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The Archbishop of Canterbury embraces the Mayor of London at the #Windrush70 Service of Thanksgiving                                       Source: Twitter @wabbey

As usual printable captions will be published as comments.

I wasn't expecting this

Addressing 'The Challenge of Secularism' at the 2018 meeting of GAFCON in Jerusalem the Rt Rev Dr Gavin Ashenden spoke about The Challenge of Cultural Marxism to the Church.

Explaining how the deception works,  Dr Ashenden explains how "a 3rd wave feminism extended parity into the area of social and sexual engineering. It involved the re-imagining of gender. Making gender flexible and fluid according to the preferences of the imagination.

"The strategy was first feminism and the introduction of the virus of equality , then gay marriage , based on the same artificial notion of equality, then the eradication of gender in the mind with transgenderism. And then paedophilia."

Referring to the latest Canadian propaganda videos "which show the increasing sexualisation of children as they are educated to become ‘allies’ of the LGBTQI++ , the bishop provided a reference to this sample video

  "Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man"! 

This goes way beyond tolerance and understanding. How did we allow ourselves to get here?

Pope Francis says no to women priests

Pope Francis will not ordain women to priesthood.           L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo Via AP

The Catholic News Agency reports that in an interview with Reuters, Pope Francis said more space has to be created for women to take on leading roles in the Roman Curia, but that priestly ordination is not an option.

“We cannot functionalize women,” he said, explaining that while the Church is referred to as a woman, the Sacrament of Holy Orders is out of the question “because dogmatically it doesn't work.”

“John Paul II was clear and closed the door, and I will not go back on this. It was something serious, not something capricious,” he said, adding, “it cannot be done.”

That will be welcome news for many but unwelcome news for some Catholics who are fighting for the ordination of women. They allege that the refusal to ordain women "is not God’s intent, and neither scripturally justified nor the original practice of the church".

The Anglican Church has been down that route, the route to disaster. The implied growth as a result of ordaining women has not materialised, quite the reverse. The church has simply been used by feminists to extend their influence regardless of the consequences.

Lies and deception were used to gain power, not for the church but for themselves. They have reneged on agreements which put them where they are and sidelined anyone who does not agree with them. They have advanced LGBT rights as though that were the Gospel message while promoting same sex marriage.

The ordination of women has been an utter disaster and we are living with the consequences. Western Anglicanism is in terminal decline depriving many more women of their spiritual home. Sadly the destruction has been aided by progressive bishops and priests.

Messy Baptism is the latest feminist first in Wales. Messing up Holy Baptism. What a mess!

Women bishops defy Governing Body

Jolly June          Source: Twitter@LlandaffDio

Within the Church in Wales, those who on grounds of theological conviction and conscience are unable to receive the sacramental ministry of women bishops or priests continue to be within the spectrum of teaching and tradition of the Anglican Communion. The Church in Wales therefore remains committed to enabling all its members to flourish within its life and structures as accepted and valued. Appropriate provision for them will be made in a way intended to maintain the highest possible degree of communion and contributes to mutual flourishing across the whole Church in Wales. (Principles. Women Bishops Code of Practice) 

It appears that the newly appointed women bishops in the Church in Wales are happy to defy their Governing Body in an act which can only be described as a visible sign of disunity, showing no regard for the procedure which enabled them to be appointed bishops.

At ordinations presided over by the first female bishop of Llandaff, as a mere gesture towards the agreed Code of Practice, arrangements have been made for a male bishop to step forward for the laying on of hands if the ordinand, on grounds of conscience, is unable to receive the sacramental ministry of a woman diocesan bishop.

I understand that similar arrangements have been made for ordinations carried out by the bishop of St Davids. The gesture is clear.

The rules were changed unilaterally by the Church in Wales to grant the wish of women who claimed to be 'called to ministry', even though the Church in Wales claimed to share the historic episcopate with other Churches, 'including other Churches of the Anglican Communion, the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches, which continue to ordain only men as priests or bishops'.

No provision was made for those, who on grounds of theological conviction and conscience, are unable to receive the sacramental ministry of women bishops or priests. Instead the Governing Body voted for a Code of Practice.

Under the Code, "Individual members of the Church in Wales who, on grounds of conscience, are unable to receive the sacramental ministry of a woman diocesan bishop, shall not be required to do so against their conscience, and alternative provision shall be made".

For the Code of Practice to have any meaning it must be seen to satisfy the consciences of those for whom it was intended but I understand that the new female bishops are making their own arrangements, thus placing orthodox ordinands in an impossible position.

The procedure has become so far removed from when the Provincial Assistant Bishop presided at ordinations that it lacks any integrity whatsoever.

The minister in the Sacrament of Ordination is the Bishop. The celebrant presides over the whole service – the interrogation of the candidates, the laying-on-of-hands (assisted by other priests who are symbolically receiving the new priests into the presbyterium) and the celebration of the Eucharist.  Importing another bishop (solely because he is male) to step in and lay hands on any candidates who have conscientious objections to the sacramental ministry of women, far from being a gesture of accommodation, turns the whole business into a charade of misogyny.

The curious arrangements proposed in Llandaff and St Davids do nothing to solve the basic problem of conscience either, since it is a requirement in the ordination service that those being ordained receive Holy Communion from the bishop who is the celebrant.

It has been said over and again that we do not have a problem with women; our problem remains the unilateral departure from the practice of the undivided church and by far the greater part of Christendom whose orders we have always claimed to have shared.

Traditionalist Anglicans in Wales are not alone in their struggle to survive. In the Church of England specific provision was made for men and women who in conscience are unable to receive the sacramental ministry of women bishops or priests but there has been a constant chipping away at the agreement. For the latest developments see the Forward in Faith document Nomination to the See of Sheffield: Lessons Learned.

When it comes to women's ordained ministry there seems to be far more of the old Eve than the new.

Coalition for Marriage letter

From: Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

WHERE IS DAVID CAMERON’S PROMISE NOW?

Dear marriage supporter,

In February 2013, David Cameron wrote to a constituent who was concerned about the redefinition of marriage:

“You raise particular concerns about the role of teachers. Teachers will continue to have the clear right to express their own beliefs, or that of their faith, in a professional way. This includes the belief that marriage should be between one man and one woman.

No teacher will be required to promote or endorse views which go against their beliefs.”

But now, David Cameron’s assurance is being flatly contradicted by draft Government guidance for England.

An independent school is to be failed if its curriculum “suggests that same-sex marriages or civil partnerships should not be recognised as being lawful unions under civil law”.

If schools have that threat hanging over them, it’s inevitable that teachers who believe in traditional marriage will be prevented from expressing their beliefs. The same goes for pupils. Debate will be shut down.

Many of those who voted in favour of same-sex marriage weren’t expecting disagreement to be forbidden. They weren’t voting for traditional marriage supporters to be gagged. They took promises about free speech – including David Cameron’s – at face value.

But it seems the Department for Education has forgotten those assurances.

We need to remind the Government to keep its promises.

Yours sincerely,

(Sign'd) Colin Hart

Colin Hart
Chairman
Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

More luuuuv and lots of it, for some

Do you see the archbishop chatting-up the ex-minister? He hasn't a clue what he has started. Llandaff next!                                        Photo source: Wales Online

Love is the thing. Presiding bishop Michael Curry drawled it out at the marriage of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle:

The liberal infiltrators who have targeted Anglicanism continually talk of love, rolling all forms of love into one. It embraces every desire.

The liberal propaganda machine is spread widely, so much so that when discussing gender fluidity with a group of secondary school pupils they confidently predicted that pansexuality would become the norm. [See Postscript: Dangerous People Are Teaching Your Kids]

Schools, television, newspapers, church, in fact everywhere, 'education' has become the means of encouraging almost anything and everything except traditional marriage resulting in a massive increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

'Love' without qualification is all. We should not be surprised, then, when impressionable teenagers interpret the message as 'do as you please'.

The zeitgeist has been promoted shamelessly by people, including clergy, as a means of advancing their own preference. 'Get used to it', is their response. 'People will think nothing of it in time' as if that were justification for not defending traditional marriage, the foundation of family life.

If these people are right, why are church pews emptying?

In a recent twist, the Right Rev Rachel Treweek reportedly argued that only God can provide unconditional love. Previously she has argued that the Church of England should stop using male pronouns when referring to God in order to counter the erroneous belief that the Almighty has a gender.

From The Times (£). You can’t have love without faith, says woman bishop

"The first woman to become a senior Anglican bishop has questioned whether people can really have love or hope if they do not believe in God. The Right Rev Rachel Treweek shattered the so-called “stained-glass ceiling” when she was made Bishop of Gloucester in 2015, less than a year after the Church of England had voted to allow women to join its House of Bishops. At the time, she said that she would encourage British Christians to “speak out with confidence about their faith” after years of reticence over mounting robust public defences of Anglican belief."

She seemed to be implying that people in extraordinary loving relationships, with whoever/whatever must have a greater belief in God.

Following a tweet from Humanists UK which said how "deeply, profoundly offensive it was to the 53% of people in the UK that have no religion" the bishop has since denied that she said anything of the sort.

In an anxious video response the bishop wondered aloud "if without faith we can really know deep hope and love", which appeared to take her back to what she said she did not say.

Unable to stop digging a deeper hole for herself she mentioned love sixteen times referring to her 'own brokenness', the 'bomb attack in Manchester' and 'bishop Michael Curry's Royal wedding sermon'.


Persecution has reared its head in another controversy. Church of England evangelicals are claiming that they being "forced out" for being gay.

"Jayne Ozanne, 'an influential Church of England evangelical who is gay', has promised to raise the issue at the General Synod next month and ask whether churches are breaching the official guidelines of the House of Bishops. Speaking to The Sunday Times, she had "learnt of dozens of cases recently" and said she expected a #MeToo" moment for the Church to be stirred up."

The Bishop of Maidstone, the Rt Revd Rod Thomas, had criticised a letter extending welcome to same-sex couples last month by Lichfield diocese. Bishop Thomas, who chaired the conservative Evangelical pressure group Reform until 2015, was responding to recent guidelines issued by the Bishops in the diocese of Lichfield to all clergy and lay ministers which seek to end “intrusive questioning” on sexual practices.

The Dean of St Paul’s, the Very Revd David Ison, expressed concern about the Bishop of Maidstone’s comments on the Lichfield diocesan letter seeking to define “radical Christian inclusion”. In a blog contribution, he also criticises the Church of England bishops more generally for “institutional dishonesty” about clergy in same-sex relationships, which, he says, is damaging to mental health as well as corrupting of the institution.

With so much talk of love and inclusion you might have thought that a place at the table could be found for traditionalist Anglicans but not a bit of it.

The only chance of a welcome is to become a Muslim or ignore one's conscience and fall in behind those who already have.

Postscript [13.06.2018]

From The Conservative Woman blog (H/T Twitter)

Jordan Peterson: We are funding the destruction of Western civilisation

Par for the course

The Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS) reports that a Welsh television drama advisor is to become Director of Formation for Licensed Ministry for St Padarn’s Institute, the dumbed-down training arm of the Church in Wales.

The Revd Canon Dr Manon Ceridwen James worked as adviser on S4C’s drama Parch "a popular television drama about a female vicar in rural Wales", as if the Vicar of Dibley hasn't already done enough damage. She has been appointed to oversee the training of all licensed ministers in the country.

Canon James is the author of Women, Identity and Religion in Wales, a book on Welsh feminist theology which must be music to the ears of the bench sitters. 

She described her new role as “an exceptional opportunity for me to play a part in growing lay and ordained ministers who will equip our churches to serve our communities and share the good news of Jesus Christ with them.”

What feminism has to do with the good news of Jesus Christ is unlikely to be discussed. Just taken as a given.