Dublin and Peter Jensen

Yesterday was a great day! From just being up, and Bryan sitting outside in the car (cos he wasn't sure of where he was coming and so came early), David arriving late, and then the drive down, to arriving back in Dromore, it was a great day.

The first lecture, I must admit, went a wee bit over my head. It looked at TC Hammond, who left Ireland as a 67-year old to go to Australia to become Principal of Moore College, Sydney, and who did a marvellous work for God in his 'retirement' years. However, some of the lecture looked at his theology, and some of the disputes he was involved in and has been accused of since (for a sample, try insubordination, federal theology and Arian theology).

We then had lunch, all provided, sitting on a wall overlooking the Liffey in the glorious sunshine and trying to make sense of the morning!

The afternoon sessions were a bit better for me. The second session looked at 'Living in the Light of the Future' - which was on Christian Eschatology (the study of the end times). The basic summary was that Christians should be living in the light of the future, knowing, as we do, that we will be with Christ, that there is a judgement and a hell, and that humans need to be saved from hell. This knowledge, therefore affects what we do now, and challenges us to 'read the times' and address the unchanging gospel to a changing world racked by materialism and worldliness. This was very powerful, and was a summary of the book At the Heart of the Universe.

The last session was called 'The 10% Vision' and looked at the vision of Sydney Diocese to see 10% of the population of the diocesan area to be in a Bible-based church by 2010. This seems to be by focusing resources into encouraging more people to enter ministry (full/part time, lay/ordained/voluntary), with relevant teaching.

All in all, there was a lot to be thinking about, and no doubt as I process it, I'll have more to share...

But one final thing. Jensen is Archbishop of Sydney. I'm not sure too many other bishops would say the following thing: 'We should be evangelicals first, and anglicans second' - our primary focus is our witness to the faith, and our gospel focus. Our church comes second, and always should!