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Six openly partnered/married gay and lesbian bishops at Lambeth 2022.                  Source: Twitter

There have been a number of postings on Twitter of this group of gay and lesbian bishops at Lambeth thumbing their noses at orthodoxy, this one by @TransEpiscopal, a group of "transgender Episcopalians and allies dedicated to making the Episcopal Church a welcoming place for all"!

The US Episcopalian Church along with other western Anglican provinces do not need transgender, gay and lesbian priests and bishops to make people welcome. If the Church had not been welcoming there would be no openly gay and lesbian priests or bishops in the Church.

They protest that God loves them and that they are made in His image. So they are. So are adulterers.

God loves the sinner, not the sin, so these entrists busy themselves changing definitions to suit themselves, even re-defining marriage which is between a man and a woman, to the exclusion of all others and for life. Were it not so there would be no children and civilisation would cease.

The LGBTQ+ community is using the Church for their own ends. They are a vocal minority who do not represent the majority of Anglicans and fellow Christians.

The same sex partnered bishop of Monmouth, Cherry Vann, (pictured 3rd from right) is a patron of Open Table, an organisation whose mission is to "warmly welcome and affirm people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA), + our family and friends, and anyone who wants to belong in an accepting, loving worship community."

Very well organised, a vocal minority is using Lambeth to manipulate public opinion for their own ends. 

The Global South stands for Bible based orthodoxy. They have set out four priorities for ‘Orthodox delegates’ including re-affirmation of Resolution 1.10. 

They must not be silenced by a vocal minority intent on serving their own interests above all others.

Postscript [01.08.2022] 

The house of the Lord! - Look at the setting for this circus. What have we become?

At what cost?

Cherry Vann at sacred Synod in 2020 with her partner, bishops and legal staff                                                         Source: Twitter

From Christian Today 

"The 'Call on Human Identity' referenced the last statement of a Lambeth resolution on the issue from 1998, known to all as 'Lambeth 1.10' describes marriage as being 'between a man and a woman in life-long union' and states that 'legitimising or blessing of same-sex unions cannot be advised'."

"The initial response raised by the globally small minority of Anglicans who have long repudiated the statement - and some having already introduced same-sex blessings or marriage - concerned matters of principle.

"In the words of the bishops of the Church in Wales, the draft Lambeth Call on Human Dignity, undermines and subverts the dignity of an integral part of our community, rather than affirming them."

For a timeline on this sorry saga see Lambeth Conference and the same-sex story.

Same-sex spouses have not been invited to Lambeth. So deeply do the Welsh bishops feel about this ban that they have chosen to stay in a local hotel as a token of protest because +Cherry Vann’s same sex partner would not be allowed to stay on the Conference site. 

How convenient for the bishops having to take superior accommodation to make their protest. At what cost and to whom one wonders.

The cost to western Anglicanism of their behaviour is considerable. 

As this Anglican Ink article notes, provinces engaged in 'Progressive Ideology', including same sex marriage, are dying while provinces mainly in Africa and globally that are not so engaged are growing. 

An analysis, Is Anglicanism growing or dying?, shows that in Africa the number of Anglicans increased from 7,718,000 in 1970 to 56,947,000 in 2015. Globally the numbers increased from  47,394,000 in 1970 to 90,771,000 in 2015.

"In 1970, the combined membership of TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada came to 4,373,000. In 2015, the combined membership of TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada came to 2,537,000 and it has dropped considerably since then. In half a century North American Anglicanism has halved in size...

"For the rest of the West the picture is mixed. The numbers for England, Scotland, and Wales are as bad or nearly as bad as for North America...

"Central to understanding Lambeth 2022 will be recognition of who is not present. Swathes, perhaps the majority, of non-western Anglicans will be unrepresented. Beyond this, new Anglican groupings will be absent, yet they have substantial links with much of Anglicanism."

The article concludes, "Numbers are not everything, but they are not nothing. The massive growth and decline in the Anglican Communion cannot be passed over in an embarrassed silence...The shrinking provinces of North America and Britain need a new humility. Any attempt at 'business as usual' will lead to the spectacle of mostly white bishops from mostly declining western dioceses holding disproportionate influence at Lambeth. Such optics would render the deliberations of Lambeth 2022 wholly invalid."

Instead of posturing with false notions of human dignity, the Welsh bishops, and most of the English bishops, should have the humility to face reality and accept that they have been in error.

The alternative cost should be clear even to a bishop in the Church in Wales.

Beyond belief

Church in Wales bishops, from left: Bishop John Lomas, Bishop June Osborne, Bishop Gregory Cameron, Archbishop Andrew John, Bishop Joanna Penberthy,
 Bishop Cherry Vann and Bishop Mary Stallard. Source: Church in Wales

The apparently not-at-all-busy archbishop of Wales who needs an assistant to help him do next to nothing has surfaced to make what he regards is an important announcement along with other like-minded Anglicans who are promoting same sex marriage. 

Marching off to Lambeth, not with the cross of Jesus, but with the LGBT banner going on before, the most reverend Andrew John, bishop of Bangor and archbishop of Wales proclaims: "The draft Lambeth Call on human dignity “undermines and subverts" LGBT+ people...the bishops pledge to work to amend the passage “to reflect more adequately our understanding of their equal place in the Church".

 That is a distortion of the facts.

LGBT+ people already have more than an equal place in the Church. Gay bishops, LGBT chaplains, same-sex blessings, pride eucharists. All are welcomed and affirmed.

By contrast, Anglicans who, in conscience, are unable to accept the new order, the ordained ministry of women and the liberal agenda that has come with it are cast aside without a thought. There is no longer even a pretence of any place for them in the Church. That evaporated as soon as the movement for the ordination of women achieved their goal.

The female dominated bench of bishops shows no desire to provide an equal place for Anglicans who have not swallowed their propaganda.

That is a battle lost but the baggage that has come with it continues. For many Anglicans the institution of marriage is sacred. As the official policy of the Church in Wales states:

"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."

To uphold this officially stated view is being characterised as homophobic while the bishops openly campaign to allow same sex marriage in Church, the archbishop of Wales' first expressed wish after his enthronement. 

For the women's movement, first they demanded equality based on secular standards, then parity, already surpassed but the female dominated bench shows no desire to provide an equal place for Anglicans who have not succumbed to their falsehoods.

The bishops of the Church in Wales have become a joke outside their own province. Why should anyone at Lambeth listen to them when their message is anathema to the vast majority of Anglicans and other Christians around the world.

Ironically the lead author in the Lambeth Conference drafting process for The Lambeth Call on Christian Unity is bishop Gregory Cameron - see pages 5 and 44 of the link to LAMBETH CALLS: GUIDANCE AND STUDY DOCUMENTS. The section begins:

"We are committed to the work of unity. We confess we are not united and for Christians that is a scandal and a cause of shame. We urge all our sisters and brothers to commit to work for unity and we call especially on our ecumenical partners to help us, work with us and enable us to move closer to one another."

Yes, it is a scandal. Trendy Anglican bishops are renouncing the faith and dragging down others with them instead of saving their souls. 

Postscripts 

[27/07/2022] Motion of no confidence threat for Justin Welby over the Lambeth Calls surrender

[28/07/2022] From Christian Today: "Bishops who deny the Gospel 'should be removed from their positions'."

[29.07.2022] ORTHODOX bishops at the Lambeth Conference - representing 75% of the Anglican Communion - announced today (29JUL) that they will be tabling their own ‘Lambeth Resolution (Call)’.

[02.08.2022] Orthodox bishops reveal text of resolution reaffirming ‘Lambeth 1.10’ as the Anglican Communion teaching on marriage and sexuality

Affirming love!

Pride Eucharist. Vicar of Abergavenny with bishop Cherry Vann at St Mary's Priory. Source: Twitter

From the Church Times: "Love knows no boundaries":

"The Rt Revd Anthony Poggo, the newly appointed secretary-general of the Anglican Communion (News, 14 June), preached from the parable of the Good Samaritan, noting how Jesus did not praise either the priest or the Levite in the story, but the foreign outsider.

" 'Love knows no cultural, religious, tribal or national boundary,' Bishop Poggo said, urging those listening to remember the suffering of those in Ukraine, the Congo, and elsewhere. His homeland of South Sudan had seen three rounds of displacement thanks to conflict, he said — he and his family had been among the millions who sought refuge in neighbouring Uganda, their own good Samaritan."

Pride Eucharist        Source: Twitter

In response the bishop of Monmouth, Cherry Vann, tweeted: "Just what we  affirmed and celebrated at Abergavenny Pride". 

That is  a distortion of the truth and an insult to those referred to by Bishop Poggo who are suffering and dying for their faith. 

Abergavenny Pride did not celebrate philia or agape. What the Pride movement celebrates is eros.

All the worse because the majority of Anglicans, particularly in Africa have no truck with the twisted thinking of bishops of the Church in Wales and other Western provinces in which the bible is being interpreted to mean not what has been understood over centuries but to convey a message supportive of a non-biblical lifestyle. 

Both in same sex relationships, the bishop recently rewarded the vicar with a canonry. Few can have done more to help queer the Church in Wales.

They have no shame. Having highjacked the Church the Holy Eucharist is now being used to promote the gay pride movement in what has become a secularised institution, drawing-in innocent children. Indoctrination has become widespread.

They talk about love but no love is shown for faithful Anglicans left with no sacramental and pastoral oversight following the untimely death in 2017 of Bishop David Thomas RIP. Just unsubstantiated accusations of homophobia against anyone who refuses to become complicit by going along with the new order, accepting what the majority of Anglicans know to be wrong based on biblical truths.  

When Bishop David Thomas died in 2017 the best part of the Church in Wales died with him. 

Mutual flourishing

Former archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan in his empty cathedral

The Church of England is taking steps to safeguard 'mutual flourishing', a concept dropped by the  bench of bishops of the Church in Wales at the earliest opportunity after securing the vote to allow women bishops.  

From the Church Times - Twelve Church of England people of "varying backgrounds" have been appointed members of the Standing Commission on the House of Bishops’ Declaration and the Five Guiding Principles:

"The setting up of the Commission was recommended by the Implementation and Dialogue Group (IDG), established in 2018 in response to the Independent Reviewer’s report of matters surrounding the nomination — and subsequent withdrawal — of the Rt Revd Philip North as Bishop of Sheffield (News, 9 February 2018). It was tasked with reviewing how the House of Bishops’ Declaration and the Five Guiding Principles — part of the settlement that made possible the admission of women to the episcopate — are understood, implemented, and received in the Church.

"Last year, the General Synod took note of a report from the IDG on whether the Five Guiding Principles, established in 2014 to enable those unable to receive the ministry of female bishops or priests to flourish within the Church’s life and structures, were still “fit for purpose” (News, 16 July 2021).

"The Church House statement says: “Members have been chosen by the House of Bishops, in consultation with the Prolocutors of the House of Clergy and the Chair and Vice Chair of the House of Laity, because of their experience and varying backgrounds.

"The membership has been carefully balanced to ensure there is fair representation of theological viewpoints and a commitment from all to the Five Guiding Principles and mutual flourishing."

While becoming increasingly secularised, as has the Church in Wales, to their credit the Church of England has remained true to its promise to enable those unable to receive the ministry of female bishops or priests to flourish within the Church’s life and structures.

The Church in Wales has not despite implied promises. 

From their Code of Practice: "Since the Church in Wales continues to share the historic episcopate with other Churches, including other Churches of the Anglican Communion, the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches, which continue to ordain only men as priests or bishops, the Bench of Bishops acknowledges that this decision on ministry and gender is set within a broader process of discernment and reception within the Anglican Communion and the whole Church of God.

"Within the Church in Wales, those who on grounds of theological conviction and conscience are unable to receive the sacramental ministry of women bishops or priests continue to be within the spectrum of teaching and tradition of the Anglican Communion. 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."

The Code implied provision for mutual flourishing but it soon became clear that the bishops had no intention of honouring their commitment, frustrating mutual flourishing at every turn.

Sir William Fittall the Independent Reviewer wrote of the situation in England, "To expect someone whose theological conviction does not enable him to receive the sacramental ministry of women routinely to turn up to a celebration of Holy Communion when he cannot discover in advance whether he will be able to receive Holy Communion seems to me to be asking too much."

That is exactly what archbishop Barry Morgan did. From a previous entry  Welsh Primate abandons twin integrity:
"In his newly created role of Acting Dean of his own Cathedral, the dictatorial Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Llandaff, Dr Barry Morgan, has decreed that the Cathedral Office is not to publish the names of officiants at each of the Cathedral services. The intention is to put a further barrier in the way of those who, for theological reasons, are uncomfortable with a woman presiding at the altar. Rather than being able to plan ahead to avoid unfortunate pastoral situations, it would appear that the only way of knowing who is celebrating the Eucharist at Llandaff is to see who appears at the entrance procession."

The Church in Wales prides itself on being inclusive - but on their own terms. It does not extend to making provision for faithful Anglicans whose only desire is to keep the faith with appropriate sacramental and pastoral provision.

Rather than expand The Kingdom the bench chose secularism for the Church in Wales, as the emptying pews testify.

Affirming the truth

 "What is happening to the Church of England? Over the past few decades the Church of England has been drifting farther and farther away from conservative theology and values to a liberal and woke ideology which includes entertaining and promoting critical race theory among other things. This has resulted in fissures within the Anglican communion. Where is the Church of England heading? In this episode, Dr. Costa interviews Calvin Robinson on these and many pressing issues."

The gay pride movement has come a long way in the 50 years since the first protest march. Homophile strategists have been very adept at manipulating public opinion with an 'arsenal' of six tactics that are based upon 'deceptions and half‑truths':

• Exploit the “victim” status;
• Use the sympathetic media;
• Confuse and neutralize the churches;
• Slander and stereotype Christians;
• Bait and switch (hide their true nature); and
• Intimidation.

The Church has suffered particularly badly as a result of the success of this strategy which, regrettably, includes the indoctrination of school children. 

Western Anglicanism along with other religious denominations have capitulated so that same sex couples are able to marry in church in contradiction of Christian beliefs with many places of worship flying the rainbow flag implying LGBTQ+ domination.

In a comparatively short space in time the oppressed have become oppressors, often fighting among themselves. The battle cry of transphobia has been added to accusations of homophobia against anyone who questions illogical aspects of the LGBT movement while women of colour are claiming under-representation and disabled LGBTQ complaining about lack of facilities according to recent BBC Wales news coverage.

The LGBTQ+ movement is splintering as has the Church which is suffering the consequences as it conforms to the world. How refreshing, then, to listen to a newly ordained deacon, Calvin Robinson affirming the truth after Church of England bishops rejected him for ordination because, unlike them, he has kept the faith. In the YouTube interview, above, Calvin expresses the views of many who have been left by the Church.

Asked what faithful Christians can do to "work with him to be salt and light in England" Calvin replied, "I’m planting a church in NW London and I’m looking to start a mission centre for Anglicans to thrive and grow. 

"The GB centre for Confessing Anglicans and The Brotherhood of the Holy Trinity will be a missionary centre for discipling, media ministry, social teaching, and education." 

Something to watch out for. You can register at EvangelicalCatholics.co.uk