As the rest of society spends Good Friday worshipping ‘the sand, sea and surf’, Andrew Nixon is inviting Sydney to discover what Jesus has in store for their future.

Abuse victim advocates are concerned that only nine of Australia’s 23 dioceses have agreed on a uniform code of conduct for clergy and church workers.

Suburban church members have played a role in winning a major appeal against the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal over the right to keep using chequebooks in churches through Glebe Income Accounts (GIA).

When Ian Carmichael opened a Koorong catalogue last year, he wasn’t expecting any great consequences. But just 6 months on, he has accepted an invitation to join the Committee of Bible League Australia and wants to help raise awareness of the Bible League’s ministry.

Spiritual renewal through prayer is on the agenda at St Paul's Menai, where congregation members are leading the way in adopting the 40 day diocesan prayer program, The Ephesus Code.

Peter Jensen’s visit to South Africa last month signalled Sydney’s continued support of evangelicals worldwide.

In addition to his main focus at George Whitefield College, Dr Jensen said it was also encouraging to visit the Johannesburg Bible College run by Nat Schluter, the son of Dr Michael Schluter, well known to many Australians as the head of the Relationships Foundation.

One of the key players counselling the Anglican Communion to stay together, is concerned his fellow conservatives in Sydney Diocese are encouraging the impending split of the worldwide Anglican Church.

Kamal Weerakoon is combining full-time study at Moore College with ministry at St Anne’s, Strathfield. He begins a new series on his trials and joys as a trainee minister.

Archbishop Peter Jensen proclaimed the gospel to a worldwide audience last month as the Queen celebrated a historic Commonwealth service at St Andrew’s Cathedral.

Each month Southern Cross will report on the major decisions of the diocesan Standing Committee.

St Michael’s, Wollongong is following in the footsteps of ‘big brother’ St Andrew’s and will host its first Easter convention on Good Friday, April 14.

You don’t need to be Robert Langdon – the fictional lead of Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code – to discover the truth about Jesus Christ.

Top musician, Su Wenxing, is now under house arrest. In 2004, China National Orchestra’s performance of Handel’s Messiah conducted by Su was abruptly cancelled. Su was told he faced arrest for ‘provocative evangelistic activities’.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, says the global Anglican Communion has not changed its teachings rejecting homosexuality and will not ‘reopen the discussion’ at the next Lambeth conference in 2008, the once a decade meeting of Anglican bishops.

Abdul Rahman is facing the death penalty after being found guilty in Afghanistan last month of converting from Islam to Christianity.

Find out who's moving where...

Read this month's letters to the editor.

Moore College is a community of scholars, but we do not pursue scholarship for scholarship’s sake.

Anna Cheuh has swapped a career with Qantas for teaching the Bible to young women.

In the first article in a lecture series on the Consolations of Theology, Moore College lecturer RICHARD GIBSON illuminates Lactantius on anger.

Over 60 million Christians live in the Muslim-majority world. Are we prepared to be their partners in mission? JEREMY HALCROW reports.

Why do Christian schools so often aim at those most likely to climb the ladder of success?

We don’t like to see ourselves as racist – a 2002 survey conducted by a senior lecturer in geography from the University of New South Wales found 83 per cent of respondents agreed there was racial prejudice in Australia, but 80.2 per cent denied they were racist themselves.

We Christians are not to worship idols, and that means rock stars, too. But it doesn’t mean we can’t listen to them, enjoy them, and sometimes even admire them – especially when they deserve it. U2’s Bono is that rare celebrity who seems to have become more, rather than less, admirable over time.

One of the greatest legacies of Thomas Cranmer, burnt at the stake 450 years ago, was a clear concept of what Christians should do when they meet together under God’s word.

The love story of the year may be a doco about penguins yet it has managed to stir up controversy in the US. The film traces a year in the life of emperor penguins who live and breed in the most hostile place on earth. Some reviewers have argued that the film proves Intelligent Design; how could such tenacious and astonishing behaviour be the work of chance?

What does it mean when the citizens of the most powerful nation on earth prefer a fictional character for the presidency than a real man? Is it simply a tribute to good television, or an indication of a deeper problem in the arena of political leadership?

Sydney Diocese has always been a vigorous, albeit at times cantankerous, place, while still playing a role in the wider Anglican Church in Australia and the world. But there has not been, as Dr Porter suggests, some terrible shift of late towards fundamentalism or an effort to revitalise sixteenth-century English Puritanism.

In the Introduction which precedes chapter 1, Porter says that her aim “… is not to report on Sydney (Anglican diocese) objectively and even-handedly …” She achieves this aim brilliantly. She also says that the book “cannot help but be polemical”. Polemical it certainly is. Unfortunately, it is also highly inaccurate.

In the Introduction which precedes chapter 1, Porter says that her aim “… is not to report on Sydney (Anglican diocese) objectively and even-handedly …” She achieves this aim brilliantly. She also says that the book “cannot help but be polemical”. Polemical it certainly is. Unfortunately, it is also highly inaccurate.