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| King Charles delivering his Christmas Day speech Source: Christian Today |
King Charles went on to say "Diversity of culture, ethnicity and faith provides strength not weakness" but as commented on in Christian Today 'That is not self-evidently true'.
There is one faith/ideology that frequently appears in the news as the main source of conflict. Less frequent is the reporting of the deaths, kidnappings and other atrocities regularly perpetrated in Africa and elsewhere around the globe. According to Open Doors, three fifths of the countries listed suffer persecution as a result of this one ideology.
While the hand of friendship is extended to its adherants in the United Kingdom, blind eyes are turned to world events. Thousands of people who do not share our values continue to enter the UK seeking to replace our culture with theirs.
As demonstrations in the UK are becoming more devisive it has become risky to comment on such matters for fear of attracting accusations of a hate crime. Free speech in Britain is at risk.
Christianity is being diluted in the name of diversity. Recently I read a report “Woke” MoD Bosses to Strip Cross From Military Cap Badge as part of efforts to make the British Army chaplains department more diverse and multicultural. I wonder what Queen Elizabeth would have had to say about that.
The situation is becoming dire. We have a woke government and a woke church.
For full assessment by former Queen's Chaplain Gavin Ashenden watch King Charles Christmas Speech - A Declaration of Civil War.
A good New Year's resolution would be to pray for our increasingly dis-United Kingdom.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Postscript 03.01.2025
PRAYER ALERT: One-year-old killed as Nigerian Christians targeted at Christmas
@ AB
ReplyDeleteOld Father Time moves on AB and as the Monarchy keeps up with changes in the demography of the United Kingdom - its increasing numbers of Asian, Afro and Middle Eastern citizens ensconced into our communities - so too ought our Faith leaders let go the exclusiveness of the Anglican church as 'the establishment'. Even Golf Clubs and Pall Mall's rows of Gentlemens' Clubs have adjusted to modernity by accepting women members. Britain is not an 'exclusive' club. Go back only a few centuries of Kings of England, the quasi-pagan Normans of the 12th century for instance, and they were debating the same as your missive ... we don't like change. But change there was.
Left to your ethos then not just will the Anglican church fall into total demise, but it will take the Monarchy with it. There's been a huge and perhaps progressive change in socio-opinion since the heyday of HM Elizabeth II and one which HM Charles III must continue if there is to be continuity of the Monarchy.
The mass of Charles III subjects care not a hoot for even the Christian faith he does take from his mother any more than they have interest in his favoured game of Polo.
Let's just celebrate the fact that we have a reigning King who actually does worship his God and one who also has understanding of and interest in the close links with other faiths of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. Let's not forget the Commonwealth of which he is also head. In his strong commitment to the Church, in his devotions to prayer etc., he might - heaven forbid - be the last of the line.
Its called progressive evolution. As time moves on, so too do values.
Are there no constants in your dystopian nightmare?
DeleteBewildered
Although I am basically a Republican rather than a Monarchist, I am broadly in agreement with Old Bill. We may wish to turn the clock back and wish for a "Christian Britain" (whatever that may mean); the fact is we have been an increasingly multicultural nation for many years. One could argue that this has been the case for 20 centuries, with the Romans bringing in folk not only from Italy but from around the Empire, then the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Normans etc. Each have had their effects on national culture. Our concept of monarchy has also evolved: Charles 3 is very different to Henry 8 or William 1!
DeleteI wonder how far you will be able/want to celebrate this change when a certain ideology takes over and will deny you that freedom.
DeleteOthers might call it regressive evolution.
DeleteHarking back to a previous, recent, AB blog ref Sion ap Rhys Evans and Bangor shenanigans, journalist Martin Shipton has today published his piece on Nation.Cymru which is probably as close as we'll get to the truth behind the saga. From the Bangor 'Whisperer's Corner' it hardly tickles the surface however ... but a far better start than anything ++Andrew John or his PR Department has been prepared to say on the fiasco.
ReplyDeleteI do take issue with Mr. Shipman's source who credits the former sub-dean with boosting congregant numbers. There have been many other factors at play here not least that two former rather 'duff' deans had almost entirely emptied the pews and deserters began to return back of their own accord once they'd been fired and that of course, with almost all other parish churches in the Bangor area now closed or priestless, there's no where else for the faithful to worship. That, and the national rise in cathedral 'popularity' with or without a clown leading the service.
ap Rhys's failings ought to have been spotted from the day he was appointed Diocesan Secretary. First signal was the large number of decent, popular clergy of the diocese who quit or transferred elsewhere because they simply couldn't work with him. Then his unlimited and lavish spending on the Diocesan Offices - thousands and thousands of pounds - conning everyone that he would turn it into a profit-making, commercial management centre. Not a single booking came of it.
ReplyDeleteThen his outburst that the newly-refurbished (as massive cost along with a Cinderella staircase) wasn't fit for clergy to live in due to close proximity to a pub noise nuisance. After waving through almost £1,000,000 to re-house the Dean and Canon, he suddenly had a change of heart ... and moved in himself!! Still no one questioned his mad-cap rationale. Then his selection of buddy-buddy chums with no association to Bangor he personally appointed to the Chapter; once installed, never to be seen again.
The list goes on. Who's to blame? Obviously the person who appointed him. The same person who ordained him despite the C-in-W unanimously rejecting him for priesthood within 20 minutes of his selection interview beginning. Now who could that be?
Never mind before his appointment to the Bangor Deanery.
DeleteThe failings of the Bangor mincer were patently obvious to the entire human race before he even applied for ordination in the first place.
Except to the chocolate teapot it seems.
Yeh, complete mystery who ought to have managed things better haha
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