Caption corner 27 February 2022

 

Church in Wales consecration                                                                                                                                                                                       Source: Twitter

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Empire building?

Archbishop of Wales Andy John with Asst bishop of Bangor                            Source: Virtueonline

 The Church in Wales is recruiting to serve the upper echelons again . 

This time for a Personal Assistant to the Archbishop of Wales to deliver "a variety of operational support services to enable the Archbishop of Wales to carry out his national responsibilities and those within the Diocese of Bangor." The archbishop's PA will be expected to "work closely with the archbishop, his chaplain and others." 

The Archbishop recently appointed an Assistant Bishop to assist him in running his diocese while exercising his duties as Archbishop. 

Valet next?

Misuse of the altar

Altar frontal!                                                                                                                                                     Source: Twitter

  

The main focus in a church is the altar where the eucharist is celebrated.

The altar frontal should be of the colour of the day, offering no distraction from Christ's sacrificial death.

Substituting a Progress Pride flag as the altar frontal diverts attention away from Christ's sacrifice to a form of political activism, in this case advancing the cause of a particular group engaged in activities contrary to biblical teaching. 

The Progress Pride flag differs from the gay pride in that it includes the Intersex community. What next one wonders?

Described as a "beautiful altar frontal in a friend's church" this is the second time I have seen it on Twitter of late. 

Presumably the 'friend' is @RevdJacquiT whose original tweet is no longer visible to all because the account owner has since limited access to approved followers. However, some of the responses to her original tweet are still visible here, including "God knew exactly what she was doing in calling you"!

We have been here before - see The big lie. Misuse of the sacred leads to indifference and loss of mystery, the 'otherness' that set the church apart.

Steps to oblivion

Roman Catholic Women Clergy                                                                                                                                            Source: Roman Catholic Women Priests

"The woke Pope epitomises liberal illiberalism. The ‘merciful’ leader of the Catholic Church is persecuting a harmless minority: traditionalists." - Tim Stanley writing in The Telegraph reported here.

Stanley writes: "The Pope, you have probably read, is ever-smiling, merciful and tolerant. Towards some, that might be true; for others, it’s a cruel joke. His treatment of traditional Catholics, to give just one example, is a case study in liberal hypocrisy."

That has a familiar ring for Anglicans, particularly in Wales.

'Will he, wont he?' articles about the Pope's intentions on the ordination of women have appeared with increasing regularity', often driven by a sympathetic media obsessed with their interpretation of equality but with no understanding of priestly ministry or theology.

 Initially Francis sounded sympathetic to the notion of women priests but then denied it while appearing to leave the door open  to discussions on setting up a female deaconate, the first step on an incremental path chosen by revisionists in the Anglican Church.

Hence the question: Is Francis laying the foundation for women to become recognized priests?. The move has been described as "a huge step forward for gender equality in the largest religious denomination" but the priesthood is not about gender equality.

Officially opening the ministries of lector and acolyte to women, Pope Francis said that there was nothing new about women proclaiming the Word of God during liturgical celebrations or carrying out a service at the altar as altar servers or as Eucharistic ministers. In many communities throughout the world these practices are already authorized by local bishops.

The direction is obvious. As 'local practices' are allowed to spread they appear increasingly commonplace leading to acceptance as normal.

According to Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP), which describes itself as "an International Movement within the Roman Catholic Church", women 'priests' are already ministering in over 34 USA states and are also present in Canada, Europe, South and Central America, South Africa, Philippines and Taiwan. They have prepared a video 'Making Catholicism relevant' showing several worshiping communities and their liturgies.  

Germany's Synodal Assembly has voted for Catholic women deacons by large majority with further calls for gay blessings and married priests. Pope Francis has encouraged the process of synodality, a process of discernment which he describes as listening to the Holy Spirit through the word of God, prayer and adoration after listening to one another.

In another move, a group of Catholic and Anglican theologians has publicly called on the Vatican to review and overturn a papal document from 1896 that declared Anglican ordinations "absolutely null and utterly void", something on which Pope Francis has spoken sympathetically and which many have been praying for but now complicated by decisions within various provinces of the Anglican Communion to go it alone and ordain women.

As I wrote in a previous entry, "One would have thought that the innovation of ordaining women in the Anglican Communion would have provided the Vatican with sufficient experience-based evidence that, in general, women who seek ordination are advancing themselves not the Kingdom of God.

Tim Stanley is right. It should be plain for all to see. 'Traditionalist' Roman Catholics are being marginalised as Anglicans have been marginalised, left to witness the destruction of their Church while revisionists advance, step by step, by any means available to them encouraged by false prophets

Who would have thought it possible but a foot in the door is all that is needed, the first of a series of incremental steps to oblivion.

Medieval Pilgrimage Way - Llandaff to Penrhys

The walk begins at the West Door of Llandaff Cathedral.
Pilgrims would travel from the cathedral all the way to Penrhys
(Image: Mark Lewis) source: WalesOnline

In a recent article, The hidden spot in the heart of Cardiff that marks the start of a medieval pilgrimage route,  Wales Online published details of how to retrace the steps pilgrims made hundreds of years ago along the Penrhys Pilgrimage Way. 

The walk begins at the West Door of Llandaff Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Jolly June Osborne, bishop of Llandaff who, instead of taking this meaningful walk through the Welsh countryside in the footsteps of former pilgrims, chartered an aircraft to fly her clergy to Spain to kick off the Llandaff 2020 Year of Pilgrimage at great expense to the diocese and an unnecessary cost to the environment. 

After a false start, priests from more than 100 churches in Llandaff travelled to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain for their Clergy School taking the form of a pilgrimage from Monday, 13 May to Friday, 17th May, 2019.

The bishop of Llandaff's idea was to embark on an 'ambitious' Year of Pilgrimage to 'reinvigorate its work and worship' as part of the Church’s 2020 centenary celebrations under the hashtag #LlandaffInSantiago.

In a presentation to the Governing Body of the Church in Wales in April 2019 reported in Highlights April 2021,  Jolly June said:
 "In preparing for the year [of Pilgrimage], the diocesan clergy had gone on a pilgrimage together to Santiago de Compostela. Some said it was lavish but I wanted us to be together in a place where prayer had long been valued. The sense we gained there of being companions on a road together has been with us since then. 2020 was still a Year of Pilgrimage and we found ourselves on an untrodden road. God was teaching us how to tell his story and build for good."

The Year of Pilgrimage fizzled out in the Coronavirus lock down but that left the diocese with greater opportunities to reinvigorate its work and worship. Coming up to 3 years after their expensive 'pilgrimage' to Santiago de Compostela little has changed.

Still embroiled in a long term battle with her Dean on charges of bullying, he remains doggedly in place while disillusioned clergy leave for pastures new leaving the diocese of Llandaff - where faith matters(!) - to pursue its now well trodden path, telling a 'joyful story' of Queer Theology.