The beginning of the end?

Back Row l-r: the Venerable Christine Wilson, the Venerable Nicola Sullivan, the Venerable Annette
 Cooper, the Venerable Joanne Grenfell Front row l-r: The Reverend Libby Lane, the Reverend Jane
Tillier,  the Very Reverend Vivienne Faull, the Venerable Christine Wilson.     Photo: Christian Today

From Christian Today (9 December 2013):

"Eight women were today welcomed as participant observers at the meetings of the House of Bishops of the Church of England. The women come from across England and have been given the right to attend and speak at meetings until there are six female members of the House of Bishops following the admission of women to the episcopate. They took up their role on 1 December and the meeting of the House of Bishops in York today and tomorrow is the first meeting they have attended". Details here.

In an exceptional display of submission the House of Bishops of the Church of England decided to use the backdoor to "soothe the anger" of women whose demands to be bishops had been rejected under the accepted procedure. In anticipation of their foregone conclusion, they decided earlier this year to allow senior female clergy to attend and speak at their meetings until women are legally permitted to become bishops.

If we are to believe feminist propaganda that the refusal to ordain women has been responsible for all their oppression around the world, all oppression should cease in recognition of their new found status, but don't bank on it.

Meanwhile, MPs were told last week that “the persecution of Christians is increasing, that one Christian is killed around every 11 minutes around the world, and that Christianity is the 'most persecuted religion globally'.” That means 47,782 persecuted Christians are killed every year or around half a million in a decade, half the number of approximately one million who participate in Church of England services each Sunday.

Read about it here. If the report comes as a bit of a shock, other issues such as the Pilling Report have captured the attention of the media dealing as it does with the more pressing issue of the liberal establishment trying to satisfy the carnal desires of a minority in a Church charged with spreading the Gospel as received.

The House of Bishops no longer sees it that way. Composed mainly of like minded bishops sharing the liberal values which put them where they are, they now regard the Church of England as the lapdog of society, reflecting the will of the people, few of whom ever enter the house of God and those who do often hear a perverted version of the Gospel.

Following an earlier entry on the Pilling Report I was taken to task for linking sexuality with the ordination of women. I was not alone in doing so. Read here how the briefly Dean of Llandaff saw it but from an entirely different perspective, that of feminist theology. The Dean was just one of the many placements in the Church in Wales used to pave the way for the acceptance of women bishops, a strategy which used religion as a platform for a feminist ideology which resulted in liberal minded clerics vying with each other so as to appear more open minded but having no regard for the consequences other than self advancement. 

The strategy has been a disaster in Wales. Aging congregations are declining at such a rate, here and here, suggesting that a separate Church in Wales will be untenable in the foreseeable future. The Church of England is on the same course. Archbishop George Carey has predicted that the Church of England could be extinct in a generation, a suggestion echoed by the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, here. Women bishops and gay marriage now dominate the agenda. That may strike a chord with society but it is not the way of the Church. Wales has paid the price. By embarking on a similar path England looks set to share the same fate. 

Postscript
Meeting report here.