John Alchin's Page

"Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.
What does this mean? it means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ… Continue

"We have determined, therefore, that sacraments are truly named the testimonies of God's grace and seals of the good will that he feels toward us, which by attesting that good will to us, sustain, nourish, confirm and increase our faith." Institutes XIV, 7.

"If faith be increased through sacraments, they now add, the Holy Spirit was given in vain, whose power and work is to begin, sustain and consummate faith. I certainly admit to them that faith is the proper and entire work of the H… Continue

There remains a serious tendency towards reductionism in sacramental practice within Sydney Anglicanism.

The witness of many evangelical Anglicans of previous centuries was of encounter with the presence of Christ risen. That was, and should remain, at the core of the Eucharist. Over some time Zwingli's view of Holy Communion as a memorial has become dominant. A result of this has been that overall, Sydney Anglicans have become further apophatic in our Eucharistic theology. That is, we're likel… Continue

"To continue to think in the familiar terms is now folly. We are forced to do something that the Western churches have never had to do since the days of their own birth - to discover the form and substance of a missionary church in terms which are valid in a world which has rejected the power and the influence of the Western nations. Missions will no longer work along the streaming of expanding Western power. They have to learn to go against the stream. And in this situation we shall find tha… Continue

Graham Buxton in The Trinity, Creation and Pastoral Ministry: Imaging the Perichoretic God (2005, Paternoster), seeks to expose the perichoretic interconnectedness, in both the theological and scientific senses, between the nature of the Trinity, creation, pastoral care and ecclessial life.

Providing much of his th… Continue