BBC celebrates 'love'

Still from the BBC factual drama 'Against the Law'

A vicar in Hull hasclaimed that words such as 'pride' and 'gay' have been being "hijacked" by people who would seek to normalise LGBT activity as part of mainstream life.  An addition to his list could be 'love' following the BBC's Gay Britannia LGBTQ TV campaign for the advancement of homosexuality in Great Britain.

At the beginning Episode 1 (Series 1) of the BBC's 'Prejudice And Pride: The People’s History Of LGBTQ Britain', a male presenter referred to "loving" someone for a single night!

Presenters Susan Calman and Stephen K Amos

So 'love' is used to describe a night of sex with someone of the same sex. The female presenter went on to object that lesbians had not been included in the anti-homosexuality laws so they fell outside the definition of what sex could be. Lesbians were "virtually invisible" she complained. All that has nowchanged.

'Equality' is another word used by liberal progressives to justify their cause resulting in considerable confusion especially when equality is substituted for theology.

The BBC had previously screened a harrowing factual drama "Against the law". In 1954 there was considerable shock and outrage when Lord Montagu of Beaulieu was imprisoned after being found guilty of homosexual activity with two airmen. They escaped prosecution after receiving immunity in return for their incriminating testimony, naming more than 20 other sexual partners, against whom no action was taken.

Also convicted was Daily Mail journalist Peter Wildeblood.Described as "one of the bravest men who ever lived", he was the only openly gay man to give evidence to Lord Wolfenden’s committee which in 1957 recommended the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain.

Sadly this act of bravery was trivialised in the programme by an ageing queen who with obvious delight and amusement outed Lord Wolfenden's son with whom he claimed to have been "having an affair" at the time. No honour among queens!

In his evidence [advance to 1.11.20 on iPlayer] Wildeblood dismissed two of three categories of homosexuals he claimed there to be; 'pansies' who regarded themselves as women and pederasts for whom he had considerable contempt. He said that homosexuals in the strict sense are "adult men who are attracted to adult men. Men who desire to lead their lives with discretion and decency, neither corrupting others nor publicly flaunting their condition." [My emphasis - Ed.] They were "by far" the largest group of homosexuals.

By publicly flaunting their LGBT+ preferences, the gay pride movement is undoing the achievements of Peter Wildeblood in gaining respect for homosexual people "who desire only to lead their lives with discretion and decency".

The BBC's Gay Britannia celebration is undermining those hard-won achievements in what appears to be a concerted campaign by Church and State to queer Britain and force the acceptance of same sex marriage, a red line for many.

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Sociology replacing religion

The Bishop of Llandaff, June Osborne delivering her first presidential  address

 to members of the Llandaff Diocesan Conference.      Source: Church in Wales

"As someone whose first love was sociology I?M fascinated by how people draw the various maps of their world so one of my earliest requests to help me understand the diocesan landscape was that we should have a large map in the office showing the physical shape of the diocese. It arrived last week and already I stand in front of it with colleagues getting them to explain to me how things work."

The Rt Rev June Osborne, Bishop of Llandaff

The new bishop of Llandaff's first presidential address at a Llandaff diocesan conference makes informative reading. Strong on sociology but weak on theology and spirituality she should sit easily on a bench of bishops devoid of such talents. Formerly five of the bishops in Wales held Oxford Firsts in Theology.

Bishop Osborne said, "I will go on studying and using my map of the Llandaff Diocese but there?S another map going on which I?Ve begun to study and that is the map of the diocese which we each carry in our heads. We?Ve been doing some exploring of it today: and as I visit all the Deaneries in these next months I?Ll be listening carefully to what you think ought to be our priorities because they?Re writ large on your maps of how church should work."

This is far removed from the hype about the Dean of Salisbury beginning to transform Llandaff as soon as she crossed the Llys Esgob threshold. With parity high on her agenda her first move was to appoint a woman Chaplain as she began fishing for ideas on how to proceed in her new role.

Presumably the Archbishop of Wales had such imports in mind when he referred to the "huge range of talent, skill and faith" that the Church in Wales has among its people, both lay and ordained. 'Had' rather than has would have been more accurate.

Archbishop Davies haspromised  ‘more of the same’— but faster. In a pre- Primates’ 2017 conference video the Archbishop looked forward to learning from other provinces, ideas on new styles and new ways of delivering ministry, "something which we are seeking to do" in Wales he said. More of the same but faster can only mean accelerated decline.

Consultation is a bench favourite to be ignored at will so the new bishop outlined how she was inviting clergy and lay people to help her draw up a common map of the diocese by pinpointing where they saw themselves and the part they played in it.

Sadly many of the most able clergy now see themselves in England while lay people play no part after the Church in Wales left them.

The situation we find ourselves in is neatly summed up in the headline by Olivia Rudgard, religious affairs correspondent of the Telegraph:Number of new trainee priests hits ten-year high as 'celebrity vicars' make the Church look 'normal'.

Celebrity vicars like the Reverend Richard Coles and the Reverend Kate Bottley have "made the church more accessible" according to the Rt Revd Jan McFarlane, bishop of Repton. She also highlighted the BBC's 'Broken' and 'Rev' as good media portrayals of the clergy.

Perhaps she was not aware of the BBCseries about church in Wales ordinands 'Why we’re all represented in the Vicar Academy'.

The report shows a "ten-year high" in trainee clergy with more women than men starting training as priests for the first time in sixteen years. One of the ordinands, a journalist aged 33 and mother-of-three, says she has been encouraged by moves to make the priesthood more inclusive to women, such as part-time curacies and courses that fit around childcare.

Another sociology job option of relevance to society.

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Holiness lost in the Church in Wales

Ven Cherry Vann, bishop elect of Monmouth                                               Source: Church in Wales

In the run up to the Electoral College charged with electing the 11th Bishop of Monmouth the President of the College, Archbishop John Davies, gave an account of the qualities required of the successful candidate. If I recall correctly it implied an element of holiness based on biblical guidance of the qualities needed to be a bishop.

I can no longer find the link, only "Page or file not founddanquot;. No doubt it has been taken down to avoid embarrassing comparisons based on this reaction in conversation with others from an internationally respected commentator on Church affairs to the election of the "first partnered lesbian bishopdanquot;, that we know of, in the UK:

"Merit and holiness has nothing to do with the election of bishops in the Church in Wales. This is a political process. There are 23 clergy electors in the electoral synod. All but 7 are bishops, archdeacons and deans and you need to have a two-thirds vote so what this means is that the establishment by the way they pack the Electoral College is able to select those people whom they wish to put forward as bishop? Barry Morgan the former archbishop has been pushing for this outcome. Pushing for women clergy, pushing for women bishops, pushing for the normalisation of homosexuality.

"Members of the Archbishop's Council tell me that Archdeacon Vann is a complete nonentity, not as a person but in her role in the substantive debates within the Archbishop's Council. In other words she is not someone who has ideas, is a mover or a shaker, who people when we come to an issue, they look at her and think: What does she have to say? She is just another grey face at a long grey table. She is a committee person, she sits on the dais at General Synod and in 10 years has made no meaningful contribution whatsoever.

?Within the diocese where she is archdeacon she has made life miserable for conservative evangelicals, I'm told, through a passive, aggressive approach to things. In other words she is not a warrior for this cause, she is just an apparatchik. And so now we have another mediocrity who has a good CV of positions but no actual real holiness or merit or intellect or heft?

"The option taken by the Church in Wales is effectively to say the gay issue does not matter to us. We are not going to go through the perambulations that the Church of England has gone through. We are just saying this is who she is, like it or lump it."

All the more surprising therefore to see so much acclamation on Twitter although much of it had more to do with feminism, gender equality and parity than holiness. I also read a congratulatory tweet from the gay activist Sandi Toksvig but as in the case of the Archbishop's letter I can no longer find the tweet as if there were something to hide.

Cherry Vann is a member of the Church of England's Pastoral Advisory Group considering matters such as ‘Next Steps in Human Sexuality’ (GS Misc 1158). She is also a Trustee of the Ozanne Foundation.

The Bishops of the Church in Wales agreed the following statement on marriage between same-sex couples in March 2012.

"We abide by the Christian doctrine of marriage as the union of one man with one woman freely entered into for life. We acknowledge that whilst issues of human sexuality are not resolved, there are couples living in other life-long committed relationships who deserve the welcome, pastoral care and support of the Church. We are committed to further listening, prayerful reflection and discernment regarding same-sex relationships."

The Rev Jenny Wigley who, along with the Ven Peggy Jackson, did everything they could to undermine traditional Anglican orthodoxy, was the Guest Editor for a special edition of Theology Wales In her Introduction she referenced "The statement of the 1998 Lambeth Conference affirmed heterosexual marriage or sexual abstinence as the only choices for Christians; homosexual practice was declared to be incompatible with scripture. But the statement also committed the bishops to listening to the experience of homosexual persons and called on people to “minister  and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation".

Heterosexual marriage was affirmed but has been undermined ever since. The bench of bishops have used every means at their disposal to force through same sex marriage in church, including a one sided presentation by the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church to the Governing Body last September. SeeChurch in Wales bench of bishops in renewed push for same sex marriage.

On the face of it the appointment of Cherry Vann is entirely political. Llandaff boasts the first transgender priest. Now the bench can pride themselves on appointing the first female bishop with a same sex partner. She is also an interfaith enthusiast supporting the removal of church pews to allow Muslim events in church.

No wonder the archbishop expressed his delight in a video announcing the appointment.

It is a sobering thought for any priests stood at the altar in whose name they will be celebrating.

Postscript [23.09.2019]

Bishop-Elect for Monmouth Diocese Cherry Van gives her first interview since being elected to the post

"She said: 'I was quite struck by the process the Church in Wales adopts to find new bishops. It seems to me to be heavily dependent on the guidance of the Holy Spirit and that gives me great encouragement'."

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A Female Diaconate!

Representatives of the Women's Ordination Conference stage a protest in front of St. Peter's Basilica

at the Vatican on Tuesday, June 8, 2010.   Source: Washington post Photo by Pier Paolo Cito

 "Amongst a lot of social change, we too continue to see the loss of Sunday churchgoing. And this can feel as if we?Re in terminal decline. Add to that the loss of connectedness many once had with the church ? Now more than half our neighbours happily describe themselves as having ?No religion?. And then add the lost trust in what the church stands for - ask anyone under 30 what they make of the Church and they?Ll pretty soon mention our unhealthy preoccupations with gender and sexuality. Those multiple losses feel really significant for those who love the Church and all it stands for."

The words of the bishop of Llandaff, June Osborne, delivered in herPresidential Address at the Llandaff Diocesan Conference 2019 following her observation that churches in the Gwent Valleys had suffered 'a 37% loss of membership within just the last few years'.

Despite similar evidence from other Anglican Provinces that have ordained women, the Roman Catholic Church appears oblivious to the dangers of creating a female diaconate. It is clear from experience in the Anglican Communion that ordaining women deacons provided them with a stepping-stone in a planned progression from women deacons to women bishops resulting in exclusion for many and indifference to their plight.

Once women deacons established a toehold in the Anglican Church, equality of opportunity, not theology, took hold. The rest is history. People who rarely if ever set foot in a church have become arbiters of what is or is not acceptable in Anglicanism as liberal leaning bishops strain to be evermore relevant to society.

In 2010 the USWashington Times reported the results of a Poll that showed 80% of Catholics were 'comfortable' with the idea of women priests but it is worth remembering that the US Episcopal Church started the Anglican rot which spread to England and Wales resulting in many faithful Anglicans finding themselves effectively unchurched.

Other Catholics claimed that the Catholic Church would never ordain women but within a decade of that poll Pope Francis appears open to reversing claims made by Pope John Paul II that the Church had no authority to ordain women (1994) and those who continued discussing women?S ordination were effectively excommunicating themselves (1998).

One Catholic bishop, Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, has claimed that the Amazon Synod was being used as a ?Tool? To change the Church and create ?A new kind of religiondanquot;, a situation familiar to orthodox Anglicans who find themselves excluded by newcomers.

Speaking after the conclusion of Rome’s Amazon Synod which approved a document calling for  further discussion on allowing women deacons, the former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, described a male-only priesthood as "codology dressed up as theology".

It is difficult to take such women seriously when their interests appear to be more about feminine power than spreading the Gospel. True they use the Gospel but for their own ends. They talk of love and inclusion but are content to see women and men who do not share their views excluded, leaving them with no church to attend and no pastoral care.

Continuing her presidential address at the 2019 Llandaff diocesan conference June Osborne said "So many want to tell me how church life enriches their existence and is precious to them."

Church life did that for many others before they were excluded but the breed of woman that seeks power in the Church couldn't care less who is hurt on their march to the top. Instead they complain of discrimination and misogyny if anyone dares to disagree with them as they look to society for support.

Osborne started her address by referring to the September Electoral College which chose a new Bishop of Monmouth. She described the decision as excellent saying, "I know Archdeacon Cherry Vann will be an outstanding bishop for our friends in Monmouth."

There have been rumours that Cherry Vann was not the choice of Monmouth diocese and that their candidate was rejected which suggests yet another stitch up by the Church in Wales establishment in pursuit of their liberal agenda.

In her first interview following her election the bishop-elect said: ?I am also aware that the church is struggling to be relevant in people?S lives. I want to work with people to find ways of communicating, what is essentially, a message of love and hope to people who find the institutional church difficult or inaccessible."

St Paul spoke of love in action. He also said: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God?S will is?His good, pleasing and perfect will."

The movement for ordaining women to the priesthood peddles a false concept of equality in defiance of the message received through scripture and tradition which have been followed by generations in a broad Church. All has changed.

After women were ordained deacons in the Anglican Church demands for priesting quickly followed employing claims of discrimination and misogyny if they were denied what they claimed was the next logical step. They claimed that it did not mean that women wanted to be bishops, until they were priests.

After women were admitted to the priesthood, it was the 'stained glass' ceiling and promises of mutual flourishing if women were allowed to become bishops. Anotherfalse promise.

Now that there are women bishops parity is demanded using the usual slogans of discrimination and inequality. Parity has already been achieved in the Church in Wales following the 'election' of Cherry Vann.

In her presidential address Osborne referred to the "lost trust in what the church stands for" adding: "ask anyone under 30 what they make of the Church and they?Ll pretty soon mention our unhealthy preoccupations with gender and sexuality".

That preoccupation has been manifested most prominently in female bishops. Presumably they haven't finished yet.

Rome beware.

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