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| Captain Alberto Bertorelli and Private Helga Geerhart in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo |
A political appointment to advance the cause of feminism in Wales, Penberthy's 'election' was a disaster. Labour politician and LGBT+ activist, she unashamedly uses a sacred office to promote her own secular causes. Any hint of criticism is simply brushed aside as prejudice and discrimination.
Part of her antipathy towards Tories may result from her being placed bottom of the poll with 5% of the votes as the Labour candidate in the 2015 Blackmoor Vale election in Somerset. While the two Liberal Democrat candidates received 37% the two Conservative Party candidates were elected with 59% of the votes, a sizable majority 'never to be trusted'.
The bishop's position is untenable but she doesn't have the balls to do the honourable thing and resign to pursue her secular interests outside the Church.
Following an unprecedented wigging by the Church in Wales one would have thought that the bishop would have put the Church before her own self interests but there is no indication that she is considering her position.
The diocese of Winchester had a remedy. Will St Davids follow their example?
Postscript [06.06.2021]
"The Church in Wales is a joke within the Anglican world" - the Rev George Conger on Anglican Unscripted. Starting at position 37.20, George Conger explains that the diocese of St Davids has an average Sunday attendance about the same size as his Deanery in North Western rural Florida.
He explains how the 'aggressively, left wing' bishop of St Davids, Joanna Penberthy has tweeted on average 20 or 30 times a day, over 40,000 times in the last few years, wearing her emotions and her politics on her sleeve in a Conservative area. Her one notable feat is that she is the first woman bishop in Wales. Click on the link for a withering commentary on the state of the Church in Wales today.
You have expressed the matter very, very well AB: someone was chosen and appointed as bishop with a feminist and LGBT+ agenda, which she has pursued, repeatedly hurting retired clergy also. She has felt free to dismiss traditional Christian positions in morality and, in certain respects, theology. It is not certain that she will not further pollute the Gospel.
ReplyDeleteAnyone with a conscience, or who genuinely prays (as she gives every sign of doing), must realise that her record and the latest of many incidents and unacceptable public comments, make it impossible for her to ride out this storm. She really should go for the sake of all of us.
At the next parish visit does she really want to stand in church wondering how many in the congregation actively dislike her in the light of her offensive, unwarrantable remarks? After all, she has form on this.
She should, in my view, do the decent thing and return to where her heart is: secular politics or something similar, but not continuing as a spokesperson for the Church in Wales. She does speak for me.
Rob
It was no "feat" of hers that made her the first Bishopette in Wales but rather the imposition of her by the arch schemer, His --Darkness and the Grand Mufti of all the faiths, byzantine Barry Morgan.
DeleteHopefully all the congregation in the next Parish she visits will all turn up to the church wearing blue rosettes and Vote Leave t-shirt.
Should say NOT speak for me.
ReplyDeleteRob
A heavily critical piece on the bishopess by Dominic Lawson in today's Daily Mail. Can she survive ths?
ReplyDeleteTim
Can she survive? She should not but the bench have already distanced themselves in a ritual washing of hands so it comes down to Penberthy's view of honour and decency. She appears to understand neither.
DeleteAfter episcopal oversight for traditionalist Anglicans was withdrawn she then voted in favour of Archdeacon Peggy Jackson's GB motion to bar from ordination anyone who did not support the ordination of women, thus removing the Code of Practice provision which served to put these women where they are
https://ancientbritonpetros.blogspot.com/2019/04/laid-bare.html
She has a record of brushing aside anyone who disagrees with her as prejudiced and discriminatory. If she had an ounce of decency she would go. But she is lacking there too. A diocesan vote of no confidence may be necessary if honour escapes her.
Well, if not this, what, I wonder, would it take to convince her that she has erected an insurmountable barrier for herself from continuing as bishop?
ReplyDeleteRob
ADMIN reminder:
ReplyDelete'Anonymous commentators must use a pseudonym if their comments are intended for publication and must not be linked to commercial sites.
PP. Looks like local storm clouds are gathering over the Diocese.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/19354678.letter-how-dare-bishop-st-davids-say-never-trust-tory/
I was chewing the bishop of St Davids' tweeted outburst over again this morning, and, in the Welsh context, and to even as thorough-going a critic of the contemporary Tory party as I am, it seems - what shall I say?! - decidedly hyperbolic.
DeleteWith the Senedd election not long behind us, three former Conservative MSs from the last Senedd came to mind.
David Melding had been a member of the Assembly from its inception in 1999. Unfailingly calm, courteous and constructive in his contributions, he was a previous deputy llywydd and I happened to hear the tributes paid to him by representatives of all the major parties in the Senedd following his announcement that he wouldn't be seeking re-election this time. The respect and affection in which he was held on all sides was very evident.
As I live in the region which he used to represent, it crossed my mind as to whether I might have voted for him had he not decided to stand down, and I think that if he'd been 'top of the list' I almost certainly would have done so. Regardless of party he struck me as very much the sort of politician I'd want to see representing me. Even if he was a Tory, he's very much the sort of Tory that I'd like to see in the legislature!
And down on the bishop's own patch there were two more Conservative MSs who struck me similarly. Angela Burns was constituency member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, but she too decided not to seek re-election this time. And Suzy Davies, a list member for South Wales West, who did stand again, but this time her party had pushed her name too far down the list to make election possible. Both struck me as eirenic and consensual members of the Senedd whose contributions will be missed.
I still don't like the Conservative party in the 'Monday Club'/Farageist form into which it's now morphed. But, even so, I couldn't go quite so far as the bishop.
Oops - I've just realized that I don't live in the region which David Melding used to represent; for some inexplicable reason I briefly confused him with Mark Isherwood!
DeleteBut had I lived there, I would very likely have voted for him ...
It doesn't require much chewing, John Ellis.
DeleteObserver
I'm not you, and for me it does call for a bit of chewing!
DeleteHere's hoping you remembered to put in your dentures first!
Delete