Evangelism?

In 2018 the Church in Wales announced that they would spend £10m to 'breathe new life' into its churches:
 

"In the wake of dwindling numbers, the Evangelism Fund will fund “ambitious projects” to get more people engaging with churches. Between 1996 and 2016 the number of signed-up Church in Wales members dropped from 91,247 to 45,759. Now, grants of between £250,000 and £3m will be available for new projects."

Llandaff diocese received £3 million from the fund for their Young Faith Matters Scheme which made possible the Citizen Church with a mission designed to create a new Christian Community for Cardiff students. - That doesn't say much for the Cardiff University chaplaincy which attracts just a handful of students compared with its early years when faith really did matter in the Church in Wales. 

To make the church plant possible, without prior consultation the congregation of St Teilo's in Cathays were to be moved to St Michael’s, also in Cathays, to make St Teilo's available for the experiment. 

Similarly parishes learnt at last week's Llandaff Diocesan Conference how they were to be grouped into Ministry Areas or Benefices, again without prior consultation.

Parishioners in Cathays now learn that they are to be combined along with the parish of Roath St Martin into a new Benefice of Roath where only one of its four daughter churches remains after many years of decline.

Citizen Church is part of the Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) network known mainly for its charismatic leader Nicky Gumbel and his Alpha course. At 65 some are questioning Alpha's survival following Gumbel's retirement.

Many former members of the Church in Wales who kept the faith, digging deep in pockets and purses for the Church, now find themselves on the outside seeing money squandered on fads and fancies.

In his address at the September meeting of the Governing Body, about the only part of the video proceedings that did work before the meeting was abandoned, the Archbishop urged all the church to embrace change. 

So far that has increased the number of senior posts while congregations dwindle. Liberal feminism has taken hold leaving traditional Anglicans unchurched.

That is the Church in Wales, where faith doesn't matter outside the bishops' guidelines.

BBC Gravy Train

The BBC has come under fire after it published accounts showing that staff pay had soared 3.5 per cent to £1.5billion this year - while the Corporation pushes ahead with its plans to strip a million over-75s of their free TV licences. (Mail Online)

The BBC's highest paid 'stars'.  Source: Mail Online

plus executive pay:

There are 91 BBC executives who are paid MORE than the Prime Minister and 11 bosses get more
than DOUBLE his salary.  Source: Mail online

The BBC's mission is "to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain".

It is a job they do well at their best but 'Auntie' is not what she used to be. Pay and 'bias' have again been dominating the headlines. 

Their salary bill is similar to the cost of running their main TV channels: BBC One- £1.2bn, BBC Two- £481.2 million and BBC Four- £52.3 million according to the BBC's Annual Report and Accounts for 2017/18.

In 2015, the government announced that the BBC would take over the cost of providing free licences for over-75s by 2020 as part of the BBC fee settlement. 

In a staggering breach of faith the BBC later claimed that "BBC Two, BBC Four, the BBC News Channel, the BBC Scotland channel, Radio 5live, and a number of local radio stations would all have been at risk" if they honoured the commitment that guaranteed their fee settlement.

Delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, demands for licence fees are being received by pensioners over 75 year old at the same time as the BBC published accounts showing that staff pay had "soared 3.5 per cent to £1.5billion this year".

There is no recognition in the BBC that part of the problem in honouring their obligation to elderly pensioners is the unjustifiable amount of money paid out in salaries when they cannot afford to do so.

I suspect that I am not alone looking at the photographs of the highest paid 'stars' only to find that just two of the ten have any impact on my life and then only because they are BBC newsreaders.

Personally I prefer Reeta Chakrabarti and Ben Brown at less than half the cost.

Programme content has become dire with endless repeats. New series are built around murder and violence while frequent soccer programmes pervade the airwaves, something that could well be left to other providers given the cost to the licence payer.

New content is bogged down in the BBC's 'diversity' drive. Knee deep in political correctness and wokism BBC's mission is increasingly questionable. Not all change is for the better as the BBC should learn from their mishandling of their previously successful Strictly Come Dancing.

In the 2011 census over 86% of the population were white with 13% identifying as  BAME but often the BBC's news coverage conveys the impression that white people are the minority in the UK. 

The BBC's Breakfast time programme constantly undermines the Government's strategy to defeat Covid-19 while some of the presenters adopt the role of official opposition to the Government.

One ought to expect the highest standards from a public service broadcaster but some of the trailers are jaw dropping. 

Following on from their promotion of BBC 3's Drag Race, the BBC are currently promoting Little Mix in a series that encourages grotesquely made-up youngsters to mimic their hosts by cavorting around in clothing that could easily be mistaken for underwear.

I do not watch EastEnders but the trailers illustrate life in the East End as constant misery and angst. No wonder the programmes are accompanied by health warnings.

As a public service institution the BBC should be readily available to all, informing and educating. 

Instead we have an over-paid politically correct woke elite constantly lowering standards by foisting their own liberal views on audiences thus 'normalising' abnormal behaviour.

The announcement by Gary Lineker that Sue Barker is to be replaced on A Question Of Sport by ex-soccer player Alex Scott brought one of the best suggestions: Alex Scott should replace Lineker.

That would be diversity!

Then and now

Fighting the enemy WW1   Source: The Telegraph

Ignoring the enemy Covid-19  Source: WalesOnline

Chickens coming home to roost in Diocese of Monmouth

Hen's eye view of  + Cherry Vann?   Source: Twitter

Cherry Vann @cherry_vann: 

"Good news! - at last, just heard that 8 hens are ready to be picked up and brought to ... a new and happy home at Bishopstow @MonmouthDCO. Looking forward to watching their delightful antics, not to mention eating their tasty eggs."

Perhaps the first of many chickens coming home to roost in Monmouth diocese and beyond!

With the Bishop of Monmouth looking to appoint a new Dean of Newport and the Bishop of Llandaff's rumoured desire to replace the Dean of Llandaff, more egg layers are likely to be in the offing.

Wokes target ex-Australian PM Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott at the 'wedding' of his gay sister.  She has defended her brother.     Source: Mail Online

We have left the European Union (EU) so we need trade deals.

Tony Abbott who was prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015 when they negotiated free-trade deals with Japan, China and South Korea has been appointed as an unpaid trade adviser to the UK government.

Mr Abbott happens to believe that 'marriage' is "the relationship of one man with one woman, ideally for life and usually dedicated to children". He is opposed to same-sex marriage which, he believes, 'would fundamentally change society'.

Regardless of his personal views he attended his gay sister's 'wedding' but because his values are unacceptable to LGBT activists he is stereotyped as a homophobe.

Never mind the facts. If you are not in agreement with woke culture you become the target of their  ordure.

Kay Burley of Sky News accused Mr Abbott of being a "homophobic misogynist", representing slurs as facts when she interviewed Health Secretary, Matt Hancock.

That was something Scotland's First Minister was happy to agree with, unlike former Australian PM Julia Gillard who declined to be led by Burley's wokery and spoke for herself.

Celebrity LGBT campaigner Sir Ian McKellen, among others, demeaned himself by urging the government to 'row back' its plans, ignoring the fact that Abbott is entitled to hold views contrary to those of the gay minority. 

Sadly for them Abbott's gay sister defended him against claims of misogyny and homophobia. She said: "As a woman who has always been part of his life and who came out to him as gay in my early 40s, I know incontrovertibly that Tony is neither of those things," she wrote on Twitter.

"In reality he is a man of great conviction and intellect; an unabashed conservative but with great compassion, respect for others, and an indelible sense of doing what is right."

Australia's longest serving female politician, Bronwyn Bishop, also leapt to Mr Abbott's defence stating he was a victim of 'disgraceful character assassination'. 

Good on you Bronwyn!

Fulani Militants Destroy Church, Kidnap Seven from Southern Kaduna

In Three Years Fulani Militias Killed 2,539 People in 654 Attacks in Nigeria. Source: News Express

From International Christian Concern

"08/31/2020 Nigeria  – On August 24, Fulani militants conducted another attack on a Christian village in Southern Kaduna State, Nigeria. According to a report by Morningstar News, more than 20 herdsmen rode motorcycles into Damba Kasaya village, Kaduna state at about 8 a.m. that morning. During the attack, they killed a 35-year-old man named Benjamin Auta. They also kidnapped four students and one teacher from the Prince Academy, a small school. The final two were local farmers who have been missing since the attack. The four students who were taken, were all under the age of 18 and three of them were girls.

"Southern Kaduna has seen a lot of increased violence this year. According to the Southern Kaduna People’s Union, more than 50,000 Christians have been displaced from over 100 Christian villages in Southern Kaduna. These villages are mainly located in the counties of Kachia, Kajuru, Kaura and Chikun. The ongoing attacks have greatly affected the population of Southern Kaduna, which is where the vast majority of Christians live in this Sharia state. This is also the only area of that state that is so greatly affected by Fulani militant attacks. Please continue praying for the safety and security of our brothers and sisters in Kaduna State, Nigeria. They are often attacked, and their state federal government have greatly failed to protect them."

Earlier in August Nigeria's News Express reported that within three years more than 2,539 people had been killed, 393 wounded, 253 kidnapped, 16 raped, more than 7, 582 houses burnt and 24 churches destroyed in 654 attacks carried out by Fulani Militias, Nigeria’s most lethal group.

Villagers stand at a mass grave in Dogon Na Hauwa, Nigeria, in 2010.        Source: Christian Today

In response to a report co-authored by The International Organisation for Peace Building and Social Justice (PSJ UK), the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) and the International Freedom of Religion or Belief All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), UK's Express described the situation as ‘Intolerable’ after it was claimed that 100,000 Christians had been murdered for their faith in Nigeria in the first two decades of this century.

"According to the report  43,242 of the Christian deaths as a result of the terrorism inflicted by Boko Haram, Islamic State, ISWAP and Al-Queda; 18,834 as a result of the terrorism inflicted by Fulani Militant Extremists; and 34,233 as a result of the terrorism inflicted by all other actors."

Lord Alton of Liverpool a vice chair of the APPG said: “Some local observers have gone so far as to describe the rising attacks as a campaign of ethno-religious cleansing.

Compared with the outpouring of grief over the 51 lives lost in the Christchurch mosque shootings the media's response has been extremely muted.  

African lives matter too.