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| Bishop elect of Swansea & Brecon, John Lomas Source: Church in Wales |
The Church in Wales has announced that the Archdeacon of Wrexham, John Lomas, has been chosen as the 10th Bishop of Swansea and Brecon.
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| Bishop elect of Swansea & Brecon, John Lomas Source: Church in Wales |
A great appointment - a supporter of women's ministry, inclusive in his theology, gets his hands in the sink. Great result - wish him well. No supporter of this website I wouldn't think which is reason to give thanks to God for his appointment.
ReplyDeleteRuthy
You know he’s an evangelical and that he holds to the church’s traditional teaching on marriage, right?
DeleteAJ
Priceless. 😂
DeletePP. Excellent appointment, ex military, very astute, he won't be a push over. You only have to know his credibility with his keen eye for details. Finally a decision for the Church's future.
ReplyDeleteHe needs our prayers, as does his future diocese.
ReplyDeleteQuelle surprise.
ReplyDeleteA supporter of women's ministry.
How else would a man be considered for preferment in the queered Church in Wales?
Does anyone else find it strange that Bishop Andy seems to wear the same dinner jacket for his recent video announcements? It's all a bit comical unless of course he's heading straight out to a soiree, in which case I'd expect to see a pocket square. I hope this point will be discussed at length at the next electoral college.
ReplyDeleteDJAndy
Is anyone going to bring up the fact of his age. And that we will be back at an election college with the same electors in 3 to 5 years given the average retirement age of a church in Wales Bishop.
ReplyDeleteThe way the slnumbers are going it's doubtful there'll be a Church in Wales in 3 to 5 years.
DeleteDoes it matter what his age is? + June was 64 when she became bishop. He has enough years to make an impact on Swansea and Brecon and leave a legacy for the next incumbent of that post. Llechryd
DeleteIt always used to be said that with the opportunities for the transfer of an unsatisfactory bishop to another diocese so limited the wisest course for the C in W was to choose men who hadn't too many years to serve before reaching retirement age.
DeleteI know that those who are unable to accept the ordination of women will be disappointed that a person of their integrity was not appointed but, in a Church of barely 20,000 regular worshippers and declining, did they really expect it would be any different?
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, there is cause to be hopeful about this appointment on a number of fronts.
First, he is a home-grown Church in Wales candidate and not a reject from East of Offa's Dyke who is desperate to be a bishop at any price. He knows the province and can, presumably, see the folly of several senior appointments going back over more than a decade. This means he will bring some pastoral wisdom to the current culture of panic and disarray.
Second, he is very much earthed in the realities of parish life and is, significantly, a sorted and rounded person who is at ease with himself and everyone else around him. He has a genuine common touch without being self-consciously 'naff.'
Third, he is someone from whom you would not be afraid to buy a second hand car. That I could not say about several members of the Welsh bench at the moment. At a time when the integrity of one or two diocesan bishops is less than secure, this will be welcome - especially in a Diocese where (I believe he is affectionately known) Shirley the Dodgy High Street Solicitor was regarded with a measure of hesitancy. Of course, as many of us know, he is not the only Welsh bishop whose reliability and consistency is regarded with mocking disdain. Just looking at the comment on the Thinking Anglicans website relating this appointment, someone is clearly marking the Bishop of Bangor's card in what I can only applaud as an accurate assessment of the contrasting qualities of the Bishop of St Asaph.
In summary, while I recognise a measure of disappointment, I think this is a good appointment. For those who are unsure, let me say that, as someone who watches these things closely, I am all-too-aware of who it could, potentially, have been and that would not have been good. Not good at all.
Indeed, RE integrity of bishops. We have adulterous Andy (“And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
DeleteMatthew 19:9), Debau-Cherry (same-sex civil partnership), gluttonous Gregory, hateful Jo (hates all conservatives, former conservatives and potential conservatives), and dodgy June (caught lying and deceiving a number of times).
Mr. E.
One wonders how long it will be before we see him smiling indulgently before the Rainbow flag, in homage to those who elected him.
DeleteWick
@ Athelstan Riley:
DeleteThat strikes me as a cogent and perceptive analysis. I doubt Arrchdeacon Lomas's election will save Welsh Anglicanism from its inexorable tereminal decline, which is rooted in factors way beyond and way greater than the present hierarchy's secular obsession with being 'right on' in matters of equality and sexuality.
But at least this election breaks the pattern of episcopal appointments which are driven by the secular agendas to which I previously referred, and while I'm sure that it won't reverse the rot, it strikes me as a positive step.
Church in wales ended upholding traditional marriage when it changed to divorce and remarriage at the whim of the officiating cleric.Sad to say GAFCON is also as liberal on this.
ReplyDelete"I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery." - Jesus
DeleteRemarriage should be allowed in these specific circumstances and it should be left to the officiating cleric to find out the circumstances that the previous marriage ended in. But yes, remarriage certainly shouldn't be done on a whim!
Mr. E.