A dysfunctional family

Rowan Williams preaches at Eucharist during a Sept. 24 clergy day in the Diocese of Los Angeles.                  Source: Diocese of Los Angeles/Janet Kawamoto

Addressing a gathering of clergy and laity in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the Anglican communion is "fractured but still a family":

“I am saying ‘Anglican family’ rather than ‘Anglican Communion’ because we’re a very fractured communion but we’re still family – like so many families, quarreling till the cows come home. What gives us our family solidarity is, of course, that dependence on God’s call, God’s welcome. We are, at the moment, in the middle of a period of colossal uncertainty in the life of our Anglican family. There is uncertainty, division, a measure of suspicion still and a sense that our conventional and inherited ways of being Anglicans together across the world have come under almost unmanageable strain."

In fewer words, we are no longer a body of Christians with a common faith and discipline. Our Anglican family is dysfunctional. It is dominated by expressions of intolerance and vengefulness. As the Archdeacon of Llandaff bluntly put it, anyone who could not accept the new order would have to make their own arrangements.

Wikipedia describes Anglicanism as "a Western Christian tradition which has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation."

In recent times the Church of England, instead of leading by example, has followed the 'madness' of the Episcopal Church of the United States ((ECUSA) endeavouring to make the Church more relevant to society's perceived needs, liberalism has replaced tradition as described in my previous entry.

Abp Williams acknowledged that as Archbishop of Canterbury he had to make 'uncomfortable adjustments at both ends of the spectrum, liberal and conservative, north and south' to keep everyone at the table but he believes a duduk perkara-solving-by-committee approach no longer effectively addresses current challenges.

Too late anyway. The damage has been done. Self governing Provinces like the Church in Wales have voted for disunity. Family members who, in common with the vast majority of Christians, strive to remain loyal to the faith of the Anglican Church as received have been marginalised or excluded, divorced from the Church they lovingly cared for before it was ripped from them.

The bride of Christ has been torn apart by those who would stand in the person of the Bridegroom. Rowan is right when he compares Western Anglicans to families, quarreling till the cows come home. But the quarreling is now amongst the liberal rump deciding how far the revisionists can go.

There are parallels with society. The nuclear conjugal family traditionally comprised a family class consisting of a (female) mother, a (male) father and their children. As a consequence of formalising same sex relationships and the acceptance of genders differing from the biological sexes of male and femaleprimary school children are to be taught that some children have two mothers or two fathers.

This has gone so far as to compel a transgender man who gave birth with the help of fertility treatment to attempt to register himself as the child's father. Although he lost his court battle the ruling was attacked by campaigners and lawyers including the judge as a blow to the rights of trans parents and their children with calls for legislative reform.

In another case a Christian doctor has been told that his belief in the Biblical view of what it is to be male and female is "incompatible with human dignity" .

An NHS A&E doctor for 26 years, he was forced out of his job working for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after refusing to identify clients by their chosen gender instead of their biological sex as explained in this video:

One might have thought that the Church would stand for truth but Western Anglicanism has confounded the truth by supporting divergence. The family is fractured.

Not content with fracturing our own family, feminists are intent on fracturing the Roman Catholic Church to advance their political agenda.

The Llandaff Diocese of the Church in Wales is embarking on an 'ambitious Year of Pilgrimage' to reinvigorate its work and worship as part of the Church’s 2020 centenary celebrations. Traditionally the Cathedral Church of St David in Pembrokeshire has been a place of pilgrimage but it has been turned into a feminist enclave making it difficult for orthodox pilgrims to participate fully.

ThisWomensOrdinationConf tweet was 'liked' by St Davids Cathedral staff:

"They don't just want a seat at the table. They want to rearrange the seating, in sense, by reducing clerical privilege, by focusing on ordination as more a call to serve than a pathway to power". The Women's Ordination Conference describes itself as "A voice for women's equality in the Catholic Church".

Mutual flourishing in the Church goes out of the window after women take power. The Bridegroom and His bride become tools for revisionists to help overturn convention no matter who is hurt.

When mutual flourishing is allowed the results can be remarkable as illustrated by a tweet following a recent Confirmation service at Llandaff Cathedral presided over by the Bishop of Burnley, Philip North: "Standing room only in the Cathedral for a Diocesan Confirmation @LlandaffDio and the most candidates I think I have ever seen. What utter joy. Thank you @BishopJuno and @BpBurnley. God is good!"

Rowan Williams is reported to have said that as it is the Church in Wales has no future. The Church of England is not far behind.

Postscript [08.10.2019]

'Pick your own sex' plans are shelved: Equalities minister Liz Truss abandons drive to relax laws around changing gender.