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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
One hid it. Others, to their master’s great delight, invested and increased it.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n