David Cook’s latest column for the Presbyterian Church of Australia relates some of “the personal history of Rev Denis Shelton, repeated here as a reminder, encouragement and a warning.”
Denis was a minister in the Presbyterian Church of Australia during the 1960s who ran afoul of the (then) theologically liberal mainstream.
His crime:
After training he was appointed to Warren in Western NSW where he was ordained. He immediately had problems. The local Presbytery insisted that all parishes use only the Joint Board of Christian Education Sunday School material which denied the truth of the Bible, the deity of Jesus Christ and the bodily resurrection. The material consisted of ethical exhortation without any spiritual power.
Denis refused to use it, using rather the Aboriginal Inland Mission and David C Cook materials. The Presbytery warned him that he could be charged with contumacy if he did not obey the Presbytery’s directive…
Never believe liberalism is tolerant and inclusive.
Read the whole post here.
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