LONG ago, the Gideons learned to spread the gospel by putting millions of New Testaments in hotel rooms around the world. If Sydney’s Anglican archbishop, the Most Reverend Peter Jensen, gets his way, Sydney Anglicans will be handing out more than 1.5 million gospels in their neighbourhoods.
The costings are done ($1.8 million), the speech he will give to the diocesan synod today has been finalised: Connect 09 will become a reality if the synod approves the initiative tomorrow.
Annual synods, or parliaments, are a clearing house of diocesan business, usually accompanied by a grab-bag of motions covering concerns of the standing committee (executive), plus a few from individuals. It would be unlikely for Sydney to rebuff the archbishop’s latest Bible idea. But it remains to be decided which part of the New Testament will be chosen, which version, and the exact mix of books versus media such as CDs and MP3s.
“I favour Luke,” says Jensen. “It’s the longest, it contains some stories not in any other gospel, like the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, and to my mind it most powerfully tells the Jesus story.”
It also contains a version of the parable of the talents, the story Jesus told of servants being given money to manage while their master was away.
One hid it. Others, to their master’s great delight, invested and increased it.
Likewise, Jensen is keen on the creation of spiritual wealth. “I’m always thinking how best to communicate the good news of Christ to our generation,” he says.
Jensen is a man very comfortable in his theological skin, a man for whom the “Jesus story” is revealed first, last and always in the Bible. He is also very clear about the job in front of him. From the moment he took to the stage at the State Sports Centre in Sydney’s Homebush Bay in 2001, wearing sunglasses and rapping to Isaiah 53.6 in front of a crowd of 4000, he has fought for relevance.
A [i]very[/i] good idea. I wish them success in this outreach, and would like to see more bishops in the U.S. announce such a program.
Jim Elliott
“From the moment he took to the stage at the State Sports Centre in Sydney’s Homebush Bay in 2001, wearing sunglasses and rapping to Isaiah 53.6 in front of a crowd of 4000, he has fought for relevance.”
Does anyone know if there is clip of this anywhere online?
I concur completely with Jim Elliott. I wish that we were doing the very same here in the US. I would argue to hand out the entire Scripture, not simply portions of it.
It is always curious to me just how many (a lot) come to the Willow Creek Leadership Summit from Australia–many Anglicans among them.
Hmmmm…..
I’m with #3 — I think this is a great idea; my only caveat would be to suggest the whole Bible, not just parts of it. (More expensive, I know.)
I’ve been having a discussion with a couple of people in my church about the Sunday readings. As many churches do, we print the lessons in the bulletin so people can follow along… which means, of course, that everyone reads along, so when you look out at the congregation all you see are the tops of people’s heads because they all have their noses buried in the bulletin; and when the lay reader or deacon gets to a certain point you can hear a massive rustle of paper as everyone turns the page at the same time.
I’ve been suggesting that Scripture in the context of a church service is meant to be heard, not read, and so I would like to see us stop printing the lessons in the bulletin at all. But, goes the counterargument, some people have trouble hearing and need something to read along with.
So, says I, what if we were to put Bibles in the pews? A shocking idea for Episcopalians, I know; but it would give the people who really needed it something to read along with — and hey, they’d even get to see when the lectionary skips bits in the middle of a passage, which as you know it does from time to time.
I haven’t swayed them yet, but I plan to keep plugging at it 🙂
Actually, Ross, I have been to Episcopal Churches where they have pew Bibles. Most of the time they go unused, but often, (especially when the bulletin notes the page “The Epistle reading today is from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, and can be found on page ____ of the pew Bible”) they do get use.