Beecroft Presbyterian Church in Beecroft | Community organisation

Beecroft Presbyterian Church

Locality: Beecroft

Phone: +61 2 9876 2478

Address: 1a Mary St 2119 Beecroft, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.beecroftpresbyterian.org.au

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15.01.2022 Here is the latest news from the Australian Presbyterian World Mission, taken from the NSW Pulse magazine. http://www.apwm.org.au///APWM-Pulse-News-December-2020.pdf

11.01.2022 Josh Lum Mow, Andrew Sylvester and Rob Falls have been licensed by Sydney North Presbytery to preach the Gospel.

09.01.2022 On Friday 4 Dec, the following call to prayer and action from our NSW State Moderator, Andrew Campbell, was sent out to all NSW Presbyterian churches, via the P...res E-News service. *** I’m writing to you as the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales to inform you, and call you to prayer and action, about some developments in Victoria. The NSW Church would not usually address events in another state, but these developments in Victoria have significant implications for all Australians. The Victorian state government has introduced a bill to the parliament which seeks to denounce and prohibit practices which change or suppress an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. This bill is intended to protect people who identify as LGBT+. The problem is: the bill’s definitions and prohibitions are so broad, it potentially criminalises traditional Christian beliefs and behaviours. The objects of this bill are, amongst other things: to ensure that all LGBT+ people are able to live authentically and with pride (1.1.3(1)(c)); to denounce and give statutory recognition to the serious harm caused by change or suppression practices (1.1.3(2)(a)); to affirm that a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity is not broken and in need of fixing (1.1.3(2)(b)); to further affirm that no sexual orientation or gender identity constitutes a disorder, disease, illness, deficiency or shortcoming (1.1.3(2)(c)); and to denounce change or suppression practices i.e. activities which assert the above as deceptive and harmful both to the person subject to the change or suppression practices and to the community as a whole (1.1.3(2)(d)). The bill therefore seems to intend to criminalise any assertion that human sexuality has an objective order. But all five major world religions, indeed most of human civilisation, has believed that human sexuality possesses an objective order, and that contradicting that order is deceptive therefore dangerous to individuals, families, and society as a whole. Which is exactly the opposite to what this bill asserts. What’s more, the definition of change or suppression practice includes informal practices, such as conversations with a community leader (1.1.5(1)) and religious practices such as prayer (1.1.5(3)). Traditional Christian sexual morality limits sexual expression to monogamous heterosexual marriage. Such teaching can be understood as asserting that LGBT+ sexuality is deficient or broken and in need of fixing, and thereby denying LGBT+ people’s right to live authentically and with pride. This bill potentially criminalises traditional Christian beliefs and ministry practices. LGBT+ activists often speak about authenticity and pride, and often accuse traditional religion as harming them. They’re welcome to do that. It’s an application of free speech. And under conditions of free speech, traditional religious people are permitted to talk back. We’re allowed to defend ourselves from those accusations of harm, and to invite all people, including LGBT+ people, to find the good life not in sexuality but in Jesus Christ. But by being an instrument of law, this bill takes away the right to talk back. To be more precise: it makes assertions of sexual order not free, but costly. ‘Talking back’ against accusations of harm would, under this bill, have the immense financial and emotional cost of taking on the might of the government. This threat of formal, legal punishment would intimidate people to self-censor. And that amounts to a stifling, in practice, of free speech. This is why this bill is dangerous. And not just for Christians, or for religious people in general. This bill wrecks the social environment which has historically underpinned what we take for granted as a free, open, tolerant society. This bill has been introduced in Victoria. But section 8 gives it extra-territorial application. If this bill becomes law, a Victorian LGBT+ person could hear or read traditional Christian teaching produced from NSW, deem it harmful, and seek to punish the NSW resident for harming them. One way of minimising the censorious effects of this bill would be to have a national legislation which protects religious freedoms. Last year the federal attorney-general Christian Porter proposed such legislation. We need to appeal to the federal parliament to pass it into law. This Victorian bill, if enacted, would set a precedent which could motivate other states to enact similar censorious legislation. Mark Latham has introduced a religious freedom bill into the NSW parliament. We need to urge NSW parliament to demonstrate that NSW is a free and tolerant society by enacting the Latham bill into law. I therefore urge you to: 1. Pray for Victoria for the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, and for its Church and Nation committee; for Victorian Christians; and for the state of Victoria in general. Pray for courage to speak, wisdom to speak clearly and winsomely, and grace to speak with kindness and gentleness. 2. Pray for the Victorian state parliament that they would renounce or at least amend this bill. 3. Contact your federal member of parliament and urge them to strengthen the Christian Porter religious freedom bill so that it overrides the censorious effects of legislation like the Victorian bill. Urge them to enact that bill into law. Encourage them that enhanced legal protection of good-faith religious activities will improve Australia’s credibility as a free, inclusive, and tolerant society in a fractured, combative world. 4. Contact your state member of the NSW parliament and urge them to pass the Mark Latham religious freedom bill. Again, encourage them that such protection will enhance NSW’s standing as a free, inclusive, and tolerant society. Feel free to work some of our above observations into your communications with government. There’s a list of additional resources at the bottom of this communique. This is an opportunity for us to discharge both the secular privilege of being a citizen of a democracy, and Christ’s commands to love our neighbour and honour the government. With blessings in Christ, Andrew Campbell, PCNSW Moderator, 2020-21 Additional resources: * The website of the Church and Nation committee of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria: https://www.churchandnation.org/ * Murray Campbell, ‘A Day of Reckoning’: https://murraycampbell.net/.../a-day-of-reckoning.../ * Freedom For Faith, ‘Labor Government in Victoria Makes Prayer A Criminal Offence’: https://freedomforfaith.org.au/.../labor-government-in.../ * Assoc Prof Neil Foster, ‘Victorian Conversion Practices Prohibition introduced’: https://lawandreligionaustralia.blog/.../victorian.../ *** This communique has been developed in consultation with the Gospel, Society, and Culture Committee of the Presbyterian Church NSW.