Daniel Pelka, RIP

 Daniel was denied food, force-fed salt, held under the water in a bath until unconscious and regularly beaten. He was also imprisoned in a box-room and died alone in the dark from a head injury in March 2012. This happened in modern Britain. A sibling was the only one who helped him despite visible signs of injury while Daniel openly scavenged for food and drank filthy water. Society failed him. Why?

May Angels lead you into paradise;

may the Martyrs receive you at your coming

and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem.

May a choir of Angels receive you,

and with Lazarus, who once was poor, may you have eternal rest.

Textbook Praises Islam, Denigrates Christianity

Photo: GETTY

From CP Opinion:

A world history book used in an Advanced Placement class is under review by a Florida school board over allegations it favors Islam at the expense of Christianity and Judaism.

State Rep. Ritch Workman told Fox News the Prentice World History textbook rewrites Islamic history and presents a biased version of the Muslim faith.

"The book has a 36-page chapter on Islam but no chapters on Christianity or Judaism," Workman said. "It's remarkably one-sided."

The textbook is being used in an Advanced Placement class in Brevard County schools. The book is on a state-approved list and has been used in the school system for the past three years without any complaints.

Workman said he received a copy of the book and he said it's clear the authors "make a very obvious attempt not to insult Islam by reshaping history."

"If you don't see it from the eyes of a parent, kids are going to take this book as gospel and believe that Christians and Jews were murderous barbarians and thank God the Muslims came along and the world is great," he said.

For example, Workman said a reference to Mohammed and his armies taking over Medina states, "people happily accepted Islam as their way of life."

"It leaves out that tens of thousands of Jews and non-believers were massacred by Mohammed's armies," he said. "It's a blatant deception."

The book indicates that Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Messiah while stating as fact that Mohammed is a prophet, Workman said. Students are also given lessons on the Koran and the five pillars of Islam. 

"They don't do that for Christianity," he said. "That is offensive to me."

School board member Amy Kneessy told Fox News she has similar concerns.

"Some of the descriptions of the battles use the word 'massacre' when it's a Christian battle and 'takeover' when it's a Muslim battle," she said. "In young minds, massacre paints a very different visual picture than a takeover or occupation – when in fact both battles were very bloody."

Kneessy said she's also concerned that the book devotes an entire chapter to Islam.

"I don't want revisionist history," she said. "History is history."

Pearson, the publisher of the textbook, confirmed there is a chapter titled, "Muslim Civilizations."

"Pearson and its authors adhere to the highest editorial standards when creating course materials, which undergo a rigorous review process," Pearson spokeswoman Susan Aspey told Fox News. "A review of the book shows there is balanced attention given to the beliefs of Islam, Judaism and Christianity."

However, Workman said that statement is "patently unfair and untrue."

"They hired a Muslim cleric to write the Muslim section," he said. "The publisher told me."

Aspey said that's not correct.

She said, "academic experts did review the content, but they did not write it or edit it."

The Christian Post article demonstrates very well the trend in the West to show reverence to Islam, largely ignoring negative aspects of the ideology, while allowing Christianity and other religions to be fair game for criticism and ridicule. See here.

The world's Muslim population is expected to grow twice as fast as non-Muslims over the next 20 years according to a study "The Future of the Global Muslim Population" by The Pew Forum. There is plenty of evidence to show that as Islam grows in strength they demand more and more is given. Read "The Supremacist's Ideology Of Islam" here and the plight of Egypt's Christians, now a minority, here.

Good news!

 World Youth Day Copacabana beach                                                                      Picture: Independent

Some good news for the church for a change. 

People returning from church as congregations begin to dwindle at the onset of the Summer holiday period, conscious of all the negative news about the church, often reported with apparent relish by the secular media, can marvel at the estimated 3 million Catholic pilgrims who occupied Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis. Report here.

How low can this man sink?

Photo: REUTERS

David Cameron told gay people at a Downing Street reception that he planned to thank the Queen 'personally' for giving her assent to the same-sex marriage bill.

From an article in the Telegraph: "Although the Queen could hardly not have given her assent to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, David Cameron promised guests at a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender reception in Downing Street on Wednesday that he intended to thank her “personally” for signing it at his audience with her that evening." 

Devious Dave not only trapped the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith into giving her assent to this electioneering stunt but he then seeks to imply Her Majesty's approval as he diverts scarce resources to export gay marriage around the world. How much lower can his man sink?

Feminist cockerel is no match for Nelson's column

Katharina Fritsch says Cock is her 'feminist statement'                                 Photo: Gautier Deblonde

The fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square is again occupied by an inappropriate gimmick. Reports here and here, among many others. 

Onlookers interviewed for the BBC were baffled. The first person interviewed wondered if it had anything to do with the Mayor of London. Boris Johnson is of course a true blue but that is a far as it goes. Even Boris struggled to come up with a convincing explanation. 

The world has recently celebrated Nelson Mandela International Day For freedom, justice and democracy. The fourth plinth should be his.

NMF Photo/Oryx Media, Benny Gool

 

Church in Wales: More of the same

Photo: South Wales Argus

After all the speculation about the Dean of St Albans, Dr Jeffrey John, going to Monmouth, the hat has gone to local boy Richard Pain, Archdeacon of Monmouth, suggesting that the Archbishop of Wales doesn't always get his own way.

Archbishop Morgan can console himself in the knowledge that like the rest of the bunch bench, the new Bishop of Monmouth has ticked all the right boxes. According to a BBC report [here], he is "in favour of women bishops and wants to make the church more relevant for society". A similar report in the local press includes this gem: "The Venerable Pain will be bishop-elect until the appointment is formally confirmed by the Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan at a Sacred Synod service", written by a member of society to which the bishop-elect wants his flock to be more relevant, ie, completely ignorant of matters religious. The report ends: "A keen amateur photographer, The Ven Pain, also plays classical guitar and keeps hens." Eggs for the curates?

The "Venerable Pain" said: "Among the issues which needed to be tackled was declining church membership" and he looks forward "to a day when we're able to have women bishops for a sense of equality in the church"! No problem with being more relevant to society there. So more of the same in the Church in Wales for her dwindling congregations.

Joy of joys. It's a boy!

The official notice confirming that the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a boy.

The women's lobby will be furious that it's a boy but there is no going back to change the result this time.

I expect there will be some who would have preferred IVF in the interests of parity but they will have to wait another generation to campaign for that. The Republican feminist Joan Smith has already been complaining on BBC Newsnight that there are now three generations of male heirs in line to the throne offering no chance of a black lesbian queen for the foreseeable future. The joy of secularism!

Pity poor Dave too. He has done his best to be relevant to ordinary people in society by pushing every conceivable politically correct fad that might give him some electoral advantage. Alas, all in vain this time. He will now have no further opportunities to play to the cameras while badgering Commonwealth countries to comply with his (adopted) view of equality. But hang on a minute. If equality of opportunity is the real aim, why not the best of the brood instead of the first born? Better a bright young thing than a possible dullard in fancy dress. No exams of course; just a simple selection panel - the CNC perhaps since the Sovereign is also Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Don't get me wrong. I am more than happy to be ruled by HM The Queen according to law but I am not happy with constant tinkering with the law especially when it does not address the real need for greater equality. Outside the Royal Family where the succession is already guaranteed, pity the poor gentry families in danger of losing their hereditary titles because only males may inherit. Do they deserve less? Granted there is no public demand for this but neither was there for same-sex marriage which has been rammed through parliament. Come on Dave. Time for another show of force.

Back in the real world what really matters is that women everywhere are safely delivered of a healthy child. The good news is that mother and baby are doing well but having gone through two difficult pregnancies myself my thoughts naturally are with the father.

"The Church of England is in crisis"

The Rev Catherine Grylls                                                     Photo: Karen Robinson for the Observer

"The Church of England is in crisis" says Robert McCrum in an article for the Observer. "Its position on women bishops and gay marriage has alienated much of society". Writing about the meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England in York earlier this month he says: "once upon a time, it was all gas and gaiters, but now, when the delegates debate the issues of the moment – women bishops and same-sex marriage – they find themselves trapped in a hell of their own making". So far so good I thought but then it is down hill all the way:

   "On 21 November 2012, on a motion to allow women to become bishops, the House of Laity, opposing the ordained clergy, staged a revolt. Its 64% vote for women bishops fell just six votes short of the required majority, a narrow but decisive defeat.

The traditionalists were jubilant. Among the bishops and clergy there was shock, disbelief, anger and despair at a historic wrong turn. Andrew Brown, the Guardian's editor of Cif Belief wrote: "I have just watched the Church of England commit suicide.""

'Revolt' and 'jubilant'? I don't think so, certainly not as I saw it. 'Shock, disbelief, anger and despair'? Of course. That sums up the feelings of the majority when thy fail to get their own way regardless of democratically agreed procedures. The gulf between us is clear:

   "Perhaps no amount of political finesse could disguise the reality of an established church that, after the 2012 vote, seems either fatally wounded or hopelessly irrelevant. The Reverend Lucy Winkett, who might have been expected to become a woman bishop, wrote that the Synod was "detonating its credibility with contemporary Britain". Just below the headlines, that credibility is already threadbare. Behind the debate on women bishops, there are unresolved questions about the ministry of gay priests and the infinitely more difficult issue of same-sex marriage. Canon Giles Goddard of St John's Waterloo says that "people oppose women bishops because they know gay marriage will be next". At the York Synod, to the despair of reformers, Welby appeared to renew his opposition to same-sex unions. 

Goddard, whose partner sings in the church choir, is one of a handful of avowedly gay priests who says he feels "hampered by a perception of the church – misogynistic and homophobic – that trumps all the other good stuff we are trying to do". Goddard believes that these are "justice issues. I don't think Archbishop Welby has realised how important these issues are to the way in which the church is perceived.""

Why does a lost vote make the Church of England 'either fatally wounded or hopelessly irrelevant'? The answer is given in the Reverend Lucy Winkett's comment: that the Synod was "detonating its credibility with contemporary Britain". Is how the church is perceived by people in 'contemporary Britain' the only thing that matters in the Church of England? Generally people in 'contemporary Britain' couldn't care less, a position well illustrated by some of the comments in response to the article and by the ignorance displayed by the author when he refers to "the Reverend Grylls" and "Rev Lording", a habit that has become so commonplace that it suggests that for most critics, their only interest in the church can be measured in column inches.

The implication is that the Church of England is in crisis because, rather than adapt the church to become relevant to contemporary Britain, some of her members still hold to the faith of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. In reality this paragraph sums up why the church is in crisis:

   "The irony of the present crisis is that the two groups – gays and women – that seem particularly alert to the needs of the church and extremely well suited to promote such a  mission are currently excluded from the hierarchy. Giles Goddard, speaking for the gays in the church, places the blame on the Synod as a whole. He says: "We have been poorly led by the bishops who are afraid of losing the support of conservative parishes, with all the financial implications of such a move."
Yet on the ground, in the shires and cities, it seems to be gay clerics and women priests who are keeping the Church of England alive, and in touch with society, from day to day."

If 'gay clerics and women priests are "keeping the Church of England alive" ', for whom? Themselves and the like minded? They constantly spin their own versions of faith as career persons adapting religion to suit their own ends and lifestyles. Love is all has come to mean just as you please evidenced by the fact that most have now left the church and others are being driven out if they they don't toe the line. So much for brotherly person love. The whole article can be read here.

Alan Turing Pardon

Alan Turing (1912 - 1954)

In January last year  I posted "Alan Turing's stamp of approval and petition for a pardon". The petition closed in December 2012 with 37,402 signatures.

It is hard to believe that a government that was to push through unwanted gay marriage legislation dismissed calls for a posthumous pardon in 2012 arguing that one was "not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence". 

Latest reports suggest that attitudes have changed and that justice may at last be done. Thanks to all who signed the petition. A relative of mine worked with Alan Turing in Bletchley Park but such was the secrecy then and for a long time afterwards that nobody in the family knew of the connection.

The Lords debate here.

Whatever happened to observation?

Photo: The National Archives

Anyone who has witnessed the problems highlighted in the Keogh Report first hand will have been appalled by the mud slinging in the Commons when the Health Secretary made his statement. The findings of "poor care, inadequate staffing and bad management" come as no surprise. See "Death by care" here and "NHS: Here we go again" here. This has been going on for decades.

That there is something wrong in the NHS has been obvious for years but being the sacred cow that it has become, criticism has been unacceptable even when watching a member of your own family die from an infection picked up in hospital where infection control was so lax that doctors and nurses had to be reminded to wash their hands.

Long gone are the days when the Ward Sister knew every patient, their diagnosis and recovery regime, when meals were supervised so it was obvious if a patient was not being properly nourished. When backs were rubbed to avoid bed sores, mouths kept clean and, of paramount importance, patients were observed by nurses training on the wards to care for patients. Nowadays it is not the ward but the nursing station that is the hive of activity. Is it any wonder that 'observation' has become a lost art?

SMOKING KILLS

Many people of my generation bear the scars of smoking. No longer regarded as sophisticated, the 'etiquette' of smoking in old films looks ridiculous, as ridiculous as the government's decision to postpone a decision on plain packaging for cigarette packets. 

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the government should wait for evidence of the effectiveness of plain packs in deterring young people in Australia, where the policy has already been implemented. Why? The evidence is already available. Ignoring the advice of experts is inexcusable when peoples lives are at risk as the passive-smoking statistics illustrated above show. Smoking kills. End of story.

He who dares...

Privatisation is a wonderful thing - for some. Perhaps not if you cannot afford to buy the shares or for example if you are a regular rail traveller sweltering in the heat while facing further delays, or even if you are an occasional traveller trying to negotiate your way around the fares/timetable jungle. Maybe not when being ripped-off by utilities with their many tariff traps, a matter of considerable pain particularly for the elderly but privatisation marches on regardless as if all were bliss.

Of course not all private contracting goes according to plan. In the news yet again is G4S for 'overcharging millions on government contracts' adding to their Olympics security debacle and the more recent unlawful killing inquest verdict but that will not deter the Government from its policy of private gain so there is soon to be another opportunity for the few to benefit at the expense of the many.

People with spare cash and not having to struggle to make ends meet will be looking forward to the Royal Mail sell-off now that the debts have been loaded onto the taxpayer to leave a profitable company ripe for plucking. There will be the inevitable questions about profit versus service, particularly in remote areas but assurances will be given about regular deliveries - just as 'regular' church goers turn up regularly once or twice a year at Easter and at midnight Mass every Christmas, weather permitting! 

Earlier in the week I was dumbstruck by the usual self-confident sales pitch on BBC Breakfast time TV of Michael Fallon, the Minister of State for Business and Enterprise. He posed the rhetorical question. - Would anyone waiting for a telephone connection want to return to the days before BT was privatized? Obviously he hasn't a clue how difficult it is to get connected by this favoured organisation. Recently I have heard of three 'customers', all in utter despair of BT. One, a new business hoping to employ 40 people; it has taken two months to make telephone and broadband connections in an existing serviced building followed by a further two weeks delay before an engineer makes the 'switch'. Another customer has had an important number reallocated while awaiting re-connection, no doubt resulting in the new customer receiving unwanted calls day and night. The third is still awaiting resolution after BT has failed to turn up when promised on at least two occasions causing considerable disruption. Many more frustrations can be found on-line. Not the best recommendation for privatisation Mr Fallon.

Also I see in the news that the NHS is about to run out of cash facing a £30 billion funding gap by 2020, a problem exacerbated, according to the Express, by the NHS 'forking out £435m on redundancies only to re-employ 2,200 staff that it let go'. Remember the message: "NHS safe in my hands says Cameron"? And what about the patients? It has been revealed that patients are increasingly reliant on unsupervised, often inadequately trained assistants to care for their needs. Of course there are centres of excellence in the NHS as I know only too well but I also know of wards where some of the patients could have performed services better than the care assistants on duty. The reason is now clear. 'Nursing' as we knew it is performed by unregulated staff with a minimum of training, often unsupervised. I don't blame those put in the unenviable position they have found themselves but I do blame the politicians and managers who have tinkered endlessly with the NHS resulting in the absence of traditional nursing care and the need to train another layer of staff to provide the services previous trainee nurses provided instead of sitting in universities.

In the meantime politicians are busying themselves redefining marriage and considering how to respond to the awkwardly timed award of a huge pay rise, upped to £74,000 pa. - Perhaps they are worth it but many MPs had their fingers caught in the till while supplementing their pay with imaginatively crafted expenses claims. Perhaps if we threw money at pickpockets they would become law abiding citizens! That everyone else, excluding bankers and senior managers, has seen their standard of living fall must be a terrible inconvenience for honourable members at this time. No matter that over the years they have messed up just about everything from the economy, the NHS, education, human rights, immigration, the list goes on. MPs have dared and won often ignoring public opinion as illustrated by the same-sex marriage farce about to complete its passage through parliament without protection for teachers and other vulnerable workers. Voters will remember that we have been the losers in these political games.

'He who dares, wins' is of course the motto of the SAS, among the bravest of the brave who undertake dangerous missions in defence of our country. A country where pistols and other deadly weapons are brandished by street gangs in furtherance of their criminal activity. By contrast Sgt Danny Nightingale, who has been putting his own life at risk protecting his fellow countrymen has had the full weight of the law thrown at him. As his solicitor said, "There is no public interest in prosecuting Danny Nightingale. It's deeply worrying." Regardless of the technicalities of any offence, he deserves better than to be treated as a common criminal.  He has been found guilty even though he is to be medically discharged from the Army because of his mental health. It is to be hoped that when he is sentenced the court will decide that he and his family have suffered enough, demonstrating that there is still some semblance of decency left in this country.

Bishops: Trust us!

General Synod service in York                                     Photograph: John Giles/PA

Women clergy and their devotees are clearly getting it all their own way. The vote at Synod for Option One brings the prospect of women bishops in the Church of England a step closer. Archbishop Welby's talk of reconciliation has led to a worsening of the position of opponents but a significant advance for WATCH. From their Press Release:  "WATCH remains committed to full engagement with the ongoing process" forgetting to add, only on their own terms in their battle annihilate the enemy. 

Calls from bishops for trust had a hollow ring in the knowledge that they cannot trust themselves. From the Telegraph: "Before they can be considered for a mitre they will have to persuade an archbishop that they are not involved in activity which might be considered sinful – and are not planning to do so." Could that be another hurdle for women candidates too or discrimination against male candidates? 

There were the usual impassioned speeches from talented women who years ago could have done well selling encyclopedias or more recently, unwanted insurance to gullible customers but the reality of the process was greeted with bored indifference when another lady explained that the proposed  route had been followed by the Anglican church in Canada and had proved to be a complete sham. Perhaps because the process already operates here!

In what I thought a very unconvincing interview afterwards, Archbishop Welby suggests that "we will arrive at something that works, that is simple and gives people real security to flourish in the church whatever their views". The question remains, then, if this is the sincere desire of the proponents, why is acceptable provision not made first? 

B*****!

From Virtue Online

"In a shocking end to a less than illustrious ecclesiastical career, U.S. Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori has been deposed for denying that Episcopalians need personal salvation. That she spent tens of millions of dollars on property lawsuits did not help her case. Episcopalians were finally fed up.

Jefferts Schori, who seemed calm and composed during the announcement that she was being fired, angrily left 815 2nd Avenue, NY the church’s national headquarters in her limousine firing over her shoulder that the trouble with the church was its abject fundamentalists.

After being told she was out and that TEC’s CEO Bishop Stacy Sauls would temporarily step in till a new PB is elected, Jefferts Schori seemed resigned to her fate.

"She went quietly," her media spokesperson Neva Rae Fox said. "She muttered something like, I don't want to run a church filled with homophobes, anti-inclusivists, traditionalists, evangelicals, fundamentalists and those lacking in diversity. She also had some tough words about the Apostle Paul and demon possession, suggesting he might have had a bad cosmic dude floating around in him.”

Back at national headquarters, some of her colleagues expressed relief she was gone. They also hoped that she would get the necessary theological relief to recover her faith before she dies and faces the Last Judgment with nothing to show for her life, as she doesn’t believe in the salvation of nominal Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, homosexuals, lesbians and people into threesomes.

On hearing the news, former Archbishop Rowan Williams also expressed relief that she is gone saying that she had been a royal pain in the a** when he was ABC, but refused to be more specific as he was reading poetry to his wife as they punted down the Cam." 

END

When I hurriedly read this story on Virtue Online before leaving home this morning I could hardly believe my eyes. Why had there been no report elsewhere? In haste I shouted to my wife that Jefferts Schori had been deposed. As she rushed to share the good news, I noticed the sub-heading: "A satirical essay". 
Please pardon the expletive!

Another 'stunning success' for the religion of peace

Photo: AFP

Stunning is the word. A farmer in Nigeria located the bodies of two of his sons: a 10-year-old who had been shot in the back as he apparently attempted to escape the fire and a 12-year-old who had taken a bullet to the chest. He said, "That's it, I'm taking my other boys out of school”.  He has three younger children who study nearby. “It's not safe”, he said. “The gunmen are attacking schools and there is no protection for students despite all the soldiers”.  Another 'success' for the religion of peace.

Just part of a report [here] of another school massacre in Nigeria where 41 children were killed, some burned alive: "Militants arrived on the scene with vessels carrying large quantities of fuel which they used to torch the building. Those who tried to flee the burning wreckage were shot" the survivors said. The report continues: The attack on the Government Secondary School in Mamudo town in the northeastern Yobe state is the latest in a series of militant attacks targeting children. The area has been targeted by the Boko Haram militant group repeatedly. The sect’s name means Western education is sacrilege or  sinful. Since 2010 "dozens of schools have been torched and over 1,600 victims murdered by extremists across the country". 

How many more excuses can there be for turning a blind eye to these outrages in the name of religion? Recently the Home Secretary banned two speakers from the United States from entering the UK to explain that however peaceful Muslims may appear, the basis of their faith is the same as that which is used to massacre these innocent children. What can a child know of politics? They want only to be loved. Even if right were on the side of the Islamists, which it cannot be when it entails violence, what possible excuse can there be for killing innocent children with fire and bullets or anything else for that matter? There is none. If Western education (freedom of thought) were sinful, innocent children can know nothing of it.

Christ called little children to Himself without hindrance. Spot the difference Home Secretary?

Postscript (8 July 2013)
"Support for two extremist groups - Minbar Ansar Deen and Boko Haram - is to be made a criminal offence in the UK." BBC report here.

Women bishops.

I have been pondering what more there is to write about the women bishops issue and the disgraceful way opponents have been treated by bishops and MPs.

I need not have bothered. Peter Mullen says it all here.

Thank you Peter. Mrs Briton feels better already!

Now hear this

Why the simultaneous rise of homosexuality and Islam? 

An interview with Peter Kreeft. (HT Anglican Mainstream)

Speaking about the simultaneous rise of homosexuality and Islam the Philosopher Peter Kreeft says “They’re the only two movements in Western civilization that will fight and die for their beliefs.”  

Politicians, church leaders and other misguided liberals including Channel 4: hear, mark, learn and inwardly digest.

Vacantsee in the Church in Wales

Coat of arms of the Diocese of Monmouth
Wikimedia Commons

Following the retirement of the Bishop of Monmouth a vacancy has arisen for a bishop in the Church in Wales to assist five other diocesan bishops plus an Ass Bishop managing observing the decline of the Anglican church in Wales.

A gay and/or divorced candidate is preferred to demonstrate that the Church in Wales is 'swimming along with the cultural tide' by putting Worldliness before Godliness.

To enrich the pool of provincial candidates, interest from outside the Province will be especially welcome. Interest from female clergy will be doubly appreciated. Although not yet approved by the Church in Wales' Governing Body (synod), a strong female interest will be regarded as useful ammunition in justification of the Archbishop's obsession with admitting women to the episcopate.

Nothing should be inferred from the short tenures of appointees in the neighbouring Diocese of Llandaff where unspecified problems are considered irrelevant to outsiders.

A flexible backbone will be seen as a distinct advantage given the need to bend to the Archbishop's will but theologically His Grace only demands a level of literacy and scholarship sufficient to enable the candidate to misquote passages from the Bible and put a politically correct spin on Holy Scripture.

As chief pastor the bishop will be expected to lead and teach beliefs approved only by the bench of bishops. Dissenters are to be ignored in line with Welsh episcopal policy other than for the collection of the parish share.

While minor clergy and congregations must adapt to the reality of their situation, the office of bishop remains a secure, permanent position strengthened by the independent review carried out for the Archbishop by the former Bishop of Oxford and confidant of Dr Morgan.

Press Release: "A successor for Bishop Dominic will be chosen by an electoral college, made up of people from all over Wales and all the Welsh bishops, which will meet in private in Newport Cathedral from July 23."

An earlier (October 2012) press release stated that "the process for electing a new bishop will start in the New Year when the Archbishop of Wales will appoint a facilitator to help diocesan representatives draw up a profile of the diocese". - No doubt to ensure that the electoral college comes to the right conclusion!