Sunday, 2 September 2018

Church in Wales bench of bishops in renewed push for same sex marriage

FiF National Assembly 2013
Bishop of St Davids celebrating in the Pride Cymru faith tent




Forward in Faith (left)




       Backward in belief (right)









In biblical times priestesses were associated with pagan temples and fertility rites.

They and their sympathizers are now calling the tune in many churches, especially in Western Anglicanism.

Joining the homosexual obsessed bench of bishops which is hell bent on reflecting society rather than preaching the Gospel, the first woman bishop in the Church in Wales lost no time in identifying with LGBT campaigners. She was quickly followed by the second woman bishop who likewise flaunted her LGBT sympathies.

When the next vacancy arises the clamour will not  be for deeply spiritual man capable of steering the bench back on course but for parity resulting a half-and-half bench of women and men united in their desire to secularise the church.

The LGBT campaigning by the new women bishops made it clear where their main sympathies lay which explains their otherwise apparent lack of suitability for the office they hold, particularly so in the conservative Welsh speaking diocese of St Davids.

The same traits are evident in the Church of England and in the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC). Appointments have become managerial rather than spiritual. Consequently same sex marriage has become a recurrent theme in the Anglican Church as a new breed of bishops reflect rather than inform society about Christian beliefs and values.

The former Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, failed to force through gay marriage but his successor ('more of the same— but faster') is hell bent on forcing through this secular policy which is alien to Christian belief and out of step with Anglican teaching.

So desperate is the bench to ram through their secular policy that the Primus of the SEC, Mark Strange, has been invited to speak at the next meeting of the Governing Body to be held 12-13 Sept 2018.  He made headlines by calling for gay marriage in church in 2015 resulting in the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, threatening to ban the SEC.

Bishop Strange said: “The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church voted to change its canon on marriage. This decision was ours to take as a self-governing province of the Anglican Communion."

Strange indeed that the will of the Anglican Communion to remain faithful to the teaching of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church can be pushed to one side by manipulating a synod which is often dominated by activists and sycophants resulting in decisions contrary to the will of the membership.

In Wales the bench has developed a strategy of using 'advisory' consultations to supplement the heavily loaded 'advice' received from the Doctrinal Commission of the Church in Wales. This works only in the bishops' favour. It rubber stamps their decision if favourable to them but ignores results which they regard as unfavourable.

This procedure, contrary to the wishes of the majority, led to the silencing of many faithful Anglicans who felt bound by their faith rather than by GB decisions which merely reflect the whims of society.

Little surprise, then, that the latest (2017) Church in Wales regular attendance figures show a further fall of 3% to 27,359 representing only 0.8% of the population of Wales. Confirmations are down a massive 36% reflecting the ill-thought through policy of  'Confirmation no longer required for Holy Communion thrust on the church by the bench'.

Planned giving has also fallen for the seventh consecutive year, despite individual members continuing to "give sacrificially". The average giving per Sunday attender in 2017 was £9.65 per week.

Agendum 9 to be discussed at the next meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales is
Same Gender Relationships (continued)
Question and answer session with the Most Reverend Mark Strange, Primus of Scotland followed by discussion. Background paper, together with a procedural note (Word doc).

The introduction to the background paper is a pathetic attempt to justify pushing LGBT politics to the fore. The archbishop concludes his preamble with "Among the challenging issues currently facing the Church and its Bishops is that of the pastoral care of those, both lay and ordained, who are in same-gender relationships or who have same-gender sexual orientation."

In other words, pandering to a minority which is over-represented in the church in comparison with the total population of the UK.

At this point it is worth remembering that the bench could not care less for loyal, often cradle, Anglicans who have striven through all the problems put in front of them to uphold the faith of the Church handed down through the ages.

They are regarded as a dispensable minority. The former archbishop, Barry Morgan, signalled his intention to sideline worshippers who did not accept his plan to turn the Church in Wales into a sex-obsessed shadow of its former self in his outright refusal to appoint a replacement Provincial Assistant Bishop after the highly respected bishop David Thomas retired. He died a broken man after the way he was treated by the bench.

Continuing his duplicitous statement the current archbishop writes:
"As for the ways in which the Church should care for them there is clear division about the leadership which the Bishops can or should properly offer. There are those who call upon us to give a lead and make a change.  There are others for whom any such change would be seen as anathema.  But both groups are valued parts of our Church family which the Bishops are called both to lead and care for pastorally. And those whose lives, faith and loves are at the centre of this particular matter are to be found in our congregations, they are members of our Christian family and some are certainly serving members of the Governing Body.  They are not, in other words, people on the outside, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ and in faith."

Having cast aside  the 'lives, faith and loves' of traditionalists, Davies is able to claim that "those whose lives, faith and loves are at the centre of this particular matter are to be found in our congregations, they are members of our Christian family and some are certainly serving members of the Governing Body."

That is despite the constant complaints that LGBT people are excluded!

In a one-sided statement of intent, the Primus of the SEC has been invited to address Governing Body. He has already revealed that he had been in love with a man - presumably the reason for his invitation to speak.

The SEC Primate represents a church in which the first woman bishop to be enthroned made it clear that she is not interested in restricting herself to "prayers, pews and parochial parish life". She is focused on "fighting for social justice, sexual equality". Like the bishop of Llandaff  she was also appointed by bishops keen to get their secular message across.

There is no mention in the archbishop's note of the major row which erupted with half the paid clergy in one region of SEC rebelling over the appointment of their new bishop.

Neither is it mentioned that one of the largest churches in Edinburgh has voted to split from the Scottish Episcopal Church amid tensions over its decision to become the first Anglican body in the UK to endorse gay marriage.

If anything, the Scottish example is one of schism brought about by same sex marriage and appointments being made to increase the clamour for it.

By contrast there is no representative from the Church of Ireland Bishops who said there is "little appetite" across the entire island to redefine marriage.

In that regard, one priest has had the courage to stick his head over the parapet and put down the question:
"Are the Bench of Bishops able to explain why a Primate whose province upholds (and has reaffirmed) the doctrine of marriage as currently outlined in our prayer book, such as the Church of Ireland, has not been invited to speak on their processes for welcoming the LGBT community in the Church whilst not permitting same sex marriages, in order to complement the invitation of the Rt. Rev. Mark Strange and add to these important discussions?"

Bravo! But a lone voice crying in the wilderness.

Many people are drawing the conclusion that despite outward appearances the majority of Western Anglican bishops must be gay or have gay tendencies but that does not explain the urge to allow same sex marriage in church. Same sex partnerships have equal rights so why marriage, particularly marriage in church?

The Commandment 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' includes sex outside marriage. By permitting same sex marriage in church, mission accomplished having already re-written scripture to justify homosexuality.

Bishops may have no regard for their own souls but that is no excuse for putting the souls of their flock in jeopardy.

They have no business changing church doctrine on the basis that "the decision was ours to take as a self-governing province of the Anglican Communion". That attitude serves only to destroy the Communion that binds Anglicans together.

The church needs to clear out these impostors before all is lost.

Postscript [03.09.2018]

From a Church in Wales Provincial press release: Governing Body meeting – September 12-13 2018

"Examples of how churches across Wales are reaching out and taking the Christian message to those around them will be seen in a film at the meeting of the Church’s Governing Body which takes places on September 12-13 at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

"The film features six evangelism projects, one from each of the Church’s dioceses, and will form part of a report on evangelism and church growth."

This is the contribution form the Diocese of Monmouth in a film that clearly scratches around for ideas but more importantly for the bench of bishops provides further propaganda designed to sway Governing Body members into voting in favour of their same sex marriage in church policy:
Inclusive church – promoting an open and welcoming church at Rumney, Cardiff

Bishop Andy John

"The film will be introduced by the Bishop of Bangor, Andy John, on Thursday morning (September 13). He says, 'We want to show the amazing work which churches all over the country are doing to take Christ’s message of love out to the communities around them. They are not stories we hear about in the news and neither are they reflected in our membership statistics. But they speak powerfully of lively and enthusiastic people, inspired by the love of God and a ‘can do’ approach that is making a difference and changing lives'.”




Actually Andy, when it comes to the church we hear about little else. Inclusive church, bonds with other faiths, regardless of their beliefs, but nothing about the thousands of faithful Anglicans the bench has displaced.

36 comments:

  1. If I want to be taught the values of contemporary society, I'll skip the progressive church services and watch TV. It will also help save the environment by me not driving my car to church.

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  2. I think the Ordinariate calls, very loudly.

    Catnap.

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    1. OBVIOUSLY, you are right, Anonymous> Come out of apostasy and, oh, yes, heresy. Come home.

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  3. You missed out the best bit, AB. The members of GB are to have a private vote on a loaded question, which the bench sitters are hoping will result in the vote falling in their favour. If it does not happen that way, the vote isn't binding on the bench; which means that they can bring it back again.
    I hope that the members of GB will have the courage to put forward a motion that makes the vote binding on the bench; and then say "No" once more. When this issue crops up in conversation, people with no church background are appalled and bewildered that the Bishops are constantly pushing this agenda. Even gay people I work with state that they wouldn't marry in church even if they could, simply because it is wrong. How is it that secularists can see that it is wrong, yet our so-called shepherds of the flock can't? The members of GB should make it quite clear that they are not some arm of the EU; that the Bishops can keep bringing votes back until members give the correct answer.
    The House of Clergy should be particularly concerned by this development. The Bishops keep promising a "conscience clause" for those clergy who cannot officiate at such "marriages". Yet, the Supreme Court has already ruled that a baker could not refuse to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple on the basis of Christian conscience. Similarly, a couple who owned a guest house and refused to allow a gay couple to stay with them could not use Christian conscience as a reason for doing so. The underlying argument was that if a service is being provided, it has to be provided for all alike regardless of gender or sexual orientation. At this point in time, the government has provided a get out clause for the Anglican church in England and Wales. Both churches are prevented by law from performing such marriages. The Bishops are keen to bring the gay community in from the cold, but happy to see their clergy in the dock. The day that the GB votes to allow this will be the day that the gay lobby will push to see the clergy in the dock.
    Seymour

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  4. Well said AB and sincere thanks to the Rev Gentleman who has put his head above the parapet and queried the bias which is all too clear in the invitation to Mark Strange
    with no opportunity for the voicing of another opinion from someoene of a contrary view. This is a shameful abuse of power.Come on GB! Show your teeth for once and don't be taken in by the shallow paper presented to you. Why do the bishops see a challenge in offering pastoral care to those in same gender relationships? Surely their calling requires them to care for "all sorts and conditions of men". (This will no doubt be seen as a sexist statement!) The comment lets the cat out of the bag. Pastoral care, as far as the bishops are concerned, means SSM, based on a flawed understanding of "equality". The bench could do with an injection of theological understanding as it is obvious that there is not a single theologian among them. Be warned bishops - you go down this route at your peril - it will undoubtedly lead to a schism in the C in W coupled with further diminution in church attendance. People are becoming increasingly aware that the credibility of the church is being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness and many parishioners are not willing to go along with it. If the GB is not prepared to face this down and to reject the machinations of the bench, the GB itself will be seen as complicit in this murky business. It will eventually become redundant and the bishops will have no alternative other than pack away the mitres to which they are patently unsuited.
    Nemesis

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  5. The height of absurdity, and the cross in LGBT colours. This is not the Anglican Church.

    Simples

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    1. It is perverts and deviants dressed in clerical garb.

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  6. Quite so Simples and Enoch which explains why at first glance I thought that the banner to the right of the silly head of the purported bishop of Ty Ddewi in the photograph above reads "Filth Tent" but it certainly explains why + Bangor is known as Andy Crap throughout the length and breadth of Gwynedd.

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  7. 'Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof... " (2 Tim 3). Denying the authority of scripture, denying the superintending hand of the Spirit in preserving the' 'catholic' faith, denying the moral teaching of Christ's apostles, denying all tradition and reason, denying the precious unity that has been the golden thread of worldwide Anglican ism. I could go on....

    One question I'd like to ask: how do you think Christianity got it so wrong for nearly 2000 years? Do you really think you know better than the vast majority of Christian thought and practice over that time?

    Please do me a favour...

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  8. Welcoming and accepting LGBT people into the Church is one thing, we have quietly done this for sometime. However the nub if the matter is changing doctrine, rubric and literacy to suit. Many LGBT in the church don't want a "spotlight" on there lives, especially those clergy and laity who are active Church members. Many have entered formal legal partnerships, some have had a quiet blessing in private, but that is as far as necessary.
    The Church should be a accepting, welcoming but, this constant episcopal battering of the Church with this issue, serves further to isolate and marginalized.
    Surely we know that Gay men have indeed been huge workers in the Church, quietly just getting on with furthering the Gospel, some celibate others, not. But, "quiet" means, not silence in this case, but just "privately" living there lives. Many have achieved high office, respected and admired. Now with this constant refusal to let the "status quo" quietly get on, is so distracting and distructive. One can't help wondering if this mission is driven more by the L T affronted by a Church that has "quietly" welcomed and appreciated, to a place where those who are "G" do not feel at all welcome, but labelled and exposed.
    PP.

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    1. Good points. We know from the press that some people are 'outed' by other gay people wanting them to be more open. Soon any LGB person politely declining 'marriage' in church will be themselves castigated as a phobic bigot

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  9. It's looking more and more that the two female elections to the episcopate were disastrous. Both were done for the wrong reasons: Joanna simply because she was a woman - i.e 'positive' discrimination which is just discrimination by another name and June to punish the dissenters of Llandaff. With both of them being LGTB activists with Andy John concurring the bench was loaded without an evangelical or Conservative Anglo-Catholic among them.

    Morgan's legacy has been to leave a theological wasteland among the bench which the faithful need to change by blocking any others of like mind at the electoral colleges.

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    1. Sadly, Whamab, the Bench have everything in their favour when it comes to elections. All they need to do is make sure that there is no election. At that point, the decision of who joins the team rests with the Bench.
      Seymour

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  10. The dictatorship of secular relativism coming to a church near you, justified in "whatever I Say, what ever I want, goes" and gives licence that if my moral compass is not in tune with the minority who shout loudest, I am against them. This may not be the case, so do not judge us. Let us be careful this relativism does not become a dictatorship and we displace the cherished gospel values which are the cornerstone of our faith, in favour of a philosophical outlook built on secular whims.

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  11. Shouldn't the Archbishop of Wales reprimand the Bishop of St David's for using the LGBT cross in the pic on the right? This is the most important Christian symbol being abused - or am I 'finding a difficulty' with 'diversity'?

    Cromarty

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  12. God are you people still banging on about LGBT people as if it the existence of God depended upon it. I haven't looked on this site for a year, and entry after entry is about Gays - you're obsessed and you're also unkind.

    I bet most of you don't regularly seek out opportunities to worship - you can't do esle you would show far more compassion and love.

    Get ourselves!

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    1. Wrong as usual dumbass.
      The ones obsessed with gays and lesbians are the bench of "Bishops" and the members of clergy who are themselves gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, questioning or any other of the ever growing list of letters used to describe about 1.5% of the population who seem to require 100% airtime.

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    2. Esle?
      Pathetic.
      Perhaps you could go and do something useful
      Like boil your head!

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    3. Gaychristian is an oxymoron.

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    4. As is gay pride.

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    5. There is many a truth that comes from a good oxymoron - the bringing together of opposites is what Christianity is all about: the sinless Christ takes upon himself the sin of the whole world. You could say that the act of atonement is oxymoronic in that sense. So a gaychristian I shall be and equally happy I shall be with you non-gay ones; we can't all be special (only the 1.5% of us).

      It's Friday - here's to a Rum Pansy or two. Have a good weekend everyone.

      Be faithful in the small things and, above all, be kind.

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  13. Welcome back Gaychristian. Keep reading. There is more to follow and will be for so long as the church continues to persuade people that they are unkind to LGBT people despite their disproportionate representation, particularly among the clergy. Rather than complain perhaps you would be kind enough to address some of the concerns raised.

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  14. Maybe gaychristian you would show some compassion on the 'orthodox' Anglicans who have been sidelined and marginalised instead of claiming victim hood when you hold all the cards now, certainly on the Bench.

    Its easy to claim a hegemony on love when you are slighting our devotion - mote, eye, plank and all that. The undeniable truth is you are over represented and obscene amounts of time and energy go on courting your approval - that is what I object to.

    Why - because I am a homophobe? No, actually it just that it makes no sense when churches are dying on their feet. Even a child could work out that the focus should be on mission and evangelism - being confident in the faith received from the Apostles and not adapting it to suit the 'world'.

    Or is that 1.9% of it?

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    1. One might add that the CinW will be unlikely to survive into the 2030s (let alone the 2040s or 2050s) unless it regains widespread support from married heterosexuals of child-bearing age whose offspring will fill the fast-depleting ranks of ordinary congregants. I'm not sure that the necessary miracle is going to happen any time soon.

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  15. Gaychristian - you still do not get it. Advertising your self-pitying LGBT agenda is counter-productive. Not long ago the tiny minority of homosexuals in the Church were quietly accepted in the same way as everyone else. Now you've made an issue of yourself and you stand out like a sore thumb.

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  16. I think I probably do get it more than you imagine. Not an ounce of self-pitying from me - but I pity you all your hardness, prejudice and lack of compassion. You'd have been championing the cause of black oppression and slave ownership back in the day and probably regret that women were ever given the vote. Pity you all.

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    1. Gaychristian - you again demonstrate by your words a measure of self-pity. As regards the Church specifically, can you please tell us what it is you want us all to do and what it is we are doing wrong. I ask this in all seriousness.

      Cromarty

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    2. Genuinely no self-pity whatsoever and indeed no apology for claiming and celebrating that LGBT people enjoy a recognised place within the church. After centuries of oppression, hiding, prejudice, it's good that gay-humankind (1.5% or whatever) can now hold their heads up high. As is always the case, the oppressor can never quite accept that it is they who are now in the minority. Anyone who cannot accept gay people fully will have to negotiate their place within the body of Christ - are they in, or out. Simple as. History is on the side of those once oppressed for to such belongs the Kingdom of God. It's why I remain a Christian and why I love Jesus.

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    3. Gaychhrstian it's really lazy, and unfair to paint us as hard and unloving just because we disagree with all this.

      Saying we would've been the supporters of slavery in the day is a hateful slur especially offensive to evangelicals whose forebears were some of the driving force against such evil through their commitment to biblical truth.

      What are you going to call us next? Nazis?

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    4. Hardline evangelicalism is responsible for the oppression of many LGBT people and the cause of family breakdown. I know of many people who were disowned by their evangelical parents for being gay. It's ironic that the evangelical claim to be pro-family gets played out in this way. Not always, of course, there are some evangelicals who have moved beyond that prejudice. Sadly, many remain.

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    5. Gaychristian, you have missed the point. This is not about sexuality. As has been stated on numerous occasions the Church in Wales has had its fair share of gay people who have ranged from lay people to bishops, and they have not been driven from our churches.
      The real issue is whether Jesus is Lord of the Christian Church or the parliaments of the world take precedence over him. If the secular world wants to offer gay marriage, then let it. Jesus' teaching is that marriage is between a man and a woman for life. If we love the Lord, which you say you do - and I don't doubt it - then we adhere to his teaching. After all, on the night before he died he said to his disciples: If you love me, you will keep my commands. The charlatans who masquerade as bishops quite clearly have no love for the Lord. They are wolves in sheep's clothing. The unity of his Church would be uppermost on their agenda if they loved the Lord. Keeping his teaching would be uppermost on their agenda. Yet it is obvious that neither is of importance to the Bench.
      The issue is not about whether someone is gay or not. The issue is very much to do with Christ's teaching and keeping the Church in Wales 'orthodox'. As for choosing whether I am in or out of the uber-liberal Church in Wales - if the Church in Wales has no room for the Lord of glory and his teaching, then I have no room for the Church in Wales.
      Seymour

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    6. Maybe we are in the minority of an increasingly heterodox, cult-like church but certainly not in the worldwide Anglican communion. And by the way I have never oppressed a LGTBQIA+ in my life - I have simply held to the faith as received.

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    7. Sadly Whamab, you will not even be able to call it a cult-like church - it will simply be a cult, where the leaders dress in funny clothes to give some semblance of churchianity to their adherents. The "Church" is the Bride of Christ, and her members love the Lord enough to live by his teaching through good and ill. What makes this whole business worse is that the Bench are leading people into hell with their false teaching and their anything goes agenda. Satan has never had it so easy.
      Seymour

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    8. One sees Satan lapping it up.
      He/she is parading around in Wales under Mitres and holding Croziers.

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  17. PP, Dear, dear, dear! A divided Church will never stand together. Accepting LGBT is one thing, enjoying there place in the Churches, is something that has gone on for a longtime. But, we now have invasion: why has the socio-political agenda, so rocked the Church? It leaves no margin for mission or evangelism.
    Accepting each person regardless of there sexualities, was the settled agenda, many homosexual priests were accepted, ordained and missioners in the Church, now because of this current secular "churchy" agenda, there is no place for much else.
    What happened to the pioneers, the priest who place themselves in the worst of parishes, the Anglo Catholics who evangelised through the holiness of the mysteries, the evangelical CA, Monis, Nuns, etc. The parishes are in crisis, the finances another story and the mission areas, group parishes but only mission through sound bites.
    2020 was to be a mission event like no other, but all one sees is demise, decenters, dictate and distrust. Is this anyway to show the secular world, we have something to offer? No wonder our leadership, continues, to embrace it's fruitless agenda .What is the answer? Back to basics or, continue into a steady state of decline.

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  18. The lostness of militant gays is self evident from all they say and do. St Paul spoke even more strongly.
    Rob

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