Pentecost - residents of Wales

Source: FiF

From Acts 2: "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place... Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting... When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? ... Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, 'What does this mean?' "...

"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common."

No longer for residents of Wales who worship in the Church in Wales.

To their shame the bishops of the Church in Wales claim to be successors of the Apostles but they do not behave like the Apostles to ensure that we all have equal opportunity to flourish within the Anglican Communion.

Forward in Faith has produced a card (reproduced above) with the Church of England's 'Five Guiding Principles following the House of Bishops' Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests'. The Church of England acknowledges that "its own clear decision on ministry and gender" is set within a broader process of discernment within the Anglican Communion and the whole Church of God.

Those unable to receive the ministry of women as bishops or priests are within the spectrum of Anglican teaching and tradition and will be enabled to flourish. So, pastoral and sacramental provision for the minority within the Church of England has been made without specifying a limit of time and in a way that maintains the highest possible degree of communion and contributes to mutual flourishing across the whole Church of England.

Adopting only four of the guiding principles, and contrary to the wishes of Church members expressed at diocesan meetings held specifically for the purpose of discerning their views, the unprincipled bishops of the Church in Wales dropped the fifth principle and inserted:

Since the Code of Practice needs to be both strong and flexible enough to respond to a changing situation in the future, and since the Governing Body has entrusted the Bench of Bishops with the task of agreeing a Code which commits the Bench to making provisions for all the members of the Church in Wales, the Bench reserves the right to amend the provisions of this Code as may be necessary in the future.

The Code of Practice made no meaningful concessions to those for whom the Code was intended. In fact, the inference to be drawn from the revised wording by the Bench is that church life for those unable to receive the ministry of  women bishops or priests on grounds of theological conviction can only get worse. Perhaps it is just too difficult for bishops devoid of conscience to comprehend the beliefs of those who do.

So for residents of Wales whose bishops speak in alien tongues, having "everything in commondanquot; is as far away in the Church in Wales as the Apostolic Succession.