Another change at Llandaff's deanery?

Another Llandaff vacancy?

In 2013 the Church in Wales lost probably the best woman priest appointed to serve in its tiny province. Janet Henderson resigned her position as Dean of Llandaff after only two months in the post.

The episode opened a can of worms. There were rumours, charges and counter-charges. To her credit Janet Henderson did not allow any of the mud to stick on the accused.

The real reason for her departure remains a mystery so, undeterred, archbishop Morgan carried on as before regarding the Church in Wales as his personal fiefdom.

Former commercial property developer and the archbishop's Chaplain Gerwyn Capon was appointed Dean of Llandaff in 2017. The appointment did nothing to resolve the problem. It exacerbated it.

Two camps formed. The 'antiques' group being largely in favour of the appointment and those who thought the elevation of a relatively inexperienced priest to a senior position was asking for trouble.

Commentators have made their views clear on this blog since Barry Morgan made the appointment. Comments made under the preceding entry suggest that the matter may soon be resolved by the departure of Dean Capon. Currently on sick leave it is thought in clergy circles that the dean is unlikely to return other than to allow access for the removal men.

I had already received uncorroborated information that a complaint of bullying had been lodged by the dean after he was confronted by the bishop about 'a web of deception'.

The Church in Wales is becoming a woman's world.

The dean's departure would provide June with the opportunity to make another feminist senior appointment.

The bishop of Llandaff has already proved to be provocative as a LGBT+ campaigner and in her appointment of the first transgender vicar, now Canon Sarah Jones.

After news that most deacons ordained in the Church of England in 2019 were women it has been reported that the Church of Sweden which encourages its clergy to use gender-neutral language now has more female than male priests for the first time, described as "a sign of huge strides for gender equality since women were first allowed to be ordained in 1960."

The priesthood is not about gender equality but secular criteria have been used to sway public opinion resulting in a secularised church making politically correct appointments.

Archbishop Morgan has much to answer for. He was in the forefront of the drive for the ordination of women and same sex marriage. The Church in Wales now has the first lesbian bishop living openly in a same sex relationship. With her two LGBT campaigning sister bishops they now have gender parity on the bench. No doubt they will be insisting that the next archbishop of Wales will be a woman.

The Church in Wales is heading for extinction by 2040, largely as a result of archbishop Morgan following the example of his heretical mentor, Katharine Jefferts Schori the former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States (TEC).

Katharine Jefferts Schori                   Barry Morgan

Along with the Church of England TEC is on a downward spiral 

Some legacy!

Another 'BLM' bishop

Rt Revd Mark Tanner has been confirmed as the new Bishop of Chester.         Source: CheshireLive

The new Bishop of Chester has announced that he is a supporter of Black Lives Matter.

That should go down well with Stephen Cottrell the new Archbishop of York who also came out as a Black Lives Matter supporter while declaring that Jesus was a black man.

From the Telegraph (£):
"BLM happily self-identifies as a neo-Marxist movement with various far left objectives, including defunding the police (an evolution of the Panther position of public open-carry to control the police), to dismantling capitalism and the patriarchal system, disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure, seeking reparations from slavery to redistribute wealth and via various offshoot appeals, to raise money to bail black prisoners awaiting trial. The notion of seizing control of the apportionment of capital, dismantling the frameworks of society and neutralising and undermining law enforcement are not just Marxist, but anarchic."

There are more worrying facts from Alexander Boot about the BLM affiliate, Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) in his blog.

Assuming that 'going along to get on' aspirants in the Church of England understand what they are supporting this is another worrying development for orthodoxy.

Postscript [26.07.2020]

From Twitter: "The leader of Oxford Black Lives Matter Sasha calls for a black militia, compares the police to the KKK and calls for a revolution."

Previously on Twitter: "Oxford Black Lives Matter leader Sasha uses racial slurs and threats of violence to abuse a black man."

Will the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Chester reconsider their support for the BLM movement? I doubt it.

Auntie has lost her marbles

BBC Increasing diversity.  Michaela Coel stars in, wrote and co-directed I May Destroy You

The BBC has committed £100m to increasing diversity on TV. Producing "diverse and inclusive content" amounts to little more than giving air time for minorities who represent their lifestyle/activities as mainstream.

That is a phenomenal amount of money given that in 2016 the 'Auntie' BBC announced that she needed to save £800m with around £80m of that figure coming from News.

Among the casualties is the Andrew Neil Show as part of cuts to the corporation's news operation.

This tweet sums up some of the feelings expressed after the announcement:

""Andrew Neil Show cut"; the Beeb is crackers!
@afneil is one of the best journalistic interrogators they have & shows no mercy to ANY interviewee; Left or Right. He is an expert at dismantling spin and obfuscation.
We are nearing 'journalism by Twitter"!

One might have hoped that Tim Davie, Lord Hall's replacement as the £450,000 p.a. Director-General would have heralded an opportunity to return to higher standards but he has already said "We will need to accelerate change so that we serve all our audiences in this fast-moving world. Much great work has been done, but we will continue to reform, make clear choices and stay relevant."

Relevance to society and 'more of the same - but faster' was announced by the new archbishop as the plan for the Church in Wales, now heading for obscurity.

There is no future for a public funded BBC if it continues to ape its competitors.

BBC diversity 'advertising' squeezes in as many colours, races, creeds and sexual preferences as can be mustered, highlighting minorities as if they were mainstream. The results are usually the same: murder, misery and mayhem.

Having a good laugh is a no-go area for the woke generation which continually finds offence where none was intended.

'Auntie' BBC was founded on Christian principles. Its first Director-General, Lord Reith, thought of broadcasting as a way of educating the masses. Diversity is not. Diversity is a tool for pushing specific agendas.

The commissioning editor for ethics and religion is responsible for all the BBC’s religious content, including Songs of Praise. Following the appointment of a Muslim commissioner Songs of Praise has gradually faded into the background with mixed content in shorter programmes in obscure slots.

While Christianity is often lampooned the greatest respect is demanded for Islam, a minority faith in the UK raising accusations of Islamophobia if there is any whiff of criticism of Islamic excesses.

There in little evidence of diversity in sports coverage which continues to be dominated by soccer, even screening repeats when live matches were not available due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Listing their highest paid 'stars', in 2018-19, seventy five received £150,000 with many considerably more. Why the BBC paid Gary Lineker between £1,750,000 and £1,754,999 for presenting Match of the Day, Sports Personality of the Year and World Cup is a mystery when there must be many competent soccer fanatics who would welcome the chance to magnify their passion at a fraction of the cost but diversity does not extend to elite presenters.

The BBC has plenty of money to throw around when it comes to soccer having payed £204m in 2015 to keep Match of the Day hosted by the absurdly paid Garry Lineker, negotiations are under way for the BBC to show their first ever Premier League matches live. By comparison the popular Six Nations rugby tournament is likely to go behind a Sky paywall from 2022.

Far from raising standards the BBC appears determined to drive them down developing personality cults which have allowed presenters such as Naga Munchetty and Emily Maitlis to get away with expressing their personal opinions, which are not what the licence payers are paying for, while the over-exposed Fiona Bruce has turned Question Time into the Fiona Bruce show.

'Defund the BBC' is gaining ground. As Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson wrote, "We don't want to pay for leftist propaganda, the time has come to defund the BBC!

"People don't object to great work that is truly colour-blind. What drives us mad is a 'tokenistic' agenda diversity and a leftist, anti-British groupthink imposed on viewers and listeners by a privately-educated liberal elite. The BBC boss class is as far from diverse as Mayfair is from Mablethorpe." 

Exactly!

Jubilee Debt Campaign: Covid-19

From Jubilee Debt Campaign

Supporters are asked campaign organisers to watch and share this short video:

UK readers can add their names to the petition to Chancellor Rishi Sunak to cancel the debts of countries in the global south HERE.

Caption corner 13 July 2020

Petertide ordinations 2020, St Asaph                                                                                                                                                                         Source: Twitter

Publishable captions will appear under comments.

Islamisation continues

Former Christian Cathedral Hagia Sophia declared a mosque by Turkish court                                                                                                    Source: Wikipedia

Turkish President Erdogan has declared Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia becomes a mosque open to Muslim worship after a top Turkish court ruled that the building’s conversion to a museum by modern Turkey’s founding statesman was illegal, effectively raising their fingers to Christian feelings and concerns expressed by the United States, Greece and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Originally a Christian Cathedral Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) was converted into a mosque when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453 after besieging the city for 55 days.

Hundreds of people who awaited the court's ruling outside the building chanted 'Allah is great!', the same chant used when murdering Christians in Islamist attacks.

The Times of Israel reports "the decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia - a former cathedral that was turned into a mosque after Istanbul’s conquest by the Ottoman Empire and had served as a museum for 86 years - sparked deep dismay among Orthodox Christians."

Abp Welby                Source: ENA

So far as I know archbishop Justin Welby, leader of the Anglican Communion has not expressed any concern but then he is busy fraternising with Muslim elders in their ‘Emerging Peacemakers Forum’ while his clergy invite Muslims into Christian churches for islamic prayers, effectively changing Christian churches into mosques in the eyes of Muslims.

In May 2019 when Jeremy Hunt was Foreign Secretary, according to a report ordered by him the persecution of Christians in parts of the world was at near "genocide" levels. The review which was led by the Bishop of Truro estimated that one in three people suffered from religious persecution and that Christians were the most persecuted religious group.

Genocide Watch warned in April that "350 Nigerian Christians were massacred in the first two months of 2020. Over 11,500 Christians have been murdered since June 2015. Four to five million Christians are displaced. 2000 churches were destroyed."

"Nigeria has become a killing field of defenseless Christians. Reliable sources show that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christians have been massacred since June 2015 when the Buhari Government of Nigeria came to power.  These statistics are based on careful records kept by church groups that include the names of victims and dates of their murders.

"Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen accounted for 7,400 murders of Christians. Boko Haram committed 4000 killings of Christians. ‘Highway Bandits’ who separated Christians from Muslims on buses and then killed the Christians committed over 200 murders.

Francis   Source: Church Militant

"Fulani Jihadists are now the world’s deadliest terrorist group. Five Nigerian Christians are massacred every day by Fulani and Boko Haram Jihadists. One hundred percent of the 7,400 murders by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen since June 2015 were Christians. Fulani militias wipe out whole Christian villages, but they leave Muslim villages unharmed."

Despite all the evidence of  jihad over 1400 years, Pope Francis declared "It isn't right to say that Islam is a terrorist faith."

I doubt that the Christians being killed and persecuted in Africa and around rest of the world would agree with him.

With all the resources at the disposal of the papacy one would have thought that His Holiness might have been better advised about the aims of Islam as laid out in the Quran.

He would find all the evidence needed to expose a supremacist ideology that falsely claims to be a religion of peace when that peace arises only after all are Muslims subject to the will of Allah.

The bitter fruits of Islamic appeasement are everywhere but to no avail.

Hagia Sophia interior.                                                   Source: Church Militant

How long will it be before Christian images in Hagia Sophia are covered over to avoid the sensitivities of devout Muslims now that the Christian Cathedral has been declared a mosque?


Postscript [12.07.20]

World Council of Churches appeals to Turkey on mosque decision

A Greek Islamic leader has requested that Hagia Sophia remains a museum and not be converted into a mosque as "the name suggests Hagia Sophia is a Christian church".

Pope 'very pained' by decision to turn Istanbul's Hagia Sophia museum into mosque.


Postscript [13.07.20]

Extremist Islam Threatens Christians Across the Middle East

"It’s time that the purging of Christians and erasing of Christian history that predates Islam needs to be stopped."


Postscript [14.07.20]

Historian warns Islam will target St. Peter's after Hagia Sophia


 "'The goal of Islam is clear — after Saint Sophia, Saint Peter', Professor Roberto de Mattei told Church Militant, following Pope Francis' six word non-condemnation of Turkey's inflammatory decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque."




Postscript [24.07.20]

Hagia Sophia’s Muslim Prayers Evoke Ottoman Treatment of Armenians

Declared a mosque in principle, Hagia Sophia is now a mosque in practice.

As Turkish president Erdoğan joins hundreds in celebration, Christians in the diaspora mourn their lost homeland and cultural heritage.

Catch up Drakeford

Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford                                           Source: BBC/Wales News Service

The slogan 'Taking Wales Forward' reminds me of a Latin teacher telling  his class about advertising ploys. He used the example of Craven A which, he alleged, gave smokers a sore throat so promoters used the slogan, "Will Not Affect Your Throat".

Far from taking Wales forward, Latin scholar Mark Drakeford, Wales' First Minister  is set on taking Wales backwards in his decision to block the long awaited M4 bypass around Newport in South Wales often seen as the gateway to Wales.

The long suffering people living along side the M4 around the Brynglas tunnels and motorists have to endure mounting pollution from traffic blockages while the First minister pats himself on the back for saving bugs and beetles on the Gwent levels.

Frustrated by the decision, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would "do the things the Welsh Government has failed to do" and "unblock the Brynglas tunnels".

A spokesperson for the Welsh Assembly responded "It's an entirely devolved matter and the first minister has made his decision."

Forever playing catch up in Wales Drakeford has prided himself on taking a different route to the UK government particularly on pandemic restrictions claiming to be guided by expert advice.

Another expert, the planning inspector who spent more than a year considering the case for a new M4 route south of Newport gave it his overwhelming backing but Drakeford ignored that expert opinion.

Having spent £114m of taxpayers' money before the scheme was axed including £44m on a public inquiry, First Minister Drakeford axed the scheme because of its cost and impact on the environment.

Boris Johnson's intervention suggests that the cost of the relief road to remove the Bryn Glas bottleneck is firmly guaranteed but Drakeford and his environmentalist friends are more content to leave local residents and motorists fuming as long as creepy crawlies remain content in the salt marshes of the Gwent levels, unseen and unheard of until progress is mentioned.

It would have been better for the long suffering people of Wales if Mark Drakeford had stuck to Latin.

Postscript [16.07.20]

The panel of experts set up to consider alternatives to the M4 relief road has concluded that "some sort of charging mechanism is necessary" to encourage people to use public transport, cycle or walk.

Having scrapped the Severn bridge levy on people entering Wales a new M4 charge is proposed to "provide revenue funding for transport services", including more rail stations between Cardiff and Severn Tunnel Junction, thus increasing the risk of spreading the Coronavirus, Covid-19, on crowded train services.

The alternative to these proposals is to build the relief road as recommended by planning experts but the First Minister of Wales continues to insist on protecting 'rare' birds which would fly to other habitats and largely unseen insects.

With the next Senedd election due to be held in May 2021 there will be an opportunity for realists to dump Drakeford for a politician who puts people before bugs.

Postscript [21.08.20]

Comrade Drakeford has spoken: " 'That decision is over': Mark Drakeford says £1.3bn M4 relief road will not be happening. 'There is no point in people hankering back to it'." The arrogance of the man.

Essex "Oik" to be Confirmed as Archbishop of York.

BLM supporter Cottrell is also a vocal supporter of same‑sex relationships          Source: The Times

The self proclaimed “Oik from Essex” is to be confirmed as the 98th Archbishop of York at 11am on Thursday 9 July, 2020, in a service broadcast entirely via video conference due to the Coronavirus restrictions.

An apt description for a bishop in favour of same-sex relationships who has come out as a Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporter claiming that Jesus was a black man rather than a Jew.

It is reported in The Press that the new archbishop also claimed "the country's leaders had 'let us down' saying he despaired of a political culture that could not see beyond the five-year term of the next election."

That's rich coming from one of the Church of England bishops who have made the Church of England largely irrelevant in its attempt to become more relevant to society, jettisoning faithful Anglicans in the process with disastrous results as indicated by ever decreasing attendance.

Cottrell also warned of the "dangers of extremism rising up" but he backs the BLM movement, a movement that is about revolution.

According to The Spectator BLM want to ‘dismantle capitalism’, abolish prisons, get rid of borders and the police. They claim climate change is 'racist', unemployment is 'violence', that Churchill was 'staunchly racist' and that the government appointment of a Pakistani heritage woman is 'racist'. They 'condemn stop and search' and the suffragettes while describing big charities as 'colonisers'.

Writing about qualities required of Church leaders Christian Today commented that a Sunday Times interview with the new Archbishop of York was startling, puzzling – offensive?:

"The New Testament is pretty clear that those in leadership should be able to control their tongues better than most.

"It is surprising to read in the Sunday Times  that Cottrell 'peppers his talks to his clergy with phrases such as "what the bloody hell" and "who gives a toss?".'...Why use these words when there are more than 170,000 other ones in English to choose from? Cottrell needs to read Ephesians 4 v29. This is no trivial thing.

"Another quality the Bible tells us to expect from a church leader is that they 'must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine'.  Not for nothing does the Church of England consecration service for Bishops state that they must be 'guardians of the faith of the apostles'.

"But how can Cottrell do that in relation to issues of sexual morality? Far from teaching the doctrine of Christ in this area as the Church of England believes it, and handing it on in its entirety, he only 'understands it and respects it' according to the interview. Indeed, as is well known, he wants to change it."

Asked if there was any room for New Testament teaching on leadership? "On that, Bishop Cottrell, in this interview at least, remains silent."

He has however apologised for not properly reporting allegations of domestic abuse made against a parish priest a decade ago.

There were allegations that Cottrell's predecessor Archbishop John Sentamu failed to respond properly to a report of clerical child abuse to protect bishops from allegations of misconduct but any evidence was, allegedly, washed away in the Yorkshire floods.

In the last century four archbishops were translated from York to Canterbury.

One can but speculate on the qualities that will be required for the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

As Cottrell replaces a black man as Archbishop of York he has called for greater equality for black and minority ethnic (BAME) clergy in the upper echelons of the church, and said bishops “must take responsibility” for a lack of diversity.

The bishop of Dover has made similar calls.

You couldn't make it up.

Postscript [09.07.2020]

During Archbishop Welby's confirmation of Stephen Cottrell as Archbishop of York he referred to "the care, government and administration of the spirituals of the Archbigot of York" before hastily correcting himself . [After position 34 in the video.]

Freudian slip?

Woke Welby and his 'white Jesus'

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby                                 Source: Rebel Priest

From The Jerusalem Post: The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the Anglican Church should reconsider its portrayal of Jesus as a white man.

It is not clear for whom he was speaking when he expressed his belief that Anglicans thought of the Son of God as a white man. The archbishop and most of his trendy episcopal colleagues long since abandoned the faith as orthodox Anglicans along with the Church in Wales and the Episcopal Church of the United States (TEC), both of which have become irrelevant as Churches for the faithful.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Justin Welby said that in light of the Black Lives Matter protests, the West needed to question whether the traditional portrayal of Jesus as a white man by Western churches was the correct approach to take.

The archbishop added, “Jesus is portrayed in as many ways as there are cultures, languages and understandings."  He did not think that "throwing out everything we’ve got in the past is the way to do it" but thought "that’s not the Jesus who exists, that’s not who we worship. It is a reminder of the universality of the God who became fully human.”

Commenting on the Black Lives Matter campaign to remove statues to figures deemed controversial, he said that people should forgive the 'trespasses' of those who were being commemorated, rather than remove statues, but added that the church would be reviewing the monuments it holds.

When asked if people should forgive the trespasses of those immortalised in the form of statues, rather than tearing them down, Welby said: "Some will have to come down. We can only do that if we've got justice, which means the statue needs to be put in context.

"Some names will have to change. The church, goodness me you know, you just go around Canterbury Cathedral, there are monuments everywhere or Westminster Abbey, and we're looking at all that, and some will have to come down."

Described as the Woke Archbishop the Archbishop of Canterbury, Welby is “ashamed of our history” and of his supposed advantages as a straight white male.

He has become leader of the self loathing brigade, apologising for anything and everything in the past that is questioned in the woke culture.

He preaches the gospel of woke and slanders his own flock. With no supporting evidence he asserted "There is no doubt," that "when we look at our own Church we are still deeply institutionally racist."

Bending the knee to the latest trend is not leadership. It is capitulation.

Source: BBC/LORNA MAY WADSWORTH

It encourages gestures such as that in St Albans Cathedral where a copy of a picture of the Last Supper showing a black Jesus was placed at an altar "in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement" presumably without knowing what the BLM movement stands for.

According to BBC News the artist used a Jamaican-born model for the basis of her interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's 15th Century work because she wanted "to make people question the Western myth that [Jesus Christ] had fair hair and blue eyes".

Jacob Epstein's 'Christ in Majesty'

 One aspect lost in the controversy about the suitability of artwork is the effort put into producing the work and possible motivations behind it. It may represent an interpretation by the artist or sponsor or result from a specific commission.

If someone in a free society objects to a work they are at liberty to criticise it. Once gone the opportunity for criticism is lost, along with the hard won freedoms which allow extremist pressure groups to behave as they do.

The example of ISIS destroying artefacts they disliked should be a warning of the destructive power now being unleashed, something religious leaders should be speaking against, not for.

Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew born in Bethlehem of Judea. He would have been neither black nor white but somewhere in between - see So what colour was Jesus?

 As the Religious News Service (RNS) aptly put it: We can’t cancel ‘white Jesus,’ but we can keep telling our church’s story.

Super Saturday!

Pubs open in Soho                                                                                                    Source: BBC/EPA

Lifting Covid-19 restrictions has been the long awaited green light for citizens who are not particularly bothered about social distancing for the benefit of all.

"Good solid British common sense" gets left behind.

Having packed English beaches, roads outside pubs have become the latest places to congregate with no regard for social distancing.

Easing of the lock-down brings new perils for vulnerable people among us. 

Shielding since March, the thought of venturing out after the lock-down fills them with trepidation. 

Re-uniting families within the rules is being allowed but dangers for vulnerable people are multiplied unnecessarily by the thoughtless behaviour of mainly younger people who ignore the rules.

They make a second wave of Covid-19 infection more likely, risking the lives of others while adding to the burden of the NHS whose 72nd birthday we celebrate today.