From Vatican Radio (here). One of the highlights of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Voyage to the Holy Land will be his meeting with Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, a meeting that will be followed by a joint ecumenical celebration at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. CTV coverage here.
There is an interesting background article "Pope and Patriarch prepare for historic encounter in Jerusalem" here.
Pray for them and for Christians throughout the World as Christ prayed.
Postscript
Common Declaration signed by Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Details here.
Postscript
Common Declaration signed by Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Details here.
The contrast :
ReplyDeletePope Francis seeking unity with the church in the east ,that there may be One Holy Catholic Church ,whereas we have the Archbishop of Wales seeking disunity and separation from the One Holy Catholic Church. There is no indication from the proposed order of service and the declaration of faith therein,( previous blog entry) ,that the 'Gathering" intend or wish to seek to be part of the universal Catholic and Apostolic Church.
It is as plain as the day that the new Uniting Church will not wish to associate itself with the Catholic tradition from which the Church in Wales is derived. It appears that the Nicene Creed will not be used; and that the ministers it ordains will have only a tenuous resemblance to bishops and priests in the late, lamented Church in Wales.
ReplyDeleteHave you all seen this months magazine from Llandaff Cathedral?
ReplyDeleteLook here for the latest begging letter.
http://www.llandaffcathedral.org.uk/documents/BellJune2014Final.pdf
Bazza's golf caddy seems to have woken up to the fact that his Cathedral is going bankrupt.
No-one with any sense would give another penny to a Chapter that has refused to publish the accounts for the Organ appeal. Who would give more money to a new appeal when the rumours of significant sums of money being siphoned off have never been disproved?
Who does he think he's fooling?
Delete"And like many institutions, financial fragility has crept up with a certain degree of stealth."
The published accounts confirm that the Cathedral has been running at an ever increasing deficit for many years.
Following the dismissal of the Cathedral Choir, the predicted deficit of £81k increased to £94k for 2013.
One suspects that the Chapter quartet (of Jackson, Kirk, Masson & Smith) that supervised the choir redundancy process failed to carry out any risk analysis around having no choir, inter alia, what if the attendance & giving drop further thus increasing the deficit, what if the singing men would be unwilling to accept "zero hours" contracts, what if the singing men would be unwilling to perform only once a week, what if the singing men were no longer prepared to work with Moorhouse?
And 1662 ..........why do the' Chapter Quartet' believe that professional singers should offer their skills for nothing?
DeleteMany people have a chosen profession which has involved a good deal of expensive training, and it is a fact of life that we all need to sell our skills in order to clothe and feed ourselves: it is not immoral to earn money!
I have heard it said that the choir should ' sing for the love of it '. I am in no doubt that the Chapter expect a salary for their ministry and not on the basis of a 'zero hours' contract!
Simple Soul, various critics have often said that the men of the Cathedral choir should be prepared to sing purely for the love of God and not for reward (if you can call a £14 fee a 'reward' for 2 hours of their time on a Sunday morning-barely national minimum wage).
DeleteSuch comments usually surface when the possibility of earning extra fees for services or concerts to be recorded or broadcast live on TV or radio. In 1982 such comments were made to that wonderful Bass Terry Dickens concerning the Falklands War remembrance service attended by HRH Prince Charles. Some dimwit told Terry that the men in the choir should be ashamed of themselves charging the Welsh Guards fees for singing. Of course the Welsh Guards were not being charged a penny! Terry replied that every man in the choir WAS singing for nothing for the men of the Welsh Guards but that the men of the choir would not sing for nothing for the BBC or ITV (who both wished to record the service for broadcast).
As you might imagine, the conversation ended very quickly and the dimwit concerned beat a hasty retreat.
Things have not changed much in Llandaff since 1982 though and that attitude still prevails, as the recent dispute over the Songs of Praise fees showed. But the most surprising aspect of that saga was Moorhouse getting caught trying to shaft his own singers over the professional fees due to them for that recording and the exclusion of the three singers who dared stand up for their right to be paid properly.
Surely daring to stand up for ones rights would have received the support of His ++Darkness?
DeleteBazza has made his stance on such matters public and quite clear.
See the link
http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/news/2013/12/nail-the-lies-about-people-in-poverty-archbishop/
Nail the lies about people in poverty – Archbishop
The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, is calling on people to ‘stand up for what is right’ when people in poverty are accused of being shirkers and skivers, and to offer practical support. “We are all members of one community,” he said. “We must speak out against the rumours, misrepresentations and prejudice that undermine our solidarity with one another.”
“This report brings together concern for the poor and concern for truth-telling, and reminds us that it is our duty as Christians and as members of society not just to offer practical help, but to stand up for what is right. Only when we have a true understanding of the realities of poverty can we even begin to tackle it and build a more just and successful society for all.”
The six myths identified in the report about people in poverty are:
‘They’ are lazy and don’t want to work;
‘They’ are addicted to drink and drugs;
‘They’ are not really poor – they just don’t manage their money properly;
‘They’ are on the fiddle
‘They’ have an easy life;
‘They’ caused the deficit.
As usual with the Arch hypocrite he says one thing publicly but behaves quite differently as those in the Cathedral Choir who dared stand up for their rights to contracts of employment, fair pay, equal terms and conditions and the correct nationally agreed rates of pay for recordings and broadcasts discovered to their cost.
And we would all do well to remember that the vast majority of the men in the Cathedral choir were either cash strapped students or in receipt of benefits.
The last of the six 'myths' identified seems to fit Llandaff Cathedral and its attitude towards the choir.
Further to Llandaff Pewster's comment May 27th. Dim-wit was not the appellation Dad gave the twit when he told me about it. It was an incredibly difficult service for men like my father to sing, old pro though he was because he was singing for our Regiment's lads who were my brothers' age and not incidentally the front rows full of gleaming notables (how many claimed travel expenses like MPs claiming for poppies!) .In order to sing that service and many others that occurred over the 20 years Dad served the Catherdral, my father and the other lay-clerks depending what their job was had to either take a day of their holiday leave, take un-paid leave and lose a day's pay or even pay a locum to take their surgery, and still have to catch up with their work the next day - they had mortgages to pay! Over the year it cost many of the Lay-Clerks more than they ever received in stipend & recording fees - civil servants,bank managers,GPs did NOT do it for money. And it cost them time spent with their families, we could not enjoy weekends away 6.00 Evensong or even a Sunday picnic until after the end of 3.30 Evensong or even called back from holiday for a special funeral or the like. At least they were sustained by the magic Tony Lewis, Harry Joyce and Michael Hoeg could coax from that old pile of pipes. They served the Cathedral, their Dean & Chapter, the Congregation above all the wonders and mysteries of God through their music
DeleteThe Common Declaration signed by Pope Francis (apostolic successor of St Peter) and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (apostolic successor of St Andrew) is wonderful. Two great leaders of the church working so hard for Christian unity. If they succeed that will mean that 95% of Christendom will be in full and complete Eucharistic communion.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, that little liberal train called Barry’s Church in Wales can’t be said to be left at the platform, it will have been shunted into the siding of oblivion.
It is fair game to say that the great majority of Non- Conformist and Church in Wales members know nothing concerning the so called 'Uniting Church' of Morgan & 'Cytun', (Welsh Ecclesiastical Mafia).
ReplyDeleteFor them, it will truly be an 'abracadabra' moment.