Archiepiscopal duplicity is no recommendation

Archbishop Justin Welby, C of E (right), with Archbishop John Davies, Church in Wales, Primus Mark Strange,
Scottish Episcopal Church and Archbishop Richard Clarke, Church of Ireland, outside St Patrick’s Cathedral 
in Armagh at the close of the 2019 European Regional Primates’ Meeting. Photo Credit: Church of Ireland.

Archbishops Welby and Davies with Primus Mark Strange, plus the Archbishop of Armagh and the new Archbishop of York wrote to the Financial Times recently warning the government that its new Brexit bill could set a "disastrous precedent". 

Anglican archbishops are well placed to speak about disasters given their performance, bringing the Anglican Church in these Isles to the brink of collapse.

Promises made to secure the ordination of women and their subsequent admission to the episcopate quickly evaporated after their goal had been reached. 

Not only have the unchurched lost their spiritual base but those going along with the notion that faith follows secular fads will also find themselves unchurched when Anglicanism collapses, probably within a generation.

Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan refused to appoint another Provincial Assistant Bishop after the retirement of bishop David Thomas so orthodox Anglicans have been left without spiritual oversight, contrary to promises implied in the Code of Practice, cunningly crafted by Barry Morgan's misandrist placement, Archdeacon Peggy Jackson.

Principle 4 states: 

• The Church in Wales therefore remains committed to enabling all its members to flourish within its life and structures as accepted and valued. 
• Appropriate provision for them will be made in a way intended to maintain the highest possible degree of communion and contributes to mutual flourishing across the whole Church in Wales.

'Traditionalist' Anglicans were betrayed. 

There is no mutual flourishing. All Anglican churches in the South Wales dioceses of St Davids, Llandaff and Monmouth are now headed by women bishops. Society bishops are barred from entering Welsh dioceses so traditionalists seeking sacramental assurance are forced to travel to England for the Chrism Mass.

Many of the disowned faithful Anglicans are committed Christians who gave gladly of their time and money, helping to maintain parish communities. As extinction looms, their loss to the Church in Wales is not mourned by the bishops. Instead, extra senior staff are employed to enforce unwelcome change while clergy going along to get on take to social media to maintain a presence with Twitter trivia.

In the Church of England the House of Bishops made a similar declaration:

• Since those within the Church of England who, on grounds of theological conviction, are unable to receive the ministry of women bishops or priests continue to be within the spectrum of teaching and tradition of the Anglican Communion, the Church of England remains committed to enabling them to flourish within its life and structures; and
•  Pastoral and sacramental provision for the minority within the Church of England will be made without specifying a limit of time and in a way that maintains the highest possible degree of communion and contributes to mutual flourishing across the whole Church of England. 

Unlike the Church in Wales, the Church of England has maintained episcopal provision for traditionalists through The Society but it stretches the imagination to regard such provision as 'mutual flourishing'. 

Women and the Church (WATCH) and their supporters constantly undermine attempts at mutual flourishing, as illustrated by the treatment of Bishop Philip North who was pressed to withdraw after being appointed Bishop of Sheffield. It was said his opposition to female priests would “cause significant pastoral and public damage to the church”. 

Such hypocrisy. Promises made at Synod and by the Church in Wales as a means of securing the necessary votes were false yet the Archbishop of Canterbury has the nerve to lecture others on justice and honesty. 

To a thinly populated House of Lords Justin Welby said: 

"What above all we are called to do in this country deeply embedded in our Christian culture and history is to act justly and honestly. We cannot do so if we openly speak of breaking a treaty under international law reached properly, on which peace in part of the UK relies....Politics, if it is to draw out the best of us, must be more than just the exercise of binaries, of raw majority power unleashed. It exists to seek truth, to bring diverse peoples together in healthy relationships.....In the Church of England, my Lords, we are all too clearly aware of the shame that comes with failing morally. Let us not make the same mistake at National level."  

Given their duplicity the archbishops are the last people who should be offering advice to others while making such a mess of the Anglican Church.

Northern Ireland politician, David Burnside wrote to the News Letter: The archbishop does not speak for Church of Ireland members like me when he attacks the UK internal market bill.

Eurosceptic MP Steve Baker said that Boris Johnson should consider cutting ties with the Church of England after the Brexit bill was criticised by senior figures of the church.

Sir John Redwood MP claimed that the five Anglican leaders were "misusing their position" in going against the wishes of the nation for the UK to be independent.

There will be many Anglican who share such sentiments.

Pope's support for same-sex civil unions

Pope Francis                                                                                  Source: Twitter

American Magazine carries the headline:

 "Pope Francis declares support for same-sex civil unions for the first time as pope"

"Gay couples deserve legal protections for their relationships" Pope Francis said in a documentary.

Fine. Not so fine if this is taken as a green light leading to same-sex marriage. Marriage is between a man and a woman, to the exclusion of all others and for life.

Same sex partnerships are to be welcomed but activists take any opportunity to further their cause. Witness feminism in the Church and how civil partnerships were bent and twisted in demands for same sex marriage.

Pope Francis has not changed his stance. When Archbishop of Buenos Aires he advocated same-sex civil unions in an attempt to block a same-sex marriage law.

Probably the best archbishop we never had, Bishop Michael Nazir Ali, summarises the situation in this tweet:

"Anyone living together in long term arrangements should have legal protection. This can include siblings or mother and daughter, as well as those in other kinds of relationships being protected eg in tenancy or visiting rights. Such legislation, however, should not mimic marriage."

Exactly.

Strictly come politicking

They're off! 

The annual, glitzy culling ritual has begun but with a new twist as ballroom dancing competitors dance against each other to get their hands on the prized glitter ball trophy.

After weeks of speculation the first same sex dancing partnership has been revealed on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing show. 

From Twitter: Strictly Come Dancing launch sees Nicola Adams and Katya Jones paired. The Olympic gold medallist and former boxer joined 11 other celebrity contestants for the launch of Strictly.

In defence the corporation said that the show was 'inclusive' and that it was happy to facilitate Ms Adams' request to dance with a woman. 

So much for the BBC's mission to act in the public interest, to educate as well as entertain. What next one wonders if BBC policy is to facilitate personal requests.

The BBC defended their decision to have a same-sex pairing on the new series of Strictly Come Dancing after receiving complaints from viewers about the move when it was first rumoured. 

"The sex of each partner within a coupling should have no bearing on their routine", they said. Much like the Anglican Church's attitude to same sex marriage. More liberal drift.

Among the 'celebrities' I had heard of was boxing gold medallist Nicola Adams. Why anyone would want to take part in boxing is a mystery to me given all the evidence of brain injury resulting from the so-called 'sport'. The more so for women as they risk breast damage. This is entertainment? 

I had also heard of former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith but for very different reasons which resulted in her quitting her Cabinet post in 2009. 

Caroline Quentin rang a bell but I failed to recognise her from her Men Behaving Badly days. I recognised Bill Bailey mainly because I find his sense of humour irritating. The rest of the celebrities were unknown to me. The full list is here.

The surprise partnering of celebrities was a joke. There were no disappointments as one might have expected. All were delighted at the happy coincidence of the pairing of their dreams. 

As ever the professionals maintained their composure throughout. Let's face it. It can't be easy to maintain a smile while dragging around the dance floor an amateur retained purely by popular demand of the various voting factions regardless of terpsichorean ability.

 Strictly it's not dancing, just glitzy politicking.  

Resigned to Anglican Bishop Blunders!

The Bishop of Reading, Olivia Graham, attracted more criticism than she might have anticipated after the first of four 'environment' talks on Care for creation. 

The Rev Peter Ould tweeted: "What rampant heresy is this @oxforddiocese? God did not pour 'godself' (searches Bible for word) into the Universe. God and the universe are clearly distinct. This is basic theology."

After criticism of the bishop's video message Oxford diocese added this comment: "A number of commentators have said that the core message of this film by the Bishop of Reading is pantheistic or panentheistic. Of course, this isn’t the intended message of the film. Read a response from Bishop Olivia here." As a woman of some notoriety might have said: Well she would say that, wouldn't she?

Up North, the Bishop of Carlisle is facing calls to quit after he wrote – but later withdrew – a character reference for a paedophile priest. The issue became public after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) released its report into the Church of England's handling of child sexual abuse. The inquiry’s damning report concluded that the Church of England failed to protect children from sexual abuse.

The Church in Wales did not escape criticism in the IICSA Report. The Inquiry found that "to date, the Church in Wales has never had a programme of external auditing, so there has been no independent scrutiny of its safeguarding practices. It also highlights record-keeping as a significant problem for the Church; the Inquiry’s sampling exercise demonstrated both poor record-keeping and a total absence of records in some cases."

'Barry Morgan's true legacy!' wrote a regular commentator under a previous entry. 

The former Archbishop of Wales did much to encourage the like-minded to interpret scripture as they pleased in pursuit of their secular, political goals. Something that attracted a stinging response from An Anglican Theologian among others.

Liberal drift is the legacy of Western Anglicanism. Oceanographer and former Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, mentor of women bishops in Wales, left the Episcopal Church in a dire state of decline, foundering like the Church in Wales with the Church of England following close behind.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Anglican Communion, has often faced criticism, most recently from child sex abuse victims who have called for the Archbishop to quit. 

Archbishop Welby said that the damning findings of the IICSA inquiry were a 'big wake-up call' but he refused calls to resign insisting that he was "better staying in the role to continue his work"!

There have been previous calls for archbishop Welby to resign here, here and here. In the unlikely event that he were to go there would be more problems. His replacement would be political, not spiritual, causing more problems for the Anglican Communion.

As the current Archbishop of Wales said when he replaced Barry Morgan, it would be more of the same but faster, thus further hastening the demise of the Church of England and Western Anglicanism.

Caption corner 9 October 2020

US Presidential hopeful Joe Biden, Vice President Mike Pence and a fly                                                                                                     Source: Harper's Bazaar

                        

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It's Wimmin Wot Matters

 

#GoodNews: So glad to follow the lead of St David’s. Historic for @ChurchofEngland and very welcome alongside Diocese
of St Davids in @ChurchinWales with female Bishop Joanna and female @DeanofStDavids Sarah  Source:Twitter

The tweets in the caption above suggest that the diocese of St Davids (not St David's) has become the model for feminist expansion in the Church of England. 

Four out of five Cathedral clergy are female. The bishop, dean and two minor canons are female with one solitary male, the sub-dean.

Looking at the various published figures for ordinations in 2020 more female than male deacons and priests have been ordained in St Davids diocese, a trend in the Province as a whole.

Gender parity, or Church by numbers, is the name of the game. 

Early in 2019 the Church in Wales concluded that there was 'more work to do on gender parity'. In September 2019 Cherry Vann was appointed Bishop of Monmouth. This allowed the former Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, architect of the Church in Wales' demise, to brag last night on S4C's Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol that the smallest Anglican province was the first to achieve parity among bishops.

Archbishop Morgan also spoke of the part played by the bilingual Church in Wales in helping to maintain the Welsh language. Not something regarded as important when aiding the feminist cause by 'electing' the three women bishops in St Davids, Llandaff and Monmouth. 

None of the three female bishops is a natural Welsh speaker. Neither is the current Archbishop of Wales which necessitated wheeling out the retired archbishop to speak of the achievements of the Church in Wales one hundred years after disestablishment. 

Archbishop Morgan was also given the opportunity to advance another of his 'achievements'. His policy of accepting same sex relationships on a par with traditional marriage. This policy has not been accepted by the Church at large and this, along with the ordination of women, has seen many faithful Anglicans leave the Church through exclusion.  

New worshippers have not been attracted by these failed policies. After years of decline a mere 0.8% of the population in Wales regularly attend Sunday services. 

Between 1996 and 2016 the number of signed-up Church in Wales members dropped from 91,247 to 45,759. The 2018 Membership and Finance Report shows that the average Sunday attendance of people over 18 had fallen to 26,110.

At its demise the Church in Wales will be a feminist institution along with the Church of England. In 2019 the CofE ordained more women deacons than men.

Sweden already has a majority of women priests and a female archbishop. In 2009 Eva Brunne became the world's first openly lesbian bishop, another example of feminist 'equality'.

The process of 'feminisation' went much quicker than the Swedish Church had foreseen. In 1990 it was estimated that it would take another century before half of the clergy would be made up of women. But the 50 percent threshold has been reached just thirty years later.

None of this prevented Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland, warning that "people are leaving the Catholic Church 'in droves', tired of 'little old men' who continue to 'beat the drum of obedience'."

Complaining that she is "ignored completely by the Church's hierarchy" McAleese should not be surprised after all the false promises made by women's groups such as Women and the Church and their supporters.

Describing herself as a person with a "thinking brain" it doesn't take much thinking to see where the Catholic Church would be heading after ordaining women based on the experience of Protestant Churches.

For feminists it is wimmin wot matters, not the Kingdom.                                                                      

Caption corner 2 October 2020

Covid-19. Rule of six!                                                                                                                                                                                                    Source: Twitter

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