An Obadiah Slope column.
Textbook acts: A few days apart, two Sydney bishops, one Anglican and another from an independent church, did what bishops should do—pointed us to Jesus.
One made headlines, the other didn’t.
You may not have heard about Archbishop Kanishka Raffel, who explained who Jesus is from John’s gospel at a meeting for the Meet Jesus evangelistic campaign at Barker College in Northern Sydney on April 10.
The other one was Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel of the Christ The Good Shepherd Church’s response to being stabbed. He immediately prayed for his young assailant and forgave him. The Other Cheek carried what the bishop said from his hospital bed. Here’s a quote from him advising his upset followers: “Jesus never taught us to fight. The Lord Jesus never taught us to retaliate. The Lord Jesus never said to us an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The Lord Jesus said never return evil with evil, but return evil with good.”
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Their task: Like the office or not, a bishop makes some great promises. here are some of them from the Anglican system.
Will you proclaim the gospel to all, especially those among whom
you live? Will you lead those in your care to obey our Saviour’s command to
make disciples of all nations?
I will gladly bear witness to Christ in the power of God.
Will you administer with mercy the discipline of this Church? Will
you correct and set aside teaching that is contrary to the mind of Christ, both
privately and publicly, urging all to live according to God’s Word?
Candidate I will, endeavouring to apply the law of Christ with the grace of
God.
Will you put aside all ungodly and worldly behaviour and live
modestly, in justice and godliness, so that by your life and example you may
commend Christ’s truth?
Candidate I will, seeking in all I do to demonstrate the love of God.
It is good to see these duties carried out. Kanishka Raffel’s role as an evangelist is something Obadiah would love to see much more of. Please.
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On the Market: the Lutheran church’s North Adelaide “Vatican” is now on the market. The bluestone building pictured, once the Angas missionary college, has housed Luther College, which plans to emphasise distance education.
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Oops: They might do good work, but a new (to Obadiah anyway) US-based organisation that runs seminars to teach churches they “can align money and mission”,” will need to change their name if they want to work down under. Their name? Rooted Good.
Meanwhile I can think of another Australian (Anglican) Archbishop who wouldn’t even be able to define the gospel, as evidenced by an Easter Sunday sermon titled “the Gospel is still being written”.
Might be good if you could say which one – and send a link if you can
Regarding “Rooted Good”: We also in the USA have a Rooted Youth Ministry Conference, and a youth ministry curriculum called Rooted Reservoir. Having spent a bit of time in Australia, I do cringe every time I consider how those names sound to my friends down under.