Drawing on the teaching of the Bible, and of the Church down through the centuries, the Church in Wales Marriage Service talks about marriage as a gift of God. Marriage is described as the lifelong, faithful union between a man and a woman, and married love is compared with the love Jesus has for his people – a love expressed in his willing sacrifice of himself on the cross.
The Governing Body of the Church in Wales will next meet on April 14-15 2021. Details of a Consultation have been issued:
"A Bill to authorise experimental use of proposed revisions of the Book of Common Prayer (service of Blessing following a Civil Partnership or Marriage between two people of the same sex)"
In an explanatory memorandum the bishops 'unreservedly and collectively' commend to the Governing Body, a service of Blessing following a Civil Partnership or Marriage between two people of the same sex.
The standing Committee has appointed a Select Committee ‘for the purpose of considering and collating any amendments which members of the Governing Body may wish to move to the Bill’. The Chair of the sub-committee is the John 8:32 quoting vicar whose church in the above photo has the Holy Table decked in rainbow colours, not of God's covenant with all living creatures but of those who like bishops and priests in the Church in Wales regularly parade under the LGBT rainbow flag.
Utter balderdash! Yes, homosexuality was treated as a crime in the past and is still in parts of the world, punishable by death in some countries. I have no experience of the bishops' allegations. Rather the reverse when trying to uphold traditional marriage which is the union of one man and one woman for life.
Much has changed.
Civil partnerships rightly extended legal protection to same sex partners leaving any physical attraction between them and God.Many Anglicans of conscience have been left by their Church leaving their LGBT trumpeting bishops to lead astray what remains of their flock.
As predicted in 2017, liberal drift has engulfed the Church in Wales. There are gay bishops, transgender priests with same sex marriage on the cards. Polyamory next?
This Bill makes every Church in Wales member complicit in the bishops' actions.
Postscript [12.12.2020]
1. The bishops' memorandum is discussed on Anglican Unscripted (edition 636) starting at 25 Mins in.
https://youtu.be/vSrv7ZAumIM
2. The Explanatory Memorandum from the Bishops of the Church in Wales – a response.
AB: At what point, would you say, did the Church in Wales enter into a pact with the devil?
ReplyDeleteRob
Some seventeen years ago?
DeleteThe day --Barry Morgan became Archbishop.
DeleteIn recent decades the Governing Body has become an instrument that the bishops can twist this way and that, so nothing would surprise me. It is composed of so many placemen.
ReplyDeleteDominic
Surely you mean placepersons?
DeleteTraditionally, the use of male includes female. I see no pressing reason to change the usage, but, yes, I mean both sexes. In the past, members of both sexes have guilty of simply underwriting what these tin pot bishops want, whether it is right or wrong.
ReplyDeleteDominic
Did you fail to spot my tongue firmly in cheek Dominic? ;-P
DeleteNot seeing your face, Gabriel, I was not sure.
DeleteI see you're alive and kicking.
Dom
Always my friend, always.
DeleteAs you say : “ This Bill makes every Church in Wales member complicit in the bishops' actions.”.
ReplyDeleteThere seems no room for normal people in the Church in Wales.
I thought priests were ordained to represent Christ and I trust they would aspire to this throughout their ministry and throughout their everyday life.
In the first picture I presume that Rev.Richard Lowndes is peddling his own cause.
Revisionist drivel is not sound theology. I have heard it all before here in the States. It always seems to win however. For me, that was the line in the sand.
ReplyDeleteAn utterly insipid snivelling contribution to Radio 4 this morning from the tree eating Bishop of St. Asaph in the face of the latest onslaught from the Godless "Humanists".
ReplyDeleteJust how did the Church in Wales sink so low?
"... the tree eating Bishop of St. Asaph ..."
ReplyDeleteHaving once seen him traversing a Tesco car park, I know he's the size of a tree - a slight slip-stream was discernible as he passed! But I didn't know he ate the things ... ;-)
Gluttony personified.
DeletePlease, you are speaking of the next Archbishop of Wales!
ReplyDeleteWhamab
I very much doubt it.
DeleteA pair of mammary glands will be a pre-requisite for that post in future rather than Man boobs.
Not so much the Church Militant but certainly the Church Deviant.
ReplyDeleteThe Reflections of an Anglican Theologian once again offer a real theological response to the sociologists on the Bench of Bishops just as he demolished Barry Morgan's facile arguments some time ago. The so-called blessing service is a smokescreen, The inclusion of the re-iteration of the exchange of marriage vows, the exchange of rings and the binding of hands with the priest's stole make it a marriage in all but name. As for it being permissive, just wait for the first priest to refuse and see the torrent of litigation that follows. The courts have already ruled that religious convictions are over-ruled by equality laws - so the permissive nature of this statement is a red-herring. Perhaps that's what the bishops intend. This will be acid test for the governing body. If they fail to oppose this measure, they will prove that they are not fit for purpose. as for the bishops, what can one say other than they have already proved this themselves.
ReplyDeleteNemesis
'The courts have already ruled that religious convictions are over-ruled by equality laws'
DeleteIndeed they have. But I understood that to apply to the offering of goods and services.
So if your parish had a particularly splendiferous church hall which you regularly hired out for parties, receptions, wakes &c., you'd certainly be in breach of the law if you refused to hire it on the ground of religious principle for, say, a party to celebrate the engagement of a single sex couple. By hiring the hall out on a regular basis you're providing a service.
But I also understood that the equality legislation doesn't apply to the internal 'ordering', on the basis of doctrine, of religious bodies. If it did, those religious bodies which refuse to ordain women on the same basis as men would surely have been challenged in the courts. To my knowledge none has.
PP. The Bishop of At Asaph I believe has a medical condition. When I knew him as Curate in Mon, he wasn't that large.
ReplyDeleteAs for being AB. That's an Addy Cap or Johanna probability. But who knows.
LGBT causes are here to stay like women leaders, the future is far from certain, with massive Mission Areas afoot.
I knew the bishop of St Asaph in the early 1980s to the mid 1990s. I do not recollect a medical condition but I do remember that at one point he lost two stone on a diet in competition with his father, and was also on a BBC Wales reality show for dieters. The presenter, I think, was Roy Noble. That suggests a desire to lose weight.
DeleteCymraes yn Lloegr
But the Church in Wales went wrong when it abandoned its witness to Indisoluable heterosexual marriage.
ReplyDelete