August 2006 Letters to the Editor

Webmaster | 1 August 2006

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The future is black
“Praise God for advancing the gospel so the future is poor, black and female - truly he chooses people whom the world may ignore! But now be careful with me - I’m an endangered species.”
Simon Manchester
North Sydney NSW

I very much appreciated the ‘Dummies Guide to Communion in Crisis’. In this age of globalisation, we really need to be aware of international Anglican politics. Guides such as this are invaluable.
Craig Schwarze
Annandale, NSW

I enjoyed the depth and research of your article on the crisis in Communion. Several parishes in ECUSA are out of communion with dioceses but still in the Anglican communion. Questions of ownership of church property and diocesan fees are unresolved. Why can’t episcopal ministry and oversight be provided to dissenting ECUSA parishes by African dioceses? Think of the extra financial and other resources available to struggling Third World dioceses! Telecommunication is easy, even six-monthly visits by African bishops would cost nothing to North Americans. ECUSA parishes can actively participate in evangelism and mission with persecuted brothers and sisters. But someone has probably already thought of all this. If this is God’s will, what’s needed to start such an initiative?
L Curry
Faulconbridge, NSW

Queen’s Birthday honour
In the list of Queen’s birthday honours (SC, July) the name of Margaret Hutchison of St Alban’s, Lindfield was omitted. She was awarded the OAM for her ministry to nurses through the Nurses’ Christian Fellowship.
Judy Heath
Gordon, NSW

Lost sight of main game

Reading the article ‘Managing Risks at Church’ in the July edition of Southern Cross gave me great concern. To me, the phrase ‘maximise ministry by minimising harm’ is yet another hoop for us to jump through with no real gain.

Yes, we will look more like an efficient business but are we losing sight of the main game?

Surely the main focus should be on reaching people with the saving message of Jesus and encouraging spiritual growth, rather than operating like a company business.

Lay workers, parish councils and clergy are being asked to complete more and more paperwork, attend special training programs etc. taking up valuable time that could be spent in ministry.

It is hard enough to get people to go on church committees and in particular become a warden without loading them down with yet another millstone.
I have spent many years as a church warden, parish council, Synod member, and led a number of lay ministries including youth and children’s work.

This has been in both Sydney and country areas. Please don’t load us with another burden or we will end up with nobody willing to take on these roles.

Ron Bower
Kangaroo Valley, NSW

Empty tomb, empty logic

In neither Romans 4:25 nor 1 Corinthians 15:14, or anywhere else, does Paul claim that the resurrection is ‘the most critical element of the gospel story!’ (Haydn Sennitt SC, July). Christ’s miraculous birth, his morally perfect life, death, resurrection, ascension and the sending of his Holy Spirit, all in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and promise, are equally important, necessary parts of his single complex act of redemption. Without any one of them the rest are meaningless and our preaching would indeed be empty. To argue otherwise is both theologically dangerous and absurd.

Jim Bates
Bilgola, NSW

Super hero Christians or the bad guys in a culture war?

I am writing in regard to your culture watch article ‘We might be Superheroes’ (SC, July), specifically your ‘Talking Point’ inset box. The main issue is the statement, ‘Explain sin is a ‘mutation’ and Jesus won us the cure’.

Firstly, this implies that sin is something beyond our control and something that we have no influence over. Of course, we are all sinful people, but we do have some control over the extremes.

I do not believe that conceptually this idea can be supported biblically. Secondly, the concept is incongruous with the idea of comparing the X Men and Christianity – it is the mutation that sets the X Men apart from the rest of humanity. Obviously if we extend the analogy, we have sin being what sets Christians apart. Plainly this is not the case, as all sin. The separation lies in our ideologies.

Lastly, the statement itself suggests that whoever wrote it, has not seen the final X Men movie, or completely missed the point. The ‘cure’ is not a good thing, it suggests that the ‘Mutants’ are of less worth than normal humans. To make that statement, you are aligning yourself with the bigotted ‘bad guys’ of the film, who are not averse to forcing the ‘cure’ on mutants as well as weaponising the ‘cure’ for their own benefit. It was this last element that caused my sister (a marginal Christian) to exclaim in disgust and not read any further. Obviously it irritated me enough to write this letter. For me, it constitutes as pretty poor on behalf of the writer, as whatever good elements of the article there are, are overshadowed by the looming, self-confessed ignorance.

Stephen Kirkaldy
Email address supplied

Unintelligent design

John Reimer (SC, May) confidently recommends Intelligent Design (ID), but fails to mention that the ID debate had an extended hearing last year in the District Court of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where ID was defended during court appearances by well-known supporters of ID, including Professor Michael Behe, probably the best known ID scientist. ID was judged to be an untestable belief, and is simply already-discredited Creationism with names and titles changed. In his letter, John Reimer, in criticising atheistic proponents of Darwin’s theory of evolution, also states that “we now know much more about the world than was the case in Darwin’s time”. Our increasing knowledge of the world confirms the basic concepts of the theory of evolution, which is now so widely accepted by atheistic and by Christian scientists, as well.

Harry Bullock
St Ives, NSW

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