Space to think...

Christ Abandoned

I have noticed that some Blogs are taking a break during the summer so perhaps I should take the hint and leave some space to ponder for a while, in particular on what has happened to Anglicanism and where we go from here.

When I came across the above image a few years ago it spoke volumes to me. The church was derelict leaving Jesus hanging abandoned on the cross.

("O my people, what have I done to you? What have I done to make you tired of me? Answer me!")

Old Anglicanism hangs by a thread; New Anglicanism wants it cut. Why? The road to the ordination of women was not easy for them. There were failures and disappointments which proponents put down to the work of the devil but after the voting procedures had been suitably engineered, success was proclaimed as the work of the Holy Spirit. That cannot be right. The constant misrepresentation of those with a conscientious objection to the ordination of women, together with the way New Anglicanism is moving, demonstrates that what has been ‘achieved’ cannot be the work of the Holy Spirit, in fact, it is the other way round.

While I have been heartened by the ‘traditionalist’ faithful women and men who have contributed to blogs on this subject, I have despaired of the mean, vindictive ‘Christian’ people, often women, who, now they have what they wanted, enjoy rubbing the noses of the faithful in the dirt as they attempt to cast us adrift. To their credit, there are still faithful Old Anglicans who are determined not be put down by these strident advocates of liberalism whose attitude is “If you don’t like it, leave!” But leave for what? For confirmed Anglicans there is nowhere to go. If, as seems implied, Rome were an option, worshippers would have made that decision on its merits, not on a single issue however fundamental that issue. It does not concern ‘liberal’ Christians that for many there simply isn’t anywhere to go, hence our desire for sacramental and pastoral oversight that accords with our consciences and with what we believe to be Christ’s example. That does not make women bishops second class, it maintains the gospel.

New Anglicans pick and mix to suit their cause while many of them regard Jesus simply as a man of his time from which we have to move on. If that were true, the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church must be nonsense but for those who believe that Peter answered Jesus correctly when he said You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, there can be no leaving. Can New Anglicans seriously suggest that Christ did not know what He was doing, or is it that they simply do not care?

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Liberal values

Women in waiting                                                                                                Photo credit: Telegraph/Jane Mingay

From today's Sunday Times (here £) "Most bishops... do not automatically qualify for a seat in the Lords and there had been fears that it would be a decade or more before a churchwoman sat on parliament’s red benches. Now, in a historic move championed by Nick Clegg, the law will be rewritten so that female bishops jump the queue when a place among the 'lords spiritual' comes up. The first could be appointed to Westminster’s upper chamber as early as next year."

Last year Mr Clegg was awarded an A-plus for hypocrisy in this Mail Online report: "This week it’s the announcement that he — an atheist and the leader of a party that has pledged to make faith schools more inclusive — has succeeded in getting his son into one of the most over-subscribed Catholic state schools in Britain. Entry to the London Oratory School is dependent on at least one parent not only being Catholic, but regularly attending Sunday Mass at the Brompton Oratory for at least three years. Even with these strict criteria, the school had 800 applicants for its 160 places. How very fortunate that the Cleggs were, as the Deputy Prime Minister put it himself yesterday, ‘lucky’ enough to get one."

Mr Clegg is an atheist married to a Catholic. He told the Mail Online that he wouldn’t impose his political will on his wife when it came to educating their children. But that has not prevented him from imposing his political will on religious matters.

In a radio phone-in Mr Clegg said that he would like to see the disestablishment of the Church of England which would lead to the Queen's removal as the head of the church: "In the long run it would be better for the church and better for people of faith, and better for Anglicans, if the church and the state were over time to stand on their own two separate feet." Mr Clegg believes that the Anglican Church would “thrive” if no longer “inhibited” by its role at the heart of the British constitution.

The Anglican Church in England and Wales was supposed to "thrive" following the ordination of women to the priesthood but last month the Bishop of Truro warned that the Church of England has only "five or six years" to save itself. Previously, when the Bishop of Blackburn launched a 12-year-plan to attract younger people to the Church hefeared that unless the Church reinvented itself in his own diocese, it would disappear like the region’s textile industry.

An elected House of Lords has been a "long-cherished goal of the Lib Dems" but plans to reform the second chamber had to be abandoned after the Conservatives "broke the coalition contract" (here).

Perhaps Mr Clegg is getting his own back, doing the same for the House of Lords as women's ordination has done for the Church, steady decline.

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I'm a much much better person than you are...

The illustration may have an American slant but the sentiments are the same in Great Britain where the Anglican Church has becomefractured along the lines of the US Episcopal Church while most of the 77 million people worldwide belonging to the Anglican Communion remain faithful to the reformed Catholic faith that is Anglicanism.

Views based on scripture, tradition and reason are regarded by liberals as old fashioned, even offensive to some, so janggal accusations are flung at those who disagree with the liberal line implying that they lack compassion and are less worthy for not keeping pace with fashionable trends.

Well illustrated by the 'women priests' and 'women bishops' debates, 'No' is not an acceptable answer for liberals. So the war of attrition continues with attention now focused on same sex marriage (SSM). The media have played into liberal hands by taking the line that a majority in the Church in Wales are for SSM but the vote was not a vote of the membership. It was a vote of representatives of the membership, some of whom voted according to personal preference showing the extent of militant gay influence in the Church in Wales when many gay members are known to be against SSM.

For liberals the question has already been settled and it is only a question of time before they succeed in their latest campaign. Take this article for Wales Online, 'Why the church needs to move with the times when it comes to gay marriage':

"So, no Church in Wales gay weddings yet. But the debate goes on, promised Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan.

Indeed it will, for all Christian faiths, as they persist to swim against the tide of social change, especially among the young people leaving their pews in droves."

There are insufficient young people in the pews "to leave in droves" or to sustain the Church in the longer term even if the few (less than 1% of the under 18 population of Wales) remain. The pews are largely occupied by elderly worshipers who have no desire to join a different denomination because traditional Anglicanism is their expression of faith. Clearly the article was written from a position of ignorance by a person who has yet to learn that Christians are justified through faith not by rigging votes in denominational ruling bodies.

There are younger people in the pews, including gay worshipers which gives the lie to the claim that gay people are not welcome, clergy included. But the gay rencana has moved beyond acceptance through affirmation to becoming the required 'Norm'. Their campaign is not as obvious as in Women in the Church (WATCH) campaigning but runs as an undercurrent which seeks to move opinion towards "a more inclusive churchdanquot;, thus gaining the stamp of ecclesiastical approval for a well established minority, regardless of the effect on the Anglican Communion.

Postscript

See also "Warning to Synod voters: some ‘evangelicals’ are not as they seem" (here) for deception in the Church of England.

Postscript [27.09.2015]

Gay clergy who defied bishops by marrying their male partners run for Synod:

"They are among several openly gay clergy and lay people standing for the Synod in the run-up to a contentious debate as early as next year over whether the Church should drop its ban on same-sex marriage and the formal blessing of civil partnerships." Full articlehere.

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