Imagine for a moment that a landmass the size of the Eastern Suburbs was dropped into the middle of the rural outskirts of Sydney. Then imagine the entire population went with it. According to a new report launched at the 2003 session of Synod last month, this is the picture of the population tidal wave that is set to sweep past ill-prepared churches unless urgent measures are taken to meet the anticipated population boom.

Ministry at St John’s, Darlinghurst is under threat of being drastically scaled back, with the Church’s proposed property development being opposed by the City of Sydney Council.

Introducing friends to God through telling Two Ways to Live ‘as a long, intimate story’ is the basis of a new evangelistic course launched in Sydney this month. Billed as ‘a new way of introducing the true and living God to a post-Christian society’, the 12-week Introducing God series aims to tell ‘the Bible’s big story’ by drawing on popular evangelistic tools. The theology of the Two Ways to Live tract is presented in ‘relational’ terms using the Alpha concept of a meal, video presentation and discussion. Sky News reporter Leigh Hatcher hosts the series, written and presented by Dominic Steele, pastor of Annandale Anglican Church and Christians in the Media. The video series is produced by Anglican Media.

Sara Haddleton, who took her own life last month, may have been a ‘streetie’, but she was certainly not homeless.

For St Paul’s, Carlingford, the decision to start new congregations on someone’s ‘home turf’ – a local primary school hall and university lecture theatre – is attracting new people each week who are eager to hear the gospel. Many of the newcomers to congregations at North Rocks Primary School and Macquarie University were not Christians before the churches were planted earlier this year.

Alan Cole, who died in Sydney on 7 August following a stroke, aged 80, was a classical and biblical scholar, a teacher at Oakhill Theological College London, Moore College Sydney, St Peter’s Hall and Trinity College Singapore, a missionary with both the China Inland Mission and Church Missionary Society in South-East Asia, Founding Master of Robert Menzies College at Macquarie University, and Federal Secretary of CMS (Australia). He was an Honorary Canon of St Andrew’s Cathedral Sydney from 1979, and during his last nine years living in the parish of St Clement’s, Mosman, in addition to numerous speaking engagements both in Australia and overseas, he was devoted to ministry in Chinese congregations in Sydney.

Stunned amazement greeted the voice on the phone from Western Australia, when the rector of St John’s, Parramatta received a call telling him he had just been elected bishop of one of the largest Anglican Dioceses in the world.

Looking for a church to visit in Christchurch, New Zealand? St John’s, Latimer Square has a number of thriving congregations under the ministry of rector, the Rev Wally Behan and his wife Rosemary. Their 10.30am Sunday congregation has run into a problem that most clergy long for: it’s too big for the church building.

Burmese church leaders say their government’s deliberate attempts to create tension between the Buddhist majority and the minority Christian and Muslim population has led to greater solidarity among the churches of war-ravaged Myanmar (Burma). This is despite a ban on foreign missionaries and, in some parts of the country, the outlawing of evangelism.

As the first anniversary of the October 12 Bali bombing approaches, the long-term effects of the tragedy are only just starting to take hold for the Balinese people.

Every university student in Australia must be reached with the gospel of Christ, according to the newly appointed National Director of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES).

The sight of 50 fire fighters, police, paramedics and emergency services personnel swarming into a church building on Sunday morning might be cause for alarm. But the presence of police cars, ambulance, fire engines and police rescue truck at St David’s, Forestville recently was not the result of a disaster but rather a new initiative to reach out to the emergency services that serve the local area.