Christ with His bride the church, William with his bride Catherine, brought together in a service of simple splendour. Pomp with taste treating the nation to beautiful imagery, music and prayer restoring Christ's church to how it should be, God centred and inspiring. Every blessing be upon them.
Postscript
In his Blog the BBC's Head of Religion posted the following response to the Telegraph article:
"The Sunday Telegraph article quotes me as saying that the BBC should not give Christianity preferential treatment. The question I was actually asked was whether minority faiths should be treated differently from other faiths - to which I replied that all faiths should be treated in the same way and that I don't believe in treating any faith differently."
An interesting observation but does Aaquil Ahmed seriously believe that the faiths of 3% and less of the population should receive the same coverage as that of around 78% of the population?
The 2001 census figures illustrate the point:
... according to the French feminist author and philosopher Elizabeth Badinter in reviews of her book Conflict, Women and Mothers. Reports suggest that she and her feminist friend, Sabine Salmon, president of Femmes Solidaire have little time for French schoolgirls who express the desire to stay at home rather than follow a career. "A very worrying indicator" was Mme. Salmon's verdict.
Mme. Badinter rails against the new image of the "ideal Mother" who breast feeds for six months before returning to work, rejects (on ecology grounds) disposable nappies and occasionally lets her baby sleep in her bed.
Feminists have a different thrust in England where, through WATCH (Women and the Church), they are currently busy emasculating the Established Church in the guise of equality (in Wales their Archbishop is doing the job for them) so perhaps girls here will be spared condemnation for using their own free will until that job is complete.
How long before the inconvenience of motherhood is completely avoided by conceiving in a dish and raising children like battery hens leaving 'mothers' free of maternal responsibility?
Public spirited, second group (rail) citizens prepared to work anti-social hours, usually away from home, with non-negotiable salary and restricted allowances, interested in an unique opportunity to help run other people?S lives.
Provided you are not a peer of the realm, ?Established? Clergyman or a complete lunatic (other restrictions may apply) with ?500 to spare and you are a British, Commonwealth or Irish citizen you could consider election as a Member of Parliament for one of the 646 seats in the forthcoming General Election.
You must be over 18 years of age and be nominated by ten parliamentary electors of the constituency in which you wish to stand. By not submitting yourself to the rigours of any political party selection process you would be an Independent candidate joining other do-gooders with disparate ideas and no cohesive policy for restoring Britain?S greatness.
Reports that Gay and Lesbian couples could soon be allowed to “marry” in church strike a wrong note. According to The Times, “senior bishops in the Lords have [said] that they will support an amendment to the Equality Bill next month that will lift the ban on civil partnership ceremonies in religious premises. The amendment would remove the legislative prohibition on blessings of homosexual couples and open the door to the registration of civil partnerships in churches, synagogues, mosques and all other religious premises.”
The introduction of civil partnerships righted a serious wrong but that is what they are. To blur the distinction between a civil partnership and a religious ceremony in which marriage is proclaimed in the Anglican Marriage Service Preface as “the foundation of family life in which children are born and nurtured” is nonsense. Civil partners “in good times and in bad, may find strength, companionship and comfort, and grow to maturity in love” but they are not “married”.
Today is decision day. Some will already have cast their votes while others, unless they have an unbending party allegiance, still look for inspiration. There is no point in looking to the press, since most of the newspapers serve their paymasters not the readers.
I have generally regarded the BBC as impartial but today the Mail Online runs the story: “For days the BBC has been banging the drum for the Lib Dems. But then we should never underestimate their hatred of the Tories”. ‘Hatred’; that’s a bit strong but we know where the The Mail is coming from. The BBC puts out a lot of information but not many people these days have the patience to listen/watch over an extended period which is one of the reasons I thought the CH 4 programme I blogged on previously so good.
I am indebted to an alert follower for this link to a broadcast on Christmas Day describing how one women battled against discrimination. A remarkable woman; God bless her.
"Priscilla, Queen of iPM listeners. Doctor, lawyer and theologian, Priscilla Noble-Mathews talks about her life, death and the hereafter. A homesick wartime evacuee, she's faced down sexism and ageism to work her way from the Bar, through the civil service to medicine. In what many would regard as her retirement, Priscilla has found new challenges working with a helicopter rescue team, risking her own life for others."
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British Army recruitment drive. Source: Telegraph CREDIT: ARMY/PA WIRE |
It has afflicted politics. It has afflicted the Church. It has afflicted schools. - the latest example here. Now it is afflicting the British Army. The advancement of minorities has reached absurd levels.
The latest government reshuffle boasted of fairness to women and fairness to ethnic minorities. With merit giving way to political correctness, some junior and middle ranking appointees must be wondering if, by upping the numbers of women in government and new ministers from ethnic minorities, their success had more to do with their colour or gender than merit. Selection should be based on merit not positive discrimination for political correctness.
Anglicanism is obsessed with sex and minorities while some schools seem set on confusing children even more than they need be when growing up by encouraging transgenderism which has resulted in alarming increases in gender dysphoria. Toilet facilities which have stood the test of time are being changed to satisfy the sensitivities of a few transgender people and gender-neutral language has been introduced in place of gender specific pronouns to avoid making assumptions.
A new politically correct Army recruitment drive includes a series of films which ask "Can I be gay in the Army?" and "What if I get emotional in the Army?", in a bid to appeal to potential soldiers from different backgrounds. There is a clip explaining how space can be made available to allow Muslims to pray.
Retired Army officer Major General Tim Cross commented on the recruitment drive saying, "It happens to focus on the Muslim community; my point is we have Gurkhas, we have Sikhs, all faiths represented in the British Army, and what we don't want to be doing is isolating other people by focusing on these particular communities."
Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said it was "neglecting the main class of people who are interested in joining" and will not solve the "recruiting crisis".
The head of the Army, General Sir Nick Carter, said that the rethink was forced by the fact that there are 25% fewer white 16 to 25-year-old males - a group that traditionally formed the force's recruitment base. He said: "Our traditional cohort would have been white, male, Caucasian 16 to 25-year-olds and there are not as many of those around as there once were, and our society is changing and I think it's entirely appropriate for us therefore to try and reach out to a much broader base to get the talent we need in order to stay in that combat effectiveness."
That sounds very much like today's Anglican Church. Ignore the main class and advance minorities regardless of the consequences. There is a wider issue here. One of normalisation, currently being used by progressives in the Church, familiarity brings acceptance.
Islam is a supremacist ideology. Anyone who watched 'House of Saud: A Family at War' on BBC2 last night should be left in no doubt of the seriousness of the problem of funding so-called 'extremists', often fighting each other for being perceived as the wrong sort of Muslim. They are not extremists. They are following their faith to the letter as they understand it. For many it is what they have been led to believe.
According to a UN study, "Young men who leave their homes to fight for terrorist groups in Syria mainly come from disadvantaged backgrounds, have low levels of education and 'lack any basic understanding of the true meaning of jihad or even the Islamic faith'."
Ironically the Quran cannot be verified and questioning the Quran is not allowed. In his articleWhat, Indeed, Is the Quran?(H/T Anglican Mainstream)the Rev James V. Achall, SJ writes:
"The Quran is a book that tells us of the life and mission of Muhammad, the prophet. The book specifically denies that Christ was the Son of God or that there is otherness in the Godhead. Yahweh and Allah is not the same God. In the Quran, Christianity as such is simply rejected as having no validity. It need not be totally suppressed if its members accept second-group citizenship and pay a tax. We may not like to hear this teaching, but no good Muslim, unless he is trying to deceive us, has any doubt that Allah is exactly as he is described in the Quran. The Quran is a book about man?S complete submission to Allah. It will gladly overturn the world to make this submission prevail. It will only fail if it is prevented."
By constantly embracing Islam's supremacist ideology it is being validated when it should be contested, explaining that it is Islam that has no validity and that failure to scrutinise the ideology condemns about a fifth of the world’s population to unnecessary servitude rather than God's mercy.
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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| Laverne Cox, Jeffrey Tambor, Ellen DeGeneres, Asia Kate Dillon and Ben Whishaw. |
The great LGBT TV revolution Photograph: Guardian design
LGBT+ promotion is back in the news, this time with an attempt to indoctrinate school children .
On this blog I previously commented on the extraordinary LGBT campaign to get Jeffrey John made bishop of Llandaff. In response there have been unsubstantiated claims that this blogger peddles lies. No doubt I shall again be branded as homophobic for this entry. So be it. The issue is far too important to ignore.
From Saturday'sGuardian applauding the high visibility of LGBT characters, ‘You didn’t win, we won’: the great LGBT TV revolution. If viewers do not like what they see they can switch off.
The book by Andrew Brown and Linda WoodheadThat was the Church That Was: How the Church of England Lost the English People seeks to explain the disappearance of the Church of England from the centre of public life having lost half of its members and much of its influence since the Thatcher years. In a church in which you no longer appear to matter unless you are gay or a feminist you can leave.
Toddlers and older school children do not have that choice. The National Union of Teachers have gone far too far in calling for the promotion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) issues to children, starting at nursery.
From Voice for Justice UK:We call on the National Union of Teachers to withdraw its motion promoting LGBT+ issues to toddlers.
You can sign their petition here .
The impact of persistent violence on the Church in Northern Nigeria has been highlighted in a report by Open Doors. You can read the Report here.
The research shows that decades of targeted religious violence has had an even larger impact on the Church in Northern Nigeria than previously expected. The violence against Christians in the region has resulted in thousands of people killed, including between 9,000 to 11,500 Christians ? A conservative estimation according to this report. A large number of Christian properties have been destroyed, including 13,000 churches that have either been destroyed or closed down.
According to the report, over a million Christians in Northern Nigeria have become internally displaced or have settled in other areas of Nigeria in search of safety and security.
"More Anglicans die at the hands of Boko Haram than all Christians in Middle East" says the Rt. Rev. Jacob Kwashi, Bishop of Zonkwa, in northern Nigeria in a Virtue Online interview.
Also in the interview, "GAFCON Primates say they will not accept gifts from TEC [The Episcopal Church] or TWS [Trinity Wall Street] to be turned on [the] Gay Issue. In three years, Welby will be forced to take a stand, or watch as [the] Communion splits".
There are more than 20 million Nigerian Anglicans. Meanwhile the comparatively small Anglican Church in the West faces defeat from within as the chipping away of faith and tradition continues and the secular rencana intensifies.
How ironic that the centre of Anglicanism has become the source of its own destruction.
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| US Episcopal Diocese of Washington Votes to Avoid Using ‘Gendered Pronouns’ for God in Book of Common Prayer Source: Christian News |
From a Sunday Times report (£): "The Church of England has warned its American sister church that it could be kicked out of the global Anglican family if it forces priests to use a gay-friendly marriage ceremony that relegates the importance of bearing children.
"In a strongly worded eight-laman letter, William Nye, the Church of England?S secretary-general, told the Episcopal Church that it could face ?Stringent consequences? If it replaced the marriage rites in its Book of Common Prayer with a gender-neutral ceremony that removed all reference to procreation."
In February this year Christian News reported:"The Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. Voted on Saturday to stop using 'gendered pronouns' for God in future revisions of its Book of Common Prayer and to ?Remove all obstacles? For ?Transgender? Participation in church life by making all gender-specific facilities and activities accessible to those who identify as the opposite sex.
"It was passed by a show of hands during the 123rd Convention of the Washington Diocese with only a few opposed, according to Strategic Communications Director Richard Wosson Weinberg."
This morning on the BBC's Breakfast TV show the 'Prada priestess', the Rev Sally Hitchiner,founder of Diverse Church, took the opportunity not only to publicise her LGBT credentials but to highlight gender dysphoria, a condition which is thought to affect 0.07% of the population. To put this into perspective pleasewatch this short (6 min) video.
Anglican clergy should be aware that the media feeds on sensationalism. Consequently the church militant is obscured by the church deviant as bishops and priests constantly trot out their propaganda, making the Church appear little more than a refuge for those who are allegedly mistreated.
It is right that the church shows concerned for vulnerable minorities but what of the far greater cloud of witnesses abandoned by their church? Without them them Anglicanism will die.
Faith by balloting like-minded activists is not the historic catholic faith received from the Apostles. The consequences are very much in evidence.
Postscript [24.04.2018]
The LGBT pressure group OneBodyOneFaith has sent a strongly-worded letter to William Nye "after the emergence late last week of a letter he wrote last October to The Episcopal Church, on behalf of the Archbishops' Council". It disassociates the group from the letter which, they claim, "has been met with anger, frustration and disappointment by many across the Church of England, on whose behalf you presume to speak. We wish to add the voices of our members to those calling for a more courageous, just and Christ-like response to what has become – we wish it were not so – the issue on which many will judge our church, and find it sorely wanting."
What the class believes can be read here. One of the groups objects is "to advance the education of the public on the needs and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Christians, and promote acceptance of diversity, so that they may be able to live without fear of rejection or recrimination and be fully included in the life and ministry of the Church".
It is a mystery how so many LGBT people flourish at senior levels in the church if what the class claims were true.
A more balanced approach is reported in CRUX: The bishops of England and Wales have raised concerns over the rise of gender ideology, saying it is creating confusion among people about the truth of human nature. In a statement issued at the end of their April 16-19 bi-annual plenary meeting in Leeds, the bishops acknowledged some people did not ?Accept their biological sex? But said they, as pastors, were ?Committed to their pastoral care.?
The bishops said the notion that gender was a social construct rather than a biological fact ran counter to the intuition of most people. ?The idea that the individual is free to define himself or herself dominates discourse about gender. Yet our human instinct is otherwise,? They said in the statement. [Full report here]
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| Victor Sylvester and partner Photo Credit: Photo Agency/Fanpix |
The BBC's much anticipated Strictly Come Dancing spectacular climaxed on Saturday night.
By public vote the winner was ex-Emmerdale soap opera star Kelvin Fletcher and his partner Oti Mabuse.
For those of us long enough in the tooth to remember Victor Sylvester and the BBC Television Dancing Club, Kelvin's samba was a million miles away from ballroom dancing of old but re-captured by Emma Barton with her partner Anton Du Beke in their Viennese Waltz.
This Twitter clip sums up the change.
Just like the church and society!
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| Church wedding Source: Church of England |
While Anglican clergy, and Church in Wales bishops in particular, pursue their goal of same sex marriage in church, the latest figures indicate that fewer people are opting to make their relationship official with a traditional church wedding.
Figures published in Christian Today show that just 54,000 people chose a church wedding in 2017 - the lowest number on record - marking a steep drop from 184,000 in 1987. Religious ceremonies overall accounted for less than a quarter (23%) of marriages between opposite-sex couples in 2017.
"The statistics reflect a general drop in the number of people tying the knot, with a total of 242,842 marriages in England and Wales, down dua.8 per cent on the previous year and the lowest since records began in 1862. Of these marriages, some 6,932 were between same-sex couples.
"The figures continue to show a long-term decline in heterosexual couples choosing to wed, with numbers falling by 45% since 1972."
Ironically the bishops' desire to extend marriage in church to same sex couples occurs while traditional marriage ceremonies are in steep decline, as is church attendance in general.
Instead of following official teaching onWeddings, Anglican bishops in Wales along with the House of Bishops in the Church of England pander to secular trends in a mistaken attempt to appear more relevant to society.
From the Church in Wales Order for Holy Matrimony:
"Marriage is a gift of God through which husband and wife may grow together in the knowledge, love and service of God. It is given that, united with one another in heart, in mind and in body, they may increase in love and trust. God joins husband and wife in life-long union as the foundation of family life (in which children are born and nurtured and) in which each member of the family, in good times and in bad, may find strength, companionship and comfort, and grow to maturity in love. Marriage enriches society and strengthens community."
Mistaken ideas of equality, misrepresenting biblical meanings of love and substituting constructions of gender in place of traditional sexual identification have not enriched society or strengthened the community. More often they have led to confusion, bitterness and resentment.
The so called 'inclusive' churches have excluded far more Anglicans than thay have recruited as illustrated by the overalldecline in attendance.
Those now complaining about being locked out of their churches under Covid-19 distancing rules are experiencing what they have previously forced on others who, along with the majority of Christians, including Anglicans, did no more than try to adhere to the traditional catholic and apostolic faith handed down through generations.
A salutary lesson indeed.
