Bishop John

Why the National Curriculum Must include the Bible is an insightful romp by Scott Monk in Quadrant Online. 

Why shouldn’t elements of the Bible be taught in public schools? It has had an unparalleled impact on Western culture, history, music, the arts, politics, morality, law and literature. Are we embarrassed about our country’s foundations or, worse, have we become intellectual cowards?

The irony cannot be overlooked. Bible societies worldwide are unable to keep up with demand in countries like India and China, but in a so-called Christian country, many Australians have more knowledge of the television guide.

In arguing for including the Bible in the national school curriculum I especially liked the argument that without an understanding of the bible the anti-Christian writings of the New atheists such as Dawkins could not be understood. 

Writers: Tolstoy, Dickens, Chaucer, Bunyan, Tennyson, C.S.Lewis, Tim Winton, Cormac McCarthy, Stephen King, Arthur Millar and John Grisham use biblical ideas. Artists, sculptors, singers, movies and popular sayings have been inspired by the Bible. Surely, biblical illiteracy is educationally crippling.  

In response to the objection that teaching the Bible in schools would be Government sponsored proselytising the author quotes the Supreme Court of the USA:

It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment. It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study.

A challenging conclusion,

But when boys are accessing internet porn for the first time, on average, aged eleven, teenage guys are using their mobile phones to swap images of sex with their girlfriends like footy cards, and sportsmen and women cheat on their partners by engaging in group orgies, we have to accept that as a society we’ve drifted too far from our common foundations.

If the best and brightest artists of the past were brave enough to explore the wide-ranging impact of the Bible on Western thought, why can’t we challenge our own generation’s best and brightest? The compulsory national curriculum is a perfect time for a rethink.    

See Ignore our Christian values and the nation will drift apart  and  Critique of Dawkins’scientism.

On Sunday 28th February we celebrated the first sermon preached on Tasmanian soil and the first Church built in Tasmania, as part of the Big Day Out service of St David’s Cathedral.

We started off walking from the Cathedral to Hobart Town Hall where the first sermon was preached  by the Reverend Robert (Bobby) Knopwood on 26th February 1804.  On one of the columns at the Town Hall there is a plaque commemorating this significant event in Tasmania’s Christian History.

 

At the Town Hall we prayed,

Gracious God and Lord of history,

at this site of the first Church service in Hobart held in the open air we rejoice in Jesus’ promise that whenever and wherever we meet in Christ’s name he is with us.

We thank you for all faithful ministers of your word and sacraments in Tasmania past and present.

Raise up more workers to serve in your harvest fields in all areas of this state, so that all may hear your call and praise your grace and glory.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

 The next stop was  St David’s Park where the first Tasmanian Church building was located. If you have been to the park and stood by Lieutenant Governor David Collin’s headstone (where he was buried in an huon pine casket), that’s where the church was located. It was built in 1810 and blew down 2 years later. St David’s Church (named in honour of Lieutenant Governor David Collins) was rebuilt in 1817 where St David’s Cathedral now stands. 

We prayed at the site of the first Church,

Faithful God, and Father of all your people, at this site of the first Church building in Hobart we thank you that while Church buildings may come and go you will never leave or forsake your people.

We pray that you would bless all congregations in Tasmania that gather in your Son’s name that they may use all the gifts you have given them by your Spirit that they may be healthy churches, transforming lives.

We pray knowing that you are able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to your power at work in us, to your glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

The Old Rokeby Historic Trail gives more information about Reverend Robert Knopwood’s time in Clarence Plains (Rokeby). Brochures are available from Clarence City Council  or see Old Rokeby Historic Trail and The Tomb of Reverend Robert Knopwood.

See also St David’s Cathedral – Procession Prayers from the April issue of the Tasmanian Anglican.

On Good Friday I took a service of reflection at St John’s Launceston on The weekend that changed the world. My thanks to Revd Roger Hesketh and his team at St John’s Launceston for the wonderful service they put together.  As promised, the three-hour service outline is below,

Introduction and Overview:

Many Christians – and perhaps some who would not claim that title – are strangely drawn to the man on the cross, lifted up to die. There is a mystery about the cross.  It has a magnetic power. It has a way of speaking to a tortured world, a twisted conscience, a torn heart.  It has a way of sorting us out.

We shall never plumb the full meaning of the death of Jesus. Leon Morris once wrote that, “Not much in the New Testament writing makes sense other than on the basis that God sent his son to die on a cross and so made a way of forgiveness for sinners.”

This morning Bishop John will lead us in contemplating the significance of some of the great ‘picture words’ the Bible writers have given us; atonement, redemption, absolution, reconciliation and rescue. We will also be praying, singing and reading the Scriptures. There will be opportunity to pray, reaffirm our Baptismal vows, kneel at the cross and spend time in silence and in the presence of Jesus.

Our prayer is that God, by his word and spirit will penetrate through the thick of human verbosity to the silent centre of the heart. Let us take heed of the words of James the brother of the Lord and so, ‘Submit ourselves, then, to God…Draw near to Him and he will draw near to us…Humble ourselves before the Lord, and he will lift us up.’

9:00 am

Hymn: (All) 342, When I survey

Welcome/Overview/Introduction

Voxpop media clip 1.

Bible reading Romans 1:16-32

 

9:15 am Atonement: 

Hymn (All): 341, My song is love unknown

Responsorial Psalm

[People are invited to lay a nail at the foot of the Cross- piano plays]

Choir: Celtic Benediction

Voxpop media clip 2.

Bible readings  Isaiah 43:1-4  Romans 5:1,6-8

 

9:50 am Redemption:

Confession

Renewal of Baptism Vows 

Choir: Brother James Air— 23rd Psalm

Hymn (All): 730, Jesus remember me

Voxpop media clip 3.

Bible readings Luke 15:11-32  1 John 4:10

 

10:25 am Absolution:

Hymn (All): SCE 1311  In Christ Alone

[People are invited to a Ministry of Prayer and /or to light a candle to symbolise the breaking of the power of darkness that Jesus sacrifice achieved while the organ plays softly]

Choir: When His time was over & Living God I cry to you

Voxpop media clip 4.

Bible readings  Colossians 1:13-22   2 Corinthians 5:17-19

 

11:00 am Reconciliation:

Hymn (All): SCE 353 Meekness and majesty

[Silence]Reflective Prayer

Choir: Proclaim, proclaim the story

Voxpop media clip 5.

Bible readings  Matthew 20:1-15  John 8:3-11

 

11:35 am Rescue:

Reflective Prayer

Hymn (All): How deep the Father’s Love for me

Concluding Prayer

I was interviewed by The Advocate today about a strip club operating in North West Tasmania.  It is near the Anglican Church, “Any comment, Bishop?’

I replied along the following lines: 

This type of activity debases our humanity wherever it occurs. The fact that it is occurring near community centres including schools, shops and a church adds to the destructive influence on our young. The commercialization and exploitation of human sexuality destroys relationships. It devalues both the women involved and the men, who are usually plied with alcohol, watching the artificial spectacle. We all need to learn how to build and nurture healthy relationships. Relationships are at the centre of who we are. Our social cohesion depends on healthy relationships. 

As if to prove that this is not just occurring on our island 

over 30 of Australia’s leading child experts have called for an unprecedented ban on the sale of adult magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse and other ”soft porn” material from newsagents, milk bars, convenience stores, supermarkets and petrol stations. . . .

Author Maggie Hamilton has interviewed more than 70 boys, parents and teachers for her book What’s Happening to our Boys?, a companion book to one she did about how girls are affected by sexualised imagery.

”What I found so upsetting about the boys I interviewed was the desensitisation around sex and violence … and it was kids right across the board,” she said.

Put soft porn out of view: experts for the full report including the names of the people who have signed the protest, including the author of  Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (reviewed by Kate Boughton). See also  Hypersexualisation: dolls dollars dissent? and Wired for Intimacy (Review) by Will Briggs.

This Good Friday I will be taking a service of reflection at St John’s Launceston, entitled, The Weekend that Changed the World. Following is the outline of my notes,

 1. ATONEMENT – WHY WE NEED IT (Romans 1:16-32)

• Consider God. God is good.
• Consider evil. Evil is more complex than “the goodies versus the baddies”
• Consider us. Evil finds an echo in the heart of every person.
• Consider Frodo.

2. REDEMPTION – WHY DID GOD BECOME HUMAN? (Isaiah 43:1-4, Romans 5:1, 6-8, Genesis 22:13, 14)

• The cross in Islam and Christianity
• “City of Wrong: A Friday in Jerusalem”
• Who is God?
• What is God like?
• How does God act?

3. ABSOLUTION – WHO WOULD BOTHER? (Luke 15:11-32, 1 John 4:10)

• It’s in the prayer Book!
• The hardest words in the world
• The hardest act in the world
• The hardest act to follow
• Who will follow?
• Absolution without penance is . . . ?

4. RECONCILIATION – THE JOY OF ‘ABBA’ Father (Colossians 1:13-22, 2 Corinthians 5:17-19, Luke 24:30, 31)

• Relationship – separated and restored
• Making peace through his blood, shed on the cross
• The person we were meant to be! – The joy of reconciliation
• The place we were meant to be – The joy of being in God’s family

5. RESCUE – GOD ACTS TO SET US FREE (Matthew 20:1-15, John 8:3-11, Galatians 5:22-26)

• Rescue is grace
• Rescue is a Rescuer
• Rescue is life in the Spirit
• Rescue from and rescued for –
  • From Futility for purpose
  • Form Ignorance for truth
  • From Loneliness for community
  • From Selfishness for servanthood
  • From Death for life

[The actual reflections can be heard at St John’s Launceston ‘Download Sermons’, 2 April, available here. ] – later edit

I would like to thank Revd Roger Hesketh and his team at St John’s who have organised a special (three hour) reflection service centered on, The Weekend that Changed the World.

The service which will capture the themes, Atonement, Redemption, Absolution, Reconciliation and Rescue will include; hymns, times of reflection, prayerful reflection, Bible readings, media clips, music, renewal of Baptism vows, my talks on the 5 themes, an invitation to lay a nail at the foot of the cross, and an invitation to light a candle to symbolise the breaking of the power of darkness that Jesus’ sacrifice achieved.

I am sure if you would be interested in conducting a reflection service next Good Friday, Roger would be more than willing to share his ideas.