July 2005 Letters to the Editor

Webmaster | 25 June 2005

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Don’t tell Frank about the Mission

Bishop Ivan Lee (SC, June) tells of ‘good mission strategists’ who ‘pour over local statistics and demographics’. Let’s hope Frank Sartor doesn’t learn about this waste.

Donald Howard
Elderslie, NSW

Zac’s column sorely missed

I was a little disappointed that Zac Veron’s article was only available online and not printed in the paper. I’ve found his series very helpful and I think that some of the other articles in the June edition of Southern Cross could easily have been left out to make way for his column, especially when people like me have been hanging out to read it for the last month and looking forward to adding it to our collection of clippings.
Jo Gerber
Email address supplied

Super nanny does the job
My wife and I have six grandchildren and enjoy and support Super Nanny Jo Frost’s approach (SC, June). I also do relief teaching and see children who have not been properly disciplined at home. The teacher’s task is thus more difficult. Children need to learn that the world does not revolve around them! Single mums have a hard task today but Jo’s approach gives them hope.

Graham and Pat Lawn
Email address supplied

The blood of reformers still flows
Thank you Archbishop Jensen for drawing attention to Bishops Latimer and Ridley (SC, June). While church leaders worldwide are attempting to roll back the gains of the reformation, thinking it a ‘mistake’, the blood of these reformers, with Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Hooper, proclaim the true protestant character of the reformed Anglican Church. As far as I can see, very little has changed regarding the nature of the gospel or Roman Catholicism. The battle lines remain where these men drew them. Though dead, they speak.

The Rev Matt Olliffe
Kingsgrove, NSW

CORRECTION
Comments attributed to Rick Smith and Angela Crittle in the June issue of Southern Cross (‘Say bye bye: the day the music died’, page 12) should have been attributed to, respectively, Matthew Smith and Owen Atkins. Southern Cross apologises for the error.

A new tune needed for our church life

What are we to make of the feature on music in churches (SC, June)? It seems that music merely reflects the theological, liturgical, cultural, and demographic diversity of the Sydney Diocese, as well as the unequal spread of human and material resources.

Jodie McNeill’s description of music as a ‘private soundtrack-to-life’ applies to more than just youth in contemporary life. The place of music in Christian meetings is very different. Yet music, even more than spoken language, is the most volatile link between everyday life and the corporate expression of faith. Let’s work to develop resources to build one another up and stir each other up to love and good works.
Philip Cooney
Wentworth Falls, NSW

You are correct in saying that a lack of resources is hampering ministry. I believe this is partially inaccurate. Redistribution of resources could substantially solve the problem and help struggling churches to achieve the ‘critical mass’ that is required to run a culturally appealing music ministry.

However, two other issues need to change. The ministers of dying churches need to be more creative (and better resourced) in rebuilding their churches through evangelism and community involvement. Failing this, dying churches need to be replaced by more culturally relevant plants. Music is both part of effective mission and the result of effective mission. Pouring resources into music ministry alone won’t solve the problem.
Ken Davis
Koonwarra, NSW

Well done on the two-page feature on church music. I really enjoyed the analysis of songs you put together. One of the things pastors are saying is how difficult it is to find good music. Perhaps you could make something like this a regular column? It seems there is a lot of confusion in this area in the Diocese. I hope you run more features addressing this difficult issue.
Craig Schwarze
Annandale, NSW

Ken Davis (Letters, June) argues that if music directors and musicians have a problem with Hillsong music, they should fix it by writing their own.
However, let’s take it one step further. In my readings of Southern Cross Hillsong can cop quite a serve for lyrics. That can be argued, but hold on a second! This one church has 15,000 members, launches CDs that outsell the many secular CDs, and organises an incredible annual Christian conference in our city. Once EMU etc, can boast that, I’ll start listening. Let’s learn from Hillsong and thank and encourage them, not berate them.
Tim Cornford
Music Director, Albion Park Anglican Church

As a former Sydney Anglican it is disturbing that more and more songs from Hillsong church are being played in Sydney Anglican churches. Hillsong is preaching a ‘feel good’ gospel that explicitly removes any focus upon the cross. Every church that sings a Hillsong song is, via the CCLI licence, subsidising this ministry. If we care about true worship and preaching the gospel, then we should ban these songs from our churches.
Neil Cameron
Waratah, NSW

As a young 16-year-old Year 11 student who lives in a society where religion, church and God are constantly associated with cold wooden pews and slow morbid songs, albums such as Hillsong’s are a breath of fresh air. It is their music and others like it that inspire and encourage young people, like myself, to continue to be strong in our faith.
Catherine Woodcock
North Nowra, NSW

Agreement about disagreement
I read John Sandeman’s article with interest – and felt agreement with him rising within me. I liked his idea of ‘respectful disagreement’. A problem we have in our current society is that disagreement tends to be voiced stridently, and with increasing volume and acerbity. We have only to look at the way professional footballers, and some cricketers, express their disagreement with an umpire’s ruling to see the strident, loud and acerbic disagreement. Whether the topic is the ordination of women, or the consecration of women as bishops, or the use of the reserved sacrament, let us listen to one another, and hear one another, and disagree where we must, but with respect, not with arrogance. We must assume that the people who hold that idea are people of good intention, and who have not come to their understanding merely to annoy us.
The Rev Stuart Langshaw
Diocese of Adelaide

Free speech of Christians under threat
I appeal to NSW parliamentarians to reject and remove the Anti Discrimination Amendment (Religious Tolerance) Bill 2005 (SC, June). The horrific Bill can come before parliament any time. It will take away and shut down your right of freedom of speech. Pastors, ministers, church leaders, heads of Christian schools, are you aware of the seriousness of this Bill? Did you even know about it?

This law will undermine one’s right to teach, preach and propagate one’s belief. We do not want to create a society where religious beliefs and practices are vilified. Write to your MP, write to your local and city papers, stand up and be counted for our Christian values and morals. We have God on our side.
Judith Bond
Glen Alpine, NSW

The justice blame game
After reading Margaret Rodgers’s assessment of Corby’s dilemma, I was reminded of the chain of blame we like to fashion when things go wrong. Australians have a warped sense of justice when we whinge about one woman getting 20 years for a crime she probably didn’t commit, but we give acres of news space to a millionaire who had a breast cancer scare.

Meanwhile no one cares about leaning on our government over the Millennium Development Goals to save the thousands of Africans dying from AIDS every day. If Christianity had teeth and a heart, Margaret, you wouldn’t have to write your column. Justice? Corby became a Christian, that’s all the justice she needs. Pray she remains one so you can watch her persecution and write about it.

Michael Olliffe
Sydney, NSW

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