THE ISSUE BEFORE US ACR JOURNAL BE INFORMED AustrAliAn church record WINTER 2020 ISSUE 1923 The Issue Before Us “For all Christians, the likelihood is rather that as our discipleship continues, God will make us increasingly weakness-conscious and pain-aware, so that we may learn with Paul that when we are conscious of being weak, then—and only then—may we become truly strong in the Lord. And should we want it any other way?” J.I. Packer Contents 1 Not I, But Christ 29 Presbyteral Ordination: Mark Earngey How Long, Oh Lord? Raj Gupta 3 Editorial: The Issue Before Us The Rector Shortage 34 Reflections on My Expectations of Ministry Fifty Years Ago 8 Why We Should Say Yes to John G. Mason Sydney and Anglican! Nigel Fortescue 40 Sydney for the Sake of Others Malcolm Richards 12 Assisting the Assistants Chris Braga 44 Staying Fresh as a Rector Ray Galea 15 What is a Stipend? Phil Colgan 47 Lowering the Ordination Bar Mike Leite 21 On the Ministry Conveyer Belt Hugh Jonas 51 View from the Pew David Worboys: Georges Hall 24 Taking Up the Challenge Michael Figueira 54 View from the Pew Leah Arthur: Shoalhaven 25 Becoming a Rector Prash Colombage 57 Review: The Mission Before Us Peter Jensen 27 Becoming a Rector Tom Melbourne 59 Vale Bishop Ivan Lee Raj Gupta The Australian Church Record has Publisher: served Australian Christianity since 1880, Australian Church Record seeking to promote independent and Editor: Mark E. Earngey AustrAliAn church record evangelical thinking amongst Australian Anglicans. Since 2004 the publication has been online. Back The Australian Church Record issues are on the website, which also enables notification is designed and typeset by emails to be requested. www.australianchurchrecord.net Lankshear Design The Australian Church Record is an evangelical newspaper Australian Church Record. in the Reformed Anglican tradition of the historic creeds ACN 000 071 438 and the 39 Articles of Faith, and the standard of teaching All enquiries: PO Box 218, and practice in the Book of Common Prayer. We accept the Camperdown NSW 1450 Scriptures as God’s word written, and as containing all things necessary for salvation and the final authority in all matters Cover image by: Benjamin Sow of faith and behaviour. on Unsplash.com Not I, But Christ Christ.” But his very next words were, and are, just as stunning: “It is no lon- ger I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20a). The old man had gone, and the new had most certainly come. Meeting the Lord Jesus was the most important thing that had happened, or would ever happen, in his life. Now, what does it mean to no longer live, but to have Christ living in you? It cannot be understood in physical terms. When we are converted we continue breathing, and the ascended Mark Earngey, Head of Church Christ continues reigning from his History and Lecturer in Christian heavenly throne. It seems to me that Thought, Moore Theological College Paul is speaking about the deep and abiding union with Christ we receive remarkable revolution takes place by faith and by virtue of the Holy Spirit. when a person is converted. I will Elsewhere he says that we are united A never tire of reflecting upon the con- to Christ in his life, death, burial, res- version of Saul of Tarsus that day on urrection, ascension, and even his Straight Street in Damascus. After he heavenly session. Thus, Martin Luther met the Lord Jesus Christ, the activistic once commented on the Apostle Paul’s antagonist had atonement applied, and language in Galatians, and said that the archpersecutor became the Apostle Christ adorns our faith as colour or Paul. All his sinful desires and shame- light adorns a wall. It is an inescapable ful acts – the approval of Stephen’s reality that the ‘I’ of a converted man or stoning, the persecution of Christians, woman can never be separated from the the Pharisaical pride – these things, ‘Thou’ of Christ. Everywhere you and I and much more, were put to death in go, Christ goes before us. the death of Christ. He put it succinctly This remarkable truth of our union years later: “I have been crucified with with Christ has plenty of implications 1 | WINTER 2020 NOT I, BUT CHRIST for us. One of the most important is marriages, our service of others, and our embedded in Paul’s next words: “And generosity. In all these ways, and more, the life I now live in the flesh I live by there is a relativising of ourselves and faith in the Son of God, who loved me a lauding of the Lord required. On the and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20b). other hand, we can revel and rejoice in That is, living by faith means a certain our inseparable identification with the self-effacing and Christ-focused stance King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When throughout the converted life. Consider we are mistreated, misrepresented, or Paul’s own ministry. Jews demanded even misunderstood, we may take com- fort in our union and communion with Christ. When ministry is hard and feels “ joyless, when we cannot humanly see The articles within the the way ahead, when we feel like giving present ACR Journal are up and finding something easier to do aligned with this vision: – we may find deep comfort in Christ, to see Christ clearly who for the joy set before him, endured commended, and to see the cross and scorned its shame. We men and women take “ may rejoice as we follow in his footsteps comfort and rejoice in him. and participate in his suffering. The articles within the present ACR Journal are aligned with this vision: to signs, and Greeks sought wisdom, but see Christ clearly commended, and to Paul preached Christ crucified (1 Cor see men and women take comfort and 1:23-24). He did not proclaim himself rejoice in him. We truly wish to see the but Jesus Christ as Lord (2 Cor 4:5). name of Christ exalted and lifted high, In fact, Paul counted everything as a we deeply desire to see myriad men and loss because of the surpassing worth of women raised up for Christian ministry, knowing Christ (Phil 3:7-11). It is little and we earnestly desire to see countless wonder he summed up this stance in Australians converted. Why? Because the memorable words: “to live is Christ, we know the revolution which takes and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). place in the soul of a converted man or If that is living by faith for Paul (or at woman, and we believe that the essence least scratching the surface of it), what of the converted life is simply this: “not I, might we say about living by faith for but Christ.” Oh, that the Lord would rev- ourselves? Well, living by faith in Christ olutionise the souls of the Sauls in our Jesus impacts our vision for life and city of Sydney, that the name of Christ ministry in two major ways: commen- Jesus would be highly exalted in this dation of Christ and comfort in Christ. city, and that safety would be sought in On the one hand, we have a responsibil- the Suffering Servant! To these ends, we ity to commend Christ high above our- must fervently pray on. acr selves. In our preaching and teaching, in our marketing and promotion, in our 2 | WINTER 2020 3 | WINTER 2020 NOT I, BUT CHRIST The Issue Before Us The Rector Shortage It is time for us to have an honest look in the mirror. We have a serious problem ahead of us. The number of men, women and children who live within the parishes of our diocese is growing, but the number of rectors available to preach the gospel to those parishioners within our diocese is decreasing. To put it bluntly, there is a very serious problem concerning clergy supply in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. he ACR Journal has recognised this issue and for the last few years has at- Ttempted to underscore the importance of the ‘noble task’ of ordinary pastoral ministry. In the previous ACR Journal, we have raised the issue of ‘the recruitment problem’ in our diocese and the urgent task of raising up the next generation of men and women for the ministry of the gospel. Moreover, in the last six months we have reinitiated a research project (last conducted by the ACR in 2012) into the cler- gy supply shortage in our diocese.1 We plan to release some of our findings across the forthcoming issues of the ACR Journal, but the purpose of this article is to pres- ent some data concerning the present number of rectors within our diocese and provide some estimated projections concerning the future number of our rectors. Here are the numbers: 1. Vacant Parishes Of the 269 parishes within the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, there were 29 parishes without a rector and without arrangements and appointments in place to appoint an incumbent as of 14 October 2019.2 Since then some vacancies have been filled but many more parishes have become vacant, and estimates suggest that there may be as many as around 50 vacant parishes by the end of 2020. For the sake of our argument, and for consistency with other Year Book data, let us assume an optimistic figure of 29 is a reasonable estimate of vacant parishes by the end of 2020 (we shall return to this assumption later).