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Tuesday, 16 June 2026

From the archives


Sacred Synod July, 2017                                                                                                                       Source: Church in Wales

Spot the problem(s).     

Postscript 

48 comments:

  1. Laughing Gas 🤣16 June 2026 at 08:31

    I've lost count already.

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  2. Spot the Problem??? They're all looking happy and clapping! What is there to be happy about!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A fat salary for doing bugger all, a non-contributory pension to collect when you've finished doing bugger all and unaudited discretionary petty cash to spend how you like until that day arrives.
      What's not to like?

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  3. Caiaphas: "No tongues, John"

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  4. Lux et Veritas16 June 2026 at 13:01

    Less than nine years have elapsed but five of the six have left in disgrace as Fatboy Slim clings on by his finger nails.
    Never never never trust (Church in Wales) bishops.

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    1. My fear is Lux et etc., that if the Llandudno 'joyous' talking shop gets the election of Bangor wrong (again), then its not the future of the existing bishops which need bother us .... but the desertion of more decent Diocese of Bangor parish priests to other diocese (and indeed out of Wales) which will be the downfall. Too many of them simply quit under Andy John. Even more if Manon James succeeds to the See. She's apparently not popular. Nor - for those with memories of Townsend's brown-nosing +John is the other local contender.

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    2. Fr Duddleswell16 June 2026 at 19:00

      Don’t forget old Mystic Meg from Llangollen…

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    3. Menai Straight16 June 2026 at 22:32

      You think some decent priests are left?😱😱
      I can scarce believe it!

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    4. Some of us are prayerful, diligent, and preach the gospel with faithfulness

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    5. Not really good enough 'Y Parch'. Most church-attending congregants are 'prayerful' and follow the gospels 'with faithfulness'. What we expect of Parish Priests and those elevated to higher office is significantly more than that. Far, far more and not just sitting in clergy conferences, attending retreats and navel-gazing waiting for the Spirit of the Lord to descend as a dove to sort it all out. God, I am sure, would prefer action to repetitions of Prayers.

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    6. you believe all I do is sit in conferences, attend retreats and navel gaze, and pronounce judgement without knowing me or my colleagues throughout the diocese.

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    7. Leadership and courage are what are most desperately needed.
      Bugger the Bishops.
      Bewildered

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    8. Given the personal habits of so many of your colleagues it's a relief to see you didn't include Naval gazing, Y Parch.🤣

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    9. What's the reference to Mystic Meg of Llangollen in this context?

      Outsider

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  5. Is this a case of "things were better in my day"?

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    1. Why don't you tell us?

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    2. @ Celt.
      In my case (above), the answer is yes. The not-so-distant days when there'd be decent congregations, when Vicars engaged in 'pastoral care', visitations of the sick, etc. There'd be vibrant Sunday Schools, Mothers' Unions, the priest would be seen in the local pub, Vicarages were 'open-door', churches would be the attractive place for Saturday weddings; infant Baptisms at the font were common place, crematoriums were there simply for that purpose ... not as more secular option of avoiding the local church and parish priests studied post graduate Theology or Divinity, not social services or nail-clipping, Churches across Wales Wales focussed on contributing to the world communion such as CMS, Mission to Seamen, Barnados, SPCK and not in wasteful funding on cosmetics, the employment of more and more non-back-office 'advisors' , administrators, chief Execs; IT and PR executives, Aga Ovens, cathedral pews, LGBTQ flags, offsite conferences in Rome and America, huge pay-offs to clergy threatening employment tribunal action against their diocese etc. More particularly, the days when Vicars could actually deliver a 10-12 minute sermon which might have some scriptual or Biblical meaning rather than a 'stand-up' waffle of banal nonsenses - some even verging on political - delivered today.

      Yes. Things were better in my day. Churches were filled. Parishioners were happy. Clergy didn't stab each other in the back. I think 'my day' came to its end when the affects of Barry Morgan's style of leadership creeped in into the parishes of Wales and the priesthood itself (apart from the Wimmin Lobby and later the LGBTQ cabal) simply threw their towels in.

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  6. Ah, the good old days. It sounds idyllic! If only it could be like that now. You don't know how lucky you were.

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  7. So it's the Dean for Bangor. What a surprise!


    Periglor

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  8. Well it’s Manon… Good luck Bangor

    Fed Up

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  9. It is Manon. The End.

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  10. No surprise there.

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  11. It could have been so much worse.

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  12. Fr Duddleswell17 June 2026 at 18:24

    I know that some posters are opposed to the ordained ministry of women. I do not share their view. I am, however, totally opposed to the preferment of incompetents and/or people who damage others. This appointment drives me to despair.

    Having dispatched one Bishop renowned for incompetence, mishandling of situations, and alleged to have bullied many, the electors have promptly replaced him with one of similar ilk. A Dean who promised much and delivered nothing, made an appalling situation even worse, by all accounts, and carries with her allegations of bullying from at least one previous role.

    The people and good frontline clergy of the Diocese have been extremely badly served by the electors, and badly let down by the denomination. They deserved far better. I fear it is now the end for the Diocese of Bangor, not because the new Bishop is a woman, but because all signs point to her episcopacy being a case of more of the same.

    As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, until it all ends.

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    Replies
    1. Shan't waste my breath saying: 'let's see how it pans out'. I know the outcome. Total failure. Who to blame? ++Vann for (a) appointing her as Dean of Bangor post SRE debacle and (b) not accounting her for her failings whilst in post. That's me done with Bangor and the C-in-W.

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  13. St Asaph regular

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  14. Menai Straight17 June 2026 at 19:39

    And there it is in a nutcase!
    The chocolate 🍫 teapot has been replaced with a chocolate teapotette.
    Quelle bloody surprise🤦
    The dash to oblivion increases speed.

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    Replies
    1. And it’s not even April the first!!!

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  15. When i was a curate. I was at lunch with Manon as my IME officer and had to sit through her and another female colleague discuss the quality of male clergy bottoms in the diocese. Stuart Ash won the contest from what i remember.

    At a later date. She disclosed highly personal information about me to a family member. Information she gained from a professional capacity. She raised it with him believing he already knew and wanted a gossip about it. The latter was within the last 12 months.

    The new bishop of bangor ladies and gentlemen.

    CinW leaver.

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    Replies
    1. Also endured this alongside other bullying tactics in St Padarn’s.

      DisgruntledMinister

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    2. Can we have a picture of Stuart Ash's bottom so that we can judge for ourselves? It might be that Manon has very good taste! The thing is you yourself remember that Ash won the contest, so I suspect it's a judgement you agreed with. How funny.

      BottomsUp

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  16. St Asaph Regular17 June 2026 at 21:16

    The Church in Wales has become so intoxicated by its own sense of importance that it appears genuinely to believe nobody can see through its games. It operates with the complacency of an institution convinced that accountability is for other people and that the wider public will simply accept whatever absurdity is presented as wisdom. Yet people can see perfectly well what is happening. They can see appointments that defy credibility, decisions that mock common sense, and a culture that too often appears more interested in protecting reputations than pursuing truth.

    What is most astonishing is not the conduct itself but the apparent belief that nobody will notice. The Church behaves like a medieval court surrounded by loyal courtiers applauding every misjudgement while the rest of the world looks on in disbelief. It speaks endlessly of justice, integrity, and discernment, yet too often appears incapable of applying those principles to itself. Every perverse decision, every act of institutional self-preservation, and every display of breathtaking arrogance chips away at what little moral authority remains.

    The real scandal is not that these things occur. The real scandal is that those responsible seem genuinely convinced that everyone else is too foolish to recognise them.

    The little tryst’s on the sea front of Llandudno governing body between cherry and mannon, the side comments of things will be changing in a direction of a Welsh speaking female Bishop by ++ Gregory at the last GB etc etc makes the whole process a complete mockery……if ever there was a reason to believe in the day of reckoning……it is today, you will be held to account for what you have done to our church.

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    1. Are you all sure her name is Manon?
      By the sound of it, Manon would be nearer the mark.
      Is she another lesbian too?

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    2. Apologies readers, autocorrect defeated me.
      Manon and Mamon were originally typed.

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    3. St Asaph regular18 June 2026 at 10:47

      Exodus, no not a lesbian, quite a huntress by all accounts, regularly commented on here is her lascivious and inappropriate ways with the male ordinands under her care while at StPadarns..and of course the scandal surrounding the poor dumped ex husband Dave Parry……quite the choice….!!

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    4. Quite the slapper then?
      It's almost as though the days of Carl Cooper and randy Mandy never went away!
      🤣
      Mamon the man-eater.

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  17. Reminder: Anonymous comments intended for publication must include a pseudonym.

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  18. Have a look at the Church in Wales Facebook page, and the pictures after Manon s election. The whole electoral college is outside Holy Trinity Llandudno looking and applauding . But if you didn't know otherwise they are applauding empty space. There is nobody there. They are looking at nothing. And that probably sums it up. There is nothing there anymore. We are applauding God-knows-what. The pictures are both very funny and very sad. And more than anything shows the disconnect by now between the leadership and the rest of us. The pictures are quite haunting, a group of people clapping but at what and why?

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    1. Laughing Gas 🤣18 June 2026 at 18:11

      A bunch of wet Circus seals 🦭
      Someone chuck them a fish over which they can squabble and elect next.

      Delete
  19. I see another problem in the AB photo challenge. It's surely AI generated. It suggests that a man-priest is actually cuddling a female priest!! Outrageous in these modern C-in-W times when such behaviour was to have been stamped out. Next you'll know is that they'll be blessing mixed (hetrosexual) marriages. The end is nigh.

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    Replies
    1. https://ancientbritonpetros.blogspot.com/2017/07/more-of-same.html

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  20. What wonderful news that we have returned to equality for women amongst the Bishops. I am delighted that Rev Dr Manon has been appointed given her scholarly background and the desperate need to rid Bangor of its widely-reported issues. We need strong female leaders and academics amongst our Bishops in order to bring back the youth to our declining Church. Finally I see a way forward for our church - that is rid of its toxic masculinity and embraces the feminine future of the church.

    True CinW Feminist

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    1. Oh dear. Here we go again. Seems from True CinW Feminist (above) comment that what a Bishop has within her knickers, or underpants, as the case might be, is all that matters. Then the other celebration of Manon James appointment as the Great Redeemer who will return the CinW to the Capel Fawr all-Welsh (but long dead) tradition.

      Ah well. Good luck to CinW Feminist in her championing that church pews and communion alter rails be packed with Lesbo 'wimmin' and toxic men can go suck eggs. Not sure if Christ might see it that way, He and his disciples were all Men and none, I believe, ardent Welsh language speakers.

      Bye-bye CinW.. At least you saw 100+ years through before you self-imploded.

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    2. Are you even in the Bangor doicese?
      Is that you Peggy, or is it Jenny or Joanna?
      The toxic feminazis and their queered theology are the real problems and congregant numbers will just collapse further, but of course the RB will conceal the ongoing decline.

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    3. How did that go in St David’s with Joanna Penberthy? Now the Dean who’s run the Cathedral into the ground. How did it go with June Osborne in Llandaff? The truth is choosing candidates based on gender is totally wrong.

      Whamab

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  21. Manon has been a senior part of the regime for some time now. And all ive seen is decline. Im not aware of her generating any substantial growth in any of the capacities she's worked in so far. Im not entirely sure what her ministry has contributed as of yet? So, perhaps it will all change now she's a bishop. Perhaps shes been saving it for this moment. Lets wait and see.

    Converted exile

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    1. St Asaph Regular19 June 2026 at 19:50

      Converted exile, my concerns go much further than questions of growth or leadership. From my perspective, Manon is a deeply divisive figure. I do not see her as someone who has sought to bring people together across different traditions and viewpoints within the Church, in fact the opposite, only within the last 9 months did she appear in disciplinary proceedings accused of bullying a vulnerable ordinand who had to finish her final year away from the St Padarns as a result… these are not spurious accusations but fact that the likes of Vann (knowing full well) has sought to hide and gloss over

      My impression is that she represents a particular ideological outlook which many people feel excluded (by virtue of gender, class, tradition or nationality) by rather than included within. Whether fairly or unfairly, there are significant numbers of people who view her appointment with concern rather than enthusiasm, and I think it is a mistake to dismiss those concerns as irrelevant or reactionary.

      Let’s not forget her self proclaimed hobby of a stand up comic where she stood in front of an audience in Rhyl comedy club and delivered her line, “I am a priest in the Church in Wales so let me begin by apologising for the paedophiles”, just a few years ago..as declared to the students of her college in yet another booze fuelled residential weekend, (which if anyone would care to submit a freedom of information request) would discover run into approximately £30,000 per weekend x 4 times per year….again self proclaiming that she reserves the best rooms with the best facilities and expenses for the bar for the staff as their ‘reward’,

      This is one of the most worrying appointments in history which I am sure will show that the Bangor appointments previously made will have seemed positively divinely inspired.

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