggest that this practice (dare we even say “discipline”?) was just a one-monthin-a-year affair. A month of relative gloom and abstinence and introspection and no meat on Fridays – all sackcloth and ashes – before we could get on again with our usual habits of self-indulgence for the other 11 months of the year. Growing up in a church tradition that made more of a thing of Lent than we do here, that’s how it often felt to me.

In the church’s liturgical tradition, the practice of self-examination and confession has never been isolated to the weeks of Lent. If you went to church twice a day, each day of the week, as folk once did, and heard each day the daily “offices” – morning, evening prayer, holy communion – every service would begin with a call to self-examination and repentance. Not for a matter of weeks, but each and every service, every single day.

What the annual season of Lent marked, then, was not a rather traumatic, isolated and – thank the Lord –relatively disproportionate part of Christian experience and discipleship, but something that is a normal daily rhythm.

For if our lives can be mapped out in a succession of years, with seasons of beginnings and endings, of seed time, growth and harvest, so our years capture what is also mapped out in

miniature each day, with its beginnings and endings: a daily succession of dawn, noon and dusk.

That was always the point of the church’s liturgical calendar: to superimpose our daily spiritual journey as Christ’s disciples onto our years – at least as they unfolded in the Northern Hemisphere! Dawning hope in seasons of decline (Advent); light and joy in seasons of darkness (Christmas); humility and lament in seasons of growth (Lent); as well as joy and thanksgiving in seasons of plenty – stretching out, over an entire year, what is the normal, daily pattern of discipleship.

Every day contains, in a sense, not one season but all of them: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, as well as ordinary times of thanksgiving. Perhaps in different proportions depending on what each day presents, but all of them nonetheless.

AN AVERSION TO LAMENT

Yet when it comes to lament, we evangelicals have sometimes had an awkward conscience. Aside from our general aversion to all things liturgical, not least religious festivals and seasons (with the exception, perhaps, of Christmas and Easter), we can be particularly touchy when it comes to Lent.

Why all the chest-beating and gloom, why all the sackcloth and ashes, if it’s really true that we’ve been forgiven once for all in Christ? Where is the freedom and joy and assurance of our complete pardon in Christ?

Why a day, a month, of fasting, when – thanks to Jesus – I

Moore College

Andrew Leslie

tuck into my pork sausage with a clear conscience, as the Reformer Zwingli encouraged his parishioners to do during the month of Lent?

If we’re touchy about the mood of Lent for just one month of the year, it’s no surprise that the daily practice of lament and confession is often airbrushed out of our corporate gatherings, almost as a matter of principle. It’s as if, as I’ve sometimes heard it said, such practices might undermine the very assurance of the gospel. Thanksgiving and rejoicing for what Christ has done to forgive us? By all means. But regular confession and absolution? No.

FORGIVEN AND RESTORED

What strikes me about Psalm 32, though, is that King David begins with profound thanks for forgiveness:

Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them...

There is thanksgiving and rejoicing in the tremendous blessing of forgiveness – absolutely. And yet, as the psalm continues, this experience of blessing and joy is entered into not apart from, but only through, the practice of confession.

On this occasion we don’t know what his sin was, although we know for sure that David was a sinner like the rest of us. But whatever it was, he says in verse 3 that when he kept silent about it, “my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long”.

We hear that and we think, oh, he’s done something wrong –perhaps seriously wrong – and his conscience is troubled about it. Fair enough.

But then he continues with something that may be a little surprising to us. It wasn’t just a troubled conscience, he says, “For day and night your hand was heavy on me”, as if to say this isn’t just a guilty conscience: there’s a broken relationship.

In other words, it’s not just that my troubled conscience needs to be reminded of the gospel right now – that Jesus has died and washed away all my sin, and then all the pangs of guilt will magically disappear. No, he goes on, “I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’.”

Then, and only then, “you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

But hasn’t my sin already been forgiven, you ask? Hasn’t the guilt already been washed away by the blood of Jesus?

Well, yes, like David, you are no longer a slave, no longer an alien, no longer without hope and without God in the world (as Paul puts it in Ephesians 2:12): you are a ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven child of God. Absolutely yes.

And yet, like any parent will tell you, when their children sin –and sin they do, sometimes very seriously indeed – the status of the relationship may not be affected, but the intimacy, the warmth, the fellowship, the joy of that relationship most certainly is.

Until the sin is uncovered, named, acknowledged, confessed; until the truth of it is faced up to for what it really is, a cloud remains.

And as David knows, it’s no less true of our relationship with God.

But here’s the thing: far from being a disincentive to repentance and confession, it’s the very status and security of that relationship that enables us to face up to the truth about our sin.

What is it that finally brought David to his knees in repentance? It wasn’t because God dragged it out of him. It wasn’t even a sense

Why Lent is not an isolated season in our faith lives.

of shame or embarrassment, although he might have felt those things. And it certainly wasn’t fear of the consequences. All those things are, in fact, the enemy of true repentance and confession. After all, Jesus says, everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear their deeds will be exposed (John 3:20).

No, David falls to his knees because, in verse 7, he’s remembered something about God: “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance”. What an extraordinary thing to say! If you are my hiding place, O Lord, what indeed is there to hide?

There is no good reason, then, for lament and confession to be a fitful and traumatic affair, something confined to a particularly morose season of penitence, or else airbrushed out of our discipleship altogether. Far from being the enemy of an intimate and secure relationship with God, it’s the complete reverse.

Each and every day, our heavenly Father is inviting us to enter into the true freedom, the joy, the blessed assurance of our adoption as his ransomed children. No longer hiding, as Adam and Eve once did in the garden, but facing up to the truth about our sin, he invites us to pray as David did in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”. SC

The Rev Dr Andrew Leslie is head of Theology, Philosophy and Ethics, and teaches Christian Doctrine at Moore College.

BAAIC *

Peter Lin

While I spend most of my time in the SWR it’s useful to come to SAH regularly because, apart from the EoS team, there is SAS – formerly SDS – and SAP, which incorporates what was ACPT, NCNC, MPC and ACGC. There is also ODSM, AA, AMC, MTD. Also convenient to SAC and SACS. You never know who you might need to chat to.

Frustrated yet?

Anything needed when it comes time for SC is handy, of course – though for ENC you’d have to go to MTC. TASC being located elsewhere is equally inconvenient if I need to discuss something about THAC or LAC or OPAC or NAC or PAC or one of the others.

Most beneficial at SAH is seeing my colleagues from WSR, SSR, WR, NR, the AFW, the BFIR, the AttA, and the EAs and PAs. Though some matters are NMR so NMC, teamwork is essential. FWIW you can also sort your MDBA there, any HR matters or just enjoy the HUB.

If you’re feeling a little lost or confused, ICYMI this is an article on banning acronyms in church for this very reason.

As far as I’m concerned, there can be open slather on acronyms everywhere else. NMC. But in churches, when you have new people come, these acronyms can be alienating and unwelcoming. It says you’re not “in”, because you don’t know what they mean when everyone else seems to understand.

It’s not just the acronyms, it is also the labels that are used without any explanation.

So if you go to WTAC or NDAC or VSAC or TMAC or GWAC (BTW they’re made up so as not to suggest any church in the

SWR), just imagine that it’s your first Sunday and the service leader says, “Today the Toadlets will be in LK2 instead of GH3, the Cygnets are in WD6 and the Amazons are in Rainforest Lower. If you’re new, your children are welcome to join – just follow the leaders – but if your kids are

Or a service leader might be very welcoming, and say that if I’m new, they’d like to invite me after church to morning tea just near the west coffee station. This is because if I go to the northeast coffee station, there won’t be any newcomers’ gift bags there. So, I should just follow all the other people who are here for the first time! You get the point, yes?

We would do well to remember that when a service leader, or whoever might be doing the announcements, tells the congregation “not to miss SPST because it’s for one night only and YOLO, so sign up with Mavis today”, that some people in the room may not have understood this. Sure, if I’m new it might get my FOMO going, but I don’t know what SPST is, and who on earth is Mavis?

Perhaps it’s asking a bit much for every acronym and “in” label to be banned at church. So let’s start with an easy suggestion: just explain yourself. Because it is not just about information but welcome. And welcome is about gospel love and invitation.

TTFN. SC

the Sydney Diocese.

gai Male Choir is seeking a MUSIC DIRECTOR to assume leadership of the Choir into the future. Information about the Choir is at www.kuringgaimalechoir.org.au with a detailed advertisement. contact the 644 063 or info@kuringgaimalechoir.org.au

Dr

Amelia Haines

Dr Amelia Haines

Dr Amelia Haines

The Rt Rev Peter Lin is bishop of the South Western Region (SWR!) in

Talking points

Sin, God’s justice and International Women’s Day

Kara Hartley

This year the theme for the UN International Women’s Day was “For all women: rights, empowerment and equality”. It was intended to be a day to celebrate the achievements of women and call for greater attention to the status and rights of women.

This slogan recognised the ongoing prejudices and attitudes that fail to care for and honour women. It recognised that while there have been great gains for some in this area, many women continue to be subject to harm at the hands of others. The IWD slogan is a human cry to a sinful world that continues to exploit, demean, reject and harm women.

For example, a report from the UN in 2020 declared that women and girls represented 65 per cent of all trafficking victims globally. Ninety per cent of those women were trafficked for sexual exploitation.

Humanly speaking, these numbers seem insurmountable. The United Nations’ slogan of rights, empowerment and equality is a noble ideal yet, tragically, we know these ideals won’t be realised because sin, expressing itself in greed and exploitation, continues to particularly harm vulnerable women and girls.

Understanding this shapes the way we approach this day

and reminds us to be ever thankful for the gospel in which we stand. In the gospel, we have the only true and lasting hope for the dignity and safety that International Women’s Day longs for – that our world longs for. In the gospel we have the right to be called children of God. The Cross is the power of God that will save us, and it is in the gospel that we stand equal as sinners saved by Jesus.

While we abhor the exploitation of any person, we must engage with these ideals through a gospel lens for that is how we always approach and understand the world. Our activism will only have purpose if driven by gospel principles, similar to those in the past such as William Wilberforce, who campaigned for 20 years to end the slave trade.

In the gospel I’m not sure we find “rights, empowerment and equality” quite as the UN envisages. Rather, the invitation of the gospel is to come to a Saviour who gave up his rights and laid down his life, calling others to do the same as they follow him. Don’t get me wrong – it’s essential for us to stand up and speak and be active against injustice. Yet at the heart of our activism is a desire for people to come to know the one who deals with all people justly, who extends kindness to the vulnerable and who

loves, serves, includes, affirms and values with compassion and hope.

There are many places in the gospels where Jesus’ compassion and justice is displayed. Considering women, Luke’s Gospel in particular provides several extraordinary moments where women encounter Jesus and experience profound kindness. For me one of the most personal examples is Jesus’ interaction with the widow of Nain in Luke 7. Jesus does a miracle to show that he is indeed the Messiah, and the crowd respond in awe declaring, “God has come to help his people” (v16).

It’s the context of this miracle, and one line in particular, that’s especially powerful for me. Jesus arrives at the town of Nain as a funeral procession is taking place. The only son of a woman who is a widow has died. The whole town, it seems, is part of this funeral.

Using this as an opportunity to reveal his identity and display power that only belongs to God, Jesus raises the man from the dead. But prior to the miracle Jesus interacts with the widowed mother. In her distress he speaks to her. Luke records for us in verse 13 the inner heart of Jesus at that moment: “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry’”.

His heart went out to her. At the moment Jesus is about to reveal something of his identity he is also deeply compassionate toward one of the most vulnerable in society – a widow who has lost her son. This is not passing pity. As Dane Ortland says in his book Gentle and Lowly, the Greek word used here for compassion “refers to a depth of feeling in which your feelings and longings churn within you”. Jesus responds to this woman’s distress with this deep compassion, even though he knows her son will soon be alive.

Of course, this is only one of the many accounts of women in the Gospel of Luke. Luke also contains the extended stories of Elizabeth and Mary, Jesus’ mother (Luke 1), Anna’s encounter with baby Jesus (2:36-38), Jesus giving honour to a “sinful” woman (7:36-50), raising the 12-year-old girl and healing the woman with bleeding (8:40-55), and time at the home of his friends Mary and Martha (10:38-42).

Additionally, there were the women who supported Jesus out of their own means (8:1-3) and women who stayed with him during his crucifixion and at the tomb (chapters 23 and 24). Each circumstance, each story reveals something of how God so deeply loves women, which is so antithetical to the mistreatment and abuse of women brought about by sinful people.

Jesus clearly gives dignity to women, recognising their equality with men in God’s creation and plan of salvation. This is our story. This is why we speak out against injustice.

As his church we have an opportunity to show where true dignity is found and point to the day when those in Christ stand whole, and where pain and the old order of things have passed away. We have an opportunity to show the world Jesus, who loved and defended and honoured women. Let’s go and talk about him. SC

“Odd bunch” people

Naomi Bird

Imagine if becoming a parent was like going to a fruit shop. We want to choose the best-looking fruit – shiny, no blemishes, no bruises. The perfect child, who loves school, is compliant, polite and friendly, and that everyone likes.

The truth is not quite like that. Becoming a parent to a neurodiverse kid is more akin to getting something from the “odd bunch”. Have you seen that fruit and veg at Woolworths? It’s what the supermarkets usually reject: the wrong size, shape or colour, compared to what is “normal”.

But our odd bunch fruit is still perfectly fine. It just doesn’t fit the mould of what the supermarket, or the world, wants. It has no less value. It comes with amazing quirks.

When you get a child with a disability – whether intellectual, physical or neurodiverse (and sometimes all of the above) – so much grief goes along with that. There is blame, unanswered questions, broken dreams. This is not what you signed up for. You wanted the shiny apple. Early in our journey I would often say, “Surely there is someone else who could do this better than me?”

Most people wouldn’t choose the challenging child. It’s not the life they see for themselves. But there are some amazing people out there who do choose that life. We have some self-giving and loving foster parents who are making our world better. If that is you, thank you.

Markus is our third child and first son. He was born in the highlands of Scotland. He was very much a prayed for and wanted child. I’d previously had secondary infertility.

Parenting Markus has been one of the hardest and most rewarding things I have done in my life. He has challenged me, brought me to tears and pushed my boundaries but also brought me so much joy. He pushes me out of my comfort zone to see the world from his perspective, which I am really beginning to love.

I have learnt to sometimes let Markus lead, and end up seeing and experiencing things I wouldn’t normally do. Without him, my life would be dull. Less anxiety-filled sometimes, but dull. He makes me laugh and I now know so much about animals, Australian native plants and food. As much as being his Mum has been challenging, I believe I wouldn’t be the person I am without him. I just wish our world would see the value in these amazing kids and adults.

Sadly, being the parent of a neurodiverse child has been

The Ven Kara Hartley is Archdeacon for Women in the Sydney Diocese.

Jesus Club

incredibly lonely at times. When Markus was first diagnosed, almost 10 years ago, I knew only one other person locally who had a child with autism. I constantly felt judged for a child who didn’t fit the mould at church, who’d race around and not follow directions. I still hear stories about those who taught him at Sunday school. I think if Markus had been our first child it would’ve been harder. I would have taken it more personally. The more kids you have, the more you realise it’s less about parenting and more about genetics. Each child is parented differently.

In the years before his diagnosis, church was one of the hardest places for me to be. Sadly, this is a story I hear from many carers, including NDIS co-ordinators who deal daily with families where there are disabilities. It would’ve been so easy not to go to church and not be part of a community that, at times, made me feel like I wasn’t a good parent – even unintentionally. I’m thankful I’ve persevered; that I’ve continued to take Markus to church and have him connected.

Because of how lonely I felt when Markus was first diagnosed, I really didn’t want others to experience this. I set out to share my story with other Christian mums in preschooler and church groups. I shared about his diagnosis and the griefs and challenges of parenting. I’ve walked with many families as their child has received a diagnosis. I’ve prayed and cried with parents and just sat with them in the grief of that. It has been a privilege.

My goal has been not to let other families feel as isolated and disconnected from their church community – which hasn’t always been easy. The grief you feel as a parent/carer never really goes away. Ten years later, I don’t grieve who my son is, but that the world is not made for him. But it is getting better, and we are getting better.

Practical ways to walk alongside caregivers at church

• For those with a Jesus Club in their parish, continue doing what you’re doing. There are not many churches reaching out to young adults and adults with disabilities. I recently heard that disabled adults in the US are one of the largest unreached people groups. By caring for and giving a space for these amazing humans, you care for the carers.

• When you’re offering help, be specific. Offer to mow the lawn,

pick up groceries, do the ironing. When we’re struggling with daily life challenges we’re unable to articulate how you can help. Starting with what you’re prepared to do is really helpful.

• Sit with people in the mess and grief. Don’t try to fix it. Just be with them, pray with them and give them a safe space. It helps to reach out. We don’t always have the capacity to ask for help. You may not see these families at church, and they’ll probably be less active on social media.

• Get alongside the rest of the family. Siblings often need to fit in around their brother or sister. Going to a show may be too much for a neurodiverse person and would set them up to fail. But this can mean their siblings may not get to go either. Include them in day trips and events. Offer to drop them home after the church bush dance so Mum and Dad can leave early

On the Joni and Friends website, Ryan Faulk writes:

For every person with a disability who is unable to attend church, there are parents, siblings and spouses who suddenly find themselves unable to attend, as well. If you want to multiply your evangelistic impact, reach out to these families who have often faced rejection.

• Pray with us and for us. Connect with the child or the young person. One of the biggest blessings we have had is an elderly gentleman at church who has an interest in birds, like Markus. From when Markus was about eight, he would sit near us and chat to Markus about those interests. Ken has been praying for Markus, and for his life, and for him to discover who Jesus is. To know I have people other than my family investing in prayer for my son is amazing.

• Be prepared to be uncomfortable. It’s hard. If you don’t understand something, ask. We are usually very willing to educate someone and help them understand.

We know it’s complicated – believe me, we know! But the care, understanding and friendships that can grow through churches and individuals offering a welcome to “odd bunch” fruit and their families can be life changing. SC

Naomi Bird is a former children’s minister who works for the Church Missionary Society. This is an edited form of a talk she gave at the Jesus Club conference late last year. Jesus Club is a church-based program for adults with intellectual disabilities. See jesusclub.org.au

Adults are becoming Christian every day

One of the questions we commonly get asked at Evangelism & New Churches is how the evangelism process worked for people who became Christians as adults.

People want to hear about what happened and why it was so effective. Many of the people asking these questions don’t know people who became Christians as adults – perhaps because many of them are younger in age.

At Anglican Media Sydney we are enthusiastic about churches being involved with each other's faith journeys.

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I want to tell you that people become Christians as adults in Australia every single day. It happens all the time.

I’m in a Bible study with a bunch of them, so I spoke with two and asked them how they were shown Jesus’ importance in their lives. Here’s what they had to say:

Richard: I’ve been a Christian for about three years now. My wife invited me to church about three years ago. She’d been brought up as a Christian, but walked away for a while in her life. At first I stuck it out [visiting church] because my wife asked me. Then I just loved hearing the word of God and learning about it. The more I got to know Jesus, the more I decided to love him and keep coming to church.

Jesse: It was actually Richard [who invited me to church]! He brought me along to a Good Friday service and that’s where I picked things back up [with God]. I think the people there were definitely a big part of why I decided to keep checking things out. Everyone was so friendly. [I kept] learning more about Jesus, and I just wanted to dive more into it.

There are a couple of things to note from their testimonies. First, the importance of other Christians in the testimony of people who become Christians as adults. More than 90 per cent of people who get converted as adults point to the implicit or explicit influence of Christians in that process.

That means something really simple. The people most likely to be converted this year are people you and I already know or will know at some point. It doesn’t have to be a super-close relationship, either – just that you know them is enough.

The second thing is the partnership of Christians in the process. Both Richard and Jesse were invited by beautiful people to come and check church out. They were met by other Christians at church or the evangelistic course that they went to, and they were really well met.

I hope this gives you some encouragement to be bold and get out there. Adults become Christians all the time. Who will you share the gospel with today? SC

Dave Jensen is the assistant director of Evangelism & New Churches.

Dave Jensen

My identity in Christ

A prefect shares her faith journey.

Scarlett Jones Barker College

When I first started writing, I didn’t think I had much to share. I’ve grown up with Christian parents, so I didn’t have a “sparking” moment in my faith where I had to abandon my whole life to begin anew. But the testimony I am called to tell is about my identity, which I find in Christ.

The gospel of Mark is the beginning of something new in the Bible, the beginning of Jesus Christ. But we don’t enter this gospel at Jesus’ birth – we enter at Jesus’ baptism.

John baptised Jesus. Mark 1 tells us John preached something radical. Traditionally, in the Jewish faith where Jesus came from, as long as your parents were Jewish, you would be Jewish, too. John called people to confess their sin individually, and to recognise their need as sinners to repent. John told us that no matter your origin, no matter your birth mother, your obedience and following of Christ was not a choice of those around you, but yours alone.

At 10, I got baptised. I recognised that I was, and will remain, imperfect and that I needed saving. As I continue to grow in faith, I’m reminded of what John the Baptist taught: just because you may be born with parents who are believers, you may attend church, you may even go to youth group, it doesn’t mean you have your own individual relationship with Christ.

I’m where I am because of Jesus, and I’ve acknowledged my sin and how I need repentance through God’s kindness and grace.

WHEN I PUT ACHIEVEMENT BEFORE JESUS

My faith journey has not been entirely smooth – it has temptations, trials and hardships. Personally, I was challenged in school, specifically through my view of achievement about grades.

From Year 7 to Year 10, and even occasionally now, I found myself chasing a worldly idea, a need for academic gratification. I slowly came to realise that the achievement seen in a number would only ever contribute to the idea of “me”. Despite proclaiming in my baptism to live a life outside of myself, I was following an unfulfilling goal, aspiring towards a flawed promise to myself that my grades would always align with my efforts.

By Year 10, I was drained and getting low marks. I was utterly exhausted, asking God why my hard work wasn’t being rewarded. You might experience a similar feeling – in academics, sport, or even friendships. Through my prayers, I finally saw what God was teaching me: I was putting myself and my achievements first.

COMFORT IN CHRIST

Through those years, when I had a deep anxiety before exams, I was placing my view and worth on a result. I began to slowly understand these verses:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).

I turned my worries into prayers. Whenever I was overwhelmed and felt alone, I’d pray. My ambition remains, but through God’s guidance and grace, a great peace goes with me during the preparation for and duration of academic events. I now know I no longer have to define myself with something as shallow and inconsistent as an exam mark.

Living to my standards is crushing and simply unattainable. I’ll always want more. I’m sure all of us have rarely ever completed a study schedule fully, and that’s because we may not have factored in an unexpected phone call, or a longer dinner. But that’s life. You can’t depend on it to be constant, but I found that I can certainly rely on Jesus Christ to be my constant.

So despite my origins in a family of faith, my journey of finding Jesus was one I had to individually recognise for myself. As I begin looking into the uncertainty of the year ahead – leaving a school I have come to feel is a great part of who I am – I could be filled with angst or fear. At times I still am but, through God’s grace, I am grounded by my foundation with Christ and am comfortable resting my future in the path where Jesus will guide me. SC

This is an edited form of Scarlett Jones’ testimony from the prefects’ service at St Andrew’s Cathedral (see p15)

Magill moves to St Catherine’s

On February 19, before an auditorium filled with students and guests, Ms Deb Magill was inducted as the 14th headmistress of St Catherine’s School in Waverley.

The chairwoman of the school council, Ms Danusia Cameron, described it as “an important moment in our school’s long and storied history. It’s a solemn event – with public promises and commitments; it’s also an event of joy and celebration, with beautiful music and infused with the warmth of our community”.

Ms Magill told those at the induction that “This school is a place where what we do, and why we do it, matters. The history of our school speaks to a similar strong sense of purpose. Our school was established as the first Anglican girls’ school in Australia with the express intent of enabling girls to access the same education as boys.

“For decades I have known this school as a place that has raised leaders – from students and staff. This is just a part of our rich heritage, of which we

VALE

The Rev Dr David Duchesne died on January 26, aged 92. Born David George Duchesne on June 25, 1932, he grew up in Wollongong, where he was captain of his high school and an accomplished sportsman. He began an engineering degree in 1952 but, after two years, felt a calling to the ministry and moved to Moore College. After ordination in 1957, Mr Duchesne became a curate at All Saints’, Nowra. He married Bernie Christenson in 1958, and they moved together to the parish of Old Guildford and

Sense of purpose: Deb Magill after her induction by Archbishop Raffel.

are proud. Our foundations are strong.”

She added that when she first began thinking about the role, she had looked up the school motto, In Christo thesauri sapientiae et scientiae (In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge) in Colossians 2.

“Sitting quietly in the verse before our motto are these words, ‘My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love’,” she said. “And as you get to know me, and I get to know you, that is my goal, too

East Fairfield the following year, followed by Canterbury.

Mr Duchesne was invited to become chaplain at Trinity Grammar School, where he worked from 1965-68, when he was asked to take up the rectorship of Dapto. During his

– that we be encouraged in heart and united in love.”

Ms Magill came to St Catherine’s from Roseville College, where she had worked since early 2011 as head of learning enrichment, taking on other senior roles before being made college principal in 2017.

She noted that induction services were traditionally held at St Andrew’s Cathedral, but the decision had been made to hold hers at the school to ensure all the students could take part.

“As I walked into the hall, while our orchestra played so

VACANT PARISHES

List of parishes and provisional parishes, vacant or becoming vacant, as at March 10, 2025:

• Bankstown**

• Belmore with McCallums Hill and Clemton Park

• Caringbah

• Cooks River**

• Cranebrook with Castlereagh

• Cremorne

• Darling Street**

• Darlinghurst

• Glebe*

• Greenwich

• Jamberoo

• Helensburgh and Stanwell Park**

Lawson

Liverpool South Oatley**

Paddington

Quakers Hill

RiverwoodPunchbowl

Rosemeadow*

Roseville

St John’s Park

South Coogee

* denotes provisional parishes or Archbishop’s appointments ** right of nomination suspended/on hold

beautifully, I felt so proud of our students and staff,” she said. “There is a lovely sense of optimism in this community that I already hold in high regard. I could not be more honoured to be officially starting in this role as we lead and serve together.”

The senior assistant minister at St Philip’s, Turramurra South, the Rev Brian Snell , became rector of the parish in February.

After eight years as an assistant minister at MBM Rooty Hill, the Rev Mark Boyley will become rector of Dapto in early April.

time back in the Illawarra, he undertook a BA in literature at the University of New England and, in 1974, brought his family back to Sydney to take up the role of chaplain and Master-inorders at Shore School.

Speaking at Mr Duchesne’s funeral last month, his son Matthew said that his father “really seemed to shine brightest in school communities”.

“Dad spent 17 very happy years at Shore School, working seven days a week – for the most part as a teacher of History, English, and at one stage General Studies,

as well as Divinity,” he added.

“As well as this he performed his role as chaplain, taking services in the chapel during the week as well as on Saturdays and Sundays, doing pastoral work with the boarding students, and coaching both cricket and football as well as umpiring on occasion.

“He formed many lasting friendships with staff and students, a lot of whom would spot his familiar face for years after and still happily say, ‘Hello’.”

In addition to Mr Duchesne obtaining two MA degrees

©Photo by Anni Payne

New Bible series brings David’s story to life

House of David

Rated M (violence)

Streaming on Amazon Prime

It’s no surprise that streaming services have begun greenlighting a range of TV shows based on parts of Scripture, thanks to the ongoing success of The Chosen

The series about the life of Jesus is about to launch its fifth season to an ever-increasing fan base – a good proportion of whom aren’t Christian – so investors are now willing to stump up the cash to develop more stories from the Bible, and House of David is the latest result.

Created in tandem with the Wonder Project, House of David focuses on the story of the humble boy from Bethlehem, whose extraordinarily complex and dramatic life could give daytime soap opera a run for its money.

Just consider what the Old Testament tells us: the youngest son, a shepherd of no consequence who God chooses as king, who sings and plays the lyre but also kills his enemy’s champion with just one stone from his sling. Who wins many battles in God’s name but is also marked for death and hounded by the existing king, Saul. Who sins mightily but repents, and who wrote half of the book of Psalms.

So, there’s plenty of story to tell! And given the slow-ish pace of Season 1’s eight episodes, we should expect it to take some time. Episode one gives us a teasing glimpse of David’s confrontation with Goliath, but the story then takes us back 12 months, with

(in history and philosophy) while at Shore, in 1984 he was awarded a Doctor of Ministry from Berkeley University, San Francisco. He was also founding president of the Australian Huguenot Society – and was made a Knight of the Order of St John of Jerusalem for his work on the history of the Knights Hospitaller of that order. In 1991, Dr Duchesne continued in chaplaincy at the Prince of Wales Hospital, adding the

the rest of the season building up to the famous battle with the Philistines in the Valley of Elah.

I mention The Chosen because its style of combining biblical accounts with created character backstories (along with subplots that, yes, do annoy some Christian viewers) is similar to the route taken by Jon Erwin, the creator of House of David. Erwin has made it clear in interviews that believers have complete creative control of the series, so those concerned that it may not be biblical enough will simply have to watch it and decide for themselves.

To be fair, the content of the story is not taken solely from the Bible, but also from Jewish rabbinical tradition and texts. This latter source is the origin of a plot point in which David’s mother is not of Israel and is Jesse’s concubine rather than his wife. This puts the family, and particularly David, on the fringes of society.

David is sent out to care for the sheep (so no one has to look upon him), while his eldest brother Eliab fights with the armies of Saul – who, after defeating the Amalekites, does not destroy all their possessions, or kill their king as God commanded. Saul then cheerfully sets up a monument to himself, to the alarm of his godly son Jonathan.

Anyone who knows their Old Testament will be aware of what happens next. The Lord rejects Saul as king, and a grieving Samuel (wonderfully portrayed by Stephen Lang) comes to relay God’s

Sydney Children’s Hospital and Royal Hospital for Women in 1996.

Official retirement in 1998 was followed by three years as acting rector of Glebe, and another three as chaplain to Gowrie Village in Gordon. There were stints as acting chaplain at Royal North Shore Hospital, a locum at Church Hill, and a period as acting rector to All Saints’ Church, Norfolk Island.

Dr Duchesne was also a

member of The Illawarra Grammar School council for more than 30 years.

His eldest son, Andrew, described Dr Duchesne as “a great man”, adding that this may not have been visible with the eyes of the world but, “in the eyes of God, he was a spiritual warrior for his Lord”.

“He now rests with his Lord and Saviour, whom he loved and served with fervour for almost his entire life.”

Southern Cross Alpine Lodge is a Christian lodge in Smiggins Perisher Ski Resort in the NSW Kosciuszko National Park.

Judy Adamson

Godly reflection

Stuart Adamson

Getting Over Yourself – Developing a healthy selfreflection habit to serve those around you by

Caroline Spencer (Matthias Media)

The title of this book may identify a target audience as younger or new to ministry – or those who might be suspicious of self-reflection because they have been told it can often be self-indulgent and not God-focused. It may even be a nudge to those who, perhaps, think more highly of themselves than they ought and feel they don’t need to reflect on the nature of their relationships or their Christian service.

Either way, Caroline Spencer has written a book that has great value to those who want a tool to facilitate more intentional reflection on their service of Christ. But I suspect it will be most useful in ministry teams where the leadership is committed to developing intentional reflective practice in their staff and ensuring that group facilitators can be trained well.

Family systems expert Jenny Brown has endorsed the book, and its emphasis on taking personal responsibility in godly ways gives more than a nod to Bowen theory. Paul Grimmond’s tender and heartfelt foreword also made my heart sing, as he wrote: “we can reflect in unhealthy ways. There is a kind of intense navel gazing that is far from healthy and from which the gospel saves us”.

Getting Over Yourself is essentially a how-to book undergirded by the results of research on self-reflection and resilience in Protestant ministry workers. The book’s model is simple, and for long-time practitioners of self-reflection and/or theological reflection, will not be new. It contains four parts: describe the event, explore what was going on for you, assess to identify opportunities for growth and enact by putting into practice.

As described, the model is strong on encouraging users to ask good questions of themselves, such as, “Have I sought to control

from page 27

judgement, as Saul chose to honour himself rather than the Lord. For, as Samuel notes later in the series when anointing David, God looks at the heart rather than the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). The viewer is left in no doubt about the power of the Lord!

Michael Iskander as David takes a while to warm up into his role, which is reasonable given that, initially, he’s mostly left to sing (brilliantly, I might add) in the fields – or expected to apologise for his existence. Hopefully he will continue to grow as the series unfolds, but his singing voice alone is a highlight. Ali Suliman’s performance as King Saul is also genuinely frightening once his character loses grip on reality.

or be responsible for things that don’t belong to me?” and, “What assumptions have I made about the feelings and actions of others?”

The effect of this, if people develop their practice along the lines Spencer suggests, will ensure large numbers of ministry workers go to their pastoral supervision sessions with better awareness, and will therefore likely get more out of each session. In this sense, Spencer’s book has potential to buttress the considerable and necessary investment the Diocese has made in the area of pastoral supervision for ministry workers. This is to be applauded.

I found particularly helpful the encouragement to users of the model to link what is going on for them internally to biblical concepts or ideas that relate to opportunities for growth.

There is, however, a fairly significant assumption in the book, made explicit on page 26: “importantly, while prayer is not included in the model, the assumption is that everything we do as part of our role should be undergirded by prayer”. Experience tells me that this can be a dangerous assumption!

The book is easy to understand, the model easy to follow and apply, and it will be a helpful tool for many. But in order to explicitly promote integrating skills with faith practice, perhaps a future edition could include practical examples of repentance-focused prayers in case-study context. This could include opportunities to reflect on Bible passages that round out a comprehensive, robust, grace-soaked theology of sanctification. Because, in the end, the ultimate aim of the model is our growth in Christlikeness. SC

The Rev Stuart Adamson is a health services chaplain with Anglicare and associate dean of Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care at Morling College.

You may not agree with the artistic choices made by Erwin and the other makers of House of David around the portrayal of this Bible story. You may also find, as I did, that the script can be somewhat patchy in places.

Having said that, the majority of the ensemble cast is strong, and it’s excellent to see another series that’s focused on the Bible with such high production values – and on a major streaming service. May this series bring God glory in the same way as David, the man after God’s own heart. SC

There will be a new episode of House of David each week until April 3.

Wisdom in leadership

Peter Mayrick

The Team Leader’s Handbook: How to help Christians serve Jesus together

by Dave Moore

Matthias Media

Achurch leader said to me recently, “My role is not to do all the ministry. My role is to be a teacher and leader, and to equip the members of the church – the body of the church – to do ministry. Why is it that I find myself doing all the ministry and feeling exhausted and feeling like I can’t get everything done?”

This is a challenge that is replicated again and again across church ministry. My job is to support church leaders – and run workshops on their behalf – to engage their lay leaders in leadership and equip them to lead ministry and discipleship practices.

The Team Leader’s Handbook by Dave Moore is a real blessing. It has a very similar objective and places in the hands of team leaders a well-considered and practical encouragement, guide and explanation of what Christian team leadership could look like. I highly commend it to anyone who wishes to understand or improve the team leadership across their church.

Many churches have recognised the value of teams in doing ministry and the need to equip their leaders, yet many church leaders have found the equipping part the greatest challenge.

• How do I help lay leaders to understand how the ministry they lead fits into our church purpose and mission?

• How do I help team leaders with secular leadership skills understand what it is to lead in a Christian way?

• How might I help leaders without any training in leadership to develop some simple skills in leading a team?

• How can I possibly trust my leaders to model the culture we wish to have at our church?

• Where do I find the time to equip leaders in all the above? These are common questions that I hear. The handbook is a very helpful resource to assist lay leaders and pastors in wrestling with some of these questions. Of course, a book cannot be the only training, however I believe it could serve as a very healthy partner or complement to ongoing support for leaders in the church.

A few aspects I really appreciate about this book:

1 It is so easy to make church ministry about the task we are leading, losing focus on the purpose of our ministry to support intentional discipleship. The Team Leader’s Handbook makes significant effort to anchor team leadership firstly in discipleship in Christ, and is firmly grounded in the Scriptures.

2 Many leaders have been trained in leadership through their roles outside the church but haven’t necessarily considered

what it looks like to be a Christian leader. I love that this is a starting point of this handbook.

3 Many competent leaders simply need to understand the purpose of church, how the ministry they lead fits in and what values/behaviours we wish to see in our church culture. The handbook leaves considerable space for this. I appreciate the practical encouragement for leaders to write a “Big Prayer” – a prayer that keeps the purpose of the church and team at the forefront, while maintaining prayerful dependence on God.

4 For those who have never developed team leadership skills outside the church, the handbook helps these people to develop a useful understanding of what team leadership looks like and provides some helpful tips and basic skills to start with. I particularly appreciate the effort the handbook makes to help leaders understand the important adjustments required when moving from team member to team leader (shifts in what you focus on, when you do the work for ministry – use of time – and in member relationships).

5 Overall, I greatly appreciate the intentional nature of the book – in mission, discipleship, leadership and culture. In addition to this, I applaud Dave Moore for his restraint. When it comes to practical ministry it is so easy to encourage people to “do what I do” and provide a detailed approach to “my method of ministry” to copy. I think the author has worked hard to provide big picture ideas and principles, general and specific guidance and experience, while leaving space to explore and apply team leadership to the many different (and valid) models of living out church ministry in a practical way.

I commend church leaders to encourage those they trust in team leadership to read this book as a terrific complement to their existing training and equipping. One church leader has said to me, “This book should become the 2025 book Christian book of the year”. He has bought 20 copies of the handbook for all his team leaders to read. I’d say that this is not a bad idea!

Thank you, Dave Moore, for committing the wisdom you have learned over many years into this book and making it accessible for these very important people in church ministry. SC

Peter Mayrick has been a consultant with Moore College’s Centre for Ministry Development since 2012.

Wise words to help us navigate parenthood

Tara Sing

Two things were overwhelming when I became a parent. First, the amount of poop I was dealing with (there’s still no end in sight). Second, the weight of the incredible task we have been given by God to raise and shape people.

Parents are entrusted with children, and thankfully God has not left us to figure this parenting thing out alone.

While we’ve collected a range of Australian resources that offer theologically rich and immensely practical wisdom to share in this article, these are only complements to the best resources God gives us in himself, his word and his church. God has given us a big task in raising children and, in his faithfulness and kindness, he equips us for it in so many ways.

BOOKS

Parenting in God’s Family – edited by Harriet Connor (2024)

This book brings together a wide range of wisdom from trusted Christians across the life and work experience spectrum. Each chapter zooms in on an aspect of parenting that the Bible has something to say about. From parenting styles, to passing on the faith, to preparing for conversations about sex and screen time. As someone busy with young children, I appreciate that each chapter is stand-alone as it makes it easy for me to dip in whenever I have a spare half an hour.

Motherhood – Jocelyn Loane (2024)

Every mother I know is either reading this book, or has it on their to-be-read pile. Day to day, it can be hard to filter all of the parenting advice thrown at us from social media through the lens of the gospel. Loane’s work shows how the gospel shapes our purpose and priorities as mothers. I’ve been especially encouraged by her reframing of popular ideas about parenting and mothering, speaking about them with rich biblical wisdom and challenging where society has it wrong.

I really appreciated her insights on “mum guilt”, countering the cultural assumption that feeling bad or inadequate as a mother is something to avoid. Instead, she suggests that mum guilt can be a good thing when our consciences are pricked and, when processed properly, can lead us to repentance and to find forgiveness in the Cross.

Fatherhood – Tony Payne (2017)

Although this one has been out for a while, it continues to be a great foundation for thinking theologically about what it is to be a godly father. As well as authoring many Christian books, Tony Payne is a father of five and writes both theologically and from experience. In a society confused about what true fatherhood should be, Payne paints a picture from the Bible of the kind of fatherhood we see in God and should aim for in our own lives.

The Child in God’s Church – Tim Beilharz (2025)

How can a book articulating the why and importance of children’s ministry be a useful tool in parenthood? Because Christian parenting doesn’t happen in isolation.

Parents have the primary responsibility of raising children in the Lord, and we also have the immense privilege of sharing this task with our church family. Understanding the foundations and framework for children’s ministry in our church helps us as parents to partner well with those who serve our children, pray for them, support their programs and lessons, and work together to see children discipled and growing in faith.

While chapter six particularly unpacks the ministry of the family, knowing and sharing the vision for children’s ministry will only help us in our parenting journey.

DIGITAL RESOURCES

Christian Parenting Australia Facebook group

Ask questions, share wisdom, or simply lurk and learn. This Facebook group has become an additional support to more than a thousand Aussie families. Joining fills your Facebook feed with practical parenting wisdom from Christian families in similar contexts. It’s run by Mothers’ Union, which has been prayerfully and practically supporting families for more than 125 years.

Timeless Parenting podcast

This is the collaboration between Mothers’ Union Sydney and Youthworks that we needed! Monthly episodes feature interviews and conversations with a range of Christian thinkers, authors, parents and pastors. They cover a sweep of topics relevant to parenting in 2025, including managing technology and children,

helping children stick with Jesus, holidaying well and rhythms of the home. Episode length averages at an hour, so it’s perfect for sticking in your ears during some of the day’s more mundane moments.

INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS

Raising Disciples @raising.disciples

Leah McKenna is a former children’s minister and mum of four from Northmead who shares snippets of her family’s life and theology, with the hope of encouraging other families to also undertake the important work of not just raising kids, but raising disciples. She shows what intentional discipleship looks like for her family, and shares the principles behind what they do so that the same goals can be adapted into any context.

Christ For My Children @christformychildren

Chloe Muscat loves bringing Bible stories to life for her children through play. She shares ideas for engaging kids with God’s word through sensory activities, books, blocks, craft and more. It’s not just lots of inspiration for activities with younger kids – there’s openness and wisdom about the reality of Christian parenting in a busy world, too.

Lift Their Eyes @lifttheireyes

While studying at Moore Theological College, Alice Dickens thought, “There’s no reason why these big truths can’t be taught to kids and youth”. Her Instagram account showcases a ton of ideas for praying with children and helping them understand the big story of the Bible. She loves to create resources and equip others for family discipleship.

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that people were singing our songs in different places, but it was an amazing point of unity to hear them glorifying God in their own language.”

The song has now been recorded in Mandarin, and on CityAlight’s next Singapore visit in July four more songs will join it: “God Is For Us”, “Only A Holy God”, “Jesus Strong and Kind” and “There Is One Gospel”.

Says Kwek: “When I talk to friends who are bilingual, who already know CityAlight songs in English and love them, they’re really excited that when the songs are translated, they can share these really rich songs with their purely Chinese-speaking friends and know that they can also have that same impact, or receive the same kind of level of [understanding].”

She hopes that, under God, more people will come to know Christ through these increased resources and the ongoing ministry connection with CityAlight. “I also hope that the churches in Singapore can really see the unity [and] the good things that can come out of being united as a global church, working together –working for one cause.”

Adds Vassallo: God has opened doors for us through the writing and performing of songs, but we are very mission minded about how we can invest in the local churches to grow, develop and do that work themselves.

“If we fall into the background, we’re happy with that. It isn’t about boosting our streaming numbers in Singapore! Our goal is to come alongside them, see what they need, see if we can offer service and help them get movement in the area of songwriting, so that one day they’re giving their songs into the big global melting pot of worship – because it will bless the Western churches to

“Hear the Hallelujahs Roar” is more than a collection of songs - it is an invitation.

To look up – to fix our eyes on God, who is faithful, victorious, and sovereign.

To look out – to see the world as God sees it and to respond with faith, courage, and action. Each song calls us to worship God in the truth of who He is and to live in response to that reality.

Let’s lift our eyes together and worship the One who reigns forever!

Resources available at cityalight.com

Praise and service

There’s a line from CityAlight’s new EP that perfectly sums up the greatest hope of its members and the wider church of St Paul’s, Castle Hill: “So may all I do, be it great or small, bring glory to your name”.

The song, “My Labour Is Not In Vain”, is one of five tracks on the live EP, Hear the Hallelujahs Roar, which was released at the end of last month. “We pitched to our songwriters a brief at the end of 2023 for our next season of writing,” says CityAlight’s chief operating officer, Rich Vassallo. “That is, we want to lift our eyes to God in worship so we can then be looking out to the world with his perspective.”

The EP continues the music ministry’s practice of creating highly singable songs for congregational worship that run the gamut from joy to pain – but, most essentially, hold fast to the word of God, its promises, our hope in Jesus and our future with him in eternity.

And while CityAlight’s success has grown enormously, here and overseas, Castle Hill rector the Rev Bruce Stanley says it’s important for people to understand that the focus of the ministry is to equip and bless God’s church.

“The whole team wants that; the whole church wants that,” he says. “All the musicians are volunteers. When they go on tour, they’re in school holidays or going on leave to serve. They’re not

employed. They want to see [any success] go into investing what we’re doing with songwriting to serve the wider church.”

Vassallo says the CityAlight team has particularly felt God moving them to give of their time and skills in Asia.

“We see the commercial church music world investing a lot in the Spanish language and South America, and so it would be very easy for us to jump on that boat as well, because all the elements are in place,” he says. “Yet Asia is our part of the world, and we see a real need for our neighbours in Asia. So, we’re looking for a way to do that and these doors have opened up for us.”

The doors he mentions have opened especially wide in Singapore, where a group of churches invited the team to visit two years ago.

During a worship night held during CityAlight’s stay – which was also an opportunity to share about the work of International Justice Mission – they brought out Christie Kwek from Redemption Hill Church in Singapore, who led the 5000-strong crowd in a Mandarin translation of “Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me”.

“It was just a magical time in the room,” Vassallo says. “People were falling to their knees in there because of what it meant to them to worship in their heart language. It was just a really moving moment, particularly for us from the West. We’d known

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Judy Adamson

All one in Christ: Christie Kwek sings the Mandarin version of “Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me” with CityAlight musicians in Singapore.