Re-lent: Canon Phillipa Lohmeyer-Collins preached at St Paul’s cathedral, Melbourne, on the “heart work” of Lent, which is the effort we owe in repentance. Lent, it strikes me as a person who attends a church which does not emphasise the church calendar, is a useful reminder that we remain as sinners though saved.
However, perhaps as a discursus, the Canon descrisbed Vice President J. D. Vance’s theology. Against the backdrop of the USA dropping most of the USAID program of humanitarian aid, the Veep described the Catholic doctrine of ordo amoris (the order of love) as concentric circles with care lavished more on those closer.
“Of course we care for those closest to us,” Lohmeyer-Collins pointed out while saying that Thomas Aquinas, a theologian most often quoted on Ordo Amoris, described a wide circle of love.
Let’s do a segue, and avoid going too far in debating Aquinas, because here is what struck Obadiah: if J. D. is right then what about missionaries?
To start with Here is J. D. Vance responding to UK podcaster and ex-Conservative minister Rory Stewart who had criticised Vance’s remark on an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, that charity begins at home.
Sitting in the cathedral, listening to Canon Phillipa Lohmeyer- Collins mention of vance during her sermon on taking lent seriously, mentioning Vance’s take on Ordo Amoris which she thought was not a good example of Lenten “heart work” Obadiah thoughs went to missionaries:
Hudson Taylor (1832-1905): missionary to China, founder of the China inland Mission, who adopted Chinese culture in service of the Gospel. “Inland” because he went away from the coast, where most missionaries lived close to colonial settlements.
Adoniram Judson (1788-1850): in exile in Burma for 38 years battling with sickness, disease, and death, seeing few converts but translating the Bible into Burmese laying the foundation for millions to come to Christ.
Sophie Newton (1867- 1958): Volunteered to replace missionaries in China who had been killed during the Boxer rebellion, empowerer of Chinese women, training “Bible Women” who were village evangelists and pastoral workers. She founded schools, and fought against infanticide – this was extremely common among girls in South China – and against foot-binding and opium addiction. Before leaving for China, she planted St Peter’s Burwood East, Obadiah’s church, which renewed St James Croydon and in one of those “coincidences” is replenishing St Lukes Concord and Burwood North – the church Sophie Newton served as a deaconess.
Eric Liddell (1902-1945): Most famous for the “Chariots of Fire” story of Sabbath Keeping during the 1924 Olympics, the fact that he is regarded as Scottish but was born and died in China exemplifies the problem of the Vance formula.
Would any of these have left home and hearth if the Vance version of Ordo Amoris held true? Would anyone take notice of Jesus’ dictum “that “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29).
Why would Jesus say that if not to overturn the Vance version of ordo amoris?
God bless all missionaries for their sacrifice of home, family, and comfort.
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Dear Scots College: The rebuilding of the college’s library in Scottish baronial style is reported by The Sydney Morning Herald as costing twice the intended $29 million. Obadiah is tempted to ask “how is this Christian?” The well-heeled sons of the Eastern Suburbs get well educated at your school, so the real educational needs are elsewhere. The PISA stats show that Australia’s real educational issues are located in unprivileged communities – so why not spread the largesse to them?
Obadiah is resigned to think that schools shoring up the wealth of the already wealthy are inevitable in a free society. The rich we will always have with us. It is catering to maintain that privilege in the name of Christ that Obadiah has problems with.
And taking about shoring up wealth, Obadiah bumped into David Marr at the Adelaide Writers week, and he mentioned he had been back to Shore, his old school for the first time in 30 years for a funeral. And he was astounded at the spending on property the school had been up to.
Obadiah is extremely aware that there are good Christian folk on the staff and council of both those schools he mentions. In a previous life he even worked with some of them. Might he gently insist that they might have a blind spot?
Although he is proud to be state-educated, Obadiah’s offspring attended independent schools – responding to the disability of Obadiah’s firstborn. He is grateful to the staff of Meriden and Danebank. So please go on Facebook and point out his hypocrisy. He can take it.
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“If men want to know how to lead and serve and love, look to Jesus. Follow his example. We don’t encourage faithfulness in our churches by making gender redundant or by making men sound and smell just a little bit like Andrew Tate.”
That is a quote from Melbourne Pastor Murray Campbell, who despite being towards the conservative side of the Vic Baptists, has been urging people not to be swayed by “Sin of Empathy” author Joe Rigney. Rigney takes a view that empathy is something women have and men need to leave to them. As reported by Campbell, Rigney has been sparring on Twitter/X with Sydney Anglican writer Dani Treweek.
As Campbell, like Treweek, not an egalitarian, points out
“Ours is an age that often downplays the role of mothers and ignores the tireless love exercised in the home. Our society isn’t the most friendly and affirming for women who make the decision to sit out of the workforce to help raise a family. Is this, however, the sum of women’s contribution to the body of Christ?
“It seems that poor Phoebe and Priscilla and a host of women in Romans 16 didn’t get Rigney’s memo.”