We Are Anglicans Who Stand Firm On The Final Authority Of Scripture
Therefore St John’s Tamworth Affirms:
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A belief in the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; three distinct Persons co-equal in glory and co-eternal in majesty and of one substantial Godhead, such that there are not three gods but one God.
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A belief in the Holy Scriptures as divine revelation, inerrantly inspired by God, carrying the full measure of his authority, containing all things necessary to salvation, and to be submitted to in all matters of faith and practice of life.
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A belief in the One Saviour of mankind — Jesus Christ — who in his person is both fully God and fully man; of one substance with the Father in regard to his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us in regard to his manhood.
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A belief in the perfect obedience of Christ, his true and actual suffering, his substitutionary and atoning death on the cross, and his bodily resurrection and ascension as the only means given for our salvation and reconciliation with God.
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A belief in faith alone as the only grounds for which the merits of Christ are imputed to us for our justification before God — we are righteous by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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A belief that God’s Holy Spirit is given to all believers at conversion that they might be convicted of their sinful nature and need for Christ as saviour — God’s Spirit dwells within the Christian to cause ongoing repentance, increasing holiness, and the ability to live a life that please God.
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A belief in the return of Jesus Christ who will come in glory to judge the living and the dead — with a bodily resurrection from the dead of all people to either eternal damnation or everlasting blessedness.
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A belief in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church as those souls that have been redeemed entirely by the work of Christ — as members of Christ’s body they have been called out of slavery into freedom, out of darkness into light, out of error into truth, and out of death into eternal life.
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A belief that the visible church exists to worship the Triune God and to lift up the Saviour Jesus Christ before all people — that we might learn to share the gospel with our neighbours, saturate ourselves in the word of God, and faithfully take part in the life of the church, particularly in our celebration of the sacraments of Baptism and Communion.
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A belief in the historic creeds of the Church as accurate representations of the essence of the Christian faith, and in the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church as a coherent and concise expression of Anglican doctrine. We also hold to The Jerusalem Declaration as a statement of contemporary orthodox Anglicanism.
Leadership
Ministry At St John’s Tamworth
Ministry ought not to rest on the shoulders of one person alone. We each have a purpose to work out as a part of Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). Therefore each of us should have a place to belong and serve at St John’s.
Whilst each of us has a place in the life of the Church, the responsibility for overseeing and pastorally caring for the clergy belongs to our Bishop. Likewise the responsibility for local spiritual oversight belongs to our Vicar who is licenced for this role by our Bishop.
The general role of all ministers is leadership by service and shepherding. The Lord Jesus set the tone when he said about himself: “for even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The job of ministers cannot be about directing attention to the self, rather it is about pointing people continually toward the person and work of the Lord Jesus: his life, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and soon return. The means of directing people to Jesus see ministers carefully studing, expositing, proclaiming, and applying God’s written word — the Bible.
Parish
The Reverend Joshua Bovis
Vicar - Anglican Parish of Tamworth
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Joshua Bovis has ministered in the Anglican Diocese of Armidale for 14 years and came to St John’s having previously served as a minister in the New England, Upper Hunter, Newcastle, and Falkirk, Scotland.
Joshua holds a Bachelor of Theology from Sydney Missionary & Bible College (SMBC) and a Master of Arts in Ministry from Ridley College, Melbourne. He finds relaxation through weight training, fitness, and reading (History, Theology, Biographies). He also aspires to visit the coast for a surf whenever possible, as waves are rather scarce in Tamworth despite the existence of the local “surf club”.
Joshua is married to Melanie and they have four adult children. Whilst they aren’t exclusively a dog family, they currently have two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels who are constantly hungry.
Diocese
The Right Reverend Rod Chiswell
Bishop - Anglican Diocese of Armidale
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Rod Chiswell has ministered in the Anglican Diocese of Armidale for over 25 years, previously serving as Vicar in the Parishes of Mungindi, Walcha, and South Tamworth. He became the eighth Bishop of the Diocese in February 2021 .
Rod is both excited and daunted in his role as Bishop. However he has come to believe that ‘God can use ordinary people to accomplish his purposes’ and that ‘those who God calls to a task, he equips for the task’.Rod is married to Jenni and they have two adult children who are both married and have children of their own. Having lived almost all of his life in the Anglican Diocese of Armidale, he has a heart for the people of our region to be introduced to Jesus and helped home to heaven.
Governance
Wardens
Katherine Wood
Vicar’s Warden
Harry Pallett
People’s Warden
Chales Tindall
People’s Warden
Parish Councillors
David Batho
Melissa Cutler
Karyn Murphy
Ann Scarra
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