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.
Remind me, A.B.
ReplyDeleteIs it Ryan Forey (the lead pastor) or Mark Simpson (the associate pastor) who is the godson of June Osborne and whose Citizen Church is in receipt of millions to set up this vanity project?
Are these people part of the Cardiff Deanery and ongoing structure of the diocese?
The biggest error made by the Church in Wales is that they continually change things.
ReplyDeleteParishes become aware of the restlessness within the hierarchy and this destroys the security of the community.
Similar sharp self inflicted decline this side of clawdd offa. Facebook and Zoom has replaced any semblance of church life in many parts of England. I notice in the tv schedule that Dechrau Canu next Sunday on S4C at 7.30 pm will comprise an interview with Barry Morgan and a visit to St Asaph cathedral, marking 100 years of disestablishment.
ReplyDeleteCymraes yn Lloegr
If Byzantine Bazza is being rolled out then Shirley will be pee'd off and the S4C Taffia must be desperate.
DeleteOn the subject of "Shirley" (as you call him), my heart skipped a beat when I saw the headline in the Church Times which coupled "sad resignation" with "Archbishop Davies". I really thought it meant that he had resigned. Not so. He, and the Church Times, were using the word to mean defeatist. First, he is flagging up that churches will be closed over Christmas so laity will not receive communion. Second, although he is blaming covid, he has woken up to the parlous state of the Church in Wales. At the current accelerated rate of attrition, Church in Wales will be extinct well before the predicted date of 2030. Easy to blame covid but the rot started long ago. When he and his fellow bishops survey the wreckage after the pandemic has passed, it will be a time of reckoning. How many viable churches will emerge?
DeleteCymraes yn Lloegr
PP. Sounds like an ecclesiastical soap opera
ReplyDeleteWe're doomed Rectorrrrr Mainearing. Doomed.
ReplyDeleteJesus: "Repent and believe the Good News"(Mark 1)
ReplyDeletePaul: I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and faith" (Acts 20)
Justin Welby "Wash your hands and be nice" (tweets)
Church in Wales "These issues are not easy" (website - 'what we believe')