Hello!
I'm Rev. Melinda McMahon
- an Australian Anglican
who is ablaze
with the Holy Spirit ...
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Reverend Melinda McMahon and I am an Anglican minister with the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle in New South Wales Australia.
I am also Rector of Southlakes Anglican Church, a growing, welcoming and vibrant Anglican community in Lake Macquarie. I have been leading this wonderfully faithful community for four years.
Although I have been raised in the Anglican Church, in Sydney Diocese in fact, I first ventured on a SOMA Mission in June 2023 to Northern Ireland.
Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) is a short-term Anglican mission agency which spreads all around the global Anglican community with the mandate to ‘care for the nervous system of the body of Christ’.
It was on my first SOMA mission where I realised I had finally found my tribe – other Spirit-filled Anglicans who were ablaze with passion for God’s mission. I invite you to read more about SOMA Australia here.
Upon my return from the SOMA mission to Northern Ireland I was invited to become the National Director of SOMA. Although I was amazed at the invitation, it was the whisper of the Spirit of God, while on mission, that confirmed this was God’s desire for me.
Growing up in the Anglican Church, as an effervescent, ‘on-fire’ Spirit-filled disciple of Christ, it did not take long to identify that I was of a rather peculiar breed.
I have been a Charismatic Anglican for most of my life – since my early twenties. I vividly recall the evening I prayed to be ‘baptised in the Spirit’. It was during a season of my life where I hungrily read all the ‘spiritual’ books on my mother’s bookshelf – thank goodness she had researched well the Charismatic renewal movement in the 1970s!
I followed the simple guidance outlined in Rita and Dennis Bennett’s book “The Holy Spirit and You” and the Holy Spirit fell upon me. Having been raised in the Scriptures, I also studied Rev David Crawford’s SYNOD paper to the Anglican Diocese of Sydney entitled “Baptised with the Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts”. It was these two clear outlines of the Biblical teaching on God’s desire for his children to experience the fulness of the Spirit that really convinced me.
Allow me to skip ahead about 20 years.
I happened to watch the ABC Compass Episode entitled “Where have all the Charismatics gone?”
The program provoked me to search online for any blogs or articles which addressed how to be a Charismatic in the Anglican Church of Australia. I was surprised to find the number very scarce.
How disappointing! I found myself asking, “Where are all the charismatics?”
A conversation with another Charismatic leader within the Anglican church in a nearby country heightened my desire to discover where all the Charismatics are within the Anglican Church of Australia!
And if I found them, I wanted to encourage them to step out and be the confident Spirit-filled disciples of Christ they are!
Hence the purpose of this blog ...
What we believe ...
Anglicans Ablaze holds to the same Statement of Belief as the Australian Anglican Renewal Network (ARNA) and Sharing of Ministries Abroad, Australia (SOMA AU). We are committed to serve and foster spiritual renewal throughout the Anglican communion and encourage the work with Christians of all Churches in ministering to the Body of Christ through teaching, preaching, evangelism and edification.
We are passionate about the renewal of individuals, congregations, and other bodies and institutions is based on the following theological convictions:
(a) Centrality of Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Saviour,
(b) The glory and majesty of God, the Father,
(c) The person and work of the Holy Spirit,
(d) The godly life and God’s people,
(e) The authority of the Word, written and living,
(f) The baptism in the Holy Spirit, as an experience of power, received first by the Church at Pentecost, and afterwards as part of normal Christian initiation as witnessed by the Early Church and the Church Fathers (Acts 2:1‑12).
(g) Worship in the Holy Spirit as a joyful expression of our fellowship in the Lord and with one another (Acts 11:1‑3, 1 Corinthians 14:26).
(h) A strong sense of the Church family as the Body of Christ, and the need to edify and encourage one another (Romans 12:3‑8, 1 Corinthians 12:12).
(i) The gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit, signs and wonders, for the edification of the Church and the salvation of the world (1 Corinthians 12:141, Hebrews 2:14).
(j) A fresh desire to witness and engage in the proclamation of the gospel in word (evangelism), works (social action) and wonders (signs and wonders). (Romans 15:17‑19).
(k) An awareness of spiritual warfare, and the armour and weapons of God. (Acts 11.4‑12, Ephesians 6:10‑18).
(l) A desire for Christian unity, and a willingness to work for it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (John 17:6‑23).