For a short period the Northern Territory passed legislation to allow
Euthanasia but the Feds quickly shut them down. Now the issue is being revisited at a Federal level as
the result of Green political pressure. Sadly
recent Australian polling shows a majority (although an uneven majority) of the population want the N.T. ban overturned. Although as Bp John
points out an ad promoting euthanasia was
not permitted to air. This means while euthanasia isn't mainstream yet, it's not far off. Quite apart from the arrogance of complete self-independence, making euthanasia palatable will only weaken the desire to support and fund quality palliative care.
John Piper (profiled here on the
evangel blog) is coming to Australia and speaking at a number of
conferences in Sydney. Notably he's speaking at the Oxygen 11: national pastors' conference in August 2011. Both he and Driscoll (who
visited in 2008) are representative of a recent movement entitled by some as the new Calvinists, however his style is and his visit will be quite unlike Driscoll's.
At General Synod the issue came up (#ozsynod) of whether or not bishops should sit in tribunals examining other bishops. No doubt the upcoming tribunal of
Bp Ross Davies of the
Diocese of the Murray, prompted this discussion. However he resigned the day before he was to face a tribunal hearing in Adelaide. The
Sydney Morning Herald makes a number of speculations about why he was facing the tribunal, and the
Adelaide Advertiser implies he'd mishandled Diocesan authority. Interestingly he received a $150,000 payment, which is good if he was wronged but strange if he was the one in the wrong.
[Beach picture © unknown, John Piper © 2010 Evangel Blog, Bp Hat and Mitre © 2010 ABC News ]
