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| Members of the National Liturgical Dance Network getting ready for the Installation of The Right Reverend Libby Lane Source: Twitter @PeterOuld |
A few days ago the Rev Peter Ould tweeted: "Good God, there's a National Liturgical Dance Network."
The next picture helps to explain why. The installation of the Rt Rev Libby Lane as the eighth Bishop of Derby in fancy hat and what appears to be a Hindu garland. Without these details one might be forgiven for thinking the occasion some sort of religious parody.
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| The Right Reverend Libby Lane replaces the Right Reverend Dr Alastair Redfern, who retired in August Source: BBC |
The Church of England has been celebrating 25 yrs of women priests or their Silver Jubilee as Women and the Church [Affirming * Challenging * Transforming] like to put it:
"Starting on March 12th this year, and lasting over three months, more than a thousand women will be celebrating a Silver Jubilee: the 25th anniversary of their ordination to the priesthood in the Church of England. Bristol Cathedral led the way, with 32 deacons ordained priest, and the following week three ordinations took place in Sheffield diocese on the 15th, 16th and 17th March, when twenty-five women were ordained as priests, and ordinations continued in other dioceses through April, May and June."
The Archbishop of Canterbury has been on the receiving end for his contribution in this "Welby’s woes with women" clip from The Times (£):
“Perhaps Welby thinks the clergy have no Sunday commitments so they can spend the day travelling,” says the Rev Janet Fife, from Whitby. Also, the dress code is unusual for female priests: it calls for lounge suits."
Lambeth Palace held a service celebrating 25 years of female priests in the Church of England back in March. Also, there is a Photo exhibition celebrates 25 years of female priests covered by the Guardian. What is not mentioned is the underhand work to sideline the agreement that enabled feminism to flourish in the Church.
Much of the women's movement success has been playing with words such as equality and love often appealing to the wider public for support of their secular views.
"'Christianity as default is gone': the rise of a non-Christian Europe" was the headline in a Guardian article last year:
"In the UK, only 7% of young adults identify as Anglican, fewer than the 10% who categorise themselves as Catholic. Young Muslims, at 6%, are on the brink of overtaking those who consider themselves part of the country’s established church."
In 2017 the BBC reported on a survey that suggested "more than half in UK are non-religious." In a Synod debate Justin Welby called for "radical new inclusion", part of the journey from women's ordination to LGBT inclusion and same sex marriage to transgender services.
One would have thought that the Anglican Church could take the hint about the direction in which it is going. That it does not illustrates the extent to which blind revisionists lead the blind.
A public consultation to be held in York on next Archbishop:
"The public can play a part in the selection of the next Archbishop of York when a public consultation meeting takes place in York next month.
"The current Archbishop, Dr John Sentamu, is to retire in June next year and a successor needs to be appointed.
"A meeting to discuss the requirements for the role will take place at The Belfrey Hall off Stonegate from 7.30pm to 9.00pm on Monday June 17, with everyone welcome.
"People will be able to meet the Prime Minister’s appointments secretary, Edward Chaplin, and the Archbishops’ secretary for appointments, Caroline Boddington, and comment on the needs of the post and the qualities required.
"Organisers say views expressed at the meeting form part of a wider consultation which will feed into the Crown Nominations Commission.
"This will in turn recommend a name to the Prime Minister to submit to The Queen."
More than half the people in the UK are non-religious. In fact, even within the Church feminism has taken over from religion. Given people's ignorance of the religious faith it would not be surprising if someone were to suggest that a Muslim should be the next Archbishop of York in the spirit of interfaith friendship.
I wonder if anyone thought of looking to 1 Timothy 3:
"The saying is sure:[a] whoever aspires to the office of bishop[b] desires a noble task. 2 Now a bishop[c] must be above reproach, married only once,[d] temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, keeping his children submissive and respectful in every way— 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil."
The post-Christian US Episcopal Church celebrated 40 years of women in the priesthood in 2014. It adopted the same 'inclusive' agenda advocated by Justin Welby.
After 45 years of women in the priesthood the Episcopal Church is near collapse!
The mitre looks distinctly monty python
ReplyDeleteThe 'Bishop' looks distinctly Monty Python, if you ask me, Pete.
ReplyDeleteIt would be very good if, when the Public Consultation on the next Archbishop of York takes place on 17th June, someone would kindly do us all a favour and 'take out' (not literally, in case MI5 are reading this!) Caroline Boddington, (aka Mrs Previous Bishop of Derby) who bears considerable responsibility for controlling who is eligible for senior appointments in the Church of England - not least the predictably grey and unimaginative cohort of bishops. Not one of them has held a university teaching appointment in a recognisable academic institution outside the Church's own Theological Education Institutions (to use current jargon). All the women are non-descript 'soft' evangelicals who know all about 'Messy Church' but wouldn't have a clue how to preside at the Eucharist with gravitas. This is the same Mrs Boddington who told all cathedral precentors (ie those canons responsible for worship and much of the 35% growth in congregations over the past decade) that, on her watch, not one of them will ever be the dean of a cathedral. So we've seen one go to New York. 'Old' York's has just announced he's going to the Outer Hebrides; several others have packed it in and gone to sector ministries. How can the Church afford to lose such gifted and able people - and what will become of our cathedrals and their worship in the future once Welby's 'God Squad' have got their sticky philistine fingers on them? Isn't interesting that, on Mrs Boddington's watch, someone with a record of bullying in the Church in Wales lands herself a deanery in the Province of York?
Yes, that picture of the Ordinary of Derby tells a much bigger story.
The CofE is rapidly becoming a laughing stock. What does it now stand for? While muslims at a school in Birmingham are taking their children away because they don't want them to be taught about ss relationships, the Church says nothing and edges towards gay marriage. Ten out of ten for Islam, terminal decline for Anglicanism.
ReplyDeleteLW
DPM. Regarding the Mitre, from my sources, I have to set this record straight, before false news becomes fact. I believe that the mitre was a token of friendship from a Scandinavian Bishop. If you look at the herein, report on Bishop Johannas consecration in the photo the same Bishop is wearing a similar colourful mitre. If we were gifted such a precious gift,even if it made us look somewhat different, we would still respect the friendship and wear it.
ReplyDeleteBishop Libby, is thank goodness a leader, with strong faith and church manship, she would never have survived in Chester, a very traditional diocese with a an excellent diocesan, who suffers no fool or, dissent. If she was akin to hard-line feminists, the respect of the diocese in her leaving would not have been shown in such a resplendent way.
As for Monmouth, the Dean of Liverpool would suit the mode operandi of the bench joking aside, what about a novina, for the light of the Holy Spirit to inspire and convict the bench to "listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches".
So DPM, what if the 'new norm' as Libby Lane referred to herself had been presented with a hijab to go with her interfaith garland as a token of friendship?
DeleteGeorge
A very apt funereal colour since it is the death knell. It is a grotesque mitre; put it in a very deep draw and lock it.
DeleteThank you for the clarification, DPM. You clearly have a positive experience of Libby Lane as a bishop, and doubtless she has qualities that tick the relevant boxes in Justin Welby's new business orientated CofE, as he desperately struggles to get cash on the plate, bums on seats and best practice in HR. Unfortunately, Libby Lane, for all her pastoral qualities is just another colourless bishop in an increasingly colourless CofE. Gender aside, even a decade ago, she would never have been considered episcopal material. That's how far the talent pool has shrunk.
ReplyDelete"...Not a lover of money." Great quote from 1Timothy. If the stipends were all the same (and more importantly, the pensions) would quite so many clamber for the position of "bishop"?
ReplyDeleteYou say, "The post-Christian US Episcopal Church celebrated 40 years of women in the priesthood in 2014. It adopted the same 'inclusive' agenda advocated by Justin Welby. After 45 years of women in the priesthood the Episcopal Church is near collapse!" Now you are of course entitled to state your view. However - thinking in purely scientific and sociological terms - you can't actually prove cause-and-effect as you have no "control" experiment running alongside. So you can rightly say both, "the Church is in decline" and "the Church has followed a certain agenda" - but you can't definitively link the two. Now it might indeed be true that the policies and practices of the ECUSA have contributed to its decline. However it's also possible that it would have declined, perhaps even more so, with a different set of policies. In other words your thesis - even if it's correct - is ultimately unproveable.
ReplyDeleteInteresting analysis from Mr Kleissner. However, he forgets to mention one important point: having women in the priesthood was, we were told, going to rejuvenate the church and draw crowds of new members in. The pro-women lobby were quite happy to accept cause-and-effect in those days. We were told that women priests (the cause) would make the church grow (the effect). Now that the church has shrunk instead, we are told there is no causal link! (I'm sure that if the church HAD grown after the start of women's ordination, they would be shouting in favour of cause-and-effect!)
DeleteYou may well be right in your final comment. But I still maintain that we cannot prove - either way - what would have happened had things been different. Fact is that "traditional Church" (by which I mean the old-established denominations) all seem to be in sharp decline, while it's the "new kids on the block" who seem to be attracting the crowds. The vast majority of those are evangelical, often upbeat and informal, usually with little emphasis on the sacraments or liturgy. (I'm not sure what this says about the approach we need to be taking in this day and age).
DeleteBut one thing they certainly don't agree on is their view on female leadership, which varies from "men only" to "let's make sure we are inclusive and even-handed".