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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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June 2005 |
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Fresh expressions of Church'Fantastic!" 'Thank you!' for a new look Tasmanian Anglican and a marvellous celebration at the Gathering at which to launch it. What a fabulous coming together of the stars, and by that I mean God's people and in particular God's Anglican stars. Bishop John explains. The Gathering is a celebration: a celebration of the Anglican family coming together from all over Tasmania to meet at Launceston. It is a celebration of all that God is doing in and through his Anglican children. This Gathering received reports from all parishes, agencies and organisations about the ways in which they are seeking to be more and more a healthy church transforming life. The Gathering also forms part of this year's Synod - now, how many synods throw a party half way through to celebrate our Anglican life and ministry. This is a synod with a difference! The Gathering injects inspiration from the ideas and industry of risk-taking Anglicans, challenge from the speakers and performance artist, learning from stories of prayerful activists, encouragement in our fellowship and nurtured by Word and Holy Communion as we are sent forth to take initiatives in mission. What joy! What inspiration! What a blessing! As a missionary diocese we continue to create fresh expressions of church. Our Tasmanian Anglican magazine also seeks to express its ministry role in fresh ways. The Editorial Team have worked hard to achieve this and value your feedback to further improve their ministry. The health of a community is often measured by the way it cares for the less well off and also by its level of creativity. In a similar way to our State's health system, we need to continually monitor and devote resources to strategically important areas of our health. One way of dealing with ill-health is remedial. Here intervention is required to right some things that have gone wrong. Another way is preventative and requires discipline in healthy lifestyle and sometimes taking risks in changing certain aspects of our lifestyle so as to improve health in the long term. The risk-taking involved with changing a well loved 'friend' such as the Tasmanian Anglican is high. But a healthy church is a creative church. Fresh expressions of our life and ministry will burst forth to surprise and bless us. From Sunday to Saturday every Christian faces significant challenges in living for Christ. My hope is that diverse areas of our missionary discipleship will be explored in the pages of the Tasmanian Anglican. Take the opportunity to give a copy to a friend. The Editorial Team is keen to receive their comments as well as yours. Please pass them on. I am delighted to launch this fresh expression of a healthy church transforming life at The Gathering 2005. May the Holy Spirit bless our work in God's world through it. And the people said, "Amen!" Shalom Prayer for transforminglifeTransforming God, Use us to bring transforming life to our Christian
communities and all Tasmanians, |
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