Vicars and tarts

An internet search will reveal that 'Vicars and Tarts' party costumes are still readily available despite no longer knowing which is the vicar! For many it was all a bit of innocent fun. The Vicars and Tarts party illustrated above was a refined affair but not all such parties had a happy ending. I have not been to a Vicars and Tarts party :( but had I been, dressed as a tart, at my age I would have had no option but to play it for laughs as a pantomime dame.

But "All this laughing turns to crying", my mother-in-law used to say. This is amply demonstrated by theimages of the newSlutWalk craze. As Eve strives ever more to be Adam the edges of who is who and what is what have become blurred. The body as the 'temple of the Holy Spirit' is a concept that few recognise today.

The sexulisation of children is abhorrent but opinions on how to deal with the problemdiffer. Fathers are naturally protective of their daughters and do not want to see them exploited. Gratuitous provocativeness is unacceptable and is not something to be instilled at an early age. In adulthood the problem has become absurd with semi-naked, drunken women out for a good time often revealing far more than may have been intended. While there is no excuse for treating women as sex objects they should be sensitive to the art of being provocative keeping it where intended, not parading it on the streets. If they think it another victory forfeminism they are mistaken. To play the tart is one thing, to parade oneself as a slut is an entirely different ball game.

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Barry's blatantly feminist agenda

Archbishop "Bazzer" isback in the news, this time with his feminist agenda in the guise of equal opportunities for "improving the gender balance on Church committees and in senior posts", ie, women Archdeacons, Deans and, Bishops. "Peggy Pilot" was first parachuted-in to be Archdeacon of Llandaff followed more recently by Dr 'Inclusive' Jones, the first female Dean in the Church in Wales. Much to his chagrin Bazzer lost the vote that would have enabled him to appoint (import?) the first woman bishop in England or Wales. He said at the time that he was "deeply disappointed, especially since it was lost with a very low margin in the house of clergy", conveniently forgetting the words of one of his predecessors that the vote was the work of the Holy Spirit. - Previously it was 'the work of the devil' when the vote to admit women to the priesthood was lost!

For Bazzer the Gospel according to WATCH is his guiding principle:

       "And in the 21st century, in the West, women have more freedom and choice than at any time in our history. There are very few areas of public life that are technically closed to women; we are airline pilots, politicians, astronauts, lawyers, mechanics, builders, football club owners. The only areas of public life still closed to women are those protected by organised religion."

Anyone familiar with secular governance is aware of the practice of stuffing committees with people to obtain the desired result. As the Anglican church becomes increasingly feminised many Parochial Church Councils are already dominated by women (I have no problem with that) but Bazzer's patience is running out. Sooner or, more likely, later he will have to retire into obscurity. Before doing so, "gender balance" is his latest wheeze to achieve his ambition by default, by which time at the present rate of decline there will be hardly anyone left in congregations to support their top-heavy structure anyway.

For the few left who are fed up with the politics of religion and desire a true glimpse of heaven on earth, click here.

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‘X’ – How to use it wisely

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.

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Harriet’s Half n Half

Acting Labour leader Harriet Harman told a Unite union conference in Manchester that Labour party rules should be changed so that half the shadow cabinet are women. She said the party had more women MPs than all other parties added together but still had twice as many male MPs; it was time for Labour women to step out of the shadows.

What is it about being a woman that entitles some to think they should have ‘equality’ by special privilege? Feminists have all but wrecked the Church of England with their false claims confusing vocations to the apostolic ministry with secular employment. They already have a short list of future women bishops expecting ultimate parity with men. How many male ministries must be lost for the sake of feminist ideology?

In the secular world, should a first-rate man be overlooked for a second-rate woman in the mistaken guise of equality? Men and women must compete on equal terms so that the best person wins. Using Ms Harman’ criteria the next calls will be for representation by minority groups as though office holders were incapable of seeing their needs.

'Half n half' completes a good curry but will only enhance the shadow cabinet if it occurs by natural selection.

Postscript

I read in The Independent that "Ed Miliband has strengthened his pledge to promote women to senior political jobs by supporting a plan to ensure half of the party’s new shadow Cabinet team is female". He previously advocated a third. Couldn't be anything to do with his bid for the leadership, could it? The same thing happened in the church. Once clergy saw which way the wind was blowing many 'saw the light' and had a change of conscience embracing the ordination of women contrary to the teaching and tradition of the universal church. Just look what's happened there.

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Let These People Go

From The Guardian looking forward to the forthcoming Synod debate on women bishops and the Archbishops’ desperate last hope amendment to maintain some integrity for the church:

?Sally Barnes, from Women and the Church [WATCH], said: "If you institutionalise this kind of discrimination, it creates more problems. The issues of division will not be healing. If this goes down, Christian women who want women bishops have said, 'We're waiting for it to happen, we're so sick of the opposition. We will just leave.'"

Well go and good riddance. The people in WATCH have already been given too much rope. They are wrecking the Anglican Church with their duplicity claiming the guidance of the Holy Spirit when it suits them and the work of the devil when things do not go according to their selfish plan. They claim discrimination where none exists. They are blatant feminists caring not one jot for the faith of true believers in the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

For those who have been converted to acceptance of the ordination of women to the priesthood, life is so much easier. They have bitten the apple but why make life so difficult for the rest of us who remained true to the tradition of our church? Saturday’s Observer Magazine (04.07.10) carries an article “Is the Church Still Sexist?” which says it all. Still sexist? Joanna Jepson pictured below is quoted as saying “Whether I am called to be a bishop or not, the impact is personal, for all of us, because this corporate injustice is being challenged.” [My italics]

“I know I can do the job that is best suited to who I am” was the quote from a young curate while Lucy Winkett, who to her credit has not hidden her feminist goals, complains of what “in any other area of public life would be called discrimination.” She dismisses “the number of people who really can’t accept this [the ordination of women] [as] extremely small.” Rather like the early church? Forward in Faith and Reform are brushed aside as a small proportion of the ‘regular worshipping community of 1.7million (who attend at least once a month), the majority of whom – 65% - is female.”

This huge majority, a small minority in the Christian church as a whole, may be regular (I would say occasional) but it distorts the fact that the more frequent faithful few worshippers are more likely to have a deeper faith which is being pushed aside by forces content to see them fall by the wayside. How can this be? WATCH has nothing to do with faith. It is an ultra-feminist entrist organisation dressed in clerical clothing. I have no objection to feminism or to feminists but I do object to the deceit and duplicity WATCH use when they falsely claim discrimination to achieve their aim which is parity in the church as though it were a business corporation. They have already formed a woman bishop?S queue as they worm their way through the sah complexities and vote fixing in Synod as though they were engaged in some sort of corporate power struggle.

These women say they ?Will just leave? If they don?T get their own way. So what does this say about their faith and loyalty to the Anglican church if they can just up sticks and leave in a fit of pique while many devout Anglicans are so desperate to stay in their cradle church they are grateful for almost any fudge that can be put together? For far too long these WATCH feminists have been telling us to leave if we don?T like what they are about. Enough is enough. The church should embrace feminists but not destructive feminism before faith. It?S time to let them go and set up their own church, not destroy ours.

Postscript

With acknowledgments to Fr Ed's St Barnabas Blog this link is recommended viewing. I couldn't agree more.

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The fate of the Church of England?

In all conscience, how can feminism supersede Christ's example and the tradition of the Holy Catholic Church?

Synod has lost its way in making rules contrary to the Apostolic faith.

The ordination of women separates Anglicans from the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The Episcopal Church in the United States has been devastated by the innovation.

Is this to be the vision for the Church of England?

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Steps

After man first set foot on the moon, mankind was left with the historic statement, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". Everyone understood that the statement was not intended to exclude women but to encompass all humanity in the technological advancement of mankind which has seen men and women astronauts venture into space, part of a sequence of small steps that led to Kennedy's vision of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth".

Around the same time people in the Anglican church were taking what were represented as small steps, not towards a giant leap for mankind, Christ did that, but in what now can be seen clearly as a secular policy in furtherance of gender politics in the church, a process which is about to destroy the faith of many Christians in the name of feminism, one which already has done for many. In my previous Blog entry I referred to a Guardian article by Andrew Brown. One paragraph continues to rankle:

   "... there will be female bishops, as there are already female priests, and these will be treated exactly the same as male ones – except by the men who don't want to treat them equally and who believe that God has called them to undermine women's authority wherever it appears." [My emphasis.]

What was initially regarded as an honourable position in the Anglican Church, a church which assured traditionalists that they would continue to have a place, has been turned into one of having to suffer accusations of misogyny, prejudice, discrimination and, now, a"a belief that God has called them to undermine women's authority wherever it appears". How crass. God made man and woman in his own image, not hermaphrodites but both male and female, equal, neither superior nor inferior but with different roles in creation. Perhaps Mr Brown doesn't realise that both men and women, male and female, are equally opposed to the ordination of women priests and bishops, woman more vehemently in my experience but more prone to suffer in silence as they do not possess the strident streak exhibited by those who presume to speak for them as implied by the incorrectly namedWATCH - Women and the Church. Women's authority does not depend on being a priest or a bishop. In Britain women are rightly employed at all levels in society, but 'authority' in the Anglican Church has become a banner used by people who have sold their souls to secularism in direct contradiction to Christ's example in choosing male Apostles, a tradition handed down in His Apostolic Church from a time when pagan priestesses were common.

The 'small' steps that turned deaconesses into deacons thus permitting their ordination as priests have now become that giant leap for the Church of England with the proposals before Synod to ordain women as successors to the Apostles in defiance of the wider Catholic and Orthodox Churches with whom we share our creed. To brand men and women  who oppose this innovation and whose only desire is to keep the Apostolic faith as 'undermining women's authority' is as absurd as it is offensive.

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Ass Bishop

What a shame we no longer have the Llandaffchester Chronicles to comment on the state of the Church in Wales, ruled as it is with the rusty iron hand of Bazzer, the boy from Neath. Unable to find anyone worthy in the Principality, His Darkness appointed David Wilbourne as Ass Bishop in his campaign to reduce the church to complete irrelevance to society.  Browsing through Church matters as she does, my wife happened upon a Church in Walesreport of the address given by the Ass Bishop at a recent induction. Still incandescent after reading it I asked her to give her reaction which follows.

"So now we have the Gospel according to David Wilbourne. The ordination of women will rid the world of homophobia, misogyny, brutalisation of women in all situations including those in war zones.

Those of us who cannot in all conscience succumb to this terbaru day form of feminism and political correctness are therefore responsible for all the horrors inflicted on women in the world.

What a complete and utter fool this man is!

Pope Benedict has put all in perspective with his customary thoughtfulness, prayerfulness and indeed holiness - all far removed from the Ass Bishop of Llandaff. The Church cannot change what Our Lord started. Read Light of the World David Wilbourne and learn true religion."

For years those who have remained faithful to Christ's example have been belittled and abused, not only by people who have invaded the Anglican church bending it to their will, but by the general population which has been infected by frequent false claims of misogyny and discrimination but this silly Ass has taken criticism of the faithful to an janggal level.

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Taint as they say!

Ministerial group: the Prime Minister with (left to right) the Ven. Dr Jane Hedges, the Rt Revd

Kay Goldsworthy, and the Ven. Christine Hardman                                   Credit: Church Times

"A confident Church is a 'vital partner' in the care of the nation" the Prime Minister wrote in the Church Times. A report on his politically correct twaddle dressed-up as faith can be readhere. With this new founded but deluded confidence the latest call raised by MPs is: "Give us a female Bishop of Durham and Bishop of Newcastle",  having approved legislation to help fast-track female bishops into the House of Lords over the next decade.

In the debate "Mrs Blackman-Woods told MPs: I should say that we have recently got a new bishop in Durham and I am not trying in any way to push him out of the door, as he is doing an excellent job, but when the time comes for him to retire I hope that a woman bishop will be on our agenda. Backing a change in the law, Mrs Blackman-Woods told the Commons: 'Without the Bill, a woman appointed as a diocesan bishop would effectively join the back of the queue to get into the House of Lords. At anticipated rates of retirement it could take up to seven years for the first female diocesan bishops to get into the Lords, a period that could cover the lifetime of the next Parliament. That would create an anomaly whereby women were actively and visibly involved as bishops in all aspects of the Church’s national ministry except as Members of the Bishops’ Bench in the other place'."

I don't know whether or not Mrs Blackman-Woods is a regular churchgoer, an Anglican or even a believer but in her previous intervention in the 'Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure' we heard the usual political claptrap dressed as faith when she said. "This is a historic moment that we should note, because it gives the Church a real chance to look more like the society that it seeks to serve. A Church with women in office at the highest levels of authority will better reflect British society today" [@5.56]. I note also that she voted in favour of Same sex marriage so if she had been ordained no doubt she could have expected a call from the Archbishop of Wales with an offer of another plumb appointment over the heads of his loyal but long suffering clergy.

Of little surprise to observers, there are now dire warnings that that this 'confident church', this 'vital partner' in the care of the nation is in peril. If it is not to go into 'terrifying' decline the Church of England must 'adopt one of its most radical shake-ups in generations'. Senior Church leaders have warned: "It leaves the Church little time to sit back and enjoy the success of the legislation as the consecration of the first woman bishop at York Minster approaches."

If readers think these reports are exaggerated they should read Virtue Online. Here is a sample:

"Virtually all the 1,900 churches with more than 350 people in their congregation are either Catholic (1,350) or evangelical (460); the remaining seventy are considered broad or liberal. There are also virtually no churches with 350 or more in rural areas; just thirty spread across numerous commuter rural areas (and all between 350 and 400 people). There are one hundred churches of this size in city centers, 310 in inner city areas (many of which are Roman Catholic), 165 on council estates, 920 in suburban areas, and 350 in separate towns".

As a "dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist" I am told that I should avoid waving around statistics shrieking: "See! We told you this would happen if you let women have opinions, and stand at the front of church, and be vicars. We told you the men wouldn't like it. You've feminised the Church! Of course the men are leaving!" The author of this Telegraph article, Helen Coffey, continued: "This sexist hysterical crew seem to think that, in slowly but surely embracing equality, the entire Church is being transformed into one long episode of Loose Women. That by letting women lead, it naturally follows we're creating an environment that is “toxic” to men. What a load of tosh." Obviously hysteria is not confined to the male sex. Helen Coffey is a sub editor and staff writer at Telegraph Ski and Snowboard. Her previous contributions have been "Church yoga row: Am I going to hell for stretching myself?" and "Twenty years of women priests: And the Church has survived just fine".

To these politicians and journalists who feel free to dictate what true Anglicans are supposed to believe, sending the Church of England and the Church in Wales into terminal decline in the process, must be added liberal Anglicans whose sole aim is to change the Church to meet their career prospects and to suit their particular lifestyles. The feminist pressure group Women and the Church (WATCH) has played a key role in thisphenomenon: "We have in modern society a new F-word: Feminism" - Keynote address given to the WATCH AGM, 3 November 2007, by Canon Lucy Winkett, Precentor of St Paul’s Cathedral.

I admit to having expressed regret about the increasing feminisation of the Church although not in the manner suggested by Helen Coffey. However, if women were supposed to halt the decline by spreading 'equality', how is it that the Anglican Church has reached this perilous position? Women clergy have not halted the decline in liberal Provinces by 'looking more like society', they have exacerbated it. Perhaps they are waiting until they have packed the benches of the Lords Spiritual by which time they will be left to talk among themselves on current trends.

Notwithstanding the fact that the innovation of women priests has been a complete and utter disaster bringing the Anglican Church to the point of collapse, there is no indication that lessons have been learnt with calls for yet more women, particularly younger women to be ordained instead of the elderly matrons soon to join the retirement queue. The secular notion of rapid advancement for women in the Church which shattered any claim about introducing 'equality' has not lessened their anger as they invent more claims of foul play so that they can frustrate procedures if no longer backtrack on their promises.

The latest outcry is over the token consecration of one traditionalist, the  Rev Philip North as Bishop of Burnley on 2 February alleging female 'taint' because the Archbishop of York will not participate in the laying on of hands when Fr North is consecrated. This is deliberately emotive point scoring. It has nothing to do with 'taint'. It is a question of true belief in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. A matter of 'authenticity' such as bishops of The Old Catholic Church acting as co-consecrators in the ordination of Anglican bishops.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu,told The Huffington Post that "he was the one who suggested the unusual change, in order to accommodate North's strong theological conviction that women should not be ordained. Giving traditionalists room to flourish was part of the church's plan all along -- a necessary concession that makes it difficult for either side to claim outright victory". Dr Sentamu added: "Any suggestion that the arrangements proposed for the consecration of the Bishop of Burnley are influenced by a theology of ‘taint’ would be mistaken," Sentamu said. "These arrangements are for prayer, not politics."

The consecration of the first woman bishop in the Church of England takes place tomorrow (26 January, 2015). In the Observer it has beenreported that the Rev Libby Lane is aware that "what I say and do will be heard by millions, many of whom have no other contact with the church". So what does she say? - She hopes that as the new bishop of Stockport she will "send a signal to young girls regardless of their faith". Whilst Anglicanism has become all about the advancement of women, the new bishop admits to "feeling the pressure that comes with the historic appointment, expressing concern that her position may distract people from the message of Christ". The message of Christ is what some of us have been concerned about all along, not a distorted version of Christ's ministry designed to satisfy wants, not needs.

There is no letup in the feminist's campaign. The 'theology of taint' is the latest weapon feminists are using to exercise their power. They agreed a compromise to ensure that women were allowed to become bishops in the Church of England but now they are seeking to dictate on matters which should not concern them. They should follow the advice of the Archbishop of York "giving traditionalists room to flourish" rather than creating imaginary divisions. That has caused more than enough damage in the Anglican Communion.

All credit then to His Grace the Archbishop of York for his integrity in maintaining agreements unlike the example set across the border in Wales.

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Navel gazing v. the real plight of women

Boko Haram 'has abducted, raped and enslaved 2,000 women in reign of terror'

One year ago today over 200 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram. Dreadful as that event was, there has been much less publicity on the plight of around 800,000 children who have been forced to flee their homes. According to reports from UNICEF "more than 1.Lima million people have fled their homes due to the violence." Muslim women often bear the brunt of this inhumanity along with non-Muslims.

Meanwhile at the Church in Wales' meeting of theBarry Morgan Appreciation Society Governing Body this week a large chunk of the Agenda will be taken up by the representation (plight!) of women in the Church in Wales resulting in the Motion -

"That the Governing Body:

receive and welcome the Report of the Working Group on Representation of Women in the Church in Wales dated April 2015 and endorse the recommendations therein;

accept that the Church in Wales has not achieved in the last seven years the expected cultural change, the appointment of more women into senior posts and the greater involvement of women in Church decision making;

recognise that the equality rencana is the responsibility of the whole Church;

commend the Report to the Province, dioceses, deaneries and parishes for study and appropriate action;

request the Standing Committee to allocate the recommendations in the Report to the appropriate bodies for action;

request the Standing Committee to report back on progress in implementing the recommendations within tiga years."

The navel gazing is so intense that the Church in Wales is blind to the fact that Provinces which have adopted the feminist agenda are going downhill fast. Highlighted in the Report is this gem: "the Church was best placed to fulfil its mission when all of its members are enabled to fully acknowledge their gifts and duties and to exercise their unique talents and vocations as individuals", ie, jobs for the girls. It certainly does not apply to members who are out of favour because they seek to fulfil the mission of the universal Church rather than a self-indulgent separatist minority which claims membership of the Holy Catholic Church as they tear her apart. If they genuinely wished to "recognise that the equality agenda is the responsibility of the whole Church" [my emphasis], they would take the universal view.

Agendum 12 introduces "Evangelism - Witnessing to Good News in Wales and 2020":

"The essential vision behind the Church in Wales review of 2012 was that Church can be the bearer of good news to the world". Do they realise that there is a world beyond Offa's Dyke?

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Rowan buckles under feminist pressure

Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters

No price is too high it seems to satisfy Rowan's longing to see women bishops in the Church of England. His 'unfinished business' of making satisfactory provision for all has been gradually whittled down in the House of Bishops to one word, respect. ‘With all due respect ’ to Archbishop Rowan I think he deludes himself. The word 'respect' may have legal content in the Archbishop's book but Oxford Dictionaries has "a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements".

There is no evidence whatsoever that women lobbyists in WATCH, GRAS or DARC have respect for the views, let alone the abilities, qualities or achievements, of anyone but themselves in the advancement of their feminist cause. If there were, how is it that opponents are left with nothing but a vague notion based on a word that will be ignored in the same way that the pleas of opponents have been ignored thus far? To date every suggestion of a concession has been met with howls of anger and resentment claiming that the proposals are insulting to women and would make them second-group bishops. Rowan's grovelling apology [position 6.25] illustrates how successful their tactics have been while more traditional views of women in the church have been overlooked.

Archbishop Rowan said at the July 2012 General Synod in York: ?I also long for there to be the kind of provision for those who continue to have theological reservations on this subject, for their position to be secured in such a way that they can feel grateful for the outcome. That is the essence of what I believe Synod at large still thinks despite the unfinished business of sorting out what that means in practice.? His statement gave some hope that reason might prevail but that hope proved to be unfounded in the face of the petition organised by WATCH for the withdrawal of Clause 5(1)(c) on the grounds that it would ?Entrench permanent division in the Church? And ?Feed a deeply damaging ambivalence towards women as made in the image of God.? Many more women in the church are also 'made in the image of God' and they profoundly disagree with the claims of WATCH but their views have been ignored in a campaign which has been based on false accusations of discrimination and misogyny showing a complete lack of respect for opponents.

The campaign launched by Archbishop Rowan to persuade General Synod members to back the new women-bishops legislation next month makes sorry reading. It would be presumptuous of me to argue against Rowan on theological grounds but however skillfully he weaves his justification for the ordination of women on the basis of their 'baptismal relationship with Jesus Christ', what he presents as an anomaly is anomalous only because the Church of England has departed unilaterally from the faith and tradition of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. With all due respect, the majority of Christians, East and West do not believe that women should have been ordained into the priesthood. If Synod had first considered whether or not women should be ordained as bishops in the Church of England there could be no anomaly.

It cannot be right to vote in favour of the proposal simply to avoid public embarrassment or internal conflict. That would be the worst possible reason for supporting the legislation. What the church needs to do is to take a step back and think about what Synod is being asked to do in the name of every member of the Church of England. It is no coincidence that Synod is being asked to correct an 'anomaly' now that the 'equality' argument has been turned on its head since the true effects of the feminisation of the church are becoming apparent. If this legislation is allowed to go through there will be a seismic shift in the church resulting in her domination by women clergy. The ordination of women has not halted the decline in church attendance and voting in favour of women bishops will result in the inequality proponents of women's ordination complained about. That is the true anomaly.

Postscript

Two appeals supporting Archbishop Rowan's plea have appeared on The Archbishop of Canterbury website. The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, urges those who cannot support the legislation for conscientious reasons to abstain because we are all ‘one person in Jesus Christ’ while Rebecca Swinson provides a gender reversal justification based on Give me a child until he is seven and I'll give you the man having spent her formative yearsunder predominately female influences.

Like the Archbishop of Wales before him the Bishop of Chelmsford picks out what he regards as a scriptural justification for choosing a pattern of ministry contrary to Christ's example. He quotes Galatians 3:28* as one of the ?Climatic? Passages in the Bible ? ?The one through which we then interpret many others?. Although the church interpreted the reference to Jew and Gentile within 20 years, we have had to wait 2,000 years for the Bishop of Chelmsford to decode the reference to male and female. If he had read John 14:6 instead - ?I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" - he would have had the key passage without the need to re-interpret what has been understood by most Christians for two millennia. Bishop Cottrell says: ??I hope that we in the Church of England will say yes to women bishops at our General Synod in November. I even dare to hope that those who disagree may choose to abstain. That those who aren?T sure will see that if we don?T pass this it would look terrible in the eyes of the world, would hold back our mission, and would also plunge us into years more debate on this issue. But, most of all, I?M going to be voting yes because I believe this is of the Gospel. It is the Holy Spirit leading us into the truth of that text whereby in Christ we are one humanity.? - Ah yes, the Holy Spirit, but only if it is a yes vote of course; otherwise, try again later!

Bishop Cottrell also says: "I know that there are some people who conscientiously disagree with this, and I respect them and I want them to be part of the Church along with everyone else. But I believe the Measure, as we have it, gives people that provision." - That word respect again. He 'respects' them but not with "a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements", just, I'll decide what provision is adequate so accept it. Does he understand what he is asking? Vote for the legislation to avoid losing face and if you can't agree, then abstain with all the consequences of inadequate provision. This is not about saving face. There is no question of abstaining; those who do not agree with the legislation must vote against it or risk losing everything they believe in.

Adding her message in the Archbishop?S campaign, Rebecca Swinson - the youngest-ever member of Archbishops? Council ? Outlines why she wants to see the legislation for women bishops passed at this November?S Synod. Basically Rebecca thinks we have waited long enough and the danger is that too much time will be spent in the coming years discussing the issue when there are much more important things to debate such as the healthcare system and benefits. - Not if the decision is accepted as the work of the Holy Spirit. If the church had not embarked on this divisive scheme which has resulted in churches emptying in the UK and is seeing the ruin of TEC in the United States there would have been ample time to talk about things that 'really matter to people'. Rebecca claims that it is really important for the mission of the Church of England that we are able to show that women are an accepted and valued part of our ministry. Women already are an accepted and valued part of ministry. Ask the women who are indispensable in the work of Church. They don't feel the need to be ordained to prove it.

* Read a full explanation here.

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Sacred cow

Feminism: the sacred cow of the modern Anglican Church

Forget the golden calf -

"We Christians must face it: The Bible is hugely misogynistic" so stop 'reading it like 'a car manual' and 'reconcile the Bible with the present day'. So says Jemima Thackray (a chaplain in Winchester) in the Telegraph (here).

Holy cow! How many Christians have been labouring under a misapprehension for the best part of two millennia, not to mention all those poor Jews, misguided for thousands of years before that. Although prior to Jemima's intervention there is a rather good example of how to interpret the law in Christ's seven woes which denounced the false religion of the Scribes and Pharisees as "utterly abhorrentdanquot; to God and worthy of severe condemnation (read here).

Commenting on the General Synod vote to fast-track the legislative process which would allow women to be appointed as bishops, Jemima says "the proceedings started rather awkwardly when the Bible passage, which happened to be that day’s lectionary reading, conveyed a message that was utterly at odds with the goal of elevating women to leadership roles within the church.[My emphasis - Ed.] It went something like this:

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.” (1 Timothy 2:11-14)".

In the suppression of that passage of scripture the message has added weight. Had a passage been to their advantage it would have been claimed as the work of the Holy Spirit but at Synod the Holy Spirit has to have the approval of the sacred cow of feminism to speak. - If it doesn't suit, just drop it. The Telegraph is running a poll with Jemima's article asking: "Do you believe religious texts should be taken literally?" At the time of writing over 54% responded "No, they need to be read in the context of their time."

Faith it seems is becoming irrelevant but as Christians this should be the basis of our belief. If religion has to be supported the spirit of the age there is no faith so the Bible gets discreditied or ignored. Of course many biblical stories illustrate a point as in the parables but where does this stop? Did Christ die on the cross and rise again or was it merely a 'conjuring trick with bones'. Academics who spend their lives pondering minutiae should be more guarded in their condemnation of those with a simple faith. We are the body of Christ, all Christians, including those who are being marginalised for remaining faithful to the Apostolic Church

It is understandable that feminists would prefer to ignore the facts. Otherwise they would have to accept that the world was full of priestesses at the time of Christ but "the astonishing thing was actually that they were absent from the community of Jesus Christ, a fact that in turn is a point of continuity with the faith of Israel" ( Light of the World ).

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Women's and gender studies and more serious matters

Camille Paglia explains why women's and gender studies departments should be defunded pic.Twitter.Com/LZyb3aJC1q

? Yeyo (@YeyoZa) October 16, 2017

"If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts." - Professor Camille Paglia

I spotted this video of Professor Camille Paglia on Twitter @YeyoZa explaining why women's and gender studies departments should be defunded. I found it rather amusing after all the feminist claptrap which has infected the Anglican Church over recent years.

The so-called glass ceiling in the secular world was broken years ago. There is no shortage of women presenters, commentators, interviewers, interviewees, etc, etc, etc but still Women And The Church (WATCH) and their allies whinged on, insisting that the church followed to set an example! So the stained glass ceiling has been shattered, as has the Anglican Church in Great Britain with further decline shown in the latest report.

For people who follow the downward spiral of the Church in Wales, the name of the Archdeacon of Llandaff will spring to mind. She torpedoed any meaningful alternative provision with her phony Code of Practice and is now a leading light in MAE Cymru, the WATCH sister organisation in Wales.  MAE Cymru stands for ‘Merched a’r Eglwys’ (‘women and the church’). Their priority is parity dressed up as equality to ensure that merit plays no further part in the selection process.

The  bishop of St Davids and the bishop of Llandaff are happily obliging with their first appointments, the first female Dean of St Davids and the bishop of Llandaff's new female chaplain. Both bishops are keen on advancing LGBTQI+ issues leading to more confusion especially among the young and vulnerable as the traditional male role model ceases to exist.

Reported in the Guardian,More than 60 children a day calling Childline with suicidal thoughts. Figures from Childline represent a 15% increase on the previous year. They list four main HELP categories:Sexuality,Peer pressure,Faith and religious bullying, andSexual abuse.

Social networking provides opportunities for contact undreamed of by a generation which recalls the age of the Telegram as the deliverer of urgent, often unwelcome, news. Today children can be in contact with anyone anywhere in the world and there are plenty of predators eager to exploit any opportunity leading children, literally, to expose themselves creating a vulnerability to be exploited.

Quite often children are much smarter than their parents when it comes to IT. They have tablets to aid their school work and smartphones to keep in touch, but with whom? The Xbox and similar consoles provide further opportunities for exploitation by the unscrupulous with parents often unable to keep tabs on all the electronic opportunities which many parents do not understand or ignore so long as their children are occupied.

Added to this, image, particularly among girls has reached crisis proportions. I often find it incongruous listening to an overpaid, excessively made-up presenter reporting on women struggling to feed their children. No heavy make-up with plucked and painted eyebrows for them. They are the grim reality, the victims in a society obsessed with image. So much so that if a boy prefers to be seen as a girl or vice versa he/she is actively encouraged while ignoring the well documented dangers suggesting a re-run of the problems complained of by Professor Paglia.

I see from the Telegraph in that the latest twist in the transgender debate is about to engulf the Monks of Mt Athos who fear that a new law will allow people to change their gender letting women into their all-male sanctuary.

Amidst all this so-called equality, inequality has become more marked. Just try joining a women's class as a man if you doubt it. Where will it end?

Postscript [19.10.2017]

'Heartbreaking' rise in self-harm among young teenage girls

Self-harm among young teenage girls rose nearly 70 per cent after 2011, due partly to ?Extreme? Obsession with social media compared to boys, a new study has found. Full report here.

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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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Sacred Synod?

Archbishop Barry Morgan                                 Source: Daily Post

The newspapers in Wales have been full of it since the naming of the bishop elect. For example, the Western Telegraph has: "Sacred Synod to confirm election of new Bishop of St Davids".

In reality there is nothing sacred about it other than that the event takes place at Evensong in a place of worship, Archbishop Barry Morgan's trouble prone Cathedral in Llandaff.

On video [@1.19] and in the press, the bishop elect constantly advances the feminist cause telling her audience how she has broken new ground in the Deaconate and in the Episcopate being "one of the first women" despite the fact that according to Dr Morgan her 'election' had nothing to do with her being a woman. He said she was the best person to be a bishop, presumably based on his criteria written to fit her profile. Given her inexperience at a senior level it is difficult to believe that there is no person better qualified. Chosen from a secret shortlist we are expected to accept Dr Morgan's word despite years of deception to ensure that he gets his own way from the ordination of women to his LGBT agenda to his same sex marriage ambitions.

If so sure of his ground why the precedent of the Archbishop's promotional video produced to convince viewers that the process was not another stitch up? Some analysis is called for.

Sacred:

devoted or dedicated to a deity or to some religious purpose; consecrated.

Pertaining to or connected with religion (opposed to secular or profane)

Secular:

of or relating to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred; temporal

profane:

characterized by irreverence or contempt for God or sacred principles or things; irreligious.

It is difficult to conceive that anyone other than a Morgan acolyte could consider the confirmation of the election of the new bishop of St Davids to be sacred. It has Barry Morgan's secular politics written all over it. Her name as the bishop elect had been circulating for months. She attended the Credo Cymru 'Conference to Preserve the Breadth of Anglicanism in Wales' when more deserving members were excluded. Interestingly the view from England after the event was that Anglo Catholicism in Wales is finished.

There were reports that the archbishop deferred entering hospital for essential surgery so that he could preside over the electoral college. A call for prayers in an ad clerum from the Bishop of St Asaph indicates that Dr Morgan has deferred treatment until December, thus enabling him to stage manage the synod as well as the 'election'. Nothing it seems is to be left to chance. No price is too high in ensuring that a woman bishop is in place before Dr Morgan retires, even the desolation of the Church in Wales. A relativeminnow in the Anglican Communion and minute in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church but for the 1% or so of the population of Wales who still attend regularly it is stilltheir church, nominally. The dwindling few have responded to calls over many years to give sacrificially while receiving nothing but politics in return. How will they feel when left with nothing but the bill?

Whilst the whole process reeks of cronyism I would be surprised if there were any objection to the election at the synod. Dr Morgan has successfully crushed all opposition in his re-modelling of the Church in Wales as a career opportunity for sycophants and a refuge for sexual licence.

Based on fifteen year's experience covering Church of England politics and witnessing the death throes of the Episcopal Church in the United States,  George Conger has been talking on Anglican Unscripted about the decline of the Church of England into a church that is "already all but dead". What he says can be applied equally, and more so, to the Church in Wales. When a bishop is elected, he says, the candidate loses his backbone to a process calledcollegiality, a well used weapon in Dr Morgan's armoury along with 'canonical obedience' when the Church in Wales has been anything but obedient to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The installation of a woman bishop at Wales' most holy shrine is all about Women and the Church (WATCH). It is profane.

Postscript [30.11.2016]

BBC News: "First woman bishop appointment to be rubber-stampeddanquot;. - Exactly!

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Dr Una Kroll meets her maker

Dr Una Kroll                                    Source; Bury Times

Dr Una Kroll, feministcampaigner and prominent activist in the movement for the ordination of women has died in Bury aged 91. Given her chameleon approach to faith one wonders what sort of reception she had at the pearly gates.

Described as "An inspirational woman famed for her humanitarian work", she had been a doctor, nun, a feminist campaigner and an activist for peace and justice. In 1997 when living in Wales she became a priest but "shocked admirers and friends" by publicly leaving the priesthood she had so long campaigned to be part of.

The Rev'd Dave Thompson of St John with St Marks Church in Bury summed up her priesthood when he said, ?She was a remarkable woman who influenced the church in matters of equality and campaigned tirelessly for women?S rights".

That is the nub of it. She and her fellow campaigners have achieved the 'equality' they wanted but at the expense of others who have struggled to keep the faith instead of bending scripture and tradition to satisfy their own desires. That is what much of Western Anglicanism has been reduced to.

Writing for the Church Times Linda Hurcombe explains:Information in this article is from a recent interview with the Revd Dr Kroll for Christian Voices Coming Out, a heritage project that captures the stories of pioneering LGBT Christians, and their advocates and allies.

That is the package today. Feminism and LGBT issues, using the church as a vehicle for women's rights regardless of the consequences.

How many people have been led astray by the spiteful organisation WATCH which has urged others to follow their example rather than the example of Christ? Clergy who have determined which way the wind blows, ambitious bishops exercising their liberal credentials and laity who have felt that they have no option other than to go with the flow. They have all become victims of 'equality'.

The saddest thing about these 'pioneering' women is that they appear blind to the disastrous effect they have had on the church as attendance continues to fall. Not content with having achieved their original goal they are now campaigning to change the Lord's prayer to 'Our Mother who art in heaven...'. How long before there are calls for three Queens representing the nature of humanity at Epiphany?

Una Kroll was ordained to the priesthood in Wales by a strong supporter of the ordination of women, Dr Rowan Williams when he was Bishop of Monmouth. Dr Kroll later gave up the priesthood to become a Roman Catholic claiming that she wanted to support RC women claiming to be called by God thus leading even more astray.

A convert to Anglicanism Una Kroll was a nun who married a monk. Clearly she did what she pleased regardless of the consequences for others despite her 'humanitarian' credentials. She may have been a remarkable woman among those who 'influenced the church in matters of equality' but their idea of equality has not been extended to others. Their intransigence was later to cause Rowan Williams greatdifficulties when he became Archbishop of Canterbury as they obstructed moves to provide alternative episcopal oversight for Anglicans opposed on theological grounds to the sacramental ministry of women.

Many faithful Anglicans who showed charity in accommodating the desires of these women have since discovered to their cost, that their church has left them. This is particularly so in Wales where women were successful in ensuring that there will be no provision for alternative oversight. I have seen no evidence of a campaign for equality on behalf of the excluded.

What, one wonders, did St Peter make of that at the pearly gates?

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Women in the Church

The 'dark' side.

"Women bishops would humanise the priesthood" said the then Archbishop of Canterbury in 2011. Dr Rowan Williams warned the Church hierarchy to prepare for the “culture change” that would come with the “full inclusion” of women. Not the full inclusion the Archbishop would have expected. Instead it is inclusion to the exclusion of anyone with views not in accord with Women and the Church (WATCH) and their fellow travellers as highlighted by the "Sheffield controversy".

At the time Ann Widdecombe was closer to the truth when she said,  "Christianity in Britain today is under severe persecution. And it will get much worse. I do not resent this persecution. I welcome it. For it will weed out the pseudo-Christians, the wimpish bishops and the caved-in Synod. By persecution we discover who our true friends actually are." In 2017 that has come to pass.

Feminists have mercilessly used the Church for their own political ends. On the face of it WATCH ran a legitimate campaign, as they saw it, for the ordination of women. But, as with the world wide web, there is a dark side. A deception which has been gnawing away at the soft underbelly of Anglicanism. Say anything, do anything to gain the advantage. Thus the five guiding principles were agreed allowing women to become bishops in the Church of England. Perhaps they were crossing their fingers behind their backs as they voted but either way, they have reneged on the agreement rendering the whole procedure untenable.

Critics of WATCH were accused of misogyny from the earliest days when Canon Lucy Winkett said in a keynote speech, "Never mind Gordon Ramsay, we have in modern society a new F-word: Feminism." Extracts from her speech can be read here, eg,

Now women are on the inside, are exercising authority in

state and church, although the power is not yet equally

shared and the pay is certainly not equal. We are in a

new situation; I am not here to make a case for women

to be bishops ? That case is obvious...

From the historical perspective of exclusion, women are

able to speak with authority from long centuries of marginalisation,

to bring these perspectives into the decision

making structures of society and church.

In the West, we live in a half changed world. There are

now very few areas of public life not open to women ?

Except those protected by organised religion."

In their campaign WATCH have used Christian values as a weapon to secure an advantage over their target audience, secularists and Anglicans who have been brought up on 'love thy neighbour', 'turn the other cheek', etc. Many have been bullied into submission for fear of being branded un-Christian while the majority outside the Church either do not care or have become so secularised they no longer understand the issues. When Bishop Philip North withdrew from his appointment as Bishop of Sheffield a BBC News reader said it was because 'his congregation' had complained.

Similar tactics, including false accusations, are being used by LGBT campaigners to bully the Bench of Bishops of the Church in Wales into appointing the Dean of St Albans to Llandaff. In an undignified campaign Members of Parliament have become involved. They have been led to believe that Dr John has suffered discrimination because he is in a civil partnership.

The MPs wrote "We understand that Dr John, a fluent Welsh speaker, was born in Tonyrefail in 1953. He grew up there and went to Hertford College, Oxford where studied both Classics and Modern Languages and was awarded a First. He was ordained to a title at Holy Nativity, Penarth. From Penarth he went back to Oxford to study for a DPhil and became Dean of Divinity to Magdalen College."

Many Welsh Anglicans have been asking themselves why, as a fluent Welsh speaker, Dr John was not appointed to St Davids in what looks more than ever like the politically motivated appointment of the first woman bishop in Wales. A gay priest and friend of Dr John?S for 40 years said "There?S homophobia everywhere but that?S no reason to stop a gay person from becoming a Bishop."

It is not homophobia and not because Dr John is gay and living in a civil partnership. The reasons why Dr John was rejected are open to speculation but for Church members who have been alerted to the controversy it is because he has campaigned for same sex marriage in Church which was rejected by the Governing Body. Moreover, he has used anunorthodox interpretation of the Bible account of the healing of the centurion?S servant in Luke 7 to justify his stance.

Looking to feminism, to gay rights or any other secular cause to swell congregations is not what the Church is about. That has failed. Decline continues. False claims by campaigners are leading astray a politically correct audience for selfish, political ends. That is not the Way of the Cross.

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Time for a change

A rainbow of hoops under the Majestas in Llandaff Cathedral     Original source: Church in Wales

Is it just a coincidence that children are making a rainbow of coloured hoops in Llandaff Cathedral?

Artist Gilbert Baker who created the LGBT rainbow flag died in New York on Thursday. There was nothing Christian in its design. Baker's original flag had eight colours, each representing a different aspect of humanity:

• Pink - sexuality
• Red - life
• Orange - healing
• Yellow- sunlight
• Green - nature
• Turquoise - art
• Indigo - harmony
• Violet - human spirit

California State Senator Scott Weiner said Baker's work had "helped define the terkini LGBT movement". Eager not to be left behind in the secular stakes, the Church in Wales quickly became gay friendly which makes the recent challenge by the Dean of St Albans to his rejection on grounds of homophobia all the more ridiculous.

The orchestrated campaign in favour of Jeffrey John's mission to be made bishop of Llandaff has been extraordinary in its breadth. From Commons to Senedd, from Cathedral Chapters to Area Deans. The written complaints displayed a similarity in their conclusion suggesting an organised attack.

Some members of the Electoral College decided that their oath of confidentiality was optional. Harry Farley of Christian Today was being briefed to present a one-sided case in favour of John. Why? The implication is that there is a class within the Church working to further their own aims similar to methods employed by feminists in Women and the Church. The results are plain for all to see.

The bench needs to heed the average pew-sitter who has had little to say but has supported a church which has become increasingly alien to them. Feminism and gay rights are not the primary mission of the Church.

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Users of The Church

The First Church of Cannabis sprang from the well intentioned Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act explained here. Basically it means that "the state cannot 'substantially burden a person's exercise of religion' unless it is furthering a 'compelling government interest' and acting in the least restrictive way possible". Other States have similar laws. Some see the legislation as an opportunity while others see it as repressive.

Sadly Mother Church has been caught up in the political maelstrom with all sorts of groups using the church to advantage in the guise of worship.

In my book there are three categories of Church users. There are regular users who week by week sustain the Church in their worship and giving.

There are the occasional users, the 'hatch, match and dispatch' brigade, who profess to be Christians expecting the Church to be there when required.

Then there are the other users. The political movements used to great effect by feminists and currently by the LGBT community in furtherance of their particular agendas, currently same-sex marriage under the pretence of equality.

The feminist battle consisted of staged skirmishes, each represented as an insignificant step thus permitting charges of discrimination if the next step were not permitted. Hence the progression from biblical Deaconesses to non-biblical women bishops.

LGBT activist Jayne Ozanne

The same tactics are being used by the LGBTQ movement: "Senior Anglicans launch bid to find 'middle way' over homosexuality" in a new bid to "unite" the Church of England over divisive issues such as gay marriage (here) promoting the via media, "a new perspective on Anglican debates. There is no debate. It is promotion.

I strongly recommend reading Making Gay Okay: How rationalising homosexual behaviour is changing everything. According to the author, Professor Robert R. Reilly, the debate about homosexuality, and particularly about same-sex marriage, is, at its heart, a debate about the nature of reality. One side believes that things have a nature and purpose that make them what they are. The other side denies that things have an essential nature, and believes that things are nothing in themselves, and can be shaped according to personal choices and desires. Reilly examines the philosophical basis for these competing points of view. [Hat tip to Anglican Mainstream for this article - Ed.]

In anotherarticle the dangers are set out plainly.  Among them the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) "have concluded that one in six men who have sex with men will contract HIV in their lifetimes and that one in two black men who are gay or bisexual will contract HIV". Despite the recognised dangers the United States Agency for International Development will be spending $1 million to finance the promotion of the LGBT agenda, including contributions to LGBT politicians who wish to participate in the upcoming elections.

In the UK Cardinal Nichols has already been criticised for Queering the Church whileChanging Attitude lists fifty-nine churches in twenty Church of England dioceses where "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Christians can be guaranteed a welcome" in addition to churches in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as if they are not welcomed in other churches. Far from it in my experience.

The 'middle way' is claimed to be an "attempt to bridge the divides that separates many in the Church". It is not. It is one more giant step  towards securing credibility for another organisation using the Church for political ends.

Readers may remember "self-styled 'Anglican' and LGBT activist" Jayne Ozanne from a previous entry, The road to ruin: "Church of England members back same-sex marriage. Poll shows for first time more Anglicans supporting gay couples marrying than opposing it, despite leadership’s opposition. 'The lowest levels of support for same-sex marriage – 24% – were found among Anglican men over the age of 55, a group that dominates the church leadership'."

The 'Poll' had been "spun to apply pressure to the Church of England on same-sex 'marriage'." Need one say more!

The Church must stand firm.

Postscript [08.03.16]

An author is planning to re-invent the Bible? By putting it in a ?Queer context?:

"The Queer Bible is my reclamation, through translation, of the queer mythic potential of Biblical stories. I want to make an inclusive, celebratory space within the text that undoes the implicit sexism, misogyny, heterosexism, hierarchical oppression, slut-shaming, etc. and reconstitutes the feminine, the queer, the outcast, the strange."

Strange indeed.

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'The Hour' has come

?The Hour? Previewed here was broadcast last night on 16 April, not 14 April as stated in the diocesan Press Release.

Joanna Penberthy?S contribution was worse than I feared, aligning the church with a political movement rather than the Kingdom of God. She was unbalanced, dishonest in her claims and blatantly sexist. I doubt that she brought anyone to Christ.

No wonder Barry Morgan thought she was the best person to be a bishop in the Church in Wales.

There was no mention of the genuine theological problems experienced by the majority of Christians, including women, who are unable to accept the validity of the ordination of women. Just a one-sided bleat about perceived injustice.

Not recognising the validity of her orders may be "water off a duck's backdanquot; for the bishop but it is a deluge that has ruined the spiritual lives of the male priests she referred to as unable to accept her sacramental ministry and many more lay people who are unable to accept a minority innovation that benefits the few at the expense of many.

Readers who are able to access the BBC?S iPlayer can watch the programme. It was about women ? ?A hundred years since some of us got the vote, are women still discriminated against in today?S Wales or has Feminism gone too far??

After discussing politics the presenter moved to “an even older institution, the church” (position 25.50). There was a short film designed to illustrate the so-called prejudice experienced  by the woman who 'will go down in history as Wales’ first ever women bishop. “It’s not about being a victim”, Penberthy asserted, "if you can be prejudiced in the soft institution of the church, what does that say about your attitude to women?”

That is why, she said, in the first interview after her consecration she was talking about the fact that two women a week are killed by their partners. Until that stops "we have a job on our handsdanquot;. It was not clear if that comes before or after her campaign to welcome LGBT people despite their disproportionate presence in the church.

The former Ass Bishop of Llandaff claimed that ‘the ordination of women would rid the world of homophobia, misogyny, brutalisation of women in all situations including those in war zones’. The Church in Wales now has women priests and bishops but the claims continue with the same false accusations of  homophobia and misogyny.

Penberthy emphasised the point that she chose to pursue the brutalisation of women theme in her first interview after her enthronement rather than the core Christian message, the proclamation of the coming of the kingdom of God.

Later in the  discussion the presenter returned  to the bishop to ask about the future. What could be changed for the better? “Women need to be valued” was the bishop’s response as though women are not valued already. She was also given the last word on 'the most important thing' she had heard in the debate. Once again it was that two women a week are killed by their partners. Until "we get passed that and women are safe in their own homes then we haven’t really made any progress", she said.

The 'soft institution of the church' to use Penberthy's words has been used by feminists to advance their own cause at the expense of the church, trampling on the faithful in the process. An unsigned (therefore unpublished) comment on another thread suggested the we misogynists should "look beyond your own ecclesiastical communities and see how women continue to be exploited and mistreated".

How mistreating and exploiting the church for political ends is supposed to make a difference is not explained. It would help if the infiltrators did something at the sharp end rather than seek a comfortable living while destroying the church which had enriched the lives of many more women then those who claim to be discriminated against.

The hour has come. Bishops have responsibilities as bridge builders but their attitude is take it or leave. Many have left the church enabling Penberthy to claim that only a few do not accept her sacramental role.

Feminism has gone too far. Often the most vehement opposition to the ordination of women comes from women but that is not mentioned. There is discrimination in the church. It is most obvious at the top. It must stop.

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