The cost of change

View enjoyed by Church in Wales Representative Body staff                                                                                                                                  Source: Twitter

The revelation that the former Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion?S first woman primate, Katharine Jefferts Schori, is acting as mentor to Two Church in Wales bishops, Joanna Penberthy, bishop of St Davids and June Osborne, bishop of Llandaff, suggests that the Church in Wales is awash with money.

I hear that the annual rental of their new HQ at dua Callaghan Square, Cardiff is ?500,000 but the lease is for just one year.

Perhaps that explains the letterhead stuck on the nameplate (illustrated) signifying a temporary arrangement as the blind continue to lead the blind into extinction. The departure of the architect of destruction, the former archbishop, offered the opportunity for real change, to right former wrongs. An opportunity lost.

Rumour has it that the staff are not happy in their new home, preferring their previous accommodation in Cathedral Road but no longer at the heart of the nation the Church in Wales continues the pretence that it is a force to be reckoned with, regardless of cost, so it needs to be at the hub, perhaps giving them closer access to BBC Wales following their relocation to the centre of Cardiff.

Some thought that the demise of St Michael's College, Llandaff, Wales' only Theological College, now a conference centre, would have provided the opportunity to relocate there since half the bench will have very fond memories of their leisure time there.

There has also been a rash of senior appointments under the umbrella of the never popular Mission Areas designed to keep the chiefs happy at the expense of the indians. As the Parish share goes up perhaps some of the indians will go on the warpath but many congregations are either too old or too compliant to make a fuss. Hence the expectation that they will dig deeper, compensating for all those who have lapsed on discovering that their Church has left them.

Archbishop John Davies promised more of the same - but faster. His Llandaff appointee obliges by choosing change as the theme for her Lenten addresses. That is unlikely to be for the better, rather, as the bench chooses.

So far that has led only to decline and disillusionment while those who speak up are constantly accused of prejudice and discrimination without any supporting evidence. When the first woman bishop to be appointed in Wales waschallenged she admitted that it amounts to nothing more than holding opposing views rather than nodding compliantly.

No theology is offered, only appeals to secular values of equality of opportunity in the workplace, advancing feminism in the church regardless of the consequences. There is more of the same in the bishop of Llandaff's 'Wales Online'interview: Victim, prejudice, discrimination, inequality, parity, barriers, unwelcome, change, battle, etc, etc.

Spiritual leadership was mentioned without any evidence of its presence. Quite the contrary. The constant decline in people attending church is not helped by women bishops and their admirers droning on about how beastly men are, particularly in the church.

Bishop June said "You can talk about it as a story of decline but actually what it is about is change." How very convenient.

I wonder what she makes of the many remarkable women who have left the church because they do not share her politically motivated, limited views.

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Down hill all the way

Jedi wedding                                                                                                        Source: Mail Online

Two news stories this week illustrate the incremental disasters that continue to distance the Anglican Church from her historic roots.

Jedi weddings similar to the 2016 Star Wars themed wedding reported in Mail Online could take place in Anglican churches if a private member's bill designed to allow Catholics, Methodists and other Christian denominations' marriages to take place in Church of England buildings is successful.

Prior to his elevation to the Lords, John Selwyn Gummer was a former Conservative party Chairman and Environment Secretary. He served on the Church of England's General Synod before converting to Roman Catholicism in 1992.

Now Lord Deben, he introduced the bill after finding "his daughter could not marry in his local Anglican church in Suffolk because she wanted the Catholic ceremony".

In a rare flash of orthodoxy for a modern Anglican bishop the bishop of Winchester warned the bill "also affords potential legal rights to the use of churches to New Religious Movements with which the Church of England does not have any existing formal ecumenical relationship".

This is not as far fetched as it might first appear. On their web site 'becometheforce' the Church of Jediism explains that Jediism is "a new philosophy supporting the idea of one all-powerful life energy Force that connects all living things in the universe together". That Star Wars is a fiction has no force.

The Church of Jediism offers Jedi weddings, naming ceremonies and funerals.

Lord Deben responded to the bishop saying that the bill "does not tell the Church of England to do anything...What we are doing is removing a sah impediment for the Church of England to make up its own mind. That is clearly different."

'Optional' is in vogue in terkini Anglicanism. Supporters of same-sex marriage in church suggest that clergy should have the option to marry same-sex couples as they have the option to marry divorcees in church.

Opponents will get used to it, they claim. What actually happens is those who are not moved by the spirit of the age are mocked, cast as irrelevant and out of touch as the bishop of Shrewsbury tweeted in reply to Cranmer's suggestion that Ann Widdecombe should be in the House of Lords.

Ann Widdecombe was another high profile MP who converted to Roman Catholicism after becoming disillusioned with the Church of England. The ordination of women was the 'last straw'. The last straw is as varied as the people for whom it is the last. It has been the ordination of women in general, the appointment of a woman priest or bishop, the LGBTI rencana and same-sex marriage in church.

The supposedly enlightened respond naively that the answer for anyone who finds these changes problematic is the route taken by Gummer and Widdicombe but many Anglicans who are Anglican by conviction, catholic and reformed, cannot accept some aspects of Roman catholicism.  Instead they leave the church as the attendance figures clearly indicate. It will get worse as the priesthood is diluted.

'Hatch, match and despatch' is a term used to describe people attending church only for baptism, marriage, and funeral. Often that was their only contact with a priest. Today lay people are beingtrained to take funerals even in the Roman Catholic Church if there is no Requiem Mass. They visit the sick and housebound, sometimes administering Holy Communion, so priestly contact becomes evermore remote.

RC priests have to undergo many years of study before taking their vows but the lack of vocations has become so dire that any Anglican showing an inkling of enthusiasm is likely to be fast-tracked to ordination. The Archbishop of York is inviting Readers in the diocese of York to consider ordination to the diaconate.

For traditionalists in Wales that has a familiar ring as they watched deaconesses becoming deacons, the first stepping stone towards female episcopacy. As deacons they claimed that they were to all intents and purposes priests who were not allowed to say a few words in the Eucharistic prayer or pronounce absolution. As priest it was 'unfair' to deny women 'promotion' to bishop, the stained glass ceiling as secularists claimed.

It was refreshing to hear the bishop of Winchester take an orthodox stance in response to Gummer's bill. He said parliament was 'addressing questions of doctrine, creed and ecumenical dialogue, all of which ought properly to sit with the churches themselves'. Not that that stops all and sundry taking a view, thrusting their secular values on the church to be welcomed by those within who have their own political agendas.

As for the Church of Jediism at least they believe in a supreme force whereas Anglicanism has become a go as you please religion. One sensible utterance hasemerged from the Archbishop of Canterbury. He said Islamic rules are incompatible with British laws. Not just British laws. They are incompatible with Christianity which is why Muslims who take the Koran literally feel free to attack Christians and demolish their churches.

Some Anglican clergy see no impediment toallowing Muslims to use churches for Muslim prayers, effectively turning them into mosques.

If Gummer gets his way no doubt more clergy will succumb to temptation to show their liberal credentials, so increasing the downhill slide.

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Another Church in Wales senior appointment

The Archbishop of Wales at the window in HQ which affords distant views of the Salvation Army

DHQ and the Church of St Mary's The Virgin in Butetown .  Source: Church in Wales

Hot on the heels of the Church in Wales advertisement for a Director of Welsh Language and Bilingual Mission (Grade F – £36,225 to £40,986 per annum) comes another bishops' adviser senior appointment. This time for a Director of Education Policy (Grade G – £42,692 to £48,302 per annum).

According to the job description the post holder will be responsible to the Bench of Bishops and the Standing Committee of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales through the Bishop holding the Education portfolio (currently the Bishop of Llandaff) for the content of work. The post-holder will be a senior advisor to the Bishops and will be responsible for ensuring that they are kept well briefed and well-informed about developments in the areas of work covered by this role.

With a bloated bench of  six diocesan bishops for a province the size of a Church of England diocese and no sign of reducing the bureaucracy as recommended in the Harries Review (Section 15), one has to wonder how the bishops spend their time with advisers assisting them with the briefs. Perhaps that is why they are so out of touch, spending time indulging their LGBTI/same-sex marriage obsessions.

In a previous entry, 'The cost of change', I noted that the  bishop of Llandaff, the holder of the Education portfolio, had said, "You can talk about it as a story of decline but actually what it is about is change." So there we have it. More bureaucracy.

While the peasants at the bottom of the pile are urged to dig deeper there is no shortage of money for the lord bishops' advisers.

There is a salutary tale from the US on the decline of the Episcopal Church (here) but the bench continues to look to TEC for support. Their ex-Presiding Bishop is mentoring ♀June and ♀Joanna.

Female bishop mentoring                                 Source: Twitter

Since we were led to expect so much from women bishops it is a bit of a mystery why they need mentoring:

“People were delighted in my appointment because it was fairly unexpected that in a single year the Church in Wales went from having six men as its bishops to a third being women. I can’t tell you the amount of pleasure and delight it causes people. It’s now what we expect, we don’t expect there to be barriers for women. That is as true for spiritual leadership and the church as for medicine or journalism or the boardroom.” - June Osborne.

Not without substantial help apparently. Who is paying the mentoring bill and why choose a woman who has beenexposed for her non-Christian theology?

If there is so much money about might I suggest another senior appointment? Someone who can advise the bench how to get back on track after being derailed by the former archbishop and his heretical mentor. That would be money well spent.

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Florence Nightingale

It was odd that the bishop of Llandaff in her first interview for Wales Online should choose Florence Nightingale as a fellow victim of her alleged prejudice and discrimination.

June Osborne:“But isn’t it inspiring that social history is changing in front of us? If you think back to Florence Nightingale, she would probably have been a bishop had she been allowed.

?She was a very devout Christian but the church wouldn?T welcome her.

"I think of women who haven?T had the kind of chance we have watched come in my lifetime. It?S inspiring."

Nothing could be further from the truth. Florence Nightingale'supbringing was one of great wealth and luxury. She was brought up by governesses but she was determined to serve, not to be served.

She felt called by God to serve others, unlike women motivated by Women and the Church (WATCH) who serve only themselves. Not content with admission to the episcopate they campaign for self advancement with spurious claims of injustice, inequality and exclusion, ignoring or belittling the views of anyone taking a contrary view. Ideology has replaced theology.

Florence Nightingale reflected on Mary's service to mankind when shesaid, "'Behold the handmaid of the Lord and so have I said in my youth.' (Luke 1:38) To a night nurse in 1886 Nightingale prayed: May we all answer the angel as Mary did: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to Thy word."

She was an Anglican with a Unitarian background. From Caring & the Christian Story:  "Her theology was far from orthodox - she dismissed the incarnation, the Trinity and the atonement as abortions of a comprehension of God's plan. However, she considered herself a Christian and her work a "call from God."

Baptised in the Anglican Church, Florence Nightingale was "highly critical of the Church of England, dismissing both its male centred power structure as unjust and the Apostles' Creed as unbelievable. She regarded the theology of the Book of Common Prayer as childish and was particularly aggrieved by the sort of prayer which she believed was insulting to God's majesty and grandeur." (Florence Nightingale, radical theologian).

In that sense Florence Nightingale would have made a typical Anglican woman bishop but in stark contrast to the desolation caused by those holding the 'victim' views expounded by the bishop of Llandaff, Florence Nightingale dedicated her life to saving others.

As the founder or 'mother' of modern nursing Florence Nightingale improved lives. WATCH shatters them.

The movement for the ordination of women was built on deception. The deception continues with references to what Jesus would have said or done. We know from the Bible what He said and what He did. Feminists choose to ignore it or twist scripture to mean what they want it to mean.

Florence Nightingale a bishop? Rubbish. She was far superior.

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Misogyny, repression and stigmatisation

Source: Church in Wales Diocesan press releases

One of the less important casualties of the severe weather was the launch of a new book under the category Gender Studies in Wales.

Due to be launched at that bastion of inclusiveness, St Asaph Cathedral, it claims to offer "significant and original insights into women, Welsh identity and religion":

"Women, Identity and Religion in Wales by Manon Ceridwen James, a Canon at the Cathedral, is the first comprehensive study of its kind from a present-day perspective. At the heart of the book are conversations with thirteen women whose lives and experiences reveal how women facing misogyny, repression and stigmatisation are able to respond with resilience and humour." [My emphasis - Ed.]

I have not read the book and at £24.99 for a paperback copy which, from the reviews, trots out the usual gender studies cliches, I have no intention of doing so. From the abstract of the author's University of Birmingham Ph.D. thesis:

"The thesis is structured as a theological ‘critical conversation’. Dialogue partners include Western feminist theologians and their claim that women find it difficult to assert an authentic self and also sociological and historical texts looking at religion, women and identity in Wales. Christianity has played a significant part in Welsh identity construction, particularly in creating a repressive self-image for Welsh women for political reasons."

Putting such claims in the context of my own grandmothers, mother, wife, mother-in-law, daughters to granddaughters, a period getting on for one and a half centuries, over half of which I have personal experience, nothing could be further from the truth. Quite the contrary which later generations are happy to confirm. It is all politics.

One reviewer described the book as a "valuable and challenging contribution to our understanding of womanhood". What she means is those women who have used religion to further their careers in a so-called equality campaign.

Equality of opportunity in the workplace is to be applauded but the church is not the workplace. Vicars are not employed by the church. They are 'employed by God'.

Blind to the reality that surrounds them, feminists are stuck in the past. They speak for themselves advancing their own cause regardless of the cost to others. If other women become casualties, falling by the wayside in the name of equality, hard luck.

As the Archdeacon of Llandaff candidly explained before she was imported from the Church of England to execute Barry Morgan's disastrous plans for the Church in Wales "new individuals with conscientious difficulties over women’s ministry will simply have to make personal decisions and individual choices, to find accommodation as best they can". With resilience and humour?

Many faithful women have been ousted from their church. I know from experience how it has hurt them to be abandoned but many more women suffer physical hurt and hardship through FGM, human trafficking and slavery. The inferior status of women according to different cultures in our midst is a scandal. To help them requires genuine service, not self advancement while supposedly fighting for social equality so real injustice continues.

Claiming misogyny, repression and stigmatisation is part of the feminist strategy. It has reached the highest levels in the church. We have witnessed two women bishops appointed in Wales followed by one in Scotland in addition to those in England and numerous female clerics repeating the same allegations of discrimination.

Mud sticks. There is plenty of it bringing the church into disrepute. The consequences are all too clear. Christianity in Great Britain is waning fast. When pressed the so-called abuse amounts to no more than a difference of opinion.

When secular values are applied to the church repression and discrimination are alleged. It is not misogyny to take a traditional, theological view on the ordination of women, in fact many more Christian women fervently believe that a woman's place is not at the altar. That is not repression. It is their deeply held faith.

Secularisation of Anglicanism has been a disaster resulting in decline, not growth, but still the alleged 'victims' peddle their untruths to gain advantage. That people outside the church are taken in is hardly surprising when clerics in the church complain it is so. The result is further opportunities to attack the church and our Christian values.

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Don't mention The Sword

This handout picture taken in Carcassone military headquarters in 2018 and released by the

 Gendarmerie  Nationale on March 24, 2018, shows French Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame

who was killed after swapping  himself for a hostage in a rampage and siege in the town of Trebes,

southwestern France on March 23. HO / GENDARMERIE NATIONALE / AFP / Channels Television

French Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame has died of his wounds after a jihadist shooting spree.

He was shot by an Islamic terrorist after swapping himself for a hostage in a rampage and siege by an attacker who stormed a supermarket and fired at shoppers and staff in the town of Trebes. The attacker claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group

One more killer in a campaign of Islamic violence which has lasted 1,400 years but only yesterday a judge followed political leaders in describing Islam as a religion of peace despite all the evidence to the contrary.

In answer to a Commons question by Jeremy Corbyn after the horrendous terror attack in Paris in 2015 that killed at least 130 people and wounded hundreds, David Cameron told the House that there was no connection between terrorists and Islam and we need to prove it.

We are still waiting. A list of Islamist terrorist attacks before and after can be found onWikipedia

Parsons Green bomber Ahmed Hassan was jailed for life with minimum term of 34 years for his terror attack. He was told by the judge that he had "violated the Quran and Islam" with his actions, as well as the law of all civilised people.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said the Quran was a “book of peace” and noted its teachings forbidding terrorism and crime, adding: “You will have plenty of time to study the Quran in prison in the years to come.”

There are 149 sword verses in the Quran. Perhaps to mention them would be the "Islamophobia" Jeremy Corbyn had in mind when he put his question to David Cameron.

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Sexuality, tolerance and institutional inclusion

Changing attitude in St Davids Diocese                                            Pub talk in Llandaff                                   Source: Church in Wales

By accident or design 'sexuality, tolerance and institutional inclusion' were some of the 'hot topics' under discussion when young people were invited to ‘Grill the Bishops’ in a Cardiff pub this week. Sexuality not spirituality was the first word in the diocesan press release.

Asked about the way forward for the church on the LGBT issue, Bishop June said, “The way forward is that the church gets past the issues that it is struggling over and embraces marrying couples in church of whatever sexuality.”

The event was organised jointly by the Revd Becca Stevens, young vocations advisor for Monmouth Diocese and the Revd Wendy Tayler of Llandaff Diocese. There is an amusing link from the Monmouth Vocations site to a series of photographs on Facebook showing June's dominant use of the microhone although Richard did have to manage his wine glass, no doubt conscious of 1 Timothy 3:3. Looking through the photographs I was left wondering if +Richard was there as her minder or was ♀June mentoring him on the 'inclusive' Church in Wales.

There was nothing amusing about an earlier diocesan press release in which the bishop of St Davids rejoices in her Presidency of a new group aimed at "offering a ministry of welcome to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians" which has been launched in St Davids Diocese, Changing Attitude Transnewid Cymru (CATAC).

That is despite the presence of numerous gay people in the church who, far from being unwelcome, are in many senior positions.

"It asserts that there is integrity in being both Christian and gay and that, for many people, it is a God-given reality, not a sin or sickness, and that LGBT people offer evidence of the fruits of the Spirit. In her address to the group’s inaugural Eucharist in St Patrick’s Church, Pennar, near Pembroke Dock,  group President bishop Joanna Penberthy suggested it "seeks a re-evaluation of Scripture and tradition". She said:

?After 2000 years, we are still learning how to work out our Christian faith. We are learning to cope with changing attitudes. Love is patient, it is kind, not envious or boastful, arrogant or rude. (St Paul?S letter to the Corinthians). ?Let us be able to express what we think in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal…". In other words, anything is acceptable in love.

But there is no love outside full inclusion of LGBT people. Outsiders are not even permitted an opnion.

Prior to her 'secret' baptism, Gavin Ashenden wrote in hisblog entry 'Meghan Markle, Justin Welby & The Use And Abuse Of Baptism':  "The Reich Church of our day has given way not over race but over gender, not to a fascist culture but to the new-Marxist values and concepts, peddled and enforced by universities, schools, state agencies, the police, and more recently the judiciary.

"The neo-Marxist or cultural Marxist agenda sets itself not only against Judaeo-Christian revelation and values, but goes further to set itself against free speech."

Neo-Marxism or cultural Marxism is described by Bishop Ashenden in Anglican Unscripted#374 [@ 9.12] as a process beginning with feminism which presents as equality and fairness and then moves on to gay marriage because of the notion of equal treatment and re-imagining gender which moves on to the whole trans movement.

The Christian Post reports that Queen's University in Belfast has denied a Christian ministry's request to screen a new documentary featuring the testimonies of people who have left homosexuality. An exact reason why it couldn't show the documentary at Queen's Film Theatre was not given but the university's response "suggests that the film doesn't match its idea of inclusivity".

Given her endorsement of CATAC (Changing Attitude Transnewid Cymru), a national organisation working towards the full inclusion of LGBT people in the life of the Anglican Communion, the bishop of St Davids would agree with that. So by implication would the bench of bishops.

It was reported after the appointment of bishop Joanna Penberthy that her election was a "stitch up". Indeed, her name was being circulated widely as the next bishop of St Davids long before her 'election' despite her inability to communicate in Welsh, the first language of many in her diocese.

Both she and June Osborne had known track records of using the church to push their feminist, LGBT agenda. The bishops who appointed them are complicit because they must have been aware of this. They should all pack their bags and take their neo/cultural Marxism with them.

Postscript [09.03.2018]

There is more propaganda from the bishop of St Davids using the sanctity of St Davids Cathedral to promote feminism in the church dressed up as equality in anotherpress release 'International Women’s Day: The Bishop & the Suffragette'.

One hundred and ten years after suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst, Annie Kenney and Mary Blathwayt signed the Visitor's Book much has changed. Read how much in 'Feminists reign supreme – men are the new second sex' by By Kathy Gyngell in The Conservative Woman which illustrates how out of touch ♀Joanna is.

She stopped short of referring to the promiscuous lesbian love trysts of the suffragette leaders. An opportunity lost in her promotion of Changing Attitude Transnewid Cymru.

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Women's ministry: laughing all the way to the top

The newly announced Archdeacon of Bangor will be among the story-tellers

at an event in St Asaph Cathedral to celebrate 21 years of women priests

 in the Church in Wales.    Source: CinW Press release

There is to be another celebration of women using the church for 21 years to further their careers at the expense of others when they meet in St Asaph Cathedral to recount stories of "uncertainty, inspiration and creativity".

The occasion is being organised by MAECymru, a self-promoting class of people who claim to have a vision of the Church in Wales as "a community of God?S people where, regardless of gender, justice and equality prevail". It is a vision of a church which misrepresents any opposition with spurious claims of prejudice, misogyny and inequality.

No wonder they are offering a 50% discount to entice new members to their gang.

"Welcome !  to  MAECymru"                                                                                  Source: MAECymru

The newly announced Archdeacon of Bangor will be among the story-tellers. Her contribution to the debate on women bishops in the Church in Wales can be found in an essay following her trip to the US where she saw a woman celebrant wearing a pointy hat. That convinced her that she was right about women's ministry and the vast majority of Christians were wrong in their belief that the ordination of women to the priesthood was contrary to scripture and tradition.

The new Archdeacon has much to say about "women's ministry" but she completely misses the point. Women's ministry has become a process for the self-advancement for women in the church. Not ordinary women who worship quietly as they keep the church running but the minority of women who shout the loudest and are content to use the church for political gain at the expense of others.

Compare what she  has to say about ministry with this extract fromA Noble Task by Bishop David Thomas who was asked to reflect on his experience of ministry as Provincial Assistant Bishop and how it might change if the episcopate in Wales  were opened to women:

"Another  dangerous misconception concerns the nature of the objection to the ordination  of women as priests. People sometimes assume that the real problem has to do  with the ministry of women in the Church. This is not the case. The assumption  arises from a failure to differentiate clearly between ministry in general and  ordained ministry in particular. Perhaps I can illustrate the point from my  liturgical responsibilities. Sometimes, for instance when a document is being  prepared for Governing Body, I have to spend hours poring over the minutiae of  a revised liturgical text. This was how I spotted that, in the ‘gold book’  Eucharist, the heading of Preface 23 (for use at ordinations, institutions,  etc.) was ‘Ministry’. The heading has been corrected in the 2004 equivalent  (no. 30) to ‘Ordained Ministry’. This contemporary, very common, tendency  unconsciously to allow ordained ministry to get submerged in the much wider  concept of ministry, leads to all sorts of mistaken perceptions. All I can say  by way of comment is that the wisest (and toughest!) spiritual adviser I’ve  ever had so far was a woman; I benefited enormously from working in my last  parish alongside a woman deacon; I made it my business to increase the number  of female eucharistic assistants in my last parish, and I worked very happily  there with a quite outstanding woman churchwarden – added to which, I am well  aware that there are some situations, perhaps many, where a woman will be  better qualified to give pastoral care than any man. I have very good reasons  for accepting, affirming, valuing and rejoicing in the ministry of women in the  Church. The difficulty for me, as for others including many women, has to do  with that distinctive aspect of presbyteral ministry which we call eucharistic  presidency."

Bishop David Thomas was the first Provincial Assistant Bishop (PAB) appointed to provide acceptable sacramental and pastoral ministry to those who, in conscience, were unable to receive the ministry of women priests. He also proved to be the last PAB after Abp Barry Morgan and his bench sitters reneged on the agreement which eased the path to women's ordination in the Church in Wales.

The bench had achieved their objective and that was that despite the overwhelming desire expressed at Diocesan meetings for similar pastoral and sacramental provision to be restored.

MAECymru shares the duplicity of the bench of bishops. They have a vision for a Church in Wales in which justice and equality prevail but it is a cloak under which secularisation has taken hold, advancing minority causes.

They couldn't care less for the countless women and men who find their church has left them.

Justice and equality for those left with no church will be quietly forgotten as the story-tellers relate their sob stories.

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Lamb to the slaughter

I was not alone in being shocked at the BBC's Countryfile coverage of the plight of sheep farmers last Sunday.

"Roast lamb is getting rarer" it was claimed, not because of a shortage but "because there is no money in it when no-one buys it." Exports had doubled over the last 30 years. The legs go to the supermarkets but the rest goes abroad, it was stated.

Perhaps Wales Online had the answer when theyreported:  "There are millions of sheep in Wales... so why is Welsh Lamb such a luxury ?" Grassland consultant Gareth Davies called for an investigation into the pricing process as the meat had come to be regarded as “a luxury” by consumers. He tweeted "In Tesco today and I didn't see any British lamb below £10 per kg. I sold lambs at £1.60. Would like to see breakdown of the other £8.40."

Rick Pendrous, editor at Food Manufacture magazine, said: “Welsh Lamb products are at a much higher premium than New Zealand lamb. From The Telegraph: "It has emerged a majority of New Zealand lamb sold in UK supermarkets comes from halal abattoirs in order to ensure it can be sold to both Muslim and non-Muslim nations. Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer have all confirmed selling the imported meat."

This had led to growing pressure on supermarkets and restaurants to inform consumers how animals in their meat products are killed after it emerged some were selling halal meat without clear labelling.

Reacting to Countryfile 'promoting halal slaughter' the Expressreported anger over the BBC's coverage: "The BBC has come under fire for broadcasting a segment on Halal meat on Sunday night’s Countryfile with viewers accusing the Corporation of hitting a “new low” and “justifying vile Halal slaughter practices on our soil”. This is a video clip from the programme

Discussing the practice the Imam featured in the video said: “There are certain practices where you want to fulfil a commandment of God and you’re basically invoking God’s name upon that. You are making the sacrifice in the name of God and now it’s made Halal. Halal means permissible and it’s been made permissible by God for you.”

He is not the loving God recognised by Christians. When the Apostle Peter said “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean, "The voice spoke to him a second time: 'Do not call anything impure' that God has made clean".

But the promotion of Islam goes beyond ritual slaughter of lamb. There have been many reports of our inability to confront the most dangerous aspects of Islam. ‘Rebel Priest’, Rev Jules Gomes graphically illustrated the problem when he wrote "Our most vulnerable girls pay sorely for our surrender to the Islamists".

The criminals, he says are often referenced as “Asians” rather than as “Muslims”. Although the predators hail from many ethnicities, many happen to be Pakistani.

"Rape in Pakistan is ‘often institutionalised and has the tacit and at times the explicit approval of the state.’ A Human Rights Watch study reports a rape every two hours and a gang rape every eight hours. What is particularly significant is the high percentage of Christian, Hindu, Sikh and other women from minorities raped by Muslim men in Pakistan. The British incidents reflect a perilous import from Pakistan."

God's name is invoked by Muslims in their cry Allahu Akbar (God is greater) when they slaughter the lamb and innocent victims of their intolerant ideology. Writing under the headline Danger, discrimination and dhimmitude the Barnabas Fund recently reported:

"Pakistan’s Christians are a suffering, vulnerable minority. They face violence at the hands of Islamist terrorists, discrimination in work and at school, and live with the ever-present threat of “blasphemy” allegations, which have led to Christian communities being ransacked by Muslim mobs. Authorities often turn a blind eye and are sometimes even complicit in crimes against Christians, including the abduction and forced marriage of women and girls.

There are too many 'blind eyes' turned in Great Britain but that the BBC should use licence payers' money to promote such an ideology is truly outrageous.

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Caption please

Source: Facebook

In a previous entry I included a Facebook link to photographic coverage of a 'Grill the bishops' vocations event held in the Llandaff diocese of the Church in Wales.

I doubt that you will see the above photo in the Caption competition of the diocese'sCroeso publication so readers may wish to add a caption.

Printable captions will be published here.

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Taking stock

Archbishop of Wales John Davies                                                                       Source: Mail Online

The two great Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter provide an opportunity to re-connect with people who have given up on going to church and with newcomers. As Christ commanded: 'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit'. It is an opportunity too often missed. Hence full marks to the bishop Bangor for his Easter message.

Numbers regularly attending church continue to fall but the bishops keep digging.  See previous entryDigging their own grave

Opportunities to draw in people through the rites of Holy baptism, marriage and at funerals become less as faith is watered down. Much is trivialized as the church attempts to cash in on secular hatch, match and dispatch celebrations.

Before Christmas 2017 the newly elected archbishop of Wales, the Most Rev John Davies, bishop of Swansea and Brecon, featured in an article in the media magazine Christian Today, a global media ministry which "provides thoughtful, biblical perspectives on theology, church, ministry, and culture".

The 64-year-old former lawyer called for the Church in Wales to 'pause and draw breath' after his appointment. 'The coming into post of a new archbishop is an opportunity for me to say to the very good and very many people that we have as part of our church, that we need to take stock', the BBC reported Davies to have said.

"I want to try and refresh the vision of the church as that institution to support and nourish the lives of wider society" he said, as ever neglecting the many true believers who have not compromised their faith to remain in the church of their baptism.

Before Easter 2018 the archbishop was againinterviewed for Christian Today. As usual politics reared its head -Archbishop of Wales interview: I am not 'left-wing' for backing justice, equity and compassion.

It was another damp squib. Previous intellectual positions were alluded to with unforeseen repercussions.

Moving on to talk about his forthcoming Easter sermon Davies said that his sermon would discuss the origins of the faith he used the headline grabbing suggestion – "and the initial belief that the resurrection story was 'fake news'."

Following the lead he had provided the archbishop was asked about  " 'the practical reality of the resurrection' and the empty tomb, a difficult concept for the modern mind to grasp".

"Davies is thoughtful. 'I don't think any of us actually knows, quite frankly. What I believe is that something radical happened that changed the lives of the people who were there at the time.'

He cites the late bishop of Durham, David Jenkins, who said the resurrection was 'not just a conjuring trick with bones'.

And Davies says: 'It is about something far more than a dead body coming back to life – it is the complete renewal of the being of Christ."

A simpler response would have been, "if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain." 1 Corinthians 15:14. Instead he circled around what the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams of Oystermouth had to say about the meaning of the empty tomb and came a cropper, as Rowan has done in the past leading some to speculate that he needed a minder to protect him from media traps.

Ironically Davies was caught out by the very people he and the liberal elite have used to advance their agenda, appealing to secularists with no concept of the spiritual implications for support. The Mail Online headline was

Unbelievable! Archbishop of Wales chooses EASTER to cast doubt on the Resurrection after saying 'I don't think any of us actually knows' when quizzed over Christ's biblical return

It was reported in 2002 that "a third of Church of England clergy doubt or disbelieve in the physical Resurrection and only half are convinced of the truth of the Virgin birth."

Trendy clergy are even more in evidence following the ordination of women and the sexual freedom they demand of the church. As one commentator put it when responding to my 'Easter Message' entry, "Many remain entombed in the dark ages with their misogynistic and homophobic rants against this that and the other; wake up and discover the resurrection life at work in those around out. Come out!"

Rowan Williams said in his lecture I referred to above, "Believing in the resurrection is believing that the new age has been inaugurated, the new world has begun. And that new world is, as you might put it, the final phase of the history of God's relation with his people. So to say 'Jesus is risen', is to say that we have now entered on the last days, on the final decisive phase of God's interaction with Israel and through Israel, with the whole world.

Too many people in the church interpret 'new age' as do as you please, taking the Christian understanding of love out of context. Instead of 'Love the Lord thy God...'  and 'Love thy neighbour...' we are bidden to 'discover' the meaning of love, anything goes under the umbrella of love. There is no hell as the Pope may or may not have said.

Archbishop Davies was right when he told the BBC that we need to take stock. I have heard on a number of occasions that the Church in Wales is finished. Save for the rare occasion the bench have nothing to offer but political posturing. Forget 20/20 Vision. There isn't any apart from setting up Local Ministry Areas which are designed to keep the liberal elite employed until they can draw their pensions.

The only hope for the Church in Wales is to  be re-absorbed into the Church of England which despite its many faults has a longer life expectancy.

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Easter message

The bishops of the Church in Wales,                                                                                                                                                             Source: Church in Wales

The first of the Church in Wales bench of bishops to issue her Easter message was ?Joanna. Her opening paragraph was straight out of the feminists handbook:

"Women, weeping and numb,  came to the tomb determined to do the last thing they could for the teacher and Rabbi they loved and revered and in whom they had put their hope for renewal and change, justice and hope."

The women did what women did. That was that. A completely different interpretation to Joanna's from a Catholic woman's point of view can be read on the Les Femmes - The Truth blog here.

Jesus did what He did, not what feminists today think He should have done for renewal and change, justice and hope.

The Easter messages from June and Gregory suggest that the other half of the bench will have nothing better to offer the spiritually assassinated. Those poor souls robbed of the very core of their being. Women who have given a lifetime of service to the church only to find that the renewal, change, justice and hope spoken of by Joanna is not for them. It is for those who regard the Resurrection is an opportunity for political advancement.

Update

At last, bishop Andy's Easter message puts Christ firmly at the centre with no frills, no modern comparisons, no do-gooders.  Very well done.

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Sense and nonsense

John Sentamu, Archbishop of York

The Archbishop of York and the Archbishop of Wales have both been in the news recently speaking about immigration. John Sentamu fled Idi Amin’s regime in Uganda for the UK in 1973 so unlike the Archbishop of Wales he has some experience in the matter. Dr Sentamu has taken the biblical view inspired by the parable of the Good Samaritan. Dr Morgan's view is typically academic emphasising the popular political but partial view that EU migrants help sustain our economy and health service.

Of course immigration has benefited the UK but in a controlled manner. Evidence from Europe, particularly in Germany where opinion has changed sharply, shows that a huge influx of mainly young Muslim men has not been as rosy as Dr Morgan suggests. Had we not voted to leave the EU hundreds of thousands of migrants would have been eligible to move to the UK from Europe.

Dr Morgan is quoted as saying that "the Christian faith compels us to affirm the dignity of every human being and to offer help to anyone in need. Britain has always in the past shown generosity, kindness, solidarity and decency to those facing persecution, even at times of greater deprivation and difficulty than the present time" but unfortunately Muslims are not reading from the same book.

The Archbishop's words also sound very hollow to members of his own church who continue to believe in the authority of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. They have been left in a spiritual vacuum without sacramental assurance and pastoral support since Dr Morgan refused to appoint a replacement after Bishop David Thomas retired as Provincial Assistant Bishop eight years ago.

Politics were in evidence when Dr Morgan was thanked at the last meeting of the Governing Body for his "extraordinary" service to the Church. The Chair of the Governing Body’s Standing Committee praised the Archbishop for his Presidential Addresses and the sermons on "church governance matters, women bishops, the Anglican Covenant, etc. You have explored devolution, climate change, Gaza, gender and sexuality, parenting, assisted dying, organ donation and much more, he said as if Dr Morgan were retiring from the Welsh Assembly. He went on, you use public media so effectively that on all these issues the imperatives of the gospel are heard. They are always carefully constructed, based on extensive reading and scholarship, and learning lightly worn. They are listened to with respect even by those expert in their own field." Not a view taken by others when Dr Morgan's 'scholarship' was queried following his last Presidential Address entitled ‘Biblical stories can reveal a new understanding of same-sex relationships’. It was widelyridiculed.

The praise heaped on the Archbishop made no mention of the steep decline in church attendance or of the divisions caused in the Church in Wales under Dr Morgan's leadership. He must have had his tongue in his cheek when the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon praised Dr Morgan for his "leadership" of the Church in Wales "at a time when significant changes in society have caused us to examine some of our own disciplines, some of our own opinions and practices". Bishop John said that Dr Morgan's approach to walking those paths, to examining possible changes, has been to "remind us of scripture, tradition and reason" and has done that "cogently, consistently and compassionately". A more accurate description would have been in the absence of scripture, tradition and reason as Dr Morgan pursued his political agenda thus secularising a diminished Church.

It is clear that the bench of bishops live in their own little bubble. Although they claim membership of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church they go their own way having ignored pleas of the Orthodox and Catholic churches and forged closer bonds with local Free (or non-conformist) Churches under the guise of Ecumenism.

The bench of bishops appear to have their heads in the sand unless it is their ultimate desire simply to be a tiny segment in theUniting Church in Wales. In a tribute to the Bishop of St Davids as he prepares for retirement, Dr Morgan described Bishop Wyn as a "quintessential Dean and a rather reluctant bishop". That is true. Bishop Wyn is greatly admired for his extraordinary work as Dean of St Davids but in a video interview marking his retirement he sadly illustrates how the bishops of the Church in Wales all appear to become infected by 'Bazzeritis'.

Referring [@29 mins] to people who 'tend to slag the church off in terms of decline' Bishop Wyn highlights a small but stable congregation of 8, ignoring the massive decline in church attendance under Dr Morgan's leadership. If that had been his vision as Dean, his Cathedral would not be the jewel in the Church in Wales' crown that it is today, especially when compared with the sorry state of Dr Morgan's Llandaff Cathedral.

Is it any wonder that so many of us feel like refugees in our own Church?

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Conform not to the world!

Here we go again. From Christian Today 'Bishop and senior clergyman join calls for Church of England to lose equalities exemptions':

"The Church of England should lose its protections under the Equalities Act that allow it to discriminate against people on the basis of their sexuality, a bishop and senior clergyman have said today. Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool, and David Ison, the dean of St Paul's Cathedral, both backed Jeremy Pemberton, a gay priest who was blocked from being a hospital chaplain after marrying his partner. They are supporting the Ozanne Foundation, a charity launched on Monday campaigning against discrimination within religious institutions."

The episcopal rot which is leading to the demise of the US Episcopal Church spread rapidly to our shores as liberal clerics and laypersons saw an opportunity to use the church to legitimise their behaviour.

It has been reported that the 'Episcopal Church Prepares to Tighten Screws on Traditional Marriage Proponents', quoting Fr. Richard John Neuhaus’ law: “Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed.”

In supporting the Ozanne Foundation senior clergymen are simply conforming to the world without discernment. The Foundation jargon is 'We Believe in Just Love For All!' as if others do not. Failure to conform results in accusations of homophobia and more.

What people do in private is between them and God. It is not for others to judge but we have a right to stand firm in defence of holy matrimony which is between a man and a woman, to the exclusion of all others and for life.

Ozanne herself came out as gay to her friends and family. She then entered into a long term relationship with another woman, although they separated after five years together. Fidelity, it appears, is not included in 'Just Love For All'.

Who cares? Business manager bishops and senior clergy don't, leading others astray when they should be transformed.

David Ison, dean of St Paul's Cathedral told Christian Today: 'We've got to come to terms with the reality of the world we're in and we're not doing that. That is why we're becoming disconnected from society. The church is becoming disconnected from society because it has nothing different to offer.

Bishop Bayes told Christian Today, "I hope for a future whereby people like Jeremy [Pemberton] can feel that their ministry can be exercised and that they can love the person they love freely".  Pemberton is a divorced father of five.

The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church has decided to permit same-sex marriage. The Church in Wales bench of bishops can hardly contain their eagerness despite the absence of a mandate.

Gone are the days when Anglican bishops acted like bishops.

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Captions again please

Spotted on Twitter.

Archbishop sees the light in the naughty room after his Resurrection blunder?

As before, printable captions will be published under Comments.

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The Joy of Easter

The Easter message is the same whether celebrated in the simplicity of an Ethiopian Orthodox tent (above), the magnificence of a Russian Orthodox cathedral, the shared experience of the Holy Fire ceremony in Jerusalem or in an Anglican church.

But there is a difference in sharing that message. It is summed up by Bishop Gavin Ashenden in 'The Joy of Easter – Heaven not hell, Life not death. – A homily on the Resurrection 2018'.

For many of us in the Anglican Communion the mystery, the 'otherness', is something lost. Mystery has given way to thepolitics of inclusivity, engaging in the politics of public life rather than spreading the message

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Wishing all Orthodox readers a Happy and Blessed Easter.

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Let me tell you

Last night my wife and I settled down in front of the television to enjoy an evening at the Proms. We were in for a shock. The second item was Hans Abrahamsen’s Let me tell you, written specially for the soprano, Barbara Hannigan. She was in good voice with clear diction so we concluded that Ms Hannigan was actually singing gibberish in tune with political and religious life today.

Most of the utterances of politicians and senior church people sound like gibberish to those of us who recall days when there was a sense of order and progression rather than regression. Can it be any surprise then that those of much riper years feel that the world has been turned upside down. Politics and religion are not what they were. Minorities rule.

In past decades 'Statesman' was a part of our vocabulary, used to describe a skilled, experienced, and respected political leader or figure. It has become redundant, even archaic. But how many political and religious leaders or figures are worthy of respect when the traditional values we hold dear have been turned upside down, either to court public favour or to justify a particular lifestyle?

The allegations of a double life led by Keith Vaz MP is the latest in a string of scandals to hit the political elite in Parliament and another blow for Mr Vaz who, according to a Telegraph article published in 2009, "claimed more than £75,500 in expenses for a flat in Westminster despite his family home being a £1.15 million house just 12 miles from parliament"!

Sadly there is seldom any sense of shame in politics. Let me tell you has become the motto in public life. When David Cameron's luck ran out following his promised Brexit referendum in which the government substituted scaremongering and threats for facts, he didn't hesitate to reward his chums with honours for their failure and awarddisproportionate pay rises to his advisers.

We should be able to expect better from the church, particularly the Established Church of England but the same thumbs to the nose is in evidence. Encouraged by the success of WATCH in ignoring scripture and tradition the LGBT rencana is in full flow. Following the 'revelation' that the Bishop of Grantham is living in a gay relationship, a letter quickly appears from fourteen Church of England clergy in same-sex marriages calling on bishops to do more to include gay people in the life of the Church.

If gay people are not already included in the life of the church why are there so many gay clergy? They are included. What they really mean is included on their own terms to legitimise same sex marriage in church.

The Let me tell you attitude is about 'me' rather than 'you'. It has seen the meaning of inclusion, equality, love and respect so perverted that their true meaning is no longer acceptable, bringing charges of misogyny, homophobia, Islamophobia and the rest. Which brings me to transgenderrestrooms, the height of stupidity which puts minority 'rights' above the safety of women and children. It sums up theLet me tell you philosophy.

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Church in Wales attendance down 5% 2014-2015

Source: The Church in Wales Membership and Finances 2015

The average Sunday attendance of worshippers over 18 in the Church in Wales dropped another 5% between 2014 and 2015 according to the latest figures published in The Church in Wales Membership and Finances 2015. That represents just 0.9% of the population of Wales.

British Religion in Numbers (BRIN) puts the duduk perkara of declining numbers into perspective. In 2004 the Over 18 average attendance on Sundays was 41,771 making the 2015 figure of 29,019 all the more startling, a fall of 12,752 on the 2004 figure (-31%), but the Church in Wales simply carries on regardless continuing its "Gadarene slide" as VirtueOnline puts it in Viewpoints.

Attempts to bolster numbers by adding 'Non-traditional Acts of Worship' such as Animal blessings, Caf? Churches, Teenscreen clubs and Interfaith engagement have served only to emphasis the decline: "Overall, it would seem that just over 30,000 people in total participate in some form of nontraditional worship, compared with 36,000 in 2014danquot;.

The Membership and Finance Report (pdf) is way down the Agenda at item 19 for the next meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales to be held 14 - 15 September 2016. There will be a Motion: That the Governing Body do take note of this report.

Given the seriousness of the situation one would have thought that 'taking note' of the Report is somewhat short of the mark but with "Evangelism" coming last on the agenda it puts the current state of the Church in Wales in context.

The Report follows "Admission to Holy Communion ? Pastoral Letter " [item 18]. There is no clue as to what surprises the bishops have in store in their Pastoral Letter which is to be "distributed at the time", a device favoured by the bench sitters to avoid anyone with an enquiring mind being forewarned.

This is reminiscent of the same sex marriage manoeuvring and of the women bishops saga which provided a worthless code of practice for anyone who holds their faith in conscience making the forthcomingConference to "preserve the breadth of Anglicanism in Wales" all the more confusing. Dr Morgan has remained true to his word that there would be alternative Episcopal oversight in Wales 'over his dead body'. He retires as Archbishop of Wales in January 2017 so is there to be new life? Simply to carry on as before would make nonsense of the conference.

The un-Christian Jackson/Wigley Amendment to the women bishops legislation established that unlike other Anglican provinces 'provisions for conscience should not be included in the body of  formal legislation' and that 'legislation should not include structural provision to accommodate dissent' thus removing the prospect of any meaningful sacramental and pastoral provision for church members who in conscience could not accept the ministry of women bishops.

It would be absurd to have a male assistant to a woman bishop on whose authority he would act so given that there will be no "structural provision to accommodate dissent" in Wales the way forward must be to allow Society bishops to minister in Wales. The Welsh bishops have alreadyinvited US women bishops to celebrate the Eucharist in the Church in Wales and I see from Item 20 on the GB agenda, "Evangelism ? Report from the Evangelism Conferencedanquot;, that Bishop Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford, was able to lead 2 key sessions. To refuse loyal Anglicans access to Society bishops would not just be uncharitable, it would be hypocritical.

As the Church in Wales continues to decline in numbers the Ordinariate is increasing and is gaining more priests. In this month's edition of New Directions, the Chairman of Credo Cymru (FiF Wales) quotes the previous Archbishop of Wales Rowan Williams who stressed the value of promoting internal ecumenism. By allowing bishops from outside Wales to minister to 'traditionalists' the bench would regain some much needed credibility and provide a reason for worshippers to remain in the Church in Wales.

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Self inflicted pain

The UK’s first LGBTQIA+ chaplaincy has been officially launched by the Bishop of St Asaph.                                                      Source: Church in Wales

Almost one third of the Church of England's General Synod members has signed a letter urging the Church to make an "unequivocal declaration" in support of congregation members who identify as LGBT:

"We are keen that the College of Bishops is unequivocal in its acknowledgement that all, including those who identify as LGBTI, are essential to the health and future of our church and mission to the wider world." Synod member and LGBT activist Jayne Ozanne said: "I think our bishops are aware of the strength of feeling on the need to be seen as a church for all. I do believe they know they can't fudge this any longer. It's time for them to give a clear and unequivocal embrace to a community that is hurting[my emphasis - Ed.]." - From Christian Concern. Text of the letter and signatories here.

One of the signatories is the Revd Dr Rowan Williams, not the Rt Rev and Rt Hon the Lord Williams of Oystermouth but one of the Chaplains in the Diocese of York. While the Church in Wales has become accustomed to chaplains waving the rainbow flag, refreshingly there is no reference on the York Chaplaincy page to the LGBT community, presumably taking the line that if we are all the same there is no need for positive discrimination.

The position is reversed in Wales. The Bishop of St Asaph, Gregory Cameron, a former Chaplain to Archbishop Rowan Williams, has officially launched the UK?S first LGBTQIA chaplaincy which is to be led by the Revd Sarah Hildreth-Osborn.

According to the St Asaph web site, the Chaplaincy exists because "the Christian faith has something to offer everyone including LGBTQIA+ people". True but it goes on to allege that because the Church has "caused such hurt" [my emphasis - Ed.] to the LGBTQIA+ Community over many years "we now need to create safe, sacred space, welcome them among us and allow LGBTQIA+people to be who they are, wonderfully created in the image of God and loved just as much as anyone else!"

The promotional material states the objectives of the LGBTQIA chaplaincy which are to:

• Create safe, sacred space where LGBTQIA+ people can worship and share their stories
• Engender a sense of welcome and acceptance of LGBTQIA+ people across the Diocese
• Offer support to parishes who want to explore the creation of ministry specifically to the LGBTQIA+ Community
• Provide support to Clergy and a listening ear in matters which involve LGBTQIA+ people
• Initiate retreats and quiet days for members of the LGBTQIA+ Community and allies
• Raise awareness among secular groups and organisations e.g Young Peoples LGBTQIA+ Groups and Social Services of the existence of the Chaplaincy
• Work with existing Chaplaincies e.g. Coleg Cambrian Chaplaincy
• Liaise with Changing Attitude Cymru
• Become a continued presence within the Diocese and to be supportive in all that the Diocese is seeking to do in bringing the Gospel to all of God’s people
• The Chaplain to undertake training and networking with others involved in this ministry

Against such a list one wonders how Ms Hildreth-Osborn landed the job (I use the word advisedly) of Vicar of Llanrwst but the truth is that there is no impediment.

We are led to believe that gays and lesbians in the Church in Wales are an oppressed minority despite their representation in the clergy from bottom to top. The LGBT community are not only very well represented, some would say disproportionately, but they are becoming increasingly vocal in their demands. Any pain they feel is self inflicted. Many of us campaigned for civil partnerships only to see ourselves branded as bigots and homophobes simply because we defend the sanctity of marriage.

Compare the Church in Wales bishops' promotion of the LGBT agenda and their support for 'women in the church' with their oppression of traditional Christians who simply want to worship God according to scripture and tradition following the example of Jesus Christ.

MAECymru – supporting women in the Church in Wales - is also promoted on the St Asaph web site. The application form requires applicants to assert "I support diversity and equality in the Church in Wales". Pray that the bishops of the Church in Wales also support diversity and equality as the Archbishop and Bishop Gregory prepare to attend the Conference to preserve the breadth of Anglicanism in Wales.

Postscript [14.09.2016]

Archbishop of Wales uses final  Governing Body address to focus on same-sex relationships.

Archbishop Barry Morgan has used his final address to the Church in Wales’ governing body to argue that Christians can change their stance on homosexuality without abandoning their commitment to the Bible. See reports here and here, and here  and here for a more critical appraisals. He forcefully denied that the Church’s bishops had "ignored the Bible and were swayed by the liberal culture of our age".

As the Archdeacon of Cardigan William Strange put it, "I am sorry that the Archbishop has chosen as the subject of his final address a topic he has spoken on many times before, and on which his views are already well known. I would have welcomed something new on a less well-worn theme".

Women priests, women bishops, homosexuals and same sex marriage in a collapsing church. And Barry believes we have been waiting dua,000 years to have the Bible clarified by him. A sad end to a sad episcopacy.

Postscript [15.09.2016]

@PeterOuld - Looks like Barry Morgan made an excellent argument yesterday for the @ChurchinWales to bless polygamy and incest.

Https://twitter.Com/PeterOuld

There's more on Twitter:

Christians who have supported slavery did so *against* the clear teaching in the NT against it. Barry Morgan's speech today bad theology.

Postscript [16.09.2016]

A Response to the Archbishop of Wales? Defense of Same-Sex Relationships from 'Bible and Mission' (H/T Anglican Mainstream):

"The Archbishop’s logic might suggest that, because Scripture offers different perspectives on certain other issues, it therefore must have different perspectives on adultery, or bestiality, or incest.  As it happens, Scripture uniformly condemns all these as well as homosexual acts." In full here.

Postscript [17.09.2016]

"We ?Have evolved? From the Bible?S teaching on divorce, why not gay ?Marriage??" - Archbishop of Wales speaking at the Governing Body in April 2014:

"Holy Scripture itself is far more nuanced, subtle and complex than we often realize...We cannot just quote Biblical texts on different subject matters and think that that settles an issue [my emphasis - Ed.]. It is easy to opt for prohibitions in Scripture and regard them as the word of the Lord and forget that the Bible contains stories which also convey God’s word to us. Jesus, he added, 'had nothing to say about gay marriage' as the archbishop counseled homosexuals to be patient with regard to the Anglican Church’s attitude towards homosexuality".

The speech was taken as 'encouragement' by homosexual activists. Average weekly attendance dropped lima% between 2014 and 2015.

Postscript [04.10.2016]

CAIRO: Egyptian Anglican Archbishop Says Anglican Communion must stay Faithful despite False Teachings

Same-Sex Marriage repudiated as mendasar departure from the faith.

We are not homophobic when we reject unbiblical views on human sexuality, says Archbishop

Full texthere (H/T Anglican mainstream)

Postscript [08.10.2016]

THE ARCHBISHOP AND THE BIBLE ? A RESPONSE TO ARCHBISHOP BARRY MORGAN?S PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS -REFLECTIONS OF AN ANGLICAN THEOLOGIAN

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A Call to Persevere

The bishops of St Asaph, St Davids, Monmouth, Llandaff (Abp), Swansea & Brecon and Bangor.

Credit: South Wales Argus

The Pastoral Letter from the Bishops of the Church in Wales to "all the faithful" concerning admission to Holy Communion of all the baptised "by virtue of their Baptism alone" has been published on the Diocese of St Davids web site. It can be read here. Its contents remained secret until it was introduced at the recent meeting of the Governing Body (GB) of the Church in Wales raising some suspicion that another round of duplicity might be expected from the Bench of Bishops.

Fine details have yet to emerge but whatever one's views on the subject one thing is clear, the Bench of Bishops has been inconsistent. They hark back to history and tradition to support their case in this instance while scripture and tradition have been confined to the bin on just about every other matter under Archbishop Barry Morgan's guidance.

Dr Morgan's final GB Presidential Address provided an excellent opportunity to sum up the current state of the Church in Wales as he prepares for hisretirement as the longest serving primate in the Anglican Communion. That, instead, he chose to bend Holy Scripture to support his views on the divisive issue of same sex marriage rather than address the decline in membership of the church under his leadership suggests that his political agenda always takes precedence over the spiritual well-being of his flock.

Rumour has it that Dr Morgan wants one more liberal feather in his hat before he retires in January, the appointment of the first woman bishop in Wales. The diocese of St Davids will become vacant when Bishop Wyn Evans retires in October. Originally a monastic community founded c. AD 589 by Saint David, the Patron saint of Wales, St Davids has been a centre of pilgrimage since the Cathedral was built the 12th century. The shrine was regarded as so important that it was decreed that two pilgrimages to St Davids were equivalent to one to Rome, three were equivalent to one to Jerusalem. St Davids remains an important centre of pilgrimage to this day.

When David died in the year 589 the monastery is said to have been 'filled with angels as Christ received his soul'.  St David'sfinal words to his followers were: 'Be Joyful.  Keep the Faith.  Do the little things that you have heard and seen me do.'

If a political gesture is allowed to take precedence over faith in the appointment to the See of St Davids it will be the final nail in the coffin for the faithful.

A Call to Persevere

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

FromThe Letter of Jude

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Living with Diversity

From left to right: The Rt Revd Gregory Cameron (Bishop of St Asaph); The Rt Revd Rachel Treweek (Bishop of Gloucester);

The Revd Canon Jeffrey Gainer (Chairman, Credo Cymru) The Rt Revd Philip North (Bishop of Burnley); The Rt Revd Jonathan Goodall

(Bishop of Ebbsfleet) and The Most Revd Barry Morgan (Archbishop of Wales). Source: Credo Cymru

'The English Experience of Living with Diversity' was the title of an address given by the Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Rev'd Rachel Treweek, to the Credo Cymru conference held in Cardiff on 21-22 September under the heading 'That Nothing Be Lost: A Conference to Preserve the Breadth of Welsh Anglicanism'.

Book ending participants in the above photograph are the Bishop of St Asaph and the Archbishop of Wales who chose not to live with diversity when the Governing Body of the Church in Wales agreed that women could be made bishops in Wales. In consequence many devout Christians have since left the Church in Wales with catastrophic effects on attendance figures and consequent finances. For those who have remained in hope, the current dialogue represents the best opportunity for something to be salvaged from a Code of Practice which not only lacks charity but smacks of vindictiveness.

In his address the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Rev'd Jonathan Goodall, quoted the then Archbishop of Canterbury replying to a Church of England debate on the same subject. Abp Rowan Williams said,

?People have talked at times about differences of opinion and how the Church

can live with differences of opinion. I think that the dilema is for those who

are not content with the idea that we should go forward along the line of

ordaining women as bishops, the persoalan is not one of opinion, it?S rather of

obedience. It?S one of obedience to scripture, or obedience to the consensus of

the Church Catholic. And, while that?S not a view I wholly share, I think we

ought to recognise that that?S where it comes from, that those who hold that are

not just thinking this is a matter of opinion, and therefore it is rightly and

understandably a lot harder to deal with dissent if you?Re talking what

fundamentally comes down to a question of whether you obey God or human

authority. That?S why it?S serious, that?S why it's difficult. More than opinion.?

The Credo Cymru Media Release (here) quotes the Bishop of St Asaph, the Rt Rev'd Gregory Cameron, asking ‘hard questions’ in his keynote address:

Did the Church in Wales really mean what it said in the canon enabling women to be bishops ? That traditionalists should be given ?A sense of security in their accepted and valued place within the Church in Wales?? Did traditionalists really want to be in communion with the Bench of Bishops? He thought it ?Very, very unlikely? That the Church in Wales would establish any form of supplemental episcopal ministry, but recognized that traditionalists needed a corporate life. He encouraged them to explore ?Double belonging?: loyal both to the fellowship of their diocese (with canonical obedience to the diocesan bishop) and to their own (non-political) fellowship (with ?Affective loyalty? To a bishop, whose friendship, trust and relationships with the Bench of Bishops would be crucial).

Obedience is the key. Conscience, or, as Abp Rowan put it, the problem of 'obedience' rather than 'opinion', whether you obey God or human authority. Thiscannot simply be superseded by loyalty to "the fellowship of their diocese (with canonical obedience to the diocesan bishop)". There has to be give and take on both sides, 'transformation of conflict' as Bishop Rachel Treweek succinctly put it.

I have heard differing interpretations of what Bishop Gregory said, some more cynical than others. In my view it would have been the height of cruelty for the bishops of the Church in Wales to enter into discussions offering no hope. If 'double belonging' means anything it must surely mean living with diversity, something that the Anglican Communion is well accustomed to as a broad church.

On 23 September the Church Times published an article under the headline,‘Your Grace’ receives farewell tributes. The report was followed byanother, 'Traditionalists try to build bridges', referring to the Credo Cymru conference. It reminded readers of the final straw for many of the only significant minority not to be favoured by the current Archbishop - closing the door to any meaningful pastoral and sacramental integrity: "Any attempt to approach another bishop elsewhere to provide episcopal ministry would have 'very serious implications' ", a threat one hopes is regretted if the Church in Wales is to live with diversity.

In the absence of a separate structure for Wales along the lines of the Church of England model, the simplest way forward is for visiting bishops from The Society to provide an additional episcopal ministry, the‘double belonging’ as Bishop Gregory put it, for mutual flourishing.

Update [28.09.2016]

Two further papers delivered at the "That Nothing Be Lostdanquot; Conference last week have been added to those previously posted (here).

Update [04.10.2016]

The keynote Address by the Rt Rev'd Gregory Cameron, Bishop of St Asaph has been added to the Credo Cymru web site. You can read it here.

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Tolerance - Acceptance - Oppression

From Christian Concern : "83 UK evangelical leaders from a variety of backgrounds, churches and organisations have signed a letter to the College of Bishops, regarding The Church of England’s current discussions on the issue of human sexuality. They urge the Church of England 'not to depart from the apostolic inheritance with which they have been entrusted', while affirming one-man, one-woman marriage as 'the only context in which physical expression is to be given to our sexuality'.

The letter follows two previous letters to bishops from members of the Church of England?S General Synod, which urged the Church to uphold biblical teaching on this issuedanquot;. Full text here.

It beggars belief that the College of Bishops needs to be urged to uphold biblical teaching but that is where Western Anglicanism finds itself today after years of liberalisation. Constant chipping away at the faith has left many so bewildered that they have left the church altogether, starkly illustrated by recent figures which show that less than 1% of the population of Wales regularly attend Church in Wales services on a Sunday with a similar decline recorded by the Church of England.

The Church of England is now considering moves to abandon* the sah requirement to hold regular services of morning and evening prayer in parish churches because of declining congregations. In Wales, parishes are being replaced by 'Ministry Areas'. Mystery has been been replaced by management. Churches have become an extension of the workplace ignoring scripture and tradition to substitute spurious claims of equality of opportunity in the workplace for theology.

Anglican women clergy have become firmly established at all levels leading tocalls to refer to God as a woman. Women And The Church (WATCH) leads the charge after their successful campaign for female bishops, claiming that the shift away from the traditional patriarchal language of the Book of Common Prayer is at an "advanced' stage". To cater for this new found 'faith', one church went so far as to request that the Holy Table could be used to serve tea, biscuits and orange squash!

Receiving bread and wine in a Holy space is, or should be, far removed from socialising over tea and biscuits. When mystery is subsumed by worldly understanding there is no otherness which enables campaigning organisations to spring up seeking to make human frailties acceptable, even respectable.

This has culminated in the campaign for same sex marriage leading to the loss of livelihood for some devout Christians. A small family bakery has been forced to close down in the US after the owners refused to make a cake for a lesbian wedding. They were fined $135,000.

Last year a judge in Northern Ireland ruled that a Christian-run bakery discriminated against a gay customer by refusing to make a cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan. The firm was found to have discriminated on the grounds of sexual orientation and political beliefs. Florists are not exempt.

Christian beliefs are becoming marginalised, largely due to the efforts of those who were shown tolerance and understanding but accepting minority behaviour as 'normal' is not reciprocated. It turns into oppression.

* Update [18.10.2016]

See alsoChurch of England considers abandoning requirement for Sunday services from The Telegraph followed by "Why is the Anglican Church in crisis?"

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50th Anniversary meeting

Archbishop Justin Welby with Pope Francis at Vespers in the Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio

Some may have thought that the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the meeting between Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsay in 1966 was an odd event given the changes that have taken place between 1966 and 2016, particularly the ordination of women and questions regarding human sexuality in the Anglican Church.

A joint declaration admits that issues of women and homosexuality are "currently insurmountable", thus shattering the promises of the earlier 1966 meeting. But an understanding is being sought to make some sort of progress out of the rubble that has been created by the unilateral actions of some churches in the Anglican Communion against the wishes of the much larger Catholic and Orthodox churches.

In his sermon Justin Welby referred to the 'Good Shepherd', a theme which will be familiar to regular readers of this blog, and to the good sheep and the bad sheep, enabling those assembled to categorize themselves along doctrinal lines, each assuming any fault lay on the other side. Nevertheless, it must be seen as a positive step that the two leaders are 'undeterred'.

In aCommon Declaration Pope Francis and Archbishop Welby declared that"While we ourselves do not yet see solutions to the obstacles before us, we are undeterred."Their 'sending out' of  pairs of Catholic and Anglican bishops shows a willingness to work together, something that the Church in Wales is belatedly learning to do,living with diversity within its own structure.

Update [09.10.2016]

The ACNS lists the pairs of Commissioned bishops covering 19 countries/areas. There is no mention of Wales or Scotland so unless 'England' is intended to cover Great Britain, Wales and Scotland will be excluded from the united mission "to those who are captive and oppresseddanquot;.

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Gender

Source: Wikipedia

Yesterday morning three youngsters were interviewed on BBC breakfast TV with theirQuidditch equipment, a semi-inflated bladder and a tennis sized ball in a long knotted sock which would have been instantly recognizable to Harry Potter fans.

Had the third guest not left it on the train, there would also have been a broomstick which, as can be seen in the illustration, is somewhat awkwardly straddled as the player 'flies' down the pitch.

The three youths (from their appearance, one female and two males) explained how the game was played. When the interviewer asked if the teams were mixed, the girl (from her appearance) confidently explained in the most matter of fact manner that the participants did not have to be binary.

There were mixed genders, males, females, transgenders and anything in between but no more than four of a particular 'gender' would be permitted. This self assured answer gave the impression that the interviewer was somewhat backward in his understanding of gender.

Checking blog traffic after breakfast I noticed this headline on Anglican Mainstream: Transgender Advocates ?Aim to Destroy? Common Sense, Says Analysis

Sanity restored.

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The oppressor wins

The Gay Marriage cake                                                 Source: Metro

Christian bakers have been found to have discriminated against a gay man by refusing to make a cake bearing a pro-gay marriage jargon having lost their appeal against a previous ruling that they had breached equality legislation . Full report here.

The case was brought by a member of the LGBT advocacy group Queer Space who had "wanted a cake featuring Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie with the phrase ?Support Gay Marriage? For a private function marking International Day Against Homophobia".

According to the group's website their 'mainstreaming' operating practice is to strive to ensure respect for individuals and positive images of the LGBT community are integrated into everyday life of individuals, communities and organizations. They have failed on both counts.

Where is the equality in legislation which permits discrimination against what now appear to be minority Christian values?

It is no more 'homophobic' to oppose same sex marriage than it is to be 'Islamophobic' to be aware of the dangers posed by the Islamization of Europe.

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The Welsh language, same-sex and the Church in Wales

Outside St Davids Cathedral "Another First for Canon Joanna, Bishop-elect."  Source: Church in Wales

"From the beginning, the Welsh language was given equality with English in the constitution and liturgy of the Church in Wales, and throughout the twentieth century some of its priests were prominent in Welsh literature." - The Church in Wales, Facing Difficulties

One hundred years after disestablishment, the Church in Wales' 2020 Vision is to "re-imagine itself in order to serve its communities more effectively... We need a cultural change in the kind of church we are". That is what the Archbishop of Walestold theThe Time Is Now conference in 2014.

For the bishop elect of St Davids the kind of church she wants is based on what has been rejected by the Church in Wales, most strongly by the good people of St Davids. Her stated priority is "To encourage us that we are not simply trying to keep the show on the road but we are trying to live out our gospel of the risen Christ and the reality of God’s Holy Spirit and to live that out in our real communities, encouraging people to live out their faith in surprising and different ways, not feeling guilty that the future may look different from the past but feeling encouraged that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever and is as relevant to Wales in the 21st century as he has been through the centuries until now. But how that plays out may look very different".

Listening to Canon Penberthy on Radio 4 [@12.30] "our gospel" is the gospel according to Dr Barry Morgan. Women clergy, gay blessings and working towards same sex marriage in church. When interviewed Ed Stourton asked what sort of discrimination she had suffered. She replied it was "blank incomprehension" that she would want to exercise her own ministry rather than help her husband. Not the sort of aggravation implied by her earlier "prejudice and discrimination" claim. The implication is that lay ministry was not good enough which hardly fits with the ideas of '2020 Vision'.

So the bishop elect of St Davids, the most conservative diocese in the Province, is a liberal minded woman who on her own admission is not a fluent Welsh speaker either:

"Improving my Welsh is a priority for me now. I was in Welsh-speaking parishes in north Carmarthenshire before and people were very generous and I did learn to take services in Welsh which were received well. But I was always a bit cowardly about the conversations and I think I’ll be looking for money to go on a Welsh immersion course where I will have to take the bull by the horns and have the courage to speak the language. I really want to do it  – we are a bilingual nation and the Welsh language is one of our jewels, if not our life blood."

To quote further from 'Facing Difficulties': "The Church, as ever, wishes to see the Welsh language survive and flourish, but it can do nothing without the support of its members. The Welsh language is a gift from God to all who live in Wales. It is our privilege and responsibility to use and promote it in our future mission and ministry". Surely that should have been uppermost in the mind of the facilitator for the diocese of St Davids.

'Facing difficulties' ends with the question: "How can you promote the use of the Welsh language in the Church in your area?" For a start the facilitator should have ensured that the bishop elect was a fluent Welsh speaker familiar with the diocese which is the spiritual home of the Church in Wales and a place of pilgrimage drawing people from around the world.

Disestablishment was born out of dissatisfaction with English-speaking landowners and "anti-Welshdanquot; attitudes within the Church. Based on the appointment of the bishop elect of St Davids, heritage clearly counts for nothing. Moving forward, or "re-imagine itselfdanquot;, is based not on scripture and tradition but on sexual licence and equality of opportunity in the workplace where secular attitudes to 'equality' count more than theology.

The Electoral College meets behind closed doors so that everything can be done in secret leaving regular churchgoers unaware of how the President stage manages the proceedings in a situation where many members hold their positions under his patronage especially the bishops.

If this candidate matched the diocesan profile either profile was way off the mark or it was prepared to fulfil the requirements of the President who is on record as claiming that "she was deemed to be the best person to be a bishopdanquot;. If the sacred synod had any spunk they would not confirm this election.

Postscript [08.11.2016]

From Western Mail letters: Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Not quite the successors of St David

When the new woman bishop-designate of St David?S was on Radio Four on Sunday morning being interviewed she had at least the decency to admit that the Church in Wales blesses gay marriages.

When the male bishops deviously introduced such prayers, they claimed they were not blessings!

She also unequivocally stated that she is in favour of full same-sex marriage. Well, she is entitled to her beliefs, but if she seriously thinks she (and her male colleagues) are the legitimate actual successors of St David, they deceive themselves.

They may have the medieval cathedrals, the episcopal props and the endowments but they are self-evidently not bishops in the Church of God, pledged under sacred vow to banish away strange doctrines.

Robert Ian Williams

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