Friday 23 October 2009

Eternity: a free Christian newspaper

Some guys here in Sydney decided to create a new independent Christian newspaper, and they've just launched the first issue. It's called Eternity, and it looks very promising. This first issue includes articles on theology, Twitter, church planting, mission, music, books, film, and more. Greg Clarke writes about music, Michael Jensen writes about Calvin's 500th birthday, while Jim Wallace and Angus McLeay debate the question, "Does Australia need a charter of rights?" The paper even includes, with due acknowledgment, Oliver Crisp's painting of the young Calvin. (Which reminds me: I've seen that painting used all over the place, on blogs and websites, without any kind of permission or acknowledgment. For shame.)

The whole paper has a nice contemporary, ecumenical flavour, and it's a great deal more interesting and informative than most of those Australian denominational rags (with their parochial content and retirement-village style).

If you'd like free copies of the paper to be delivered to your church, you can sign up online. And some of us might also like to consider writing something for the paper – the Sydney Anglicans have been very keen contributors to this first issue, but the paper is keen to represent the whole gamut of Australian church life. And the fact that it's also interested in publishing theological content is a very welcome sign!

11 Comments:

Erin said...

Very cool. We already have our own Christian News Channel here in the US.
It's called Fox news.

Brad East said...

The logo looks like a major league baseball team.

Sally D said...

Fox news?? Is that a news channel?

Anyway, this looks like a fascinating project, I'll hope to see the newspaper later in the year when we visit Sydney. How I'd love to be able to read 'Christian' news that's not dumbed-down and aimed at the happy clappy market.

The name doesn't work for me though - quite dreadful. Sounds like a funeral service.

Pastor Dan said...

It looks like you have a great site here. I will be checking back often. I think you would enjoy my website so please check it out.

Once again, Great website, and great writing.

God Bless,
Pastor Dan

Fat said...

Perhaps non Aussie readers may like an explanation of the 'Eternity' word as written.

This one is excellent:
http://www.wesleymission.org.au/publications/eternity/eternity.htm

John Hartley said...

Dear Ben,

Interesting title which neatly encapsulates the inherent contradiction in the phrase "Christian Newspaper" - namely that the Christian faith is news and the news is eternal and unchanging, whereas the essence of a Newspaper is that things have moved on today, and yesterday's news is today's fish-and-chip wrapper.

Do tell us: do they have titles like "Eternity 25th October 2009"? In what sense could 25th October be Eternity?

Another question is "Does eternity really have a nice contemporary ecumenical flavour?"

On the other hand, if you really wanted to meet the young Calvin, I suppose eternity is the place to do it!

Yours in Christ - JOHN HARTLEY.

byron smith said...

Looks very interesting and they have certainly managed to get an excellent opening level circulation (the website has a very useful little map to check whether your church has already ordered copies, which also happens to show off just how many churches have signed up).

My only concern from both the title, the two main founders, and the sample articles available online is that it seems very Sydney-centric.

Bobby Grow said...

Ben,

your little aside on 'Young Calvin' got to me (although I have given credit to Oliver in my first usage of the image); I have permission, and acknowledgement has been made at the blog :-). Thanks Holy Spirit! ;-)

Ben Myers said...

Hey Bobby. I wasn't directly thinking of your blog — but in any case, I'm glad to hear you've mended your ways! ;-)

Bobby Grow said...

No, that's fine; I should've done that in the first place, so thank you for the prodding! And Oliver is a very nice and gracious guy; so it was worth it, if for anything I made a little contact with Crisp.

Thanks Ben :-)!

P.S. shameless plug: I just posted something, at another blog of mine, guest posted by Myk Habets; it's on Torrance's Natural Theology through Calvin and Barth (just click on my name here to visit the site).

michael jensen said...

I am just working on my piece for the next edition:

Is God Laughing?

Post a Comment

Archive

Contact us

Although we're not always able to reply, please feel free to email the authors of this blog.

Faith and Theology © 2008. Template by Dicas Blogger.

TOPO