Thirteen years

Original source: Getty Images

"New Archbishop takes over".Don't get excited.That was the Wales Online headline on 14 July 2003. Since then it has been all downhill for the Church in Wales (CinW):

"Dr Morgan has previously said he was heartened by the fact that the 2001 census showed most people in Wales said they believe in God. It's a question then of how to connect with those people, how do we actually connect with people who have a belief in God? One person can't change anything, but I look forward to being part of the Church in Wales' work in grappling with these kinds of issues, he said."

Dr Morgan was awarded a PhD from the University of Wales in 1986 for a thesis on "Anglican University Chaplains concepts of mission". My 22 February 2016 entry offers no hope in that direction. "Heartened" in 2001, in 2011: "The Church in Wales said Christianity is 'no longer the default setting' for many people but the picture is complex." Average CinW Sunday attendance had plummeted to 31,000 in the 2013 Membership and Finance figures.

Comrade Corbyn is sticking to power like the proverbial to a blanket. If he succeeds in bamboozling his supporters as the Archbishop of Wales has done for thirteen disastrous years the Labour party can look forward to similar decline and extinction. But there is a difference. Dr Morgan may not have been able to change anything as 'one person' but by accumulating a cadre of  like minded sycophants around him he has introduced so many changes with no thought for the consequences that many church members have simply walked with many more likely to follow when the first woman bishop is appointed and as queer theology is developed to force through same sex marriage.

While it is virtually impossible to get rid of a disastrous Archbishop the Labour party should have a better chance of surviving if Jeremy Corbyn took the advice of his fellow MPs. Unfortunately he is being driven by the Shadow Chancellor and others who insist that Corbyn stands firm as the chosen one of party members. They will not walk but neither do they command the 9 million votes cast for Labour at the 2015 election.

If the voters walk the Labour Party will be condemned to thirteen years of opposition or more, if they survive at all.