Fasting with friends

Preparing for ordination to the Deaconate by fasting with Muslims         CinW

Tomorrow, Church in Wales ordinand Sara Roberts will spend the day at Bangor Islamic Centre, before joining with the Iftar, the meal which Muslims share to break/end their day time fast during Ramadan, according to a Diocesan press release from Bangor.

If her face looks familiar she previously appeared on this blog as a member of the Diocese of Bangor?S new LGBT Chaplaincy Team. You have to wonder what the local Imam makes of that given Islam's absoluterejection of homosexuality.

Presumably the bishop of Bangor is content with this arrangement which makes it all the more worrying. Perhaps the Dean of Bangor facilitated the visit given her Muslim links. But the Iftar is not a first. Archbishop Justin Welby has already been 'honoured' in joining Muslims breaking their daily Ramadan fast.

As the church embraces Islam I am reminded of an earlier departure from accepted norms when a deacon down South proudly described herself as "Reiki Master, Feng Shui practitioner, Crystal Healer and Deacon".

No doubt these people have the best of intentions but for the Church? I am sure Ms Roberts means well but one has to wonder about the selection process for ordination in the Church on Wales. Islam and Christianity are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to beliefs.

Ms Roberts said, ?There are many reasons why I am doing this: to show solidarity to our Muslim neighbours, to share in this powerful testament to faith, to contemplate my approaching ordination and what it means and to explore more deeply the relationship between food, prayer and connection to the Divine." What testament to faith? Islam or Christianity?

The duduk perkara is that Islam denies Christ died on the cross. Under Sharia Christians are given the options of convert to Islam, pay the dhimmi jizya tax or die. As pleasant as her Muslim neighbours may be, that is what they are taught. As they grow in numbers their demands increase. If the diocese of Bangor needs any proof they should just look beyond our borders at Islamic states abroad.

One hopes that Ms Roberts will feel able to preach the Gospel without fear of offending her Muslim friends. Christ died on the cross. He is the only way to the Father

Read More

The joy, the pain and the sorrow

A post-ordination scene outside Llandaff Cathedral.                                                                             Source: Church in Wales

This post-ordination scene outside Llandaff Cathedral is palpable. Blessings and hugs. I well remember such joyous scenes before women were ordained. Everything then was clear cut. Orthodoxy prevailed.

There is nothing biblical about the ordination of women but having been led astray, many women insist that they hear the call as though God has changed His mind after sending His Son to show us the Way. If He had, surely the change would be universal, not confined to local decision makers. But, sadly, it is as it is.

Today the Church in Wales is in disarray. Progressives continue to push for more change as the pews empty. More defections are expected after the second woman bishop is enthroned next month because the promised provision evaporated once the progressives achieved their goal.

So, there will be great joy for many this morning among those for whom conscience is not a persoalan. For others there will be pain because their church has left them. More to the point, there will be great sorrow because nobody in the Church in Wales appears to care.

Read More

Wind of change

Interview with a Witch                                                                                     Source: Church in Wales

The diocese of Swansea and Brecon, the current Archiepiscopal see of the Church in Wales, has a web page devoted toInterfaith. On it can be found information about Witchcraft, Atheism, Peace Mala, Hare Krishna, Sufi, Islam, Yungdrung Bön, Judaism and Druids.

Adherents of those faiths are happy to push their own particular message, unlike the  Bishop’s Officer for Interfaith Dialogue who writes, "Interfaith dialogue is not about telling everyone how great our angle on faith is and trying to convert them to it. It is about respect and openness."

Does the Church in Wales believe that there is onlyone way to the Father or not?

Respect and openness includes the usual message of how the 'religion of peace' gets a bad press as if all the Islamic attacks on the innocent over the last 1400 years were fake news.

There is an interview with Brother Titus, a Cistercian Trappist monk living with another nine monks. They have taken themselves out of the world to live a reclusive life on Caldy Island. What of those of us who are in the world and not of other faiths? There is no dialogue with traditional, orthodox Anglicans. Anyone who conscientiously follows scripture and tradition is excluded.

The central message has been lost. Each diocese does its own thing. St Asaph has been busy promoting the gospel according to LGBT while Bangor is mired in tales of impropriety according to commentators.

In the South of the Province the long-running battle continues to rage in Llandaff between those who think everything is hunky-dory in their cathedral while others insist that the cathedral is mired in discontent as illustrated by the manycomments under previous entries about alleged irregularities.

Those who expected the appointment to Llandaff of the second woman bishop in the Church in Wales to cause a whirlwind will be disappointed. The wind has blown one way, in the same direction emitting from the bishop of St Davids.

In St Davids the first woman bishop in the Church in Wales has lost no time in appointing as many women as she can. The first woman Dean arrives in May, months after her appointment. In the meantime the deanery has been gutted and completely refurbished. At what cost whenparishes ministry areas are struggling to make ends meet?

That leaves Monmouth. Many clergy have. The CEO's solution there is to appoint a third archdeacon to prop up a failing re-organisation into ministry areas.

There has been a flurry of senior appointments and bishops' advisers. There is no shortage of money for those at the top while the begging bowl is out lower down the chain.

When the new archbishop took office hepromised there would be 'more of the same - but faster'. It is a pity he didn't see which way the wind was blowing - or perhaps he did!

Postscript [03.05.2018]

As if to emphasis that there is no shortage of money at the top in the Church in Wales, the bishop of St Davids has announced an addition to her senior management team, a new 'Archdeaconry for New Christian Communities'.

There were Christian communities throughout the diocese and throughout the Province before Barry supported by his bench sitters hatched his innovative plan to copy the disastrous policies of the US Episcopal Church (TEC).

They were called Parishes.

More from St Davids [03.05.2018]

One wonders how any 'new Christian communities' will be properly cared for given: "the strain imposed on stipendiary, NSM and NSM(L) clergy and Readers when service rotas within LMAs include services that, even when all the licensed clergy and Readers were working, need retired clergy to take them.

"Retired clergy could of course be asked to take any service within the designated number but not be used to extend the rota to something that the licensed ministry team couldn?T cover healthily alone.

"The willingness of retired clergy to give their time, effort and energy, should not be used to prolong a way of being church that is no longer sustainable."

Read More