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| St Michael's College, Llandaff, Cardiff Picture: WalesOnline |
WalesOnline is carrying the headline, "Top Church college could face axe despite £1.7m revamp", a complete turnaround of the story in 2009, "Report praises St Michael’s College in Llandaff." Followers of the greatly missed Llandaffchester Chronicles will recall the forecast closure of 'St. Michelle’s College' after the failure of substituting sing-along-worship for scholarship to accommodate the mainly women social workers the Archbishop likes to point towards ordination to justify his belief that only women clergy and gay pride matter in the Church today.
Hat tip to Llandaff Pewster for the links under a previous entry here, the first of which harks back to March 2004 with the headline "Church college up for sale". Another commentator, Episkopos, estimates that the Church in Wales has wasted over £3 million pounds:
"£1.7 million refurbishment since 2007.
£150,000 per annum since 2007 to keep the place financially afloat = £900,000.
Another £150,000 for 2014, 2015 and 2016 until the place can be closed = £450,000
This for a college that was a dead duck and put up for sale in 2004.
Grand total of the profligacy = £3,050,000"
"£1.7 million refurbishment since 2007.
£150,000 per annum since 2007 to keep the place financially afloat = £900,000.
Another £150,000 for 2014, 2015 and 2016 until the place can be closed = £450,000
This for a college that was a dead duck and put up for sale in 2004.
Grand total of the profligacy = £3,050,000"
adding,
"If such a sum of money had been invested by the RB into a Choral Foundation for Llandaff Cathedral Choir, it's future would have been secured into perpetuity. As things now stand, Wales (the land of song) has neither a professional Cathedral Choir nor a Theological College."
Theology is no longer the main consideration of the Archbishop of Wales. He is more comfortable operating in the political arena having long since sacrificed the pillars of Christianity in favour of promoting the heretical ideas of his idol, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States.
Ten years after the rejected proposal to sell the site of St Michael’s College, Llandaff, the whole Church in Wales as handed down to the present overseers appears to be on the verge of collapse as it embraces non-conformity with the Archbishop and his Bench securing their own futures as 'bishops' in a new protestant backwater in which bishops don't necessarily have to be priests!
"If such a sum of money had been invested by the RB into a Choral Foundation for Llandaff Cathedral Choir, it's future would have been secured into perpetuity. As things now stand, Wales (the land of song) has neither a professional Cathedral Choir nor a Theological College."
Theology is no longer the main consideration of the Archbishop of Wales. He is more comfortable operating in the political arena having long since sacrificed the pillars of Christianity in favour of promoting the heretical ideas of his idol, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States.
++Bazza's golf caddy tries to drown the bad news with donkey dung, but where's the photos of the "hundreds" of people at the Cathedral?
ReplyDeletehttp://llandaff.churchinwales.org.uk/news/2014/04/donkeys-bring-palm-sunday-message-to-llandaff/
And what happened to the Palm Sunday 3:30pm Choral Evensong (men's voices) with solemn Litany sung in procession that was advertised on page 5 of the April edition of The Bell?
The High Street grapevine has it that no professional male singers can be found who are willing perform for the Dean & Chapter. Reports also indicate that the amateur Parish Choir will be performing at the Maundy Thursday Choral Eucharist and Good Friday Liturgy of the Day services, so why is Moorhouse still in a job?
Meanwhile, the meaningless drivel continues in Llandudno.
http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/structure/governing-body/meetings/23-24-april-2014/
http://www.churchofengland.org/media/56180/St%20Michael%20Llandaff%20Report.pdf
ReplyDeleteFor any of your readers who might like to read the "glowing" report for themselves, it can be found here.
Warning - it is anything but "glowing". Damning might be a more accurate description.
It is surprising that it has taken so long to close down St Mike's. Richard Holloway flogged off the Scottish theological college in Edinburgh a long time ago to pay off various bills, leaving English seminaries as the only option.
ReplyDeleteThe news from Llandaff will however be good for trade where the English colleges are concerned. Even half a dozen extra students will greatly improve the finances of any of them.
How long before courses in Welsh are on offer at St Stephen's House?
"... good for trade..." Insider ?
DeleteI seriously doubt it.
Wales is producing so few candidates for ordination (the reason for the closure of St. Michael's) I doubt it is unlikely to make any difference at all.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10771396/Church-college-to-close-due-to-shortage-of-trainee-vicars.html
ReplyDeleteToday's article in the Daily Telegraph
The college has 20 yes TWENTY full-time staff! No wonder they are broke!
ReplyDeleteAh, you sound shocked Insider, and so you should be.
DeleteBut if you want the full story you should read the February 2009 report for the full staffing details.
The last annual report makes interesting reading too - bullshit abounds!
http://stmichaels.ac.uk/news/wp-content/uploads/stmichaelsannualreport2013Eng.pdf
http://stmichaels.ac.uk/news/staff/
DeleteClick each tab in turn and see listed six "Senior" staff, 10 "Support" staff and 21 "Teaching and Pastoral" staff.
St Michael's has enjoyed the benefits of the new post of "Business Manager" since January 2009 - an outstanding success?
Like so many institutions in steep decline it is clear that the Church in Wales has diverted a large proportion of the gravy to sustain its own elite, at the expense of everything else. What is even worse is the impact it will have when this galaxy of "talent" is released on the wider world in search of employment elsewhere. It is almost worth paying up to keep them confined to St Mike's.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.christiantoday.com/article/bible.college.to.close.due.to.lack.of.trainees/36862.htm
ReplyDeleteAnother article with interesting statistics about the general decline of Christianity in Wales and England.
All on ++Barry's watch.
It is scandalous on many fronts (financial, theological and ecclesiological), but hardly surprising. Byzantine Barry doesn't want theologically able clergy in the Church in Wales because he is threatened by them (why do you think he's been importing toothless poodles from England over the past decade? - except that he forgot to check Janet Henderson's dental records before appointing her as Dean of Llandaff!) The real agenda here is to close down residential formation, sever the links with one of the last decent university theology faculties, and hand it all over to the toxic Dean of Bangor and her bonkers 'boyfriend' the potty prof from Warwick who do feminism, sociology, get people to fill in questionnaires, and all laced with half-baked 'psychology'. This suits the menopausal social workers whom Barry thinks will be the future saviours of the Church in Wales. They made this mistake in the Church of England 20 years ago, and now you will struggle to find a bishop there with a half-decent theological brain. Who in their right mind will want to train for ordination in a church full of moody female fifty-somethings called 'Wendi' and 'Su' who think that Auguistine of HIppo was a precursor of David Attenborough and Ambrose of Milan invented rice pudding? Dies Irae...!
ReplyDeleteWhat is the view of the Capon?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/10775564/Cannabis-causes-far-more-sorrow-than-coffee-could.html
ReplyDeletePeter Sedgwick (and all the college staff at risk of losing their jobs) would do well to remember that all the alternative proposals put forward by the Cathedral Choir were ignored before they were made redundant.
Peter Sedgwick has also had 10 years as Principal to sort things out and if he'd managed to do so then 'alternative proposals' would not be required.
His letter to the Telegraph seems to indicate that the usual Llandaff pass the parcel blame game has begun