Church leaders faced intense questions at Victoria’s Yoorrook Justice Inquiry’s “Share Land, Sky and Water hearings” into First Nations’ dispossession. This truth-telling commission is the first major governmental response since the Voice referendum. The church leaders who appeared before the inquiry are among a line-up of leaders, including Premier Jacinta Allan, being questioned on tough matters. The Commissioners examining the church leaders are First nations people. Awkward exchanges There were awkward conversations. After giving an answer about ways in which indigenous presence is made vi ..read more

Today is Ascension Day, so named because Jesus has ascended—that is, he has gone up to live with his Father in heaven. As the Bible puts it, Jesus was speaking with the apostles when “he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” (Acts 1:9) And then some angels appeared and gave this explainer to the disciples: “They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from y ..read more

Filling the vacuum left by the demise of the Christian Democratic Party in NSW, Lyle Shelton, former head of the Australian Christian Lobby, has announced that he will head the Family First Ticket for NSW. The Party has achieved registration in several states and has pending federal registration. Here’s Shelton’s announcement, which also outlines part of the Family First platform: Family First’s Federal Executive has announced that the party’s National Director, Lyle Shelton, will lead its New South Wales Senate ticket at the up-coming federal election. Mr Shelton said Family First has a visi ..read more

A statement from Gafcon (Global Anglican Futures) Chair Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda. To my dear Anglican brothers and sisters contending for the faith once delivered to the saints, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Last week, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, 32 Primates of the Anglican Communion gathered in Rome to meet with one another and to hold a private audience with Pope Francis. In their Communiqué, published on May 2, they highlighted the pope’s admonition to them to “embrace our disagreements without fear” and issued their own call “t ..read more

Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash told a rally of Christian Schools supporters last night that new laws proposed by the Albanese government will adopt the Australian Law Reform Commission recommendations to reduce protections for schools. “The government has not released, as you know, that legislation,” Senator Cash told a “Town Hall” meeting organised by a coalition of Christian school networks at Regents Park Christian School in Western Sydney. “I do, however, have a copy of that legislation, but I have it under very strict conditions that I’m not allowed to distribute the legislation ..read more

A collaborative website supported by the NCLS (National Church Life Survey) and church plant advocates Exponential Australia, newchurches.org.au, is designed to make it much easier to appreciate how much church planting is currently happening in Australia. 81 plants are listed for 2023, with 63 listed as active, 18 as proposals – which might be active but not updated on the website. 20 plants come from the Australian Christian Churches denomination, 11 from the Uniting Church, and 7 are Baptist. Anglicans and the Church of Christ have two each. The is only one FIEC (Fellowship of Independent E ..read more

Ministers and lay staff in a Church of England diocese (region) can now have union representation. The English midlands diocese of Leicester has signed an agreement with the “Unite” Trade Union. “Leicester diocese of the Church of England has signed an historic agreement with Unite to represent its clergy and lay staff,” the Union announced “The agreement, negotiated by the Church of England Clergy & Employee Advocates (CEECA) covers clergy and lay staff. The CEECA is a distinct part of Unite’s wider faith workers’ branch. “It is the first agreement of its kind ever to be signed ..read more

The revelation by Melbourne talk radio host Neil Mitchell that he had been told our former PM had significant mental health issues has opened up discussion about the strain of high office. Psychologist Bianca Denny wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald. “As a psychologist, I can tell you the reality is that Morrison joined the one in four Australians diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and one in seven treated with medication. Given such high prevalence and treatment rates, it is clear that poor mental health should not be automatically equated with poor decision-making.” In his book, Plans For Y ..read more

A paper that explains why social campaigning that seeks to reduce gendered violence might contain some useful lessons for the church, especially conservative evangelicals. “Rethinking Primary Prevention“, a paper by journalist/educator Jess Hill and Michael Salter, the Professor of Criminology at the School of Social Sciences at UNSW, is an insightful contribution to the conversation about gendered violence. This paper suggests that campaigning to change men’s view of women is ineffective in preventing violence. This goes against the intuitions of many of the people setting up the current resp ..read more

A “way forward framework” for the Lutheran Church in Australia New Zealand (LCANZ) to “operate as on”to operate as one church with two different practices of ordination” has been proposed as a response to a decades long debate over Women’s Ordination. Motions to ordain women have consistently failed to gain the two thirds majority at five General Synods, despite majorities in favour. But a February 2023 General Synod called for a proposal to be discussed by the LCANZ General Pastors Conference for Convention of General Synod 2024 The new proposal would change the LCANZ the teaching of male-onl ..read more