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Welcome to The Journal of Anglicans Together.
The Journal is an on-line journal in which essays are
published as they are written. Abstracts of essays are given below,
with the full essay available in PDF Format.
If you don't have the Adobe Acrobat
Reader on your computer, go to Acrobat
Download to download it free.For information on the management of The Journal,
editorial board and submission procedures, click
here
| For
the speech given at the 2006 Anglicans Together Dinner by Jane
Shaw, click here [PDF
120 Kb] |
| For
the text of Stuart Piggin's address at the launch of Kevin Giles'
newly released book "The Father and the Son: modern
evangelicals reinvent the doctrine of the Trinity"
click here [PDF 171 Kb] |
| For
Dr Andrew McGowan's speech at the 2005 Anglicans Together Annual
Dinner, click here |
| A copy
of the Cable lecture by Justice Keith Mason is available.
His them is Believers in Court: Sydney Anglicans Going to Law.
For a copy, click
here [PDF
281Kb] |
| Is there
a future for AngloCatholicism by Bishop Andrew Curnow,
July 2004 (to be posted) |
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Refections on Crime and Punishment
by the Hon Justice Adams, an address given on 26 February
2003 at St James King Street... PDF
Format
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Drawing a Fine Line for Debate by
Bill Lawton - PDF Format.
For a response to the column, click
here
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A Report on Sydney Synod 2003
by Professor Michael Horsburgh - PDF
Format
Professor Michael Horsburgh reports on an eventful
(if dispiriting) Sydney Synod. Issues covered include:
- Sydney's response to the Primates' meeting on
the tensions within the Anglican Communion, and the debate on the motion for
Sydney to "dissociate" itself from New Hampshire and New Westminster ("This
motion is based on the false assertion that the current debate in the Anglican
Communion is about the authority of scripture. It is not. It is fundamentally
about the meaning and interpretation of scripture, not its authority. I have
looked carefully for any indication that either the synod of the Diocese of
New Westminster or the convention of the Diocese of New Hampshire has rejected
the authority of scripture. I have found none in their public statements")
- Lay and Diaconal Presidency ("would you
buy a used car from John Woodhouse [the promoter of the ordinance]?...He has
been trying to sell this car to the synod for a number of years and has nearly
succeeded...This ordinance comes with absolutely no guarantee that it will
work. It purports to repeal part of the Act of Uniformity of 1662 in this
diocese. There is no guarantee either that it will do so or that, if it does
so, it will make lay and diaconal presidency legal.")
- Freemasonry, a disturbing theology of disability
prevalent in Synod, the censure motion against the Dean of the Cathedral
(Phillip Jensen), and...
- Finally, Phillip Jensen's assertion that he,
along with the Bible supported slavery (although both were opposed to
slave-trading). ("[Phillip Jensen]..went on to assert that modern
criminals undergoing imprisonment were slaves and that we, as well as the
Bible, supported slavery on that basis...This amazing argument stretches the
common meaning of both imprisonment and slavery to an absurd degree....it
opened a more novel interpretation of the biblical text than even I had ever
entertained")
The impossibility of the last word - the
theology of Rowan Williams, by the Rev Humphrey Southern -
PDF
Format
This paper seeks to explore the theology of Archbishop
Rowan Williams in the context of the apophatic (or reticent) tradition of Christian
theology and spirituality. It hopes to demonstrate a degree of conservatism
in Williams' doctrine and method, but also shows something of the difficulties
that a theology committed to dialogue and exchange (such as his is) poses to
those with a stronger idea of the category of revelation in the Christian tradition...for
the full essay, click
here
The Missionary Value of Parables & Pastoral Care
in a Post Christian Society by James McPherson - PDF
Format
Mission is an ongoing imperative for the Christian church,
whose vocation is to live a faithfulness expressed through worship and witness.
But how is mission to be conducted, and how may witness be effective, in a post-Christian
society? This paper is in three parts. The first explores the
concept of a "post-Christian" society and distinguishes it from a "post-modern"
society; this helps provide conceptual clarity and eliminates some confusion
about the target area of our mission. I believe the
biggest determinant of the strategy and conduct of our mission is not philosophical
(the notional post-modernism currently in vogue), but
cultural (the post-Christian nature of our society). The
second part outlines an important distinction between myth and parable, following
work of John Dominic Crossan and applying it to mission
in a post-Christian context. The third and final
part addresses the broader question: What aspects of our expression of Anglicanism
provide potentially valuable resources for faithful
and effective witness in a post-Christian context?...for the full essay,
click
here
Australian Anglicanism in the Global Business Context
by Peter Heath - PDF
Format
Any conversation the focus of which is Anglicanism in Australian
society would omit an essential part of community life if it were to miss discussing
the inter-connectedness of Anglicanism with the now globalising business world
and its technological emphasis...for the full essay, click
here
Spiritual Life on the Anglican Veranda by
Stephen Pickard - PDF
Format
I have often thought of the church as a kind of verandah:
on the one hand open and welcoming to the world and on the other attending to
the deep needs of people in the inner life of individuals and communities. On
the verandah both outer and inner world meet and the church of the gospel has
the responsibility to occupy that in-between place critical for its own sense
of purpose as witness to the coming Kingdom......for the full essay,
click
here
A Community Remembrance in Music and Words by
Ann McElligott - PDF
Format
...such is the jarring paradox that we face again and again
in a world suffused with both discord and charity, both violence and compassion,
both death and renewed life, both fear and faith. This frayed edge of certitude
and trust draws us here on this Day of Remembrance to commemorate a day of terror
that confronted us all both personally and communally...for the full essay,
click
here
11 September Requiem Eucharist Sermon by
Ivan Head - PDF
Format
In preparing this address, I found myself re-thinking parts
of the Bible to find for myself basis stories and themes that might register
and resonate with the events of one year ago. This is similar to what the media
and public discourse is doing in its own torrent of text, trying to find a story-shape
that will tell us what to do, what comes next, and with what to inform the void
‘between action and re-action’...for the full essay, click
here
Speaking the Truth in Love Yet Again by Robert
Forsyth - PDF
Format
...I could not help but feel that there was a confusion [on
Horsburgh's part] between the church as a community of members within the larger
society and the church as somehow a part of the governing circle implementing
social policy. I believe this inter relational model cuts through some of this
confusion about the place of the ‘church’ - which is a voluntary body made up
of individuals members - and the role of government in society....for the
full essay, click
here
Speaking the Truth in Love? by
Michael Horsburgh - PDF
Format
In this paper I propose to discuss whether ‘speaking the truth
in love’ is an adequate basis for a Christian social theology, in response to
the 2002 Halifax Portal lecture of the same name, given by Anglican Archbishop of
Sydney Dr Peter Jensen...I must confess at the outset that I find the phrase
‘speaking the truth in love’ far from reassuring. On the contrary, it sends
a chill down my spine. This is partly because of my experience in the Diocese
of Sydney. It appears with some regularity as a prelude to a savage attack,
usually on a person. It is such a powerful signal in the synod, for example,
that everyone sits up when the phrase occurs, the better to hear what is to
come....for the full essay click
here
Planting Churches on the Central Cost by
Graeme Rutherford - PDF
Format
I greatly admire the diocese of Sydney for the
importance it has always placed on evangelism and I wish I could see the same
enthusiasm in dioceses of a more ‘catholic’ tradition...Having said this however,
let no one think that I support Anglicans "planting" new parishes in a diocese
without the consent and blessing of the bishop as we have experienced in the
diocese of Newcastle...by Sydney evangelicals with the imprimatur of the leaders
of the diocese of Sydney. What are my reasons for rejecting this policy? Firstly,
behind this whole approach lies a judgmental attitude to other Christians....for
the full essay click
here
Building on a Rickety Foundation
by James McPherson - PDF
Format
In a recent "missionary" address to the Anglican Church League,
which promoted and justified "church-planting", Mr Phillip Jensen argued that
"the parish system" was working well, until damaged irreparably by the Tractarians,
with the remedy to bypass those damaged parishes and restore authentic Anglicanism.
It is clear from his address that Mr Jensen is promoting competitive
rather than collaborative church-planting. That is, this church-planting is
not undertaken with the full knowledge and willing cooperation of an existing
Anglican parish because the existing parish is judged to be defective and therefore
should be challenged, exposed, and perhaps even extinguished, for the cause
of the gospel.
I intend to show first that Mr Jensen’s proposal bristles
with practical difficulties; and second, that it is based on a theologically
prejudiced reading of history. In the final section I examine Mr Jensen’s address
in the broader context of American fundamentalism, a milieu in which it sits
comfortably for its defensiveness, its militancy, and its separatist tendency...
for the full essay click
here
Inaugural Essay: In Praise of Debate by
Michael Horsburgh. - PDF
Format
The Synod of the Diocese of Sydney is often described as a
forum in which there is lively debate...These debates are often against an absent
opponent. They take the form of a call to endorse a theological principle or
set of principles and are usually a response to alleged heresy somewhere else
in the Australian Church or in the Anglican Communion. Favourites amongst the
objects of these motions are the Episcopal Church of the United States, often
embodied in the person of Bishop John Shelby Spong, and the Australian Primate,
regardless of who he happens to be. These opponents are not present to defend
themselves and it is important that they are not.
The reason for these debates is not to engage the supposed
opponent. It is to reinforce within the diocese the feeling that, possessing
the truth, it is under attack. Identifying an external opponent is a standard
way of reinforcing domestic solidarity. These motions serve a tribal, not a
debating, function. These debates, in which theological questions predominate,
are not usually marked by vigorous difference but by statements of solidarity.......for
the full essay click
here
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