Anglicans Ablaze Australia Conference: insights and highlights
Reflections
“Rut and routine can easily infiltrate one’s ministry, and Bishop Ian Lambert’s message was a timely reminder that God is indeed supernatural, and we can put our faith in Him to save, heal and restore. Bishop Ian encouraged us to hand over the control of our churches to God. I was greatly blessed by this reminder that God is a supernatural God and that we can put our trust in Him with confidence,” says The Rev’d Steve Wockner on the recently held Anglicans Ablaze Australia Conference
The Anglicans Ablaze Australia Conference was held at The Parish of Bardon between 19 and 21 July. It was hosted by ARNA (Anglican Renewal Network of Australia) and the Anglican Communion’s SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad).
Leaders of both ARNA, Bishop Ian Lambert, and SOMA, The Rev’d Melinda McMahon were conference program key speakers, as well as Bishop Tim Harris, Rose Males and The Rev’d Mark McDonald.
The “elective” sessions were run by Bishop Tim and his wife, Fiona Harris; Lisa McDonald; Rose Males; and, Bishop Ian Lambert. The Rev’d Peter Jeffery from The Parish of Bardon kept the conference moving along well with his jovial compering. Bishop Tim preached at the Sunday service, which concluded the conference.
According to its website, “ARNA desires to see renewal in people from diverse backgrounds and ministry experiences through growth in intimacy with God by the Holy Spirit. We seek to champion renewal in the local Church through life-giving relationships.” According to the SOMA Australia website, SOMA “is a short-term mission agency that sends teams of missions with a prophetic mandate of caring for the nervous system of the body of Christ, particularly within the Anglican Church…Our desire is to build up the body of Christ to be the instrument of renewing and refreshing God’s kingdom for a time such as this.”
Both groups have a desire to see Holy Spirit renewal in the Anglican Church, hence the conference theme “Anglicans Ablaze”.
Bishop Ian opened the conference with a talk titled, “We Worship a Supernatural God.” One of his opening sentences was, “It is time to be taking back ground that has been lost to disbelief; a time to be impacting our Churches, communities and families with the love and power of our supernatural God.”
His opening sentence really struck me. When I was ministering in the Church in the last decade of last century, Holy Spirit renewal was ablaze across the Anglican, Lutheran, Roman Catholic and other Churches. However, when the new millennium came, it seemed to snuff out in some denominations. Many in these denominations have missed the focus on the Holy Spirit’s activity.
Rut and routine can easily infiltrate one’s ministry, and Bishop Ian Lambert’s message was a timely reminder that God is indeed supernatural, and we can put our faith in Him to save, heal and restore. Bishop Ian encouraged us to hand over the control of our churches to God. I was greatly blessed by this reminder that God is a supernatural God and that we can put our trust in Him with confidence.
The Rev’d Melinda McMahon gave a very different type of presentation in the third talk of the conference. It was called, “Being Led by the Spirit in the Local Church”, and she sought to engage the imaginations of her hearers. It is not an easy calling to lead an Anglican church into Holy Spirit renewal if that is what you feel God is calling you to do as a priest. After returning from Africa and feeling full of the Holy Spirit and faith, she reflected on what it means to lead an Anglican Church into renewal. She emerged with an image of the priest as tour guide, the church members as passengers and Jesus as the bus driver. As she spoke, I could recognise myself as the tour guide with ultimately the bus driver, Jesus, being in control and when we got to a stop, there were those who were excited to get out of the bus and explore and others, who just wanted to stay on board and look at new sights from behind the glass windows of the bus. We were all given a printed copy of the sermon, and I had mine photocopied and shared it with my parish. Hopefully, some parishioners will take something meaningful from it.
The highlight of the conference was the talk after lunch on Saturday by The Rev’d Mark McDonald from St Columb’s, Hawthorn. It was called, “Lingering in the Presence of God”. I was amazed how the spirit of this talk followed on from Bishop Ian’s talk. Bishop Ian had begun his talk with, “Seek the heart of God, not just the hand”, with The Rev’d Mark saying, “The revival that God wants to bring is not about the past — power, signs and wonders — but about His presence.”
Mark spoke a lot about the Asbury Revival among the young people today in Asbury, New Jersey. He said that the young people today don’t need a gospel of shame and guilt for they already feel it, but one of God’s presence and his love, grace and mercy. This is why the Asbury Revival is so popular among the younger generation.
Mark made the statement that God is doing away with celebrity pastors, celebrity bands and celebrity churches. He said that God doesn’t want “the guru” with all the gifts on stage being the centre of attention, and that God is going to take his Church back.
We often focus on things other than God in the Church, and so “experiencing” God can get lost in theology, music, liturgy and success. I think it’s time to focus again on God. For example, I was encouraged by this talk to allow times of silence in our worship services to focus on God’s presence and to even let people share what they thought God might have been saying to them. It has brought a wonderful sense of joy and freedom to my parish.
I would encourage Anglican clergy and laity to attend an Anglicans Ablaze Australia Conference. One of the great things about it is that it is Anglican. I have been to a number of Holy Spirit conferences in my time. But the problem is that many weren’t of my Church denomination and culture. Another good thing is that the emphasis on renewal is not about “the guru” out the front, as happens at some non-Anglican revival conferences, but about congregational renewal — which is our focus as Anglicans.
The Anglicans Ablaze Australia Conference is also just a great time to be fed, nurtured, refreshed and renewed individually in the Holy Spirit. I went away glad that with our Archbishop’s emphasis on comprehensive Anglican identity and purpose, that there is a place for us people who love Holy Spirit renewal in our Diocese, and though the Conference was small, it is just the beginning.
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