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Saturday, 22 October 2022

Nolights

This is the page returned on clicking the link below: 
"church in wales As-it-happens update ⋅ October 18, 2022
NEWS 
The Church in Wales
The Church in Wales believes and proclaims the Good News of Jesus Christ, namely: that God is active and personal, a Father who cares for his ... "

It seemed most apt. 

The Church in Wales is in a mess, struggling to quantify its beliefs when its bishops have substituted secularism for the Christian faith as received.

The secular agenda of the bishops is leading their flock away from scripture and tradition by embracing secular trends that are at odds with traditional beliefs held by the majority of Anglicans around the world.

What the majority of Anglicans continue to believe has been rejected by the Church in Wales bishops in favour of woke secularism. The sanctity of marriage has been abandoned. Anything goes in the misuse of  the meaning of 'love'.

I have seen no 'Highlights' of the September 2022 meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales, hence 'Nolights' rather than 'Lowlights'. 

Elsewhere there was the announcement that "The Church in Wales will spend more than £100M of its capital reserves over the next decade to help its churches serve their communities more effectively." 

Throwing money around is not going to save the Church in Wales. The bishops need to get back to basics if they care anything for the souls of the faithful.

Postscript [31 Oct 2022]

Highlights - September 2022 Now available on the Church in Wales website.

Wednesday, 12 October 2022

The sinking ship



As 'Jolly June' Osborne prepares to sail off into the sunset on retirement she leaves behind a trail of discontent. There will be few tears spilt over her departure but many on the wreckage she leaves behind.

Thumbing her nose to scripture and tradition she has already set the scene for her successor by hastily installing a dean of her choice rather than letting the new bishop make the appointment. The new dean is a priest living openly in a same-sex partnership who was involved in some discontent over his involvement in the Percy affair during his time at Oxford.

He should fit in well, not only in the diocese but in the province which is foundering on the rocks of secularism following a string of political appointments.

In her long running battle with the former dean the bishop was forced to face allegations of bullying after it was decided that she had a case to answer. The allegations were subsequently withdrawn

Meanwhile the Revd Vicki Burrows, the Garth Ministry Area Leader, wrote of a "culture of fear" in the diocese in the Church Times (Letters, 17/24 December) and called for the suspension of the Rt Rev June Osborne, after the bishop was accused of "bullying and harassment".

The vicar resigned saying that she “can no longer minister with any sense of integrity in Llandaff”.

Bishop Osborne's response was to appoint the Rev'd Ian Yemm, "who is married to Bernhard, an NHS doctor", in what appears to be another attempt to pre-empt a decision by the Church in Wales.

No doubt the bishop of Llandaff with the again absent bishop of St Davids were influential in the appointment of the first lesbian bishop, the bishop of Monmouth, who also lives with her same sex partner giving the impression that their ministries have more to do with the promotion of homosexuality than the sanctity of Christian marriage.

What of the bishop of St Davids? The original announcement in August of Joanna Penberthy's latest sick leave  promised updates as they became available. I can no longer find that notice, perhaps because there have been no updates which is typical of the mushroom method of management in the Church in Wales.

This is what happens when sociology replaces theology.

Former giants of the Church in Wales before bishops were replaced by 'prefects'.
Five held Oxford Firsts in Theology.     Source: Anglican Misfit

But whatever the cause, the latest Church Growth Modelling is bad news for the Church in Wales as well as other denominations as wokeness replaces holiness:

"The Church in Wales contains a mixture of churchmanships, and for many years all were on the conservative side. However, in the last 25 years, it has become increasingly liberal. In common with most historic UK Christian denominations, it has steadily declined since 1960. This analysis investigates the likelihood of decline leading to denominational extinction.

"The Church in Wales is forecast to be extinct by 2038."

The author writes, "Churches do not grow by becoming like society and attracting people, but by becoming like Jesus and converting people."

Exactly.

Tuesday, 4 October 2022

Strictly woke

Strictly 2022 contestants                                                                                                                              Source: BBC Media


You can read everything you need to know about Strictly Come Dancing 2022 here - according to the BBC.

Others have a different story. From Mail Online: "The first live show of the new series of Strictly Come Dancing was watched by an average of 6.8 million viewers, according to overnight ratings. This was a drop in viewing figures from 2021's first live show which was watched by an average 7.9 million."

The reason according to other reports is that Strictly Come Dancing has become the BBC’s latest woke box-ticking exercise. Allison Pearson wrote in the Telegraph: "From mis-matched same-sex couples to the show’s first contestant with dwarfism, it’s clear producers value ‘inclusion’ over entertainment."

The show is following the same trend as the Eurovision Song Contest with next to no link between actual performance and voting. Even the judges appeared to be influenced by the tightness of a contestant's trousers which three commented on before what I thought was a lack lustre performance.

How far this has come from the Television Dancing Club which I commented on in 2019 when I wrote A million miles from Victor Sylvester! The BBC commented in 2014:

"Television Dancing Club first took to the floor on 27 January 1948. It was presented by popular band leader Victor Silvester and his Ballroom Orchestra, and brought some much appreciated glamour into the homes of viewers struggling with post-war austerity. Its mixture of dance lessons, competitions and show-dances proved a great hit and it launched television’s fascination with ballroom dancing that continues to this day."

Glitz without guilt. Those were the days.