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| Three bishops from the same class in St Michael's College, Llandaff Source: Church in Wales |
In a previous entryFrom hat trick to three card trick I wrote the bishops' consultation on same sex marriage ... is akin to the classic three card trick, otherwise known as 'find the queen', designed to win regardless.
Hey presto, the queen wins. Like loyal subjects, members of the Governing Body queued to speak of love and equality, apparently understanding neither. They swallowed what they had been fed and regurgitated the poisonous rubbish fed by the bench of bishops, unworthy of the office they hold for leading astray those in their care. The souls of the righteous being sacrificed by false prophets.
Archbishop John Davies told Premier Christian Radio: "There was a very significant majority in favour of us making a formal move ahead and discussing provision further".
The Church in Wales even published this deceptive tweet
So far as the membership of the Church in Wales is concerned its Governing Body has become an irrelevant tool of the bench.
As the 2012 Church in Wales Review observed, "We do not believe that the present system of elections to the Governing Body always results in a true reflection of church opinion. At the moment there is very little knowledge for people to go on when making up their minds for whom to vote." (page 5)
Not that it would make a jot of difference when members decide on their own volition to vote on the basis of personal preference instead of on the expressed wishes of church members.
The bench has now positioned itself so that it will be at odds with the rest of the Anglican Communion as the Scottish Episcopal Church discovered following their unilateral decision to allow same sex marriage in church.
Governing Body agreed that ?It is pastorally unsustainable for the Church to make no formal provision for those in same-gender relationships.?
On what evidence? A bald statement that is in direct contradiction to the archbishop's keynote speech. "Play your part, great or small, in spreading the Gospel message, urges Archbishop".
The gospel of the bench is not the gospel of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The pretence of it being so has become widespread leading to the notion of an inclusive church in the living catholic tradition which may be translated as homosexual practices are affirmed here with the expectation of imminent blessings by the church.
Affirming catholicism affirms that which should not be affirmed. It has little to do with the catholic faith as received. It claims catholicity while behaving contrary to the catholic faith with consenting clergy joining the Society of Catholic Priests, an 'Anglican society for men and women serving as Priests throughout the Anglican Communion'.
It is window dressing claiming allegiance to the catholic faith while acting contrary to it.
The wider church is appalled at these deviations from the faith by churches which use self-governing arguments to adopt practices that are contrary to the gospel.
Declining numbers demonstrate that they cannot deceive all of the people all of the time.
From Church in WalesReport on Membership and Finances 2017
"The rate of decline in average adult Sunday attendance between 2016 and 2017 is in line with the general annual trend since 2010":
Average Attendance - over 18 Sundays: 27,359 (2017) 28,185(2016) - 826 (2017-2016) - 3%
In 2006 the average weekly attendance aged over 18 was recorded at 39,490 showing a fall in adult attendance of 31%, almost one third in just over a decade.
At that rate of decline there will soon be no Anglican church to care pastorally or otherwise for anyone.
What the archbishop was really saying in his keynote address is that the Church in Wales is in crisis. Parishes which had ample clergy now find that there are more churches than there are clergy to run them so the laity must pull their weight when the bishops do not as they play politics jeopardising the souls of their flock.
A clue to the way the bishops think is in the Conclusion to GB's Agendum 14
A Framework for Healthy and Joyful Mission in the Church in Wales
A Report to the Governing Body September 2018
Andy Bangor:
"We believe that every person in our province has the right to hear the message of Jesus Christ in a way they understand. Our responsibility as a church is to play our part with God and other Christians so everyone can hear, engage with and respond to this message."
That will be the favoured group of the bench sorted but not everyone is in it, just a minority, so to hell with the rest.
The majority in the wider church will, of course, be aware that the bench of bishops have that the wrong way round.
Postscript [18.09.2018]
There are some relevant comments under an Anglican Ink article including this personal testimony:
"I cannot tell you how devastated I am at this lurch away from the Gospel. When it was discussed at a Parish level a few years ago, St David's was one of the more conservative dioceses and I was much encouraged by the 'traditional' views expressed by representatives from the Cathedral, but since then there has been a complete change of staff, reflecting a more liberal agenda."
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