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Thursday 24 May 2018

Jolly June's jollies


Source: Twitter @BishopJuno


The bishop of Llandaff is right keen on jollies. The latest announced is a diocesan clergy school in 2019. The venue, Santiago de Copostela to help equip clergy for "ministerial priesthood and leadership within the Diocese".

From a note accompanying Jolly June's June Ad Clerum: " We are delighted to announce that the first Clergy School will be held in Santiago de Compostela from May 13th – 17th 2019. You will know that Santiago in Northern Spain is the location of the shrine of St James the Apostle and for many centuries has been the destination of pilgrimage routes known as ‘The Camino’. We see this Clergy School as equipping us as a Diocese for a Year of Pilgrimage, an expression of our Centenary celebrations in 2020."

June thought some may find it bizarre to go to Spain when we have so many magnificent pilgrim routes here in Wales. Spot on.

Jetting off to Rome, a luxury retreat in Devon. Now she is taking her clergy to Santiago de Compostela.

As clergy become thinner on the ground with lay leaders taking up the reins, how kind of Jolly June to treat those remaining to a jolly in Spain. Paid for by savings on stipends?

44 comments:

  1. Its far enough away so prying ears won't hear what is really being taught at "clergy school". I bet a bit of indoctrination into the new facts on the ground as well as some strategy sessions on how to push forward the progressive agenda will be going on.

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  2. Are all the Diocesan clergy be invited or just the select brown-nosing few?

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    Replies
    1. All licensed clergy – Stipendiary and Non-Stipendiary - are invited regardless of nose colour.

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    2. One hears Caiaphas has chartered her own plane to fly them all from Cardiff Airport together.
      One also hears that it is not so much an "invitation" as a three line whip.
      It will be interesting to note which clergy take a stand and refuse to go.
      It sounds as though the discretionary slush fund is still in use.

      Delete
    3. Assuming this latest jolly jape is being funded by the Bishopette of Llandaff's un-audited "discretionary" slush fund, it's going to take a lot of dipping hands into collections plates at lots of confirmations and ordinations to replenish it this time.
      Even by the standards of the crass profligate Darth --Insidious, such expenditure is outrageous.
      Has anyone sent a copy of the June Ad Clerum to Martin Shipton?

      Delete
    4. It is very easy to find the Tree Eater's Ad Clera on the St. Asaph website.
      Finding those issued by Caiaphas is somewhat more problematic.
      Does anyone have a copy they could publish here please?

      Delete
  3. Dyfrig, Teilo, and Euddogwy don't get a look in ?

    Santiago at work in this?.....
    I doubt it....

    It has the stamp of a very different Iago........ who could claim

    "In following him, I follow but myself.
    Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
    But seeming so, for my peculiar end.
    For when my outward action doth demonstrate
    The native act and figure of my heart
    In compliment extern, ’tis not long after
    But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
    For daws to peck at. I am not what I am....."

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  4. My Vicar showed me this ad clerum from Dear June. It says that a special fund exists to pay for this jolly, and that she is going to charter a special plane to take them all out to Spain on this jolly. If there is enough money in the pot for the diocese to hire aeroplanes for clergy holidays in Spain, then they obviously don’t need my meagre weekly contribution or the annual amount I give to support a well-known parish music foundation. I think that cash will be directed to more deserving causes.
    Nigel

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    1. What a shame Caiaphas didn't have the courage to set up a crowdfunding appeal to pay for her cunning stunt to Spain as a means of gauging the level of support from her pew sitters.

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  5. Real Catholic pilgrims walk on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. June’s boys and girls hire a plane! There is something lacking in the modern, liberal, Church in Wales pilgrim. Bob.

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  6. I would imagine that most of the Llandaff clergy would refuse, out of courtesy and respect to their parishioners, to accept this offer of a freebie. They fully appreciate the real sacrifices made in time and hard-earned cash by the people of their parishes to keep the church afloat. They would also understand that for the laity to be left behind whilst their pastors, bishop and her senior management team went to Spain on holiday, would be a total PR disaster. I reckon this little jolly will just fade away and not happen. Berty.

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  7. Gracious, I wish my diocese would organise a clergy school to Santiago de Compostela - a place I'd love to visit. If any of the Llandaff clergy refuse to go - please count me in! Although not a member of the clergy team in the diocese of Llandaff I am half-Welsh, is that a sufficient qualification to be on board the charter plane? Well done June for this most imaginative initiative.

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  8. Caramba! Are there any vacancies in Llandaff?

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  9. AB: Have you been able to compare or estimate the cost of a trip to Spain with that of staying at an Oxford college? June will doubtless argue when this news hits the tabloid diary columns that Spain is as cheap or even cheaper - like a Continental package holiday!
    Rob

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    1. No I haven't Rob but I have checked St Michael's centre which is on the doorstep:
      "TUCKED AWAY IN A QUIET CORNER OF LLANDAFF, ST. MICHAEL’S CENTRE IS FAST BECOMING THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCING CENTRE OF CHOICE. WITH ITS UNIQUE HISTORICAL SETTING, UP-TO-DATE CONFERENCING FACILITIES AND QUALITY ACCOMMODATION, ST MICHAEL’S CENTRE REALLY CAN OFFER THE COMPLETE PACKAGE"
      http://livingmags.co.uk/st-michaels-centre-the-most-unique-conferencing-centre-in-cardiff/

      Delete
    2. Presumably Caiaphas doesn't believe that bullshit any more than we do!

      Delete
    3. Lux Et Veritas25 May 2018 at 19:44

      I have been searching the DEFRA website for details of a new outbreak of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy but as yet there's no news.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy

      Perhaps the Veterinary Inspectors haven't made it as far as Llys Esgob yet.

      Delete
    4. Gerwyn must go!25 May 2018 at 22:23

      This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    5. No doubt the long suffering staff of St. Michelle's will be overjoyed at the decision of Caiaphas to take the entire Diocesan clergy on a jolly to Spain and ignore the world class conference and training facilities on her doorstep.
      What a vote of confidence and PR scoop that is. Martin Shipton must be sharpening his pencil right now.

      Delete
  10. News from the Green is that the Senior Management Team feel that to make this a thoroughly very organised pilgrimage they need to reconnoitre Santiago de Compostela before their colleagues arrive. After a series of high profile, intensive, facilitated senior planning meetings, it was agreed that the Senior Management Team require at least three, on the ground, forward planning missions to Santiago de Compostela. Each of these three-week factfinding trips has been booked for August, October and December. Peggy-the-Pilot has chartered a self-fly Learjet to transport the Senior Management Team on their holiday, sorry, planning trips. Benjamin.

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  11. It would never have worked at St Mike's: the only way to ensure people stay for the whole event is to arrange it as far from home as is practicable, and for participants to be encouraged (or forced) to travel communally. In my first curacy the clergy of the diocese were bidden to spend the inside of a week in October at a local holiday camp; I wasn't the only participant to absent myself for a day to take a (genuine) funeral.

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  12. We wonder what the training involves - surely as ministers of religion they are self sufficient. Again this is the church copying the secular business world - it just isn't appropriate. In light of the location and cost it's also plain stupid and an insult to giving parishioners.
    Tristram

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  13. They do get photographed with some interesting background material. "Food Allergies and Intolerance" - what significance can we read into that?

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    Replies
    1. I bet Jolly June was wondering when someone would spot the hidden message. She's allergic to us and totally intolerant of everything we stand for. +Jo has also stood alongside coded messages. Jolly June and Jaunty Jo. What a pair! Anglican Misfit

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  14. I questioned the bishop's judgement after the trip to Devon but this proves that her judgement is severely impaired. She obviously has no regard or concern for the views of ordinary parishioners who are constantly being pressed for more money. It is also extremely embarrassing for those priests who work so hard "on the ground" who now find themselves in the invidious position of having to plead for more and more money when they are forced to join this totally unnecessary venture. In view of this blatant misuse of hard-earned funds my contribution to the weekly offering will stop with the money going instead to more worthy causes. I had hoped for a sense of renewal in the diocese after the long-overdue departure of the former bishop but I see no future under the present administration. Recent events show a hierarchy which is more detached than ever from the reality of parish life and from the true mission of the church.
    Nemesis

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    Replies
    1. Welcome to my world.
      I stopped my giving to then Llandaff swamp years ago.

      Delete
    2. Cheering for Janet25 May 2018 at 21:53

      The ears in the walls report Caiaphas has already received a "draft" copy of the the report by her 3 stooges.
      It seems it doesn't make good reading for those members of Chapter that were around at the time of the fraudulent Organ appeal and the foundations of their exit are already being laid.
      Apparently the Archdeacon of Morgannwg has already taken to his sick bed signed off with "stress" for 3 months and The Green is awash with gossip of clergy rushing to join trade unions.
      Since they're all a bunch of ham actors, Equity might be a good place to start.

      Delete
    3. It is very worrying that the Bishop can make such a crass error of judgement, on top of the Devon jaunt. I can't possibly fund this nonsense and have cancelled my giving to the CinW with immediate effect.
      Cromarty

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    4. You are not the only one friend.

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  15. DPM How sad renewal brought down to the brink of a disaster by the self serving. Where is the accountability, would a CofE Diocese be so foolish.

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  16. Evans the Song27 May 2018 at 12:46

    DMP asks if a CofE diocese would be so foolish? Actually, yes. The diocese in question? Salisbury.

    The previous Bishop, David ("I only ever eat Italian Ice Cream") Stancliffe would often cart his clergy off on a charabanc to Europe. Of course, in a diocese oozing with money (and retired Colonel Bufton-Tufton types with eye-watering pensions, living in picturesque thatched villages in Wiltshire and Dorset, giving generously to their darling little village churches) this was never a problem. The training budget was always well maintained by the overflowing diocesan coffers.

    Llandaff is very different. Regardless of what's in the diocesan training budget, just think how this looks to the struggling parishes - and parishioners - in the Valleys or Splott. It seems June has strayed a long way from her urban priority area and social justice agenda in Manchester, Birmingham and Stepney. How many struggling families, the long-term unemployed, and those whose lives are diminished by industrial illnesses in depressed former mining communities would love a few days in the sun and a healthy continental diet, all washed down with good bottle of Rioja? This is poor judgement and (to use June's favourite word) abysmal 'leadership.'

    And yes, those who colluded with the Golfer (watch out, Peggy!) over the cover ups at Llandaff Cathedral are apprehensively awaiting the roosting chickens. As one C of E bishop said about June recently "her patronage comes at a very high price." Let's hope the sycophants from the golfing era can come up with the sum on the price tag!

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    Replies
    1. My Sarum contacts have told me the Bishopette's bad temper was well known and many were delighted to see the back of her.
      Salisbury's delight will be Llandaff's loss.

      Delete
  17. On a positive note Bishop June is showing that she values her hard working clergy, something that has not happened for some years unless you were a golfing butty of you know who.
    However, in a dying church where local Churches have had clergy numbers reduced while Parish shares stay the same, this is very unwise. As someone said, why not increase clergy stipends if there is plenty in the pot and stop this unfair system where some have tons of income due to funerals and others hardly any funerals.
    It would be good in the interest of transparency to see a cost breakdown between Oxford Clergy school and Spain. I recall Monmouth claiming that Rome was the same cost as the UK for their clergy school but no figures were shown. I suspect that to insure everyone for health alone will cost an awful lot which would not be needed if going to the UK.

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    Replies
    1. Unlike the gophers in the RB the Clergy have never been the recipients of a private health care scheme, unless like John Baldwin and others you also happened to have a job at the RB.

      Delete
  18. FORE !! Mr Evans and let us hope that the whole rotten lot are expelled from the Clubhouse together with the Archvillain who sponsored their membership.

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  19. DPM The Golfer appears quiet these days, perhaps the accounts report will course a few golf balls to go in the long grass.

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    1. Lux Et Veritas28 May 2018 at 06:32

      DPM, respectfully, don't mistake "appears quiet" for inactive.

      His --Malevolence is still pulling and pushing the levers from behind the curtain of his "technology" room at Llys Ego in Whitchurch.

      When not away on his latest cruise he is still to be seen spreading the Darkness in Llandaff Cathedral at least once a week.

      Delete
    2. Thank you for your respected comment. I appreciate your correct point DPM.

      Delete
  20. Put Santiago Del Compostella to one side for a moment and have a few thoughts about the leadership in the liturgy yesterday.
    Did you see them? That reading from the sixth chapter of the prophet Isaiah, it shook them to their roots. Then their outstanding preaching on the Trinity, all an explosion of experience, no notes, no philosophy, the pulpits rocked and finally in the last hymn "Here I am Lord" the tears were streaming down their face. You could tell the leaders as they turned their backs to the congregation so that they could weep in that intimacy with Him.
    Hopefully that's our June- at whatever stage she may be on her personal pilgrimage.
    And can we call/name her as Jesus would and does?

    Tumeric

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    Replies
    1. What does all that mean? Is it serious or ironic? Too insular and full of in jokes (if they are jokes?). If you wish to communicate with others, Tumeric,please refrain from such obscurity.
      Bob

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  21. DPM:Tumeric, respectfully, I hope that your comment is not a joke (it is hard to tell); I dont doubt its not. The scene you reveal is very telling. If indeed the mighty are humbled then all is good and fruitful as the Holy Spirit, works His convictions. Perhaps, all is not lost.

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  22. Seems like there's a new trend for clerical executive jets:

    https://edition.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2018/05/30/televaneglist-jesse-duplantis-private-jet.hln

    "Televangelist Jesse Duplantis told his congregation he needs roughly $54 million for a private jet"

    Jet Set June is ahead of the curve!

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  23. CONGRATULATIONS ANCIENT BRITON!!!!!
    YOU HAVE MADE THE NATIONAL PRESS.
    YOUR VIEWING NUMBERS WILL PASS 2 MILLION TODAY ALONE.

    SEE PAGE 13 OF TODAY'S Western Mail.

    Bravo Martin Shipton

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  24. The bishop is probably a fan of Channel Four's Gogglebox getting the idea from the Revd Kate Bottley's participation in a 15 day pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago without thinking of the repercussions.
    http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2017/08/television-vicar-to-star-in-bbc-series-on-the-camino.aspx
    Carl

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