My dear readers,
1. "Missions" - at your doorstep
Did it ever occur to you that you could serve the Lord right here, at your very doorstep? "Missions" seems so far away when in fact it's just where our Church is! It is the one Gospel Outreach that has challenged me every week for the past 29 years. By now you must be wondering "What are you talking about?"
"Missions" comes alive to you, when you come to SGBF! The Lord is honoured when you keep ALL of His day holy, better still when you bring someone to God's House. SGBF is a fruitful field and so convenient: you need not go thousands of miles for the Lord's work. Just pray, resolve, and come - TONIGHT! "Honour Me on this My day!" says the Lord, "and I will honour you."
2. "Missions." Will you write for the Lord
We have urged members to write 200 words how God blessed you at SGBF. Some can write good stuff in fewer words - these are also welcome, as long as you magnify the name of the Lord. Tell how He touched your heart by some message at SGBF. Pray, and put your pen to paper. Please do this for the Lord as your part in Missions.
Our announced closing date is 7 Sept 2008 which is just five weeks away. May I urge everyone, which means you included, to write for the Lord. Even 20 words from the heart can touch another heart. PLEASE WRITE AND SEND IT TO OUR CHURCH OFFICE, c/o Jean. Thank you!
3. Latest Developments in the "Christian World"
CONSERVATIVE ANGLICANS FORM NEW GLOBAL NETWORK
Friday Church News
Conservative Anglicans meeting in Jerusalem formed a new global network that challenges the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The new network could represent one-half of the world's Anglicans (The Guardian, June 29, 2008). Called the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, the network intends to sever ties with liberal Anglicans in the USA and Canada. It will return to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, train its own priests, and require theological orthodoxy of its member churches. The final straw for these schismatic Anglicans was the ordination of homosexual V. Gene Robinson as the Episcopalian bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. The participants at the Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem included 300 bishops and archbishops. Though they denied that they are splitting from the Anglican Communion, they plan to have their own "primates council" and do not intend to submit to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Peter Jensen, Anglican archbishop of Sydney, said: "The consequences have been unfolding over the last five years, now their church is divided; it looks as though there will be permanent division, one way or the other. All around the world the sleeping giant that is evangelical Anglicanism and orthodox Anglicanism has been aroused by what happened in Canada and the United States of America. It was an act of folly." (Christian News July 4, 2008)
4. Controversial Anglican Bishop says Christians must testify for Christ
By Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (ANS) --- A leading Anglican bishop has called on British Christians to speak up about their faith in Jesus Christ. At a time when Christian witness should be at its strongest, there is reluctance even among Christians to speak about faith in Jesus, the Bishop of Rochester, England, told journalists at a major summit of conservative Anglicans, according to Maria Mackay.
Speaking at a press conference at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) on Tuesday, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali urged Christians to speak up about their faith and remain committed to mission among those who have still not had the opportunity to hear the Gospel.
"Let us pray we are able to recover the Christian nerve in the West and to make sure the Gospel is not lost," he said.
Bishop Nazir-Ali added that it was the right of Christians to be able to witness to people of all faiths and none, including Muslims.
"Just as Muslims have a right to invite others to join Islam, Christians have a right to invite others to Jesus," he said.
He said in an address earlier in the day that "the future of the Anglican Communion is to be found in its authentic nature, not in recent innovations or explanations".
Scripture, the Bishop continued, has to remain the authority that underpins any church: "The Bible is the norm by which we appreciate what is authentically apostolic.
"That is the reason for the Bible being the ultimate and final authority for us in our faith and our lives and this is the reason why Anglicans have taken our study of the Bible so seriously."
He also urged Anglicans to be clear in their confession: "We have to be clear that we are a confessing church. Some people have the mistaken idea that Anglicans can believe anything, or that Anglicans can believe nothing. I don't know which one is more serious."
GAFCON is taking place just a few weeks before Lambeth Conference, a 10-yearly gathering of bishops from around the Anglican Communion, which Nazir-Ali and several other British bishops have said they will boycott over the presence of pro-gay bishops.
Bishop Nazir-Ali said at the press conference that his decision not to attend the conference "has to do with being in Eucharistic fellowship with and teaching the common faith alongside those who have ordained a person to be bishop whose style is contrary to the unanimous teaching of the Bible and of the Church down the ages." (Christian News July 4, 2008)
Lovingly in the Lord
Dr SH Tow, Sr Pastor