Church in Wales decline and fall

Membership and Finance 2018 | The Governing Body of the Church in Wales

Figures from the membership and Finance Report 2018 to be presented at the September meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales show continued decline in all measures bar one.

Confirmations were up 30% despite the unilateral decision of the bench of bishops to scrap confirmation as a prerequisite to Holy Communion - see Dodgy legal advice leads to Eucharistic free for all. There was a 36% fall in confirmations 2017 - 2016.

The 25% increase in weekdays only attendance between 2017 - 2016 fell back 19% between 2018 - 2017.

Perhaps more surprisingly the reported Sunday attendance increased between 2017 and 2018 in a number of important fields: under 7s; 7 to 10s; 11 to 17s; and families. The average attendance of under 18's was down 1%; down 7% between 2017 and 2016.

The Report also shows a worrying decline in total giving across a range of categories despite an increase in average giving per attender.

Archbishop George Carey's six-year-old prediction that "the Church of England was one generation away from extinction" unless more was done to attract young people into the Church was aired again in Norwich Cathedral where a helter skelter was thought to be the answer.

In Llandaff it is gay pride.

The predicted outlook for the Church in Wales is even more gloomy than for the Church of England with 'massive church closures from around 2025 onwards' leading to extinction around 2040.

The ordination of women was supposed to reinvigorate the Church. It has had the opposite effect importing a brand of liberalism summed up by Piers Morgan in an interview ‘Liberals have become utterly, pathetically illiberal’.

One cleric has had the guts to put down a question (Q.2) at GB about the declining moral standards of the Church in Wales. Perhaps he will inspire others to reclaim the Church in Wales from the bishops before they destroy her.

Postscript [05.09.2019]

From Not Another Episcopal Blog:

"The Church in Wales has bought into the LGBTQ formula for denominational decline. The statistics look eerily similar to those we have witnessed in most Episcopalian dioceses."

A point strongly made by George Conger on Monday's Anglican Unscripted (No. 529) when he said all the mistakes made by the Episcopal Church 20 years ago are being repeated by the Church of England. The Church in Wales has gone down the same path but has become so irrelevant that it no longer warrants a mention.

Caption corner 27 Aug 2019

Greenbelt Festival                                                                                                                        Source: Twitter @bishopSarahM

Printable captions will appear as comments.

The journey

Yesterday saw the twentieth anniversary Pride Cymru parade through Cardiff streets, supporting the LGBT+ community on the pretext of raising awareness of equality and diversity,

Away from the hype the reality is different. LGBT+ fully permeates Church and State.

The last bastion of Christianity in the media, the BBC's Songs of Praise, has been eased out of prime time viewing to a short lunch time slot. It has further alienated viewers after it featured a same-sex wedding.

This is pure propaganda in a process turning this

into this

After 20 years of 'being proud and together', the LGBT+ community still insists on raising "awareness of equality and diversity" as if they have not noticed the rainbow flags on government buildings and in shop windows.

The rainbow flag is displayed everywhere from the 

vote catching First Minister of Wales

university chaplaincy

police

and Church

culminating in a full circle preparing the next generation

aided by the Church, 'where love matters', allegedly.

Equality and diversity? Pull the other one.

Images from Wales on Line, Church in Wales and Twitter


Postscript [29.08.2019]

Question put down for Church in Wales Governing Body meeting 11 - 12 September 2019:

"During August the Diocese of Llandaff and the Church in Wales actively supported and promoted the Faith Tent at Pride Cymru via social media, various press releases and the presence of a number of clerics at the event. As part of the event there were three sessions of "drag queen storytime". The drag queen in question has YouTube videos entitled "Good Christian bitches" and "the most underrated type of gay sex" as well as a number of other videos containing explicit material contrary to the Christian faith. Despite this speaker being a "third party" - the Church in Wales support for the entire event was unequivocal. Does the Church in Wales affirm the lifestyle this speaker promotes or is the Church prepared to simply overlook the usual high moral standards expected of speakers at events it promotes?"

Thank God somebody is prepared to stand up for the Church at GB saying what needs to be said to defend the Christian faith instead of simply 'going along to get on'.

Postscript [11.09.2019]

This bland response from the bishop of Llandaff tweeted from Governing Body:

@ChurchinWales @BishopJuno of @LlandaffDio answers a question about @PrideCymru, saying the Church had a duty to minister to the whole community and support such major  events. "We are seeking to engage with a section of society which the Church has not always treated well in the past" #govbody

If that is all she said she evaded the question put.
I have seen no evidence that the Church has treated the gay community badly in the past. Quite the contrary. By contrast traditionalist Anglicans have been treated abysmally with encouragement from the bench.

God of pride

The Golden Calf, with apologies to Poussin

Like it or not the Diocese of Llandaff is gearing up to celebrate Pride with the LGBT+ community this August Bank Holiday. That is according to a Llandaff diocesan press release.

The diocese will once again be partnering with The Gathering, the Cardiff LGBT+ worship group, to host the Faith Tent at Pride Cymru today, Saturday 24 August. They will also be marching in the parade with 'supporters from our many churches'.

In October 2017 I referred to an impending LGBTQI+ takeover. Today politics, the media, commerce and even parts of the Church are obsessed with waving the LGBTQI+ flag. Squalid attempts by political parties to gain votes have become as normal as waving the gay flag. Businesses looking for custom to add to their profits is no surprise but for the Church to become so passionate about distorting the truth is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

According to the diocesan press release, "the Right Revd June Osborne, Bishop of Llandaff, is proud to celebrate Pride. She says, 'It’s a privilege once again to be supporting Pride Cymru. The Faith Tent seeks to celebrate the spirit of acceptance I can think of no better context than Pride Cymru to show our LGBT sisters and brothers that they are truly loved'.”

There is no evidence that LGBTQI+ is putting bums on seats. On the contrary, given the level of support, the campaign appears to have more to do with accepting bums already on seats as if gay people were not previously accepted.

The Church in Wales is becoming a national scandal.

From God of pride in Christian Concern:

"While English cathedrals host helter skelters and bishops fail to defend the unborn, we can rejoice that the Church of England has not yet sunk to the depth of the Church in Wales (which, though disestablished is also a member of the Anglican communion).

"The Diocese of Llandaff is throwing its weight behind this year's Pride Cymru, which takes place in Cardiff this weekend - the latest in a seemingly never-ending series of LGBT+ Pride events around the UK."

Orthodox Anglicans will find the article truly shocking but that will not be a problem for the Church in Wales today since they count for nothing so far as the bench of bishops is concerned.

Llandaff diocese press release readers are invited to follow events on Twitter #WhereLoveMatters. Surely Where sex matters would be more accurate.

Postscript [29.08.2019]

Soapbox trans activist speaks for many of her colleagues about the "democracted values we have cherished for so long". Can't be the Church in Wales then!

St Asaph

'Some traditions still continue in the See of St Asaph!'  Source: Submitted Anon

The current Bishop of St Asaph is on a four month sabbatical, possibly in a theological college overseas ending in November. 

One can only hope that he is being encouraged to get back to basics when he returns and that he encourages his fellow bishops to do the same before all in the Church in Wales is lost to secularism.

Marriage

Church wedding                                                                                          Source: Church of England

In 2017 Premier reported that Anglican church weddings had reach a record low: "Figures from the Office for National Statistics show they hosted 49,717 ceremonies in 2014, a reduction compared to 50,226 in 2013."

In April this year the Church Times reported that "for the first time ever, fewer than one quarter of all marriages in England and Wales were religious ceremonies. They accounted for 24 per cent of marriages in 2016, falling by nearly a half (48 per cent) from two decades ago. In the same period of time, the number of all marriages fell by 28 per cent. In 1966, a third of marriages were civil ceremonies. Since 1992, civil marriages have increasingly outnumbered religious marriages every year."

The Government plans to introduce a new system of registration for marriages, including church weddings, in England and Wales.

Premier reports that the new system could lead to criminal offences and £1,000 fines. Under changes which may be law before 2020, couples will no longer be given a marriage certificate at the end of a church wedding. Instead of being asked to sign a register and certificate, they will instead sign a "marriage schedule", the Faculty Office said. The couple then have to take this document to their local register office to record their marriage into a database and only then will they get a certificate, it added.

A London-based Anglican priest commented said it was "an astonishing change to the way marriages are recorded. Now, instead of marriages being registered then and there by the priest, the couple will get a temporary certificate which they then have to present to the register office within a week of the wedding. When they might want to be on honeymoon."

In addition the Government wants to give every married couple in England and Wales the chance to downgrade their marriage. As the Coalition for Marriage (CM4) points out, by allowing people to downgrade their marriage, the Government is creating new instability, a halfway house to family breakdown. Just because a tiny minority of people want the rights of marriage without the commitment.

The slide continues with another nail in the coffin for Christian marriage!

More marriages in Register Offices followed by Church blessings are likely to lead to more pressure to allow same sex blessings in church.

Civil partnerships were welcomed by many but it did not stop there as illustrated by CM4:

"It’s part of plans to introduce heterosexual civil partnerships, after the Supreme Court ruling last year. C4M predicted this ruling all along. It stems directly from introducing same-sex marriage for homosexual couples in 2014 when they already had access to civil partnerships. The court said this was discriminatory against heterosexuals, who only had access to marriage."

Once people start fiddling with an institution change by stealth takes over as illustrated by the decision to ordain women.

After women were made deacons they complained that they were discriminated against if they were not allowed to be priests. Once they were priests they complained of a stained glass ceiling. Before long virtually anything goes.

The Church of England has lost its way with All the fun of the fair in Cathedrals which are used to play mini golf and provide helter skelter rides at £2 a slide.

There are secularised archbishops charged with being 'not fit for office' by a vicar who says his disclosures about being sexually abused as a teenager were ignored by senior clerics while Justin Welby keeps digging a pit for himself over gay marriage.

One would have thought that the Church would provide some stability based on scripture but that is no longer what the Anglican Church is about. It is about satisfying personal desires regardless of biblical teaching.

In Wales Archbishop John Davies said after a Governing Body vote in September 2018: "The bishops are united in the belief that it is pastorally unsustainable and unjust for the church to continue to make no formal provision for those in committed same-sex relationships."

The Governing Body had agreed by 76 votes to 21 that the lack of formal provision was "pastorally unsustainable". Abdicating all responsibility the archbishop responded: "the vote was an important steer to the bishops in exercising pastoral care." So much for leadership.

Pastoral care used to be in line with scripture and tradition. Under the current regime it has become liberal social work in vestments.

All the fun of the fair

The Dean of Norwich, the Very Rev Jane Hedges, slides down the helter skelter. The Rev Andy Bryant 

 insists the funfair ride has a ‘serious intent’. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA/Guardian

Rochester Cathedral's nine-hole, bridge-themed crazy golf course divided opinion. The cathedral said it hoped visitors would learn about faith, building "both emotional and physical bridges". Opponents described the move as sacrilege here and here.

Not to be outdone Norwich Cathedral installed a 55ft-tall helter skelter in their nave "so that visitors can enjoy a better view of its ornate roof". The Rev Canon Andy Bryant told The Guardian that the idea came to him when he was visiting the Sistine Chapel in Rome. That was not something that occurred to me when I was part of a jostling crowd being ushered through the chapel. Nor is the nave roof anything like the roof of the Sistine Chapel.

There will be vastly more room in Norwich Cathedral unless there has been a change in fortune. Responding to the fact that the 2011 census highlighted that the City of Norwich was rated the most godless city in England, the then Communications Director for the Diocese of Norwich, the Venerable Jan McFarlane, said the good people of Norwich are 'doing their church-going differently'!" - ie, staying away.

Such inventiveness earned the archdeacon promotion to Bishop of Repton! Perhaps the Canon seeks to emulate her success but in today's Church of England his sex is against him.

As for providing an opportunity to view the ceiling, the helter skelter more likely provides yet another opportunity for racing to the bottom in the Church of England - no pun intended.

Another tent...

An attentive bishop of Bangor modelling interfaith relations           Source: Twitter @ChurchinWales

Another tent, this time at the Welsh National Eisteddfod, where there has been 'great discussion' on how Wales is modelling interfaith relations.

The Church in Wales is obsessed with interfaith relations, almost as much as it is obsessed with same-sex relations. The Archbishop of Wales, John Davies, has been awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of his services to the Church in Wales and of his 'leadership across faith communities' - that is, excluding orthodox Anglicans in their own ranks who continue to be ignored as if they no longer existed.

Islam denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died on the cross for the sins of mankind. The sort of faith that the Church in Wales is moving towards, ignoring biblical teaching as it promotes same sex relations giving the impression that such relationships are to  be welcomed as a blessing, a favoured minority to be honoured while orthodox Anglicans are treated with contempt. 

Same sex relations should put the Church at odds with their Muslim brothers and sisters, not that the opinions of women count for much in Islam unlike the Church in Wales in which they are becoming dominant. The emphasis is on good relations regardless of theological differences. Getting along.

How jolly to be getting along in Wales while Christians and others abroad are being massacred for their faith. Just last week it was reported that at least 65 people lost their lives after suspected Boko Haram militants opened fire on a funeral in Nigeria's north-eastern state of Borno.

Did anyone in the tent even notice let alone condemn the atrocity. 

There is much more. 

From a recent Barnabas Fund report:

"An unprecedented humanitarian emergency is looming in the Sahel region of Africa following a surge in armed violence, warned UN aid agencies and NGOs in a report on 27 June. Around one million people fled their homes in the past year, bringing the total number of people displaced across the Sahel to 4.2 million, the report said. Displacement has increased five-fold in Burkina Faso and Niger, which have also recently seen a sharp rise in Islamist attacks against Christians."

Perhaps the scale of such reports is too daunting to comprehend and they happen far away.

They could, instead, have considered a single but not isolated incident. A ten-year-old Christian Pakistani boy who was working at a factory to care for his mother and two brothers. He was raped and tortured by his Muslim employers before he finally died on 10 July, 2019. His sin? He asked to be paid for the work he had done.

Many atrocities go unreported in the media but they can easily be found by Googling. Some links are provided in the right hand column of this blog.

I have not read of any condemnation of the highlighted atrocities from the world leaders who rushed  to support New Zealand’s Prime Minister when she condemned the reported Christchurch mosque shootings.

That is not to endorse the killing of Muslims but to deplore the double standards that allow the murder of Christians to go unreported while getting along with Muslims who, when they are the majority, expect all to conform under Sharia: convert, pay the jizya or die.

Getting along in Wales does nothing for the oppressed abroad while strengthening the hand in this country of a religious ideology that seeks to dominate others using deceit and jihad to advance their supremacist ideology.

Faith tent

From a recent Tweet, "Still Proud, Still Here, Still Faithful".                                       Source: Twitter

The Facebook banner for the Faith tent at Pride Cymru event, eagerly endorsed by the Llandaff diocese of the Church in Wales - Proud to be supporting @TentFaith at @PrideCymru ❤️🏳️‍🌈✝️#WhereLoveMatters:

Llandaff Diocese @LlandaffDio Jun 4 Here's our take on #pride events:
"They celebrate love and affection. They celebrate equality and champion diversity. We are proud to be part of the #FaithTent at @PrideCymru ... whatever your faith, whatever your spirituality, all are welcome. See you at Pride :) @TheGatheringCdf"

The Faith tent is not about faith as received or about the excluded faithful who are 'still here' with nowhere to go.

It is about promoting a lifestyle that perverts words such as love, equality and diversity to suggest that if you do not support gay pride you have no love, do not believe in equality and dislike diversity, none of which is true.

As one MP said on TV recently when condemning protesters in Birmingham who object to LGBT teaching in teaching primary schools, "Love is all".

Love is all but it is to be interpreted in context. God is love. Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." Clearly that did not mean getting into bed with each other.

In the Bible there is Agape, Eros, Philia and Storge all neatly wrapped up into love as the presiding bishop of TEC did at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.  See More luuuuv and lots of it, for some.

This picture appears in a tweet "There's bound to be some fabulous entertainment for our young supporters in the @UberUK Family Area this year's Big Weekend!"

Police with Wesh Pride                                                                          Source: Twitter @PrideCymru

How can a child understand what is being supported when clutching a 'Welsh Police with Pride' flag?

Gay pride marches have become a popular pastime for the constabulary. Anyone needing to dial 999 only to find that nobody is available as they are all busy it is possible that they are busy elsewhere, eg, here, here or here.

Flamboyant Gay Pride events are intentionally fun days out for the whole family but they have nothing to do with homosexual couples living quiet family lives. It is about familiarisation leading to normality.

But there is a far more serious aspect beyond the fun and laughter.

Children are being targeted. They are targeted in primary schools and in the promotion of Drag Queen Story Time despite the admission from a drag queen that children are being groomed for the next generation.

Instead of supporting such deceit the Church should be speaking out against it.

Postscript [07.08.2019]

From a tweet by Rev Rose Hill, a Faith Tent organizer. 

Just one of the many LGBTQ+ tweets @LlandaffDio  highlighted on the Llandaff Diocese website 'Where Faith Matters'!

"We are becoming a more welcoming, inclusive and diverse space" - Why faith at @PrideCymru is important and what you can expect from @TentFaith.

Apparently visitors can expect an 'eclectic mix' of events talking about 'inclusive education' and a 'pride Eucharist', this year celebrated by the self-promoting transgender vicar of St John the Baptist Church in the centre of Cardiff. Also a 'wonderful worship band' called Blessed Sacrament with 'drag queen' story times. 

The Rev Rose Hill adds that it is important for the diocese to be there because "it shows those of us in the LGBTQIA who are of faith are welcome in the church and also that the diocese is changing. That the Church in Wales is changing, becoming a more welcoming, inclusive and diverse space. 

Just like there are many LGBTQIA people, both lay and ordained, within the church so there are many people of faith within the LGBTIA community. And it is so important that we as people of faith within the community demonstrate the love and welcome of God to all," - Where faith matters'!

Clearly the irony is lost on the bench of bishops. Faith does not matter to the Church in Wales if you are an orthodox Anglican. There is no love and no welcome. 

If the Church in Wales had continued to show God's love, welcome orthodox Anglicans instead of excluding them, the Church would not have had to struggle to fill the pews left vacant and beg for increased giving to support a failing institution. 

Rev Sarah Jones vicar of St John's with Rev Rose Hill               Source: Twitter