It doesn't say much for the new Archbishop of Wales when the old is invited to share his destructive views with Bangor clergy school.
Barry Morgan of all people! Wrecker in chief of the Church in Wales with his radical policies spouting a load of old cobblers.
He persists in perpetuating the myth that the clergy have to do everything - apart from working together.
There are some clergy who pull above their weight but there are others who are bone idle. I could give him a few names.
In reality hard working, conscientious clergy have simply had enough of politics. Many of the more able have jumped ship leaving Ministry Areas in Wales in a sorry state. Who better to blame than long suffering laity for supposedly leaving it all to the clergy.
Morgan should realise that many of the problems have been caused by forcing out hard working laity leaving the Church of Wales on the verge of collapse.
He doesn't give a damn for them, nor do the increasing numbers of senior staff left in charge while area cooperatives struggle to survive with inadequate pastoral support.
When he retired he pledged that he would not interfere. Another broken promise.
Sad, deluded and failure are three words that spring to mind.
This just filled me with sadness and resignation. If this is emblematic of the Diocese of Bangor, we are well and truly shafted. Andy takes 40 of the clergy who have not so far managed to get off his sinking ship on a trip to London, books two keynote speakers in their 70s, both a 'has been' in the theological world (one of whom has not the faintest clue about the dynamics of ministry in the Diocese or first-hand experience of the cultural context of the Church in Wales; and another who knows it all too well and cannot get his past failures in that Diocese out of his system), and then subjects us (via Bob the Builder's Twitter account no less) to this toe-curlingly sycophantic attempt at mutual smoke-blowing up a particular orifice. The whole show has the Lavatory Attendant's finger prints all over it.
ReplyDeleteLeaving aside the fact that this excruciatingly dull and mind-numbingly uninspiring excuse for a bishop cannot do any better for his clergy (and the people in the parishes, sorry, ministry areas, who are paying for this charabanc), it gives me a fair idea of how the £10m Shirley has given him is likely to be spent. It is like someone giving a vast wad of cash to a homeless alcoholic, naively believing he will use it to buy a house.
Sauron keeps popping up like Banquo's ghost...…
DeleteIs there no-one with their backside on the bench that has the bottom and balls to cast him down ?
Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!
Just keep an eye out for bent editors Will Davies. When cornered in this manner, 'His Light Perpetual' will usually privately employ and resort to divide and rule diversity editorial tactics.
DeletePontcana Fields.
T S Eliot's words spring immediately to mind:
ReplyDeleteWe are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Barry has to keep interfering. His life has no meaning otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThe Church he led for 14 years is rapidly collapsing and he hangs around like a bad smell. Can't leave well enough alone can he?
PP, this is indeed sad to see. But if you look at the body language, Andy looks cautious and fearful. His arms folded, reveals I'm not accepting what ever is being said. But it also appears that his former mentor, has turned puppet master. Consider the ordinations in 2017. Then and now power currupts. Are we seeing a puppet master grooming the next AB. God help us in that scenario.
ReplyDeleteAgain, why hasnt the church a rule that prevents a former bishop being so involved in former dioceses. Why hasn't the AB used history to stop this controller. Then you have other personal aspects in this torrid affair, where is Andy's judgement? One can clearly see why some appointments to senior posts, failure and leavers have unfortunately damaged a once thriving and conservative diocese.
Speaking during his recent visit to Palermo, Pope Francis said some things that can easily be translated to the situation of the Church in Wales:
ReplyDeleteHe said: “People are shocked not when they see that the priest ‘slips,’ is a sinner, repents and goes on… People’s scandal is when they see worldly priests, with the spirit of the world.”
People are scandalized, he continued, when they see a priest who is like “an executive,” rather than a pastor. “And this puts it right in your head and in your heart: shepherds yes, executives no!”
Francis was also critical of “pastoral projects,” which he said are often “pharaonic,” or extravagant, not simple. “We go to meet people,” he said, “with the simplicity of those who want to love them with Jesus in the heart… without riding the fashions of the moment.”
What have pastoral projects done? “Nothing!” he said. “Pastoral plans are necessary, but as a means, a means to help [those near us], preaching the Gospel, but in themselves they are not useful. The way of the encounter, of listening, of sharing is the way of the Church.”
To be fair, PP, Bangor was never a 'conservative' diocese in the way that you could argue Llandaff was under +Roy (ironically, given his personal arrangements at one stage in his life); but it was a solidly ANGLICAN diocese, and represented the broad perspective of Anglicanism while witnessing to a robust orthodoxy, epitomized by G O Williams, Cleadan Mears and Tony Crockett. They were theologians and philosophers, of course, whereas Andy is just a failed lawyer.
DeleteWhatever the diagnosis - or prognosis - the Diocese of Bangor has been led to the brink of extinction by someone who is simply a 'pretender' to allow Barry Morgan to impose his self-serving agenda on the Church. The person who should have been bishop would have been more than a match for him, and would have challenged him and exposed his lightweight dissembling. Anyone with any brains, talent or integrity has long departed the diocese, and we are left with a pathetic rump led by a pathetic bishop who lacks imagination, intelligence or any leadership acumen. In the secular world, he would just be a middle-ranking bureaucrat obeying the orders of those higher up the food chain. Which is, not surprisingly, what he has been as Bishop of Bangor. A nightmare from which that poor diocese will never recover. Diolch, Barry.
A truly spectacular ecclesiastical fraud of monumental proportions, if ever there was one. We agree, well done your Darkness. Now let's move on to proclaim the Gospel.
DeleteThe Milky Bar Kid
PP thank you "Spirit of Deiniol, I appreciate your views here. However, I would add if the bishop is that bad, why hasn't the powers changed the dynamics. Is anyone ever going to call out the former AB, or is it just a hope he will slyther away disgracefully?
ReplyDeleteGood question, PP. The answer has been rehearsed on this blog time and time again. It is that the laity of the Church in Wales have repeatedly failed to hold the bishops (including the former Archbishop) to account. A complaint to the current Archbishop about Andy Crap's wholesale incompetence, his inability to lead, the downward spiral of decline, low morale among his clergy etc. receives a reply along the lines of 'I have no authority to interfere with another Diocese.' That's true - but it didn't stop the Golfer! Furthermore, knowing how incompetent he is, Shirley gives him £10m to play with.
ReplyDeleteThe sorry state of the Church in Wales is entirely down to a failure to hold the bishops to account, aided by a significantly diminished GB engineered by the Golfer. Putin would be proud. Once the malaise hits a critical point, people give up because the intellectuals and prophets have been picked-off (or have made their escape) and there are no credible voices left. There's no rowing back. Niagara Falls here we come...
Bully boy --Bazza is still hanging around Llandaff Cathedral even though he's about as welcome as a stinking fart in space suit.
DeleteWhy hasn't he been to told to go forth and multiply?
He lives in that monstrosity 'Llys Ego' over in Whitchurch so if he wants to 'help out' somewhere he should be told to go and make a nisance of himself at St. Mary's.
This was published in the Daily Telegraph a few days ago - just about sums it up.
Deletehttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/20/western-christianity-isnt-dying-natural-causes-dying-suicide/?utm_source=Daily+Media+Digest&utm_campaign=ef7b9416b5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_10_01_01_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_296e14724b-ef7b9416b5-248624609
Western Christianity isn't dying out from natural causes. It's dying of suicide.
Most gracious Father, (not mother)
DeleteWe pray to you for your unholy Church in Wales.
Fill it with all truth;
in all truth with all peace.
Where it is corrupt, purge it.
Where it is in error, direct it.
Where anything is amiss, redirect it.
Where it is right, strengthen and defend it.
Where it is in want, provide for it.
Where it is divided, heal it and reunite it.
Where it stinketh like a swamp, drain it.
For the sake of your son (not daughter), our saviour, Jesus Christ,
Amen. (not Aperson)
With apologies to William Laud, former Bishop of St. Davids, former Bishop of Bath & Wells and former Archbishop of Canterbury 1633-1645
PP. That's aweful why have an AB who can't discipline or hold a diocese to account? It is madness. Perhaps a laity led group who bring a consitory court action regarding charity mismanagement noted in the organ funds, property sell offs etc etc . Surely some in the laity have the clout to act. It's so disheartening to see the Church in such disrepair and at the edge.
ReplyDeleteParish pests, on retirement, are advised to stay away from their former parishes. Bishops should also be required to withdraw completely from their former diocese. Unfortunately, it seems that there's one law for the parish priest and quite another for the "hierarchy". Do they think that they are indispensible or are they simply consumed by their misplaced sense of self-importance?
ReplyDeleteNemesis
The latter, Nemesis! If it wasn't for their "misplaced sense of self-importance" the Church wouldn't be in the state it's now in.
DeleteWith His Darkness loading the dice at governing bodies and surrounding himself with yes-men (and yes-women...) it was only a matter of time before anyone with a conscience and at least half a brain was pushed out. That left only the spineless, the amoral and assorted bumbling idiots in control of the C in W.
The inheritors of Barry's largesse have almost no opposition to contend with and no competitors in the church hierarchy. The people with real beliefs, skills and knowledge have all left. And the communicants have also voted with their feet.
This leaves Barry's proteges in charge without any curb on their power. However their church is heading for the rocks and the crew is rapidly decreasing because no-one wants to go down with the ship.
I'm certain there'll be a cathedral bankruptcy in Wales before long, maybe followed by a diocesan bankruptcy. The RB will try to cover it up as "financial restructuring" but there's only so much papering over the cracks they can do. At that point all talk of "Mission Areas" will be moot.
The Barry policy of only promoting the likes of Andy and co has resulted in a dearth of good leaders at all levels. The most talented have gone elsewhere or retired after being passed over. This is what happens when a church is run as a personal fiefdom.
It's not just a shortage of talented priests, it's a drought of any priests. If they can't fill plum vacancies in rich and established parishes, the endgame of the C in W is upon us.
Apologies! I obviously meant to say parish priests in my opening sentence! No offence intended!
DeleteNemesis
Au contraire Nemesis, that was an inspired malapropism! No need to apologise. There are plenty of parish pests out there and not all of them are priests!
DeleteWhat happened to the two reports, the role of the AB and that one which looked at restructuring the dioceses with less hiarachy? If we look at CofE in particular Leeds, three into one, but still financially crippled.
ReplyDeleteIn Wales, which diocese could go is debatable, I would think the 4 ancient would possibly survive, that leaves 2 and surely it would be difficult to consider either?
With new Archdeaconries in two dioceses and new provincial executives, offices and such, the likelihood is more the same. At least we gave no assistant bishop in B&S yet.DPM.
Talking of the slow painful demise of Bangor diocese and the growing roll call of distinguished former clergy, I hear a former Archdeacon of Bangor (who now presides over a thriving diocese in France where catholic traditionalists and conservative evangelicals are given equal respect alongside non-descript liberals and where clergy morale was described to me as 'buzzing') is giving a lecture in Cardiff under the auspices of the C of E's ecumenical arm. I doubt it will need much advertising to draw a full house at Eglwys Dewi Sant on 3rd November.
ReplyDeleteI will certainly be there - and a pity we couldn't have both former archdeacons at the same event to make the Golfer and Crap squirm twice as much!
ReplyDeleteCareful Iolo and Alwyn.
ReplyDeleteBy revealing your intentions in advance you may be blowing your cover and the anonymity which you enjoy in this blog!
Remember that the nights are drawing in and are growing longer and darker.
Tread carefully.
Watch your backs. Trust no one and above all do not talk to strange people dressed in purple!
There I go again. Silly old me.
As the Psalmist says 'I am not afraid: What can flesh do unto me?' Thankfully, I am under no canonical obligations to the purple-clad dictatorship. That aside, there will probably be more people there than the combined Sunday attendance at Llandaff (or any other Welsh) Cathedral that I could be, potentially, any one of those attending. It is by presuming that no-one will ever challenge them that this bunch of robotic autocrats get away with countless acts of reckless negligence and wilful misconduct.
ReplyDeleteA concise analysis of the malaise in Bangor (and elsewhere in Wales) was perfectly summarised in an article I have just read:
ReplyDelete"Religion flourishes when it is enmeshed with the lives of those it serves and its surrounding culture, and it dies when it no longer connects beyond its own internal agenda. Anglican churches depend on a healthy relationship with their societies, even when there is mutual criticism. Over the past couple of decades, church and society have spun off in different orbits. The gulf is now so profound that the chances of reconciliation seem grim. Does the church and its leadership serve the people, or is it a self serving ghetto for the inadequate and the deluded?"
Up here in Bangor, with a disengaged and deceived bishop, there is no debate about the answer to that question!
When are the RB/GB going to learn that once a bishop retired they should have no license to serve in there former dioceses. Just like priests returning to former parishes to serve.
ReplyDeleteSurely the former AB has enough speaking engagements outside of the province given his unique longstanding eloquence and dictomy to pass on to others. But, to return to Bangor has add to its sorrows is enough to cause havoc.
Reading the GB higights in the Church Times makes grim reading, if that is the focus of mission and new litergy, then over the boarder one must go, if to effectual is one's ministry in sanity DPM.
Three cheers for the Monmouth priest (reported in the Church Times) who had the gumption to tell Shirley that the Church in Wales may be episcopally led but is synodically governed, and that he should not have issued an invitation to the Scottish Primate without consulting the GB first. Now, if there are any independent lay members of the GB with brains still intact, will you start doing your job by representing the poor bloody infantry. and holding these self-serving idiots in purple to account?
DeleteWell said Alwyn, I notice that item too. Perhaps a flag up of one or two key GB procedures and roles might be in order to our representatives. Or someone table a debate on roles and responsibilities, long overdue DPM.
ReplyDeleteIs the Bishop of Bangor now divorced?
ReplyDeleteNot only divorced, but no sooner had the ink dried on the decree absolute than he ordained his ex-wife to the priesthood, even though (as a Deacon ordained nearly two decades ago) she hadn't been near a church for years. Some people asked about the selection procedure, only to be met by a wall of silence. Mrs ex-Bishop of Bangor got a stipend and a nice four-bedroomed house, and Andy was saved any costly severance terms.
DeleteJust look at what we poor mugs who put our hard-earned cash in the collection every week are paying for!
Notice his trendy bracelet...obviously in the marriage stakes again... interesting to see who the new Mrs Bangor or Mr Bangor will be?
ReplyDelete