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Saturday 28 January 2017

Archbishop Barry Morgan: alternative valedictory


'Chez Barry' built on former Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff land. There's unity for you bach!


If readers think that Archbishop Barry Morgan's retirement pad looks like a prison block, most will no doubt be happy that he is retiring there but the specifications are far more grandiose. From the outside it appears that he has taken his inspiration from the Hajj in Mecca which will not surprise readers who recall his preference for putting the interests of his Muslim chums before members of his own church who have remained faithful to the wider Anglican Communion.

Whatever your views, 31 January 2017 is a great day for the Church in Wales. One which has not come soon enough for many who have despaired of Dr Morgan's complete disregard for anyone who disagrees with his vision of a secularised church. As usual Llandaff diocesan office has gone into overdrive leading with their own valedictory appraisal of Morgan's ministry which has been dutifully picked up as an Establishment item by the BBC and ITV, but much slower in the press, example here. Perhaps they have rumbled him at last after reading the official release.

An unelected politician in vestments, Dr Morgan has used the influence of his office to push a personal, liberal agenda. He has appointed acolytes eager to do his bidding advancing their own careers at the expense of others. A glaring example is seen in the Ass Bishop of Llandaff's letter to diocesan clergy in preparation for Barry's ticket only leaving ceremony in Llandaff Cathedral on Sunday in which he appears to liken Barry Morgan to Jesus Christ. A typical example of deluded obsequiousness, here is an extract from the letter in which the Ass+ claims "The Archbishop’s final service on Sunday will rightly be his hour":

"Archbishop Barry is supremely a mountain top person, who has looked wide to horizons far beyond those who toil on the plain. Volcanoes are exciting if dangerous places, and surprise us with heat and light and molten rocks which change the landscape for ever, and the Archbishop has had the nerve and courage to do that. In the words of Cardinal Basil Hume, he has been a bishop who has come to where people are and taken them to places they have never dreamt of going. 

"Of all the five archbishops I have worked with, Barry is the one who has most displayed the hallmarks of our Lord, surely the ultimate mountain with attitude! Unashamed of his own tenderness, he has a deep and genuine compassion for the underdog and marginalised, and has been a champion for the people of Wales, so often down-trodden. Prophetic to the core of his being, he has been unafraid to overturn tables and fiercely denounce white-washed sepulchres. It seems fitting that Candlemas is on the horizon for his final days as Archbishop, a faithful servant of the one whom Simeon predicted ‘was destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, to be a sign to be opposed, with the inner thoughts of many laid bare – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’ "

Much has been made of Dr Morgan being the longest serving Archbishop in the Anglican Communion. If length of service were a measure of success Robert Mugabe would be way out in front. Based on Church in Wales own membership figures, over 99% of the population do not attend Barry Morgan's church so any understanding of the Anglican faith by the population at large and the media in particular will be negligible at best. From a position of profound ignorance they confidently report on matters of faith as if it were a secular issue affecting people in the workplace.

As in the Church of England, the Church in Wales has been targeted by a feminist onslaught which has left many cradle Anglicans with nowhere to express their faith sacramentally, something deliberately orchestrated by Barry and his bench sitters and enthusiastically engineered by the Archdeacon of Llandaff who takes the view that people can leave the church she joined later in life if they do not like what has been inflicted upon them.

None of this is reported in the media let alone explained. The new drive by the bench is to have gay marriage in church accepted. This has been Barry Morgan's ministry. He claims the support of the bench and the Governing Body, most of whom owe their position to Morgan's patronage. His mission has effectively wrecked the Church in Wales in pursuit of political ambition without the courage to test his convictions at the ballot box.

His methods of operation have been devious. Consultations have been ignored when the bench has disagreed with the outcome resulting in much dissatisfaction. So what has Barry Morgan done to deserve the praise and adulation heaped upon him? It cannot be his success as a Pastor because the Church in Wales is predicted to become extinct within a generation. It is because he has followed secular fads to the point of adapting scripture to suit his case which has earned him the dishonorific 'Bullshitter' Barry Morgan: "To claim that they can interpret the Bible in a manner that condones and blesses what it explicitly and unambiguously forbids and prohibits is bullshit par excellence".

Claiming to have been "gobsmacked" when buggin's turn resulted in him being elected as Archbishop of Wales in 2003 he said,  "God has made me a different kind of person" [from his predecessor, Archbishop Rowan Williams] and consequently I can only bring the gifts he's given me to the job." Whatever he thought those gifts were, none has been of any benefit to the church.

The sign to the left was spotted in 'The Lion' in Criccieth.  In 1986 Barry Morgan was appointed Archdeacon of Meirionnydd and Rector of Criccieth with Treflys. Could this be where his views on the ordination of women were formed? 

He was later to claim to have been 'astonished' that when he 'trained for the ministry' in the early 1970s, he did not even question why the ordained ministry was restricted to men.  Only in his little world has it changed.

His triumphalism at the consecration of the bishop of St Davids diminished the Church. There was nothing spiritual or uplifting. Simply that 'I have done it'. Dr Morgan said  “I can’t think of a nicer way to end my ministry – it is fantastic.” The price? A diminished church which has left many cradle Anglicans. Hardly worthy of praise.

Dr Morgan said in his address at the consecration of the bishop of St Davids, “The Church in Wales can now claim to be a universal Church”. Unless he deludes himself in having set up another universal Church, the 'universal Church', the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church does not share the Archbishops views. In fact the Orthodox and Catholic churches wholeheartedly reject them as do the majority of Anglicans. It is so disappointing to have to read public plaudits for a man who has done so much damage to the Church while enhancing his own profile.

In doing so he has displayed an amazing schoolboy naivety. Obsessed with as sense of equality which is reduced to sameness, his own sense of justice has led him to penalise those who fail to follow him. If he recognised that the body is made of many parts, though many, still making up one body, he would have been much the wiser.   

Remember the giants of the Church in Wales before bishops were replaced by 'prefects'. Five held Oxford Firsts in Theology. Need one say more?

                                                                                                  Source: Anglican Misfit

24 comments:

  1. Do you think Barry wrote the letter allegedly coming form the Ass.Bishop?
    The Ass.Bp. in his letter refers to 'volcanoes' created by Barry -and what damage a volcano can do ?
    How true to say that a volcano 'changes the landscape forever'.
    Yes "Volcano Barry" has caused immeasurable destruction,and the Church in Wales may only be visited as an historical site ,and the 'guide' will say to the visitors " this was once part of the Holy Catholic Church".

    But ,one good thing, Barry said on BBC Wales last night " when you are gone,you are gone!"
    Let's hope and pray that Volcano Barry is not merely in 'active repose ' as is reported to be true of Vesuvius !

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    1. Not the Nine O Clock Pews29 January 2017 at 00:37

      Simple soul, I'm inclined to read the Ass.Bishop's letter as an equivocal statement at best, and far from being a wholehearted endorsement of ++Bazza's time as Archbishop.

      Comparing him to a volcano and referring to him as "supremely a mountain top person" aren't exactly positive metaphors, especially for a close colleague. A lot of us might agree that Bazza has a capacity to "surprise us with heat and light and molten rocks". None of which are particularly welcome.

      Indeed, at the beginning of his letter, the Ass.Bishop claims to have admired ++His Darkness "from afar" which is after all the best place to view a volcano.

      Later in the letter, reflecting on the feast of Candlemas and quoting Simeon in the Temple, he says: "a sign to be opposed, with the inner thoughts of many laid bare - and a sword will pierce your own soul too." That I suspect echoes the feelings of many clerics in Llandaff diocese during the past 15 years who have watched its rapid decline.

      Let us hope that ++Darth Insidious retires to his black box and reflects on the fact that all volcanoes eventually go extinct.

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  2. The ears in the walls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue report that President Donald is so impressed with Bully boy --Bazza's substantial Whitchurch garden walls that he's going to offer His --Darkness a consultancy role on his Mexican project.

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  3. "He has been a bishop who has come to where people are and taken them to places they have never dreamt of going."

    He certainly has! I can't describe the pain I feel because I can no longer worship in my village church. He hasn’t done it entirely alone. Up here in the North, he's had a lot of help and support. You still don't have an LGBTQAI chaplain in Llandaff. Something to look forward to?

    "Unashamed of his own tenderness, he has a deep and genuine compassion for the underdog and marginalised, and has been a champion for the people of Wales, so often down-trodden."

    What a load of sanctimonious codswallop! He has championed a very few "people of Wales" and done a magnificent job of grinding into the dust all but 1% of sincere Welsh Anglicans, with a total lack of understanding or compassion.

    "Volcanoes are exciting if dangerous places, and surprise us with heat and light and molten rocks which change the landscape for ever."

    Volcanoes are only exciting if you're far enough away and are oblivious to the possible suffering of the people living on their slopes. Otherwise, they are almost totally destructive. In his long term effects, I pray Barry will prove to have been, not so much a volcano, but more of a mere squib.

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    1. Excuse me, AB. An unfashionable question. Should you not mention how His Most Wise made a valuable contribution to the life of the progressive universal Church in Wales by making it possible for two bishops, (roughly 20-25% of bench sitters) to be rid of their wives without ecclesiastical disciplinary charges brought against them.

      A truly genuine abracadabra moment for all episcopal bottom pinchers.

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    3. Nobody can help who they fall in, or indeed out of love but Sauron flashing his caring credentials calling for compassion for sanctimonious canting hypocrite Carl Cooper copping off with some Mandy Tapioca-Thomas type purporting to act as his 'personal' chaplain, while they were on works time to boot, was nauseating. Only topped by Sauron's reptile being allowed to shuffle his backside into a cushy charity chair before he resigned.

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    1. Anonymous comments are not published. Simply add a pseudonym to your comment if you do not have a suitable 'Reply as' profile.

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  5. North of the Dyfi30 January 2017 at 15:49

    I think Enforcer is, perhaps, not as up to date as us poor suffering mugs in Bangor. Not only has Andy Pandy dismissed his wife, but she is being housed (rent free and therefore at the entire expense of the Church in Wales) in a currently vacant empty vicarage in a very leafy part of Bangor. Then... wait for it... I am reliably informed that he (yes, HE and not another bench sitter) intends to ordain her to the priesthood in June. I wonder what kind of discernment process this ordinand has been through? So far as any of us are aware, she hasn't been anywhere near an act of Christian worship for years (despite the fact that she was ordained a deacon at the same time as Pandy). Does this mean that the criteria applied to all other candidates concerning their discipleship and quality of life is now being brushed aside and anyone can be ordained - especially if you are divorcing your ordaining bishop?

    This is presumably some ruse to lessen Mrs Pandy's financial claim on her mountain-running ex-husband who also happens to be Bishop of Bangor in his spare time. They are behaving like they run some sort of sect.

    But, hang on a minute, given that only less than 1% of the population of Wales will admit to being part of the Church in Wales, I keep forgetting. It IS a sect!

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    1. The figure is 0.8%. He has driven the CW towards extinction.

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    2. I have mentioned previously that Bp.Andy is tipped by some to come to Llandaff.
      So then his wife can come too and take on a parish at a convenient distance away from Llandaff so she may continue to live in separate accommodation ,and all arrangements nicely sanitised.

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    5. It may be that the separation was precipitated by the bishop's wife, Simple Soul. Therefore, don't you think she and Llandaff might have already had enough?

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  6. Did anyone hear the drivel on Radio 4 yesterday morning? What? You mean you missed it? Good. It was just mind-numbing platitudinous pap. It reminded me of what one of my (non-churchgoing) daughters said after we were leaving the Christmas Eucharist at Llandaff Cathedral, "He simply doesn't believe what he's saying does he?" She didn't need a reply from me.

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    1. Radio 4 Sunday am : Barry said he really didn't expect a woman to be made a Bishop in his time!
      Was that not all he was working towards?

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  7. Just one more day to go and the Byzantine bully boy bullshitter --Bazza's time will over.
    Good riddance too.

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  8. Am I dreaming?
    If I have interpreted the architect's plans correctly, Morgan the Gorgon has had an "Infinity" pool built at the back of his new pad in Whitchurch?
    All the while he's been asking the widows and old ladies in Llandaff to increase their giving to the Cathedral?
    Am I the only one who is utterly outraged at even the idea of such a thing?

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    1. Come come Ruth, you should know the arch hypocrite would order nothing but the best for himself.
      After all, when one is retiring from the vaulted heights of Archbishop of a tiny sect in Wales, one's sense of self importance requires suitable massage and one can't be seen to build just a functional little cottage when one has splashed out £300,000 on the plot of land alone!
      http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40177658.html

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    2. Outraged indeed Ruth.
      And disgusted.
      But did you also notice that when the good people of the Llandaff diocese were footing the bill (of tens of £1000s), and despite the Cathedral being a mere 200 yards from his front door, his darkness absolutely just HAD to have his own personal private Chapel built at Llys Esgob.
      Now he's footing the bills himself his priorities appear to have altered somewhat.
      Out with a Chapel and in with a "technology" room.

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    3. What is a "technology" room?

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    4. It's a small cubbyhole off to one side containing all the bells, whistles, strings, pulleys and knobs used to control the Church in Wales and the minions.
      From behind a curtain.
      Just like the Wizard of Oz.

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    5. @Ruth
      Kindly note, it is standard procedure in Whitchurch these days to have a lift shaft in place for any new building taller than a bungalow.
      Stannah stairlifts are so last century and so cheap don't you know?

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