Bishop John

Upcoming Friday Forum: Euthanasia

February 4, 2012

FRIDAY FORUM AT ST. DAVID’S CATHEDRAL

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 17, 1-2pm

ST. DAVID’S ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL, CNR MURRAY & MACQUARIE STREETS, HOBART

DR. PAUL DUNNE, PALLIATIVE CARE SPECIALIST

WILL SPEAK AND ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS

MORE INFORMATION: WILL BRIGGS, 62344900, will@saintdavids.org.au

OR ONLINE AT http://stdavidscathedralhobart.org/friday-forum/

Prayer of a Church Organist

February 3, 2012

Rediscovered among my ‘notes’ of 2002: from picturesque Stanley in North West Tasmania, a church organist’s prayer -

Even before…..

Even before I meet the need

Awaiting me today

His eyes the hidden story reads

And He prepares my way

And ‘ere I tread the path unknown

Already He is there

To take my hand within His own

And guide with tender care

This note was taped on the organ at St. Paul’s Anglican Church Stanley by the organist as a reminder and encouragement to herself of God’s purposeful loving presence.

The organist said the prayer before each Worship Service and had found God’s help over many years of playing the church organ.

It was also a wonderful encouragement to me! I had noticed the piece of paper attached to the organ as we were talking prior to the Service and had asked her what it said and why it was attached to the organ. What a rich reward for a little curiosity! (Mrs. Meg Elridge is still the organist today and is over 90 years old. She still uses this prayer.)

What prayers do you treasure and why?

What prayers do you keep visible and where?

Allan Carmichael: A True Friend

February 2, 2012

Funeral Service of Professor Allan Carmichael OAM

St Clement’s Anglican Church, Kingston Tasmania 2 February 2012

Speaking notes of Bishop John Harrower

ALLAN CARMICHAEL: A TRUE FRIEND

I have been asked by Beryl (Allan’s widow) to speak on Allan as a friend. It is an honour so to speak – but the greater honour is to have experienced Allan’s friendship. It is an honour shared with many who are here today.

Last words are precious. Before I share Allan’s last words to me, I want to put them in context. One of Allan’s many gifts was his ability to place events in their setting or context. In fact one of our many breakfast conversations had to do with the discipline of understanding words and events in their particular context.

The context of Allan’s last words to me was four privileged visits to him in hospital during his final week. We had spoken about his illness, hopes, family, friends and deep faith in the resurrected Christ. I had prayed and read the Bible with him and even managed to get his iPod going! We had also spoken of an Anglican children’s camp in which the children had visited our property and played with the animals, including the ferrets, and had ridden the donkeys. Gayelene (my wife) had noted that the main attractions were very clearly the ferrets and donkeys.

On my last visit, as Allan and I were finishing saying “Goodbye”, (for we knew it was that) Allan smiled and as he nested back into the pillows he said, “Ferrets and donkeys”. Last words are precious. “Ferrets and donkeys” – What do such words tell us?

Of Allan these last words tell us of a man who entered into the joys of his friends and family. A person commented to me, “Allan was so learned and yet enjoyed simple things”. He was genuinely interested and concerned for others. He would ask after the life of my family as well as the church and nation.

Allan had a good memory for the goings on in his friends’ lives. Sometimes it was a bit scary!

Allan asked good questions. “How did the project, meeting, visit, writing go?”

He was gracious and humble. It was always the institution, never himself, at the centre of his work and concerns. Hence: “The Medical Faculty at the University has gained accreditation” or “The hospital is seeking …” or “The conference engaged significant issues.” “Yes”, I would reply, “but how did your presentation/ chairing of a conference session go?”

Hospitality was a hallmark of the Carmichael family. When we first moved to Tasmania, without our family, Allan and Beryl welcomed us by inviting my wife and me to meals, the theatre and other events.

I found coming from Melbourne and entering into the role of the Bishop of the Anglican Community in Tasmania to be challenging. In God’s grace, I was provided with a wonderful friend who walked with me over these past 11½ years. We met fortnightly for breakfast at Hadley’s Hotel. Tucked away in the restaurant alcove, we talked, prayed and shared from the Scriptures. When Allan was with you he was with you – no iPhone distraction! Allan was invariably attentive to the person.

Allan was trustworthy: a confidant, a sounding board, a person who maintained confidentiality. This was so vital to me. Leadership is not easy and it is not easy to find a person of wisdom and trust who makes themselves available to walk beside you as a friend.

In the Bible the Book of Proverbs speaks of friendship and is replete with the very great value of friendship. Here are a few of these friendship proverbs,

Reliable friends are hard to find – Proverbs 20:6
Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable.

Counsel from a friend is pleasing – Proverbs 27:9
The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.

Friends shape and sharpen one another – Proverbs 27:17
As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

And finally, purity and integrity gain the friendship of kings – Proverbs 22:11
Whoever loves a pure heart and gracious speech will have the king as a friend.

Allan, being Allan, may well have had kings and prime ministers and premiers as friends, and we would not have been told about it! But above all we were the privileged ones, the kings, to be befriended by him and counted among his friends

Thank you, Allan: true friend.

John Harrower

Note on a friend’s death & Looking forward to our final emancipation

Book Review: Out of the Depths

February 2, 2012

This study book, “Out of the Depths” by Helen Rienits, may not be at the top of the list for many small group leaders – but that would be a mistake.

There are probably more people than we are aware of who suffer from various degrees of depression. In addition, others struggle with anxiety, stress, or insecurity. These studies are written for these people, and for those who seek to care for them.

It is also a great resource for addressing the struggle of living in a world that includes suffering, and how it fits with the character and acts of God. As such, it can provide Christians with a biblical framework for talking to friends who aren’t Christians and lament the harshness of life.

The book includes eight studies on topics such as:

Where am I? What’s wrong with me?
What happens if I can’t cope anymore? Will God forgive me?
Why don’t others understand me?

Helen Rienits, an Aussie general practice doctor, includes helpful hints for running the group, notes for the study leader, and a bibliography with additional reading material. This means that a Christian can feel confident about using this book with a group of people.

The studies are very comprehensive, including medical information, well crafted discussion questions, encouragements, and practical suggestions. Importantly, each study is based around a passage from the Bible which participants look at together and discuss. It is very accessible, yet also addresses to the main issues in an approachable way.

I found the book to be stimulating, challenging and informative for my own life. I would be excited to explore it with a group of people, and see how God might work through it to bring about transformation in people’s lives, and build a healthier, more loving, church.

It is available from Acorn Press.

Book review by guest blogger, Kate Harrower.

Keep “Father” & “Son” in the Bible!

February 1, 2012

I strongly encourage you to sign this petition against taking out “Father” and “Son” in new translations of the Bible, because it is offensive to Muslims.

Changing the words of Scripture is an appalling approach to contextualizing the Good News of God in Christ to the Muslim Community.

Yesterday I wrote of the Cathedral’s Christmas advertising being criticised for going too far in trying to contextualise the Gospel message, see Tacky Taste or Gospel Engagement?

I assess the Cathedral’s contextualisation to be appropriate. Changing the words ”Father” and “Son” in the Bible is not: it would be an unmitigated disaster.

Please consider this matter. I encourage you to join me in supporting the petition to retain the words “Father” and “Son” in the Bible by signing the petition Lost In Translation: Keep “Father” & “Son” in the Bible.

I made the following comment when signing the petition:

This is an impoverished and incorrect attempt at contextualisation which results in syncretism: the mixing of belief systems/religions that produces a new belief system/religion that is not true to any of the original belief systems/religions.

Changing fundamental words of Scripture such as “Father” and “Son” will also fuel the Muslim claim that the Bible is corrupted, full of errors and has been abrogated by the Qur’an and example of Muhammad.

For the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, please stop this malpractice.

There is reference to the Trinity on my blog – Insulting ‘Allah’ hurts Muslims & Christians.

Tacky Taste or Gospel Engagement?

January 31, 2012

Letter to the Editor of The Mercury, December 28th 2011:

Ad in tacky taste

In relation to Christmas tackiness I thought I had seen it all.

But I must admit to being blown away by St David cathedral’s advertisement in the Christmas services guide(Mercury, December 24).

While the Pope warns Christians to look beyond the Christmas glitter, the Anglican Church of Tasmania looks glitter square in the eye and comes off second best.

How crass can it be for a church to make use of a well known supermarket’s advertising campaign to spruik attendance for its own supposedly otherwordly Christmas celebration.

St David’s, and all who sail in her, would do well to meditate on Christ’s driving of the money changers out of the temple.

I wonder if the supermarket will sue or if they’ll just thank God for the free advertising.

Greg Mansell, Ulverstone

Reply from The Dean:

I am sorry that Greg Mansell (Mercury, December 28) found the Cathedral adverstising crass but it is far more worrying that he thinks that Christmas is an otherworldly celebration.

The Christian Christmas message is that in Jesus God became this worldly, that Down Down our God came Down.

That is what we celebrate at Christmas and should impact our lives throughout the year.

He came down into this crass world of advertising, politics and need, which should transform how think about this world, each other and particularly those in need, like asylum seekers.

This message of God’s free self giving also fundamentally undermines the selfishness of consumerism, hence the parody of the ad where everything is free.

If consumerism has stolen Christmas we were in our small way trying to steal it back.

There is more information in my Christmas Day sermon at http://www.stdavidscathedralhobart.org

God bless

Richard Humphrey, Dean of Hobart, St. Davids Cathedral

FOR CONVERSATION:

Is the Cathedral’s use of an advertisement a good example of meaningfully communicating the Gospel of Christ in a local context?

or Has the Cathedral lost the Gospel in its attempt to communicate relevantly in its cultural context?

- Tacky Taste or Gospel Engagement? – What thinks thee?

NOTE: Contextualising the Gospel is a challenge. See, What is Contextualisation? my Address for BCA Mission Australia 2001.

Contextualisation is “the various processes by which a local church integrates the Gospel message (the “text”) with its local culture (the “context”)”. The text and context must be blended into that one, God-intended reality called “Christian Living”.

Culture Missiology makes use of cultural anthropology to elucidate culture defined as, “a dynamic system of socially acquired and socially shared ideas, according to which an intersecting group of human beings is to adapt itself to its physical, social and ideational environment”.

[Louis J. Luzbetak, The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology, Orbis, New York, 1988, p. 69 and 74.]

Note on a friend’s death

January 30, 2012

Professor Allan Carmichael OAM

Allan, thanks for the breakfasts, wisdom, confidentiality, integrity and joy in Christ’s grace and peace.

Deepest sympathy to Beryl, Heather, Glenn and Stelle and Lucy and Mia.

Jesus said,

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. (John 11:23-27)

Allan lived and died in this promise.

Thank you, mentor, friend, brother.

John and Gayelene Harrower

PS An earlier reflection, Looking to our final emancipation.

Looking to our final emancipation

January 29, 2012

Yesterday I lost a dear friend from this earthly life and while I await the new dawn of life in the resurrected Christ I mourn our earthly loss and in grief and assurance of emancipation look to the ultimate dawn of the coming Son.

This hope amidst grief is poignantly captured in the closing paragraphs of the extraordinary South African novel, Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.

In the novel the father, an Anglican priest, holds on to this assurance of a new dawn, an emancipation, in the midst of his grief at the execution of his adult son.

The father has risen before the dawn and in the darkness awaits the time when his son is to be executed. The depth of the Christian images captivate me. Their meaning and comfort are for the father – and for us also.

I continue to reread this passage with thanks to God for the love of God in Christ, for authors such as Alan Paton and for beloved friends who die in the faith of Christ and whose emancipation is sure and secure in Him. My tears flow even as my grief is assuaged .

The final paragraphs from Cry, The Beloved Country: a story of comfort in desolation Alan Paton, Penguin 1944 p. 236

He (the father) looked out of his clouded eyes at the faint steady lightening in the east. Be he calmed himself, and took out the heavy maize cakes and the tea, and put them upon a stone. And he gave thanks, broke the cakes and ate them, and drank of the tea. Then he gave himself over to deep and earnest prayer, and after each petition he raised his eyes and looked to the east. And the east lightened, till he knew that the time was not far off. And when he expected it, he rose to his feet and took off his hat and laid it down on the earth, and clasped his hands before him. And while he stood there the sun rose in the east.

Yes, it is the dawn that has come. The titihoya (bird) wakes from sleep, and goes about its work of forlorn crying. The sun tips with lights the mountains of Angeli and East Griqualand. The great valley of the Umzimkulu is still in darkness, but the light will come there. Ndotsheni is still in darkness, but the light will come there also. For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing. But when the dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret.

Our final emancipation is founded in Jesus Christ who promises that those who believe in Him will live, even though they die. The Gospel according to John 11:23-27,

²³Jesus said to her (Martha of Bethany), Your brother will rise again.

²⁴Martha answered, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

²⁵Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

²⁶and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

²⁷ Yes, Lord, she told him, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.

See newspaper notice, Note on a friend’s death.

Church in the Valley

January 27, 2012

In our Missionary Diocese we have been encouraging new ways and means of connecting people with the good news of God’s love to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

In the far northeast of Tasmania, near the beginning of the South Esk River, a Christian couple have opened their home to the surrounding community and with members of the Parish of Break O’Day celebrate occasional worship and fellowship gatherings.

See the article in the April 2011 edition of the Tasmanian Anglican for some more photos and background information.

Insulting ‘Allah’ hurts Muslims & Christians

January 27, 2012

An outrageous tweet from former test cricketer Rodney Hogg has rightly brought condemnation from the Muslim community. I join them in condemning this despicable comment.

I do not wish to write the words of Hogg’s blasphemy because it derides Allah in saying, ‘Allah is …’. See, with a blasphemy warning. here.

I am grateful to see that Hogg has apologised via two tweets although I believe the seriousness of his insult demands he should go in person to the leadership of the Islamic community and give his apology face-to-face.

Please note that this tweet hurts not just Muslims but also Christians. Why? Because the word ‘Allah’ is an Arabic word meaning ‘god’.

Our Arab Christian brothers and sisters use the name “Allah” for the God of the Bible. Once again, Allah is simply the Arab word for god. In the Arabic Bible, the Word Elohim (Hebrew for God) or Theos (Greek for God) is always translated as Allah. Incidentally, the Arab Christians called God “Allah” LONG BEFORE THE BIRTH OF MUHAMMAD AND ISLAM!

Hogg’s tweet was directed at Muslims but it raises the question of whether or not the ‘Allah’ of the Muslim community is the same as the ‘Allah’ of the Christian community.

The Muslim community has little hesitation in saying that the Christian community’s understanding of God as Tri-une; The One God in three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is blasphemous. For the Muslim Allah is One single unity without any addition of any kind and to associate anything or being with the One God is ‘shirk’ or blasphemy.

This is at best a nuanced discussion within the Christian community because ‘Allah’ was revealed through the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to be a Tri-une God, and thus,

the God (or Allah) of the Bible has radically different attributes and gives mankind a completely different message than the God (or Allah) of Islam. Therefore, in spite of a common name, they cannot be the same!

Yet, when we are to talk of God we must give God a name. How else can we speak of God? The word ‘God’ or ‘Allah’ is then defined in our conversation. An identikit image emerges from our conversation about God which gives meaning to the word ‘God/Allah’.

It is in conversation that is civil, patient and respectful of both similarity and difference that we are called to engage for the love of God and the love of the world in Christ.

Articles, Hogg bowled over by his own tastelessness in pot shot at Muslims and The word Allah in the Arabic Bible. A sustained article on the Trinity and Muslim response to it see, The Doctine of the Trinity.