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Tuesday 25 August 2020

Nuts & Bolts


The victims of the Manchester Arena bomber just before the lethal weapon was detonated                                                                                     Source: The Sun 


As the  "Warped Manchester bomber's" brother awaited sentencing for his part in the murder of 22 people in the 2017 Manchester Arena terror attack in which hundreds were injured, in New Zealand an "evil mass murderer's day of reckoning" loomed.

Described as an 'Australian white supremacist' fears were expressed that Brenton Tarrant would 'spout his twisted views' when he represented himself in court.

Tarrant's rampage was indefensible. He planned to burn down the mosques and wanted to 'inflict as many fatalities as possible'.

He was condemned as a "supremacist". Islam is a supremacist ideology which seeks to convert all infidels to Islam.

A survivor of the Al Noor mosque shooting addressed Tarrant directly at the hearing. He said, "When you get a free minute, which you will have plenty of, ... maybe you should try to read the Koran. It's beautiful."

In Islam dominant countries dhimmi people are expected to pay the jizya or face death if they refuse to convert to Islam. A death sentence is also the fate of Muslims who convert from Islam. Even in some of Britain's jails 'Islamist extremists' have been extorting 'infidel tax' from fellow prisoners'.

'Convert, pay tax, or die' the Islamic State warned Christians in Iraq back in 2014.

Commenting on the BBC documentary series Once Upon a Time in Iraq, the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil accused the BBC of overlooking the plight of persecuted Christians in Iraq and Yazidi people. He said it was "wounding and damaging" for religious minorities to have been "airbrushed" out obrother of thef the documentary.

In a letter to the BBC, the Archbishop questioned why the series had omitted to include the experiences of religious minorities who suffered rape, kidnapping and murder at the hands of ISIS.

"How can this be? Had we not suffered the war and its aftermath just like our Muslim brothers and sisters?" he wrote.

"Do you understand the persecution we have suffered in our homeland? And that Christians have existed in this land for 2,000 years, the Mandaeans and Yazidis for even longer?"

In Mozambique multiple churches have been burnt, people beheaded, young girls kidnapped, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced.

In June after reports that insurgents had beheaded 15 people in a week Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of Mozambique’s Pemba diocese said that the crisis in Mozambique has largely been met with “indifference” from the rest of the world.

Elsewhere in Africa thousands of Christians have been killed by Muslims, most of the killings unreported by mainstream media. Genocidewatch reports 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."

Nigerians in London have demonstrated outside the Nigerian High Commission handing in a letter protesting against the relentless attacks on communities in southern Kaduna by armed men of the mainly Muslim Fulani tribes.

According to Amnesty International more than 1,100 people have been killed in rural areas across several states of northern Nigeria amid "an alarming escalation in attacks and abductions during the first half of the year."

 The Director of Amnesty International Nigeria said, "Terrifying attacks on rural communities in the north of Nigeria have been going on for years."

While most people have heard on news bulletins about the 22 deaths in New Zealand there is no similar reporting of the fate of thousands of Christians at the hands of Islamists.

Instead, aided by Pope Francis, churches are converted into mosques and, bizarrely, Irish schoolchildren studying for their Junior Cert Religion are required to attend a Mosque, shoes off, learning how to pray to Allah.

Around the world, and particularly in France, churches are torched and vandalised. The Catholic News Agency reports the French Interior Ministry recording 996 anti-Christian acts in 2019 - an average of 2.7 per day.

Since 2010, the Paris-based L’Observatoire de la Christianophobie (Observatory of Christianophobia) has chronicled these anti-Christian incidents and produced a map showing "Christianophobic acts".

In the UK the BBC commits £100m of its content spend on 'diverse productions and talent' which, on current trends, will include further promotion of the supremacist ideology of Islam while pushing Christianity further into the background.

Some encouraging news is the resignation of the board of Britain's largest Muslim charity  after anti-semitic posts by one of its directors were uncovered, although given the circumstances they had little choice.

"It was revealed that in posts in arabic on his own Facebook account, Dr Tayara called leaders of militant Palestinian group Hamas as 'great men' who responded to the 'divine and holy call of the Muslim Brotherhood'.

"In another, he posted an image of former President Barack Obama wearing a tie branded with the Star of David, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Assad of Syria on his lap with quote marks saying 'Death to America!' and 'Death... death'.

The BBC should be aware that it is not uncommon for Muslims to practice taqiyya which presents a peaceful face of Islam for general consumption while the authentic face of Muslim is hidden in arabic.

There is no beauty in that.

Saturday 22 August 2020

Llandaff Cathedral Today


#WHERELOVEMATTERS              Llandaff Cathedral and The Deanery from the Cathedral Green


The Cathedral and Parish Church of Llandaff is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul with Saints Dyfrig, Teilo, and Euddogwy.

Today the dedication might just as well be to Pan and Faunus with Nymphs and Satyrs.

In Llandaff Matters, love is primarily synonymous with sex:

"Join us on Sunday 30 August at 1400 for a special Pride Cymru Faith Tent event
featuring a video from Bishop June, a panel discussion, live music and reflection.

In collaboration with The Gathering LGBT+ Church, this free event will be streamed on
the Pride Cymru Facebook page."

Llandaff Cathedral today, #WHERELOVEMATTERS!

Llandaff's Director of Ministry and Discipleship Canon Richard Lowndes CinW

If the Church in Wales had spent as much time and effort in retaining faithful disciples as they have promoting same sex attraction they would not be in the mess they are.

Postscript [31.08.2020]

This from a 'bishop' of the Church in Wales:

"I'm a great believer in the importance of Pride." - Bishop June Osborne.
Full message here. June graduated in sociology,

Monday 17 August 2020

Barry Morgan rides again


Barry Morgan's retirement villa on the outskirts of Cardiff

Iran News Update reports that "The Rt Revd Dr. Barry Morgan, a former Archbishop of Wales, has praised the Iranian Resistance, specifically the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), for their commitment to the religious freedoms of Iranian Christians so persecuted by the Iranian regime.

"In an open letter, he cited evidence that Iran is one of the least hospitable countries in the world for Christians under the mullahs’ regime, even though it is supposedly tolerated by the regime. In fact, conversion from Islam to Christianity carries the death penalty."

While supporting Christians in Iran is laudable, such support is a bit rich coming from the person who probably more than anyone is responsible for wrecking the Church in Wales.

It is a pity that Morgan's new commitment to religious freedoms did not extend to Orthodox Anglicans in Wales who were quickly shown the door for not supporting his programme of secularising the Church in Wales.

Succeeding Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Wales in 2003 Barry Morgan committed himself to the ordination of women to the priesthood and the admission of women to the episcopate. He said practising homosexuals should not be barred from becoming bishops and declared: “I would ordain Britain’s first gay Bishop.”

Archbishop Morgan retired, aged 70, in 2017 having consecrated Wales' first female bishop. All three bishops in South Wales are now female. One is a cohabiting lesbian, the others being fervent LGBT supporters.

He continued to press his radical, secular agenda up to his retirement. He used his final address to the Church in Wales’ governing body to argue that Christians can change their stance on homosexuality without abandoning their commitment to the Bible, offending many while pandering to the few.

His views were widely condemned by biblical scholars.

Morgan's policy of refusing to provide episcopal oversight for orthodox Anglicans who refused to accept the 'going along to get on' approach to their faith has been continued by the bench of bishops.

Society bishops are banned from celebrating in Wales. Consequently regular church attendance has plummeted faster than it may otherwise have done.

When Barry Morgan retired he pledged that he would not interfere. He said, "I take the view that once you're gone, you're gone... you've had your period in office," he added.

Such a divisive figure should have stuck to his word.

Wednesday 5 August 2020

Another Church in Wales senior executive position


Icing on the cake at the Church in Wales HQ                                           Source: Twitter


The Church in Wales, home to the Mission/Ministry Areas, is advertising for a Head of Mission and Ministry, another senior executive post with a "Competitive salary commensurate with comparable roles across the organisation."

The role is "one of visionary leadership, strategy setting and dynamic operational management of a diverse range of activities. It involves working closely with the Bishops both corporately through meetings of the Bench of Bishops and individually as they lead their dioceses and oversee their portfolios."

The 2012 Church in Wales Review recommended (Recommendation XLVI) that: There should be a Board of Mission and Ministry responsible for all the spheres of work at present covered by the Bishops’ advisors...and that: There should be a Director of Mission and Ministry to direct the work, and an annual report and debate on their work by the Governing Body.

The Review also recommended (Recommendation XXII) that:There should be three administrative centres, one in the North and two in the South and South West...leading to (Recommendation XXV) that: The recommendations XXII, XXIII and XXIV should be reviewed after three years and a judgement made about whether the Church in Wales is best served by six dioceses with three administrative centres or whether it would be more effective to reduce to three dioceses, together with four area bishops.

At the current rate of executive expansion and declining attendance there will be far more chiefs than indians to divide the cake at the point of extinction.