Comments for News

Comment on KJ’s big ride by Kirsten

Kirsten — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:36:10 +0000

Woo hoo! Go Kevin.

Comment on My generation is better than your generation by Jackie

Jackie — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 09:28:00 +0000

I was born in 1959, and I wouldn’t want to be growing up at any other time. I enjoyed my childhood—the memories of my life then remind me now how lucky I was. We didn’t have the technology we have today, but we also didn’t have the pressure or the stress. We lived simply. We were taught to respect our elders. We understood the consequences for behaviours. We had our parents at home after school and time on the weekends to enjoy being a family. Dinner was a time to talk about our day, to ask questions and, of course, to eat a home-cooked meal together, not a rushed takeaway in front of the TV. There’s no way I’d want to change when I grew up.

Comment on Chapter earns activism citation by Cameron Fletcher

Cameron Fletcher — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:12:51 +0000

Good to hear, Brad. I have added the book to my future reading list.

Comment on Undergrads think big by Stephen Kilgour

Stephen Kilgour — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:27:19 +0000

My main point in the soapbox session: Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church needs to connect more with the students at Avondale. The church should be student- rather than Cooranbong community-centred. This would create a greater sense of spiritual community within Avondale, enabling the cultivation of social and spiritual relationships between staff members and students. The benefits would be enormous.

Comment on Return to Atoifi by Laura Ropiti

Laura Ropiti — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:24:32 +0000

I’ve just read about the return trip Sonja and the other nursing staff members and students made to Atoifi. It’s great to know Avondale and Atoifi have a strong link with each other.

Comment on Not an equal by James Gale

James Gale — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:20:23 +0000

Should we as a church be more concerned with what the Bible teaches on this subject than whether it is a popular or a politically correct position? What does the Bible teach on this subject? Was Paul merely giving his personal opinion, or was it his prejudices that were talking? In 1 Corinthians 14:37, Paul says he wrote the commandments of the Lord, not his own ideas, and he says anyone who is inspired by God will acknowledge Paul’s instructions as coming from the Lord.

Comment on Not an equal by Peter Connolly

Peter Connolly — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:11:59 +0000

The role of ministry is to act in Christ’s stead and it is written that He emptied Himself, erased any claim or title to divinity or humanity—forsook any desire for reputation or equality—that He might be our example in everything. Everything includes everything, even this issue.

Ordained? Commissioned? The gospel isn’t about words but power. Only when power is lacking do words assume importance.

Comment on Not an equal by LM

LM — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:33:33 +0000

Thank you, Bruce, for seeing the value in championing the role of women in our church, but more importantly, for acting on it.

Comment on Not an equal by David Edgar

David Edgar — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 02:35:28 +0000

A spiritual leader is anointed by God’s Spirit, not necessarily human status. In my early years, it mattered not if I was ordained. My work was and is to show humanity God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, not to quibble over inconsistencies or inequalities in the male versus female debate. Things are not always fair or just in this world—that’s why we hope for another. Sadly, I saw Dr Bruce Manners’s action as a prank destined to fail. Personally, I have no opposition to female ordination, but when the church has spoken, God has acted. A spiritual leader’s job is to reveal Christ as Saviour to those lost, not to waste time on nebulous matters or arguments from silence.

Comment on Not an equal by Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:48:12 +0000

I am a Roman Catholic but a chance encounter with a Seventh-day Adventist college student left me with an abiding interest in the history of your denomination.

I have studied the trajectory of Adventism in the United States from the Barnhouse-Martin dialogues of the 1950s through the Rea-Ford affair of the 1980s. Murdoch, who taught in Australia, was Ford’s teacher and was also one of Martin’s interlocutors. (I even attended a church pastored by a Cottrell.)

My simple explanation is the Seventh-day Adventist Church wants to be considered as a denomination not a sect such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Mormons. However, the church still wants every member to believe everything Ellen White wrote. It’s a paradox.

My view: accept 1844, the investigative judgment, the heavenly sanctuary and the Spirit of Prophecy, or start your own sabbatarian church. The same applies to this paradox—a patriarchal hierarchy in a church that demands unyielding loyalty to a woman as the chief, indeed the only, interpreter of Scripture. I think you live with it or leave.