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Tuesday, 30 April 2013 How has immigration changed Britain?
Update:
"Channel Crossings: Around 264,000 unauthorised arrivals were recorded between 2018 and 2025, with roughly 73% arriving via small boats across the English Channel." - Migration Observatory
264,000 is the estimated population size of Plymouth.
"The total size of the full-time UK armed forces, comprising the UK regular forces, Gurkhas and full-time reserve service, was around 147,000. Of these, 82,000 were army personnel, 33,000 were members of the Royal Navy or Royal Marines, and 32,000 belonged to the Royal Air Force". - House of Lords Library
I meant to sign my earlier post with a screen name: Howitzer. I think I have used it elsewhere before.
ReplyDeleteAh yes. The Howitzer !!! It could out-blast even the Canons.
DeleteSorry. Your anonymous comment was deleted and cannot be recovered so you will need to resubmit it with your pseudonym.
ReplyDeleteI am hearing from a number of places that the Church in Wales is in the process of conducting an inquiry into the actions of Sion Rhys Evans whilst sub dean and diocesan secretary in Bangor. Apparently the Province has instructed solicitors to conduct this inquiry, presumably with the view of casting all the blame for what went wrong on Sion and Sion alone.
ReplyDeleteNow while Sion is responsible for much of the mess, surely he can't be the only one to be held to account? There are others above and below him who gave him the freedom necessary to cause so much damage. Should they be allowed to hide from their culpability?
Anyone else heard anything?
Deiniol's pet spinger
They could do worse than starting investigating the process used and the moron that appointed the creature in the first place, including the decision to allow ordination.
DeleteThe complete lack of discernment and insight should be included in the remit.
I believe I'm correct in saying SRE was not recommended for training by the Provincial Discernment Panel but the decision was overridden by the former Bishop of Bangor. SRE's preferment rests squarely on his shoulders and if he'd listened to the panel and respected the process, he'd still be Archbishop of Wales now. Sound judgment was not Andy John's strong suit.
DeleteWHAMAB
It's just shame that in matter of SRE that the C-in-W 'Inquisitors' are not able to follow the style of police and the CPS and with SRE, 'cut a deal' for lesser 'sentence' in order to focus then on the larger perpetrator 'Perp not Perv' up the line ... the bigger fish to fry: Andrew John and mob sidekicks.
DeleteThere will be no inquiry. Last thing Manon will want is adverse focus on the diocese at the beginning of her time as bishop. It will be let sleeping dogs lie. There are other issues in the diocese that will rest in locked cupboards.
Delete@Rhigyfarch.
DeleteOh honestly Rhigyfarch; it wasn't so long ago on AB's site that you were Manon's 'Great Defender'. Only sliced-bread before her had been one of God's greatest creations. Then swiftly recognising that perhaps you were alone in that perception of the woman's abilities you turned-turtle some blog-entries ago. But that's by-the-by. Even the Government does frequent 'U-Turns'.
Fact is that +Manon has NO SAY in how the process goes forward and I assume - but don't know - that the very last thing she'd want to do is cross swords (or Crooks) with ++Vann in her first week or so of Dioc.Bangor. ++Vann has probably a greater intellect and more urgent agenda and +Manon yet to pass her probationary period.
But that too is by-the-by. The decision has been taken by the raft of C-in-W units which will of course include Legals. My hearing is that if +Manon is instructed to open the books (and that includes accounts, Minutes, etc) that's exactly what she will have to do. This is a process, not the whim of some Bishop.
So settle down dear lady ... and enjoy the show even though I doubt if there will be any squirming or 'gnashing of teeth' in the process. I still think that to have SRE admit to some lesser allegation in exchange for him opening the Pandora's box on the greater would be cheaper and swifter than a prolonged investigation. Perhaps even for him to cough up to what 'hold' he had over +Andrew John when Diocesan Secretary to have +Andy overturn the wisdom of others and Ordain him. I suspect some of us already know. Call Witness #1 for more insight!!!
Whatever you think Old Bill there will not be an inquiry. In no one s interest to hold one.
DeleteI seem to recall reports of alleged activities in showers in men's changing rooms at a sports centre allegedly having something to do with it.
Delete@Old Bill, for those asking why ++Cherry is doing nothing about the numerous complaints and continual red flags surrounding Manon, her latest public statement supplies the answer. She describes it as her “privilege” to ordain Manon as Bishop and declares the occasion all the more special because Manon is a good friend of hers.
DeleteThat is not an incidental detail. It goes directly to the question of judgement, impartiality and accountability. When someone charged with exercising institutional authority is confronted with serious and repeated concerns about a close personal friend, friendship cannot be permitted to trump scrutiny. Yet that is precisely what this looks like.
This is institutional favouritism in plain sight, personal loyalty entwined with ecclesiastical power, while complaints and uncomfortable questions remain unanswered. It is the antithesis of transparent and accountable governance.
There is something profoundly self-serving about an institution in which those occupying positions of power publicly celebrate their friendships with one another while apparently failing to confront serious concerns about those within the same circle.
Call it collegiality if that makes it more palatable. I call it nepotism: an insular culture of preferment, privilege and self-protection that is as grotesque as it is damaging to the credibility of the Church.
1 Samuel 2-4 strikes me as particularly pertinent to the Arch Bishop Eli!
And that is precisely why there will be no inquiry. It will not be in their interest to have one.
DeleteI call it the Coven closing ranks.
DeleteExciting news from David's - a new Dean.
ReplyDeleteHypostasis
Mark this date of this comment….another ‘career’ clergy desperate for the Bishops crozier….Bishop of Swansea and Brecon ?? The games afoot.
DeleteA friend of Dorothy, I mean Dorrien - they go back decades.
DeleteLucian
I hope the new Dean is more of a person of substance than his video clip appears. In that, he seems curiously fond of dressing up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen red piping and buttons on a shirt/top worn under a suit jacket before. Such things are normally reserved for cassocks! Even the Temu Pope of Bangor never went that far… I wonder if his pyjamas are also equipped with red piping and buttons!!!
DeleteHe is a peacock of portly small proportion but not in his career chasing tendencies…just watch..
DeleteDoes he wear a Biretta in bed to match the piping on the pyjamas?
DeleteSure when the See of Swansea and Brecon falls vacant, they will at least try to appoint someone evangelical. +John Lomas has done a good job of encouraging church growth.
ReplyDeleteIn her enthronement address, Manon said no one is coming to save us.
ReplyDeleteI thought the whole point was that someone already had and continues to do so
There is something profoundly odd about hearing a bishop declare, at her enthronement, that “no one is coming to save us”, more so when that bishop has previously been Dean of a theological college.
DeleteBonhoeffer certainly rejected a Christianity in which God becomes a convenient deus ex machina, a divine rescuer summoned whenever human resources fail. His theology demanded responsible Christian action in the world rather than pious passivity. But Bonhoeffer’s answer was emphatically not that humanity is therefore left to save itself. His theology remained resolutely Christocentric. Christian responsibility exists precisely because God has acted decisively in Christ.
That distinction makes Manon’s formulation theologically extraordinary.
The foundational Christian proclamation is not “no one is coming to save us”. It is that Someone has come to save us, that the risen Christ remains present to his Church, and that Christians continue to confess that Christ will come again.
Of course, a bishop may properly say that Christians cannot sit around waiting for somebody else to undertake the work to which they themselves have been called. But that is an entirely different proposition. “We must take responsibility” is Christian discipleship. “No one is coming to save us” sounds perilously close to a doctrine of self-salvation.
And this raises a rather uncomfortable question. Does Manon hold her own episcopal leadership in such high regard that she imagines that, since nobody else is coming to save the Church, she and those around her must somehow become its saviours? If so, that is not merely an unfortunate turn of phrase. It risks placing human leadership precisely where Christian theology places Christ.
Coming from someone who has led the formation of ordinands, the theological imprecision is particularly difficult to dismiss. One might reasonably expect a former Dean of a theological college to recognise that salvation is not incidental Christian vocabulary. Soteriology is rather central to the enterprise.
Bonhoeffer challenges the Church that waits passively for God to do its work. He does not give the Church permission to speak as though God has ceased doing His.
Christianity offers a rather inconvenient contradiction to Manon’s declaration.
Someone came.
Someone saves.
And Someone is coming again.
In all fairness to her she doesn t quite say that. She quotes a friend who uses the phrase. And in context probably implies that no external body will bail out the institution. Basically what she is saying is that the institution will face the inevitable cuts. Cuts to number of buildings, full time clergy etc. The old old story. The nettle that has never really been grasped. The Gospel and the Church is different from the institution. Although it would be dangerous to say that they do not overlap. Not sure what will happen with Manon or had it been any other Manon or Martin or Mike . Which brings into focus once again what was raised in the GB : ecumenism. Which many have assumed has died the death. There is I think a slim margin of time that the ecumenical project can be looked upon seriously again. What is blatantly obvious is that no single denomination in Wales can now go it alone.
DeleteOn the shop floor the rumour trundles that the new dean could well be Nia Williams vicar of Uwch Gwyrfai. Not long in post. But neither was Manon. Knows the cathedral.
ReplyDeleteY Parch
ReplyDeleteor the Vicar of Bro Enlli perhaps
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps the Archdeacon of Carmarthen might consider heading North, given that the outcome in St Davids was one that few observers will find at all surprising.
DeleteEnfys.