06 December
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On
In Church History

THE STORY OF RAMABAI – FOUNDER OF MUKTI MISSION Rowland S. Ward, 2001 updated 2016   Rowland Ward has been on the Australian Mukti Council since 1999, and Chairman since 2002. If you would like to sponsor a child or otherwise support the work Ramabai began, contact Mukti Australia Inc, 5 Court Street, Box Hill, Victoria 3124 [email: admin@mukti.org.au]   A bit of Hindu background Hinduism, the religion of India, includes a family of religious beliefs dating back 5000 years to a time of simple animal sacrifice. At first the emphasis was on God ‘the heavenly one’ or supreme ruler. However, over time the religionRead More →

29 July
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On
In Current Issues

All films change the facts. Cromwell (1970), Chariots of Fire (1981) and Ghandi (1982) all do this in various ways, some worse than others. The problem today is that there is such historical illiteracy that many people presumably think the film is the reality. King Arthur has more written about him than just about any ruler of Britain and yet we really know next to nothing about him, or even if he ever existed. The current film King Arthur (2004) is introduced by a note that recent archaeological research has shed light on Arthur’s true identity. That is at best misleading. The film in factRead More →

15 April
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On
In Current Issues

God created a good world free of moral evil but yet with dangers and the possibility things could go wrong, as the entry of sin shows. As God’s representatives and image-bearers in this world humans were to fill the earth and subdue it. Through our first parents’ disobedience humanity is estranged from God, and all kinds of misery follows, including death itself and the ultimate consequence of disobedience in eternal separation from God. Yet God remains good, and judgment is his strange work (Isaiah 28:21). The account of Noah’s Flood does not focus attention on those who perished, as our newspapers do when recording modernRead More →

15 April
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On
In Current Issues, History and Doctrine of Worship

Historically the Christian faith as understood by Presbyterians has experienced tension between the three aspects of correct doctrine, personal piety and social engagement. All these aspects are necessary to a well-rounded Christian faith. They were well represented in James Forbes (1813-51), the first Christian minister settled in that capacity in Melbourne. He served the Scots’ Church and then founded the Free Presbyterian body in 1846. On the one hand he held definitely to the Confession of Faith and thought deviation from strict adherence would come back to haunt the church, but he also maintained a personal devotion and piety that included special gatherings for prayerRead More →

27 January
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On
In Theology

Dr Rowland Ward is minister of Knox Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia, Melbourne  This is his address as Moderator of Synod 1996.   I suppose there might be the thought in the minds of some that the subject of the Trinity is hardly the one that is suitable to our present need. It might be regarded as of absolutely no practical value.1 Or another might say, “This is ‘high’ doctrine, difficult for even the best minds. Is not a rousing call to faithfulness and service the need of the hour?” But faithfulness to whom? and service for what end? As ministers and elders we areRead More →

27 January
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On
In Current Issues

EXTRACT FROM A STUDY PANEL REPORT TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, MAY 2012 The full report which also deals with Marriage & Divorce can be found on www.freechurch.org 3.1.1 “Same sex marriage” Sex researcher Dr Alfred C. Kinsey published research on the sexual behaviour of men and women in the 1940s and 1950s which claimed that 10% of males were more or less exclusively homosexual and around 5% of women. However, this has been extensively challenged in recent years. This is summarised by Peter Saunders and Rachael Pickering thus: “For decades, researchers adopted Kinsey’s reported figure of 10% for theRead More →

26 March
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On
In History and Doctrine of Worship

From The Presbyterian Banner, December 2010 plus Appendix March 2011 and important Supplement August 2013 I confess very happily that I am an inclusive Presbyterian: I’ve very ready, despite my own prejudices, to live in the same church with office-bearers who have different viewpoints on many issues that are not decided by our Confession of Faith.  I’m also very happy to have close fellowship with churches like the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in the USA that do not have the same form of worship as ourselves, but do cling loyally to the Reformed Faith. Still, I’m very sorry to see that the Free Church of ScotlandRead More →

20 January
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On
In History and Doctrine of Worship

Knox PCEA uses The Complete Book of Psalms for Singing with Study Notes [1991, second printing 1994; 368 pages, full music, hardbound.] ‘This is beyond doubt quite the finest English language Psalter I have ever seen. The language is both majestic and modern; the words are Scriptural and simple; the tunes are nearly all very well known. This book merits a very wide circulation in the interests of true ecumenism.’ – Rev Dr F.Nigel Lee, Brisbane which can be obtained from the church. From time to time additional fresh translations will be added here. Readers are invited to submit suggestions to: rowland.ward@gmail.com   Psalm 116Read More →

18 October
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On
In Church History

Mutiny on the Bounty   The Pitcairn story by Rowland Ward who, with his wife, recently (August 2010) spent two weeks on Norfolk Island Probably most people have heard of the mutiny against William Bligh (1754-1817) which has featured in five films and numerous articles and books. Lieut. Bligh and his crew were on an expedition backed by Sir Joseph Banks to collect breadfruit plants in Tahiti and take them to the West Indies where it was thought they would provide a cheap food source for the slaves. After several months in Tahiti the 26 metre long Bounty set sail with her 44 crew forRead More →

01 August
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On
In Eschatology (The Last Things)

The book of Daniel originated with the Hebrew prophet Daniel. He is the key figure throughout and so the manuscript belongs to about 536 BC. Some critics have wanted to place it around 160 BC because of their hesitancy about or even rejection of predictive prophecy. They think the events described in reference to the Greek empire are too precise to have been written beforehand. On the other hand, we know from the best of the Jewish books of the 2nd century BC that there was no true prophet among the Jews then (1 Maccabees 14), and the form of the Hebrew and Aramaic languageRead More →