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Friday 15 January 2016

Sour grapes




Ex-Anglican priest and Shadow Cabinet member Chris Bryant, MP, otherwise known as "Captain Underpants" has announced that he is to quit the Anglican Church saying its stance on homosexuality would one day look as wrong as supporting slavery. Given his record it is hard to see that he will be a great loss. He tweeted: "I've finally given up on Anglican church today after its love-empty decision on sexuality. One day it will seem wrong as supporting slavery"!

An odd response since this statement appears in the Primates 2016 Communiqué: "The Primates condemned homophobic prejudice and violence and resolved to work together to offer pastoral care and loving service irrespective of sexual orientation. This conviction arises out of our discipleship of Jesus Christ. The Primates reaffirmed their rejection of criminal sanctions against same-sex attracted people."

As the Guardian put it: "Bryant’s comments came as liberal Anglicans expressed disappointment and anger over an agreement reached in Canterbury on Thursday that penalised the US church for its stance on gay rights and explicitly reaffirmed 'traditional doctrine' on marriage as a union between a man and a woman".

Bryant was not alone in his condemnation of traditional doctrine. Michael Curry, the new presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church  said: "For many who have felt and been rejected by the church because of who they are, for many who have felt and been rejected by families and communities, our church opening itself in love was a sign of hope. And this will add pain on top of pain."

The vocal LGBT lobby which called for the Church to repent for not agreeing with their liberal agenda would have us believe that they know best, even if it leads to the destruction of the Anglican Church. For once they find themselves on the losing side, experiencing for themselves what they have inflicted on others as they have sought to bend the Church to their secular way of thinking.

Quick to claim a majority when it favours them, the fact that their views represent a tiny minority in the Church is irrelevant to them. Traditionalists have been frequently told that if they don't like new Anglicanism they should leave so perhaps the LGBT agitators should follow Chris Bryant's lead but that would lead to many less clergy.

The LGBT lobby should realise that they have never had it so good and stop agitating unless they want to see Anglicanism in this country follow the fate of the US Episcopal Church, banned from representation on key bodies and barred from voting on issues relating to doctrine or strategy.

12 comments:

  1. Surely the Church in Wales must follow the lead of their American brothers and resign 'the Anglican whip'! Almost half of current male ordinands in CIW are openly gay - hardly representative of society! It's us straights who are badly under-represented.

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    Replies
    1. Certainly ‘gay is way’ in the CIW. It has its own openly LGBT cathedral, Llandaff. You’d be hard pressed to find any straights on the staff there.

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  2. I did sully myself and read the Grauniad article and it said he left after the priestesses until the CofE allowed high priestesses ('bishops') so he left for nearly two decades and has only been in a few months and now he's off again. Perhaps he should move to Wales
    His twitter name is
    Chris Bryant MP (@RhonddaBryant
    Cwm on

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  3. "Almost half of current male ordinands in CIW are openly gay"

    Where have you got your figures? I suspect it's a fabrication. I can think of seven straight ones, and not even one gay one.

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  4. If you can stomach them, take a look, at the comments on Thinking (or rather Thoughtless) Anglicans. Many of the commentators, having calmed down recently, are reverting to teeth-gnashing claws-out form. They really cannot make up their mind up their minds whether to adopt their favourite Victim posture, or (in the case of the many American commentators) to threaten to cut off the cash to the African provinces that the TEC has been busy trying to buy for the last however many years (I think we call that blackmail don't we - or is that non-PC?). It is also so confusing for the poor things when they discover that they cannot always win and cannot always have prizes ...

    In fairness the behaviour and reaction of the new presiding bishop of the TEC is light years away from that of his predecessor, thank goodness. As to Chris Bryant: he just needs to remember to close the door on the way out, again.

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  5. The deviant and perverse propaganda machine continues unabated.

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/apr/20/was-jesus-gay-probably
    I preached on Good Friday that Jesus's intimacy with John suggested he was gay as I felt deeply it had to be addressed

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  6. There is a reported massive 640% increase, yes that's right, 640% increase of Anglicans in Africa compared to the managed decline in England and Wales.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35326324
    So which primates have got it right I wonder?

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  7. There is something wrong here : the Episcopal Church of America now has to stand in the corner for 3 years wearing the dunce's cap.

    I go along with Evangelical Ed ,and with respect I suggest that Toryboy is not very perceptive!

    Would it not be a plan for the ordained ministers of the Anglican Church (CIW included) to firstly put themselves in order . Are they forgetting that their role is to represent Christ? This representation should be for every moment of their lives and not just when celebrating Holy Communion. So there does not need to be a gathering such as the recent Primates one arguing over what to tell the laity how they are allowed to live, but firstly there needs to be a Code of Practice for priests,and this should be a traditional family lifestyle or celibacy.

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  8. Perception has, perhaps, never been my strong suit. But, Evangelical Ed was clear that the ordinands were "openly" gay. I request again, for the sake of clarity, whence cometh these numbers?

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    Replies
    1. Mmm ....not aware of any assessment process.

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    2. Quite so, in which case, Evangelical Ed should retract his statement concerning the Ordinands. Unless he knows them personally, I am not sure where he found the authority to label almost half of them as "openly gay"

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  9. It's interesting, the country where Google report most people are likely to search "man F****ing man" is Uganda, precisely where Bishops of the Anglican Communion are sanctioning capital punishment for homosexuals. All seems disingenuous. I for one am proud to be part of an Anglican church where ordinands can be openly gay, and if that means 50%, so what? The church is always going to attract caring types and for the most part 'gays' can be very sensitive and caring. It's also true to say that some can be real camp bitches too, I hope of the 50% we don't have many of those.

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