Sometimes Christmas can be like this.

Just how desperate are we to see 10 per cent of the population in Bible based churches? I am sure that there were inaccuracies in the theology of George Muller, Jeremiah Lamphia and Alf Stanway. I am also sure that we can give many good reasons for not giving significant time to agonise with God in prayer for the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom. However Jesus does tell us again and again to pray for the Kingdom with vigour and perseverance with the assurance that the Father hears our prayer.

Bishop Piper's Christmas message - December 2005. What a year!

Not so long ago a letter to the editor declared that Mr. Blackett, the architect of St Michael's Cathedral Church, would turn in his grave because an Accor hotel was being erected on the Cathedral site.

It’s time for lay people from established parishes to think seriously about moving into difficult areas.

“Few things are more crucial at this time than the raising up of more full-time Christian workers,” Archbishop Peter Jensen told parish clergy recently.

A heavenly vision is set to blossom in Moss Vale over the next year with the launch of Anglicare’s new community garden project. The project aims to provide a healthy place where men who are socially and geographically isolated can meet, form friendships and contribute to the community.

The risen Christ still towers over history to progress his gospel and he will accomplish his purpose. The substance, response and blessings of his gospel are still the same. We 21st-century followers of Christ are still to be involved in his work in his way until the end should come.

"The rest of the world uses music and the arts to communicate its values and ideologies – how much more reason do we have to use the arts to communicate and celebrate Jesus and what he’s done. This has been my passion since I first knew Jesus."

Charles Spurgeon, the great 18th century English preacher and evangelist, described prayer as the ‘engine room’ of his ministry. Whatever else he was doing, for Spurgeon, serving God began with prayer. For us – whether it’s our Christian lives, ministry in our local church, or the bigger picture of the diocesan Mission – the fundamental starting point must be to pray.

While you are reading this, Bishop Reg and Dorothy Piper will be in (or just returned from) Sabah, Malaysia, leading a team of 15 people from around the Wollongong region on a ministry trip.

It is every woman’s nightmare. Lois Rabey has never forgotten the day 23 years ago when the hot-air balloon holding her husband and his two friends caught on fire. All three men were killed instantly in front of her and her two young daughters. “At that moment, I had a positive experience of heaven, that it is real, and those men were entering it,” she said. The story received broad news coverage, in part because Mrs Rabey’s faith in Christ led her to testify that her Christian husband and the two men killed with him were in heaven. Despite having never spoken in public before, she was soon in demand to share her experience, including an invitation to speak at a Billy Graham crusade in front of 14,000 people just weeks later.

In the Bishops’ Statement of 19 June, 2003 on sexuality and the Anglican Communion issued by the Archbishops and Bishops of Sydney, reference was made to Canon Gene Robinson, the Bishop-elect of New Hampshire.

Archbishop Peter Jensen and the five regional bishops of the Diocese of Sydney have released a statement on the 'crisis in the Anglican Communion'. They refer to the appointment of a gay activist to be Bishop of Reading in the UK, the blessing of same sex unions in the Diocese of New Westminster, Canada, and the election of the Rev Gene Robinson, a clergyman living in a homosexual relationship, to be a bishop in New Hampshire Diocese, USA.

Statement from the Archbishop of Sydney and the Regional Bishops of the Diocese of Sydney on developments in the Anglican Communion

At Easter, 2 billion Christians around the world will celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some will do it very publicly in grand cathedrals. Others will huddle together in secret, away from the scrutiny of hostile authorities. All will focus on the surprisingly, unsurprising nature of the event.

With war on Iraq imminent I wish to make a statement and issue a plea.