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| Fowey Parish Church: Source Parish Website |
From Mail Online: "‘Remind me, it is 2023, isn’t it?’: Why has the Cornish town Dawn French loves risked such an unholy row by refusing its own Vicar of Dibley?"
Yes, it is 2023 but the author of the Mail article headlined above appears unable or unwilling to separate fact from fiction. It is riddled with prejudice against those who follow traditional Christian teaching rather than the fad of the day.
Under the Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure 1993 (No. 2) a Resolution may be made "That this parochial church council would not accept a woman as the minister who presides at or celebrates the Holy Communion or pronounces the Absolution in the parish."
That is the factual position.
The Vicar Of Dibley is a TV fantasy show but it is portrayed as reality by people with no religion of their own and feminists in the Church wishing to undermine fellow Anglicans who, on theological grounds, are unable to receive the sacramental ministry of women.
Ignorance offers no hinderance.
Some comments from the Mail article:
'It appears the parish church representatives here are obviously bigots,' said one comment on a community Facebook page.
'You should hang your heads in shame, such a bad decision,' read another. 'Remind me, it is 2023 isn't it?'
Progressives resort to lies and false accusations because they can muster no valid arguments to defend their own position This is typified by the Chair of Women And The Church (WATCH) who endlessly protests on Twitter and elsewhere about so called discrimination, simply because others disagree with her misrepresentations.
In this Christian Institute video the question is asked Do Christians want to drown children who 'might turn out to be gay'?
The video illustrates how LGBT activists Jayne Ozanne and Peter Tatchell think so while Archbishop Justin Welby appears to agree with them.
Also present at the confrontation was Ben Bradshaw MP who yesterday introduced a ‘ten minute rule motion’ aimed at forcing the Church of England to conduct same-sex marriages. It was passed by the House of Commons without a vote. This was despite Bradshaw himself saying in 2013 that it was the “prerogative” of the C of E’s leadership to decide not to allow gay weddings.
Beth Rigby of Sky News peddled the same discrimination line when mixing unrelated issues in an interview with Archbishop Justin Welby after the Ozanne/Tatchell demonstration. In the interview the archbishop refers to 'equal marriage' which implicitly accepts the redefinition of Holy Matrimony as not being solely between one man and one woman for life.
The concepts of mutual flourishing and twin integrities have been swept under the carpet under the guise of equality. Traditional beliefs are now classified as bigoted, homophobic discriminatory simply because progressives have no valid arguments to support their stance.
People not toeing the progressive line are shut down or removed. Witness Christian theology lecturer Dr Aaron Edwards who was sacked for misconduct and threatened with a counter-terrorism referral by a Methodist Bible college for allegedly “bringing the college into disrepute” on social media for a tweet on human sexuality that went viral.
On 19 February 2023, Dr Edwards posted: "Homosexuality is invading the Church. Evangelicals no longer see the severity of this b/c they’re busy apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it’s true. This *is* a 'Gospel issue', by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Saviour."
The Ordinariate has also succumbed to intimidation. The Rev Calvin Robinson, an orthodox Anglican deacon, fighting the culture wars on behalf of the Christian faith is being cancelled 'step by step, day by day'.
Robinson has been cancelled by a group of Catholic choir singers and the Catholic clergy to whom they made an ultimatum. According to Church Militant, the English Ordinariate withdrew an invitation to broadcast Robinson's celebration of Easter on GB News after complaints allegedly initiated by members of the choir who disagreed with views expressed by the preacher.
This is progress?
Since Mr Robinson was made deacon by not the C of E but by a splinter group which grew up in protestant response to the Oxford Movement one wonders, while wishing him well, why he was invited in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI have just been watching a video on YouTube, featuring a talk by Rowan Williams on the subject of Ethics and Solidatarity.
ReplyDeleteIt is well worth 30 mins of your time.
For me the central message was:
What affects me, also affects you. Perhaps not in the same way, but knowing what your position is on any issue, and you knowing mine , is the only way to proceed if we are to show our Christian "solidarity " to the world.
When we understand the position/ viewpoint of the other, we are then able to have a rational discussion and hopefully to achieve a working " solidarity" which allows our civil and religious life to proceed peacefully.
After all, we all come from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Our needs and beliefs are going to be inevitably different, but surely we don't need to move away from the Solidarity that Rowan mentions.
I am right, and you are wrong works both ways and is equally destructive of our civil society.
Do give Rowan a view!
You won't regret it.
Cymro