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Was reading my friend Richard’s blog yesterday and came accross this great insightful post.
Here is a short excerpt:
There seems to be an interesting image in this verse about the relationship between the creation and injustice. One can’t help but imagine the earth’s revulsion as it ‘opens its mouth to receive Cain’s brother’s blood from his hand’
I encourage you to read it here:
Ashfield Presbyterian Church
I am a Presbyterian.
If you didn’t know that then you should hang out with me more often.
Anyway this Sunday evening following the evening service at Ashfield Presbyterian Church we will be having a question time on ‘what is Presbyterianism?’. It’s a fair question, and it raises a whole bunch of other questions with it! Why do we even have denominations? Are denominations good, bad or neither? Does it really matter what denomination I go to anyway? I go to a Presbyterian church but that doesn’t necessarily make me a Presbyterian… does it?
Well if any of this interests you and you are free tomorrow night then you should definitely come along. Tim Smartt will be facilitating the question time and Dr Ian Smith from the Presbyterian Theological Centre will be answering the questions.
There will also be a delicious supper served with baked goods and far trade tea and coffee!
Hopefully I will see some of you there!
I am currently reading Lance Armstrong’s biography called: It’s not about the bike”. It is truly an excellent read. It focuses primarily on his experience being diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer and going through chemotherapy and then remission. As I was reading about the night before he was scheduled to have brain surgery section I came across this short statement of belief. I thought that I would share it with you because I think it encapsulates in these few sentences the religion of our modern secular time.
Lance Armstrong winning his record 7th Tour de France in a row.
The night before brain surgery, I thought about death… I asked myself what I believed. I had never prayed a lot. I hoped hard, I wished hard, but I didn’t pray. I had developed a certain distrust of organised religion growing up, but I felt I had the capacity to be a spiritual person, and to hold some fervent beliefs. Quite simply, I believed I had a responsibility to be a good person, and that meant fair, honest, hardworking and honourable. If I did that, if I was good to my family, true to my friends, if I gave back to my community or to some cause, if I wasn’t a liar, a cheat, or a thief, then I believed that should be enough. At the end of the day, if there was indeed some Body or presence standing there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed a certain book, or whether I’d been baptised. If there was indeed a God at the end of my days, I hoped he didn’t say: “But you were never a Christian, so you’re going the other way from heaven.” If so, I was going to reply, “You know what? You’re right. Fine”*
What an accurate portrayl of what most Western people believe. I think if you went out into the streets of Sydney and asked people what they believed you would get exactly the same answer – (maybe worded a little differently)
We live in a society that holds onto two fundamental beliefs!
1/ Organised religion is of no importance (in fact it’s probably dangerous and suspect), only being good and doing good is important! I had developed a certain distrust of organised religion growing up…Quite simply, I believed I had a responsibility to be a good person, and that meant fair, honest, hardworking and honourable. If I did that… then I believed that should be enough. This point speaks for itself – although I will say that it is sad that society distrusts organised religion (the Chruch) but believes in doing good, as if those two things are incompatible.
2/ We have a right to be judged on what we think is important – not on what other people think is important. I hoped I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed a certain book, or whether I’d been baptised. It is no secret that people create their own gods – instead of grounding (or what may be seen as limiting?) their idea of God in a book – they mould him/her to what they believe to be good and right. Humanity constantly turns the Christian God into an idol to fit with their own beliefs – Calvin was right when he called us all a master craftsmen of idols.
*Go read the book for yourself. “It’s Not about the Bike: Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins” (2002) page 119
The NSW Presbyterian State assembly is having their annual meeting this week here in Sydney. There will be a new moderator for the year and new ruling elders and teaching elders introduced. But to be honest not much is known about Presbyterian Church governance, not even by Presbyterians let alone our friends in other denominations!
I thought that I would try and give an easy to understand explanation of Presbyterian Church governance – the greener pastures of Calvinistic Reformed Presbyterian Ecclesiology!
The first thing that needs to be said is that Presbyterianism is mainly about elders (Presbyterian comes from the Greek work for elder – πρεσβύτερος).
As the early church grew the model for church leadership was to appoint a group of elders or overseers who would govern the church and share the authority (Acts 15 & 20, Titus 1, 1 Tim 3 + inferences from Phil 1, 2 John 1 & 3 John 1).
Acts 15: The council of Jerusalem where elders met to discuss circumcision. James (in the beard) is moderating! Find it at bricktestament.com helpfully titled "The Great Penis Debate"
There were elders and overseers (from where we get bishop) but it was essentially the same role – Dudes like Jerome (347-420) and Chrysostom (349-407) acknowledge this, in his commentary on Titus Jerome says: “Elder is identical with bishop, and before parties multiplied under diabolical influence, Churches were governed by a council of elders“. The church then moved to adopt a church governing system that can be very loosely described as local priest answers to bishop answers to Cardinal answers to Pope (who has the final word on all matters of faith and practice). Putting authority into the hands of individuals as opposed to a group of elders. Then, after the reformation John Calvin re-implemented governance of churches by elders in Geneva in 1541. The Presbyterian church has followed this model since.
Session of Madison Street Presbyterian Church back in the day... I like the guy in the back with the comb-over holding a bible. P.s. was Charlie Chaplain a Presbyterian elder?
At your local level (St Bloggs Presbyterian Church) a group of elders are appointed to govern over the church, these are called ruling elders. They make decisions as a group and each person has the same vote as the other elders. These meetings are called session and when the session meets there is someone who is appointed as the moderator, simply to moderate the discussions. The moderator is usually the teaching elder (pastor/minister), that is someone who has been ordained by the church and appointed to be the minister. The teaching elder does the majority of the preaching and in Australia the Lord’s Supper and Baptism can only be administered by a teaching elder.
Now, in each geographical area teaching elders and ruling elders meet regularly and form what is called Presbytery. The session of a local church (e.g. St Bloggs Presbyterian Church) is answerable to the Presbytery of which they are a part. Each elder has the same authority as the other elders, and each meeting there is someone who is the moderator, who moderates the discussion.
In Australia elders from each presbytery meet once a year for State Assembly. State Assembly is usually a week of meetings where theological and practical issues affecting the church are discussed. Each church can send a teaching elder and a ruling elder to the assembly, plus there are also people who serve in the denomination who aren’t representing a specific church/presbytery but who still go to assembly (e.g. theological lecturers, school chaplains etc). Each Presbytery is answerable to the State Assembly in which they are a part. Each State Assembly a Moderator is chosen, he (you guessed it) moderates the meeting that year, he also acts as the person who speaks at assemblies and cuts ribbons etc for that year. The moderator changes each year. This is to stop people thinking that authority lies in an individual as opposed to the shared authority of the assembly. The State Assembly answers to the authority of the General Assembly
Decisions are made through voting, this keeps the decision making in a group of hands as opposed to an individual's hand
Once every three years representative elders from all over the country meet at the nation wide General Assembly. At each General Assembly there is appointed a General Moderator who moderates the discussion at Assembly. The General Moderator also does a fair bit of ribbon cutting and preaching at churches to encourage christians and teaching elders around the country. The General Moderator is only in this position until the next General Assembly.
Now, understanding all this, if there is an issue in a local congregation that requires church discipline, it goes to Session. If it is not resolved at session then it goes to Presbytery, if its not solved at presbytry it goes to State Assembly and if it is not solved at state assembly then it goes to General Assembly, where a final decision will be made.
But at every stage authority is always corporate and never individual!
There you have it, a rough and patchy guide to the basics of Presbyterian Church governance.
Last Friday was John Calvin’s 500th birthday! We celebrated it here by posting some of his most memorable quotes, however my family – a group of hard core Presbyterians (and my brothers in law) threw a big birthday bash for J C’s big 500. There were balloons, tulips, posters that were stuck up around the house, my dad broke out into spontaneous Calvin themed quizzes and of course a cake (but we couldn’t find 500 candles… and candles are a bit too Romish anyway)
It was such a fun party that I made sure to take some photos to show you that Presbyterians really know how to have fun!
- What would a party be without balloons? Although they may be a bit too ‘colourful’ for Calvin’s liking!
The Rev. Dr. Ian Smith with Tulips and a copy of the Institutes... he is in his happy place right now
Point beards are so hot right now! That is so true!
Ryan giving his best Calvin impersonation while hugging a copy of the institutes. Ryan, grow a beard!
Calvin is the Funk. Nothing new here
My brother in law Dave foolishly stated: "John Calvin, is he that anglican guy?" needless to say he lost major points with the father in law as you can see... and yes this is a posed photo!
We played Trivial Pursuit, boys vs girls and the boys won - We also had calvin playing in our team... caus he is a boy.
500 and still looking good - Calvin is my homeboy. Interesting fact: George Whitfield had this exact picture and statement printed on his favourite t-shirt!We went pretty hard core with the posters! Totally worth it
Everyone loves celebrating a birthday! Cake, balloons and freinds! Everyone is also a little bit unique in how they celebrate their birthday. My litle sister Bronwyn(aka the Monster Bronster raar) for example had a ‘monster’ themed party a few weeks ago to celebrate her 21st.
Well today John Calvin hits the big 500. Its a pretty important birthday to celebrate and people all over the world will be celebrating it through theological conferences, growing their beards and releasing their urges to destroy stained glass windows! My family for example are celebrating it by having a special “family fun time” tonight! But I thought that we could celebrate it in our own modest way by looking at some of his best short quotes! Not as good as reading the Insititutes of course, but still good. Enjoy.
“Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”
“Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of his fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil. It is the Heavenly Father’s will thus to exercise them so as to put his own children to a definite test. Beginning with Christ, his first-born, he follows this plan with all his children.”
“God tolerates even our stammering, and pardons our ignorance whenever something inadvertently escapes us — as, indeed, without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray.”
“All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors.”
“I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels.”
“It would be the height of absurdity to label ignorance tempered by humility “faith”; for faith consists in the knowledge of God and Christ, not in reverence for the Church.”
“Every one of us is, even from his mother’s womb, a master craftsman of idols.”
“There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.”
Do you have a favourite one? Any ones that I missed and should have included?
