Minorities

Credit: PoliticalCharge/DailyKos

In a move influenced by Black Lives Matter, Minorities should have a say on future Church of England bishops to improve diversity, reports Mail Online:

"All future Church of England bishops should be approved by a representative from black or minority groups, leaders have recommended. The reforms will give a black or ethnic minority churchgoer an effective veto over who lands the most senior posts. The move, which was influenced by the Black Lives Matter movement, follows a year of Anglican agonising over race...The authors said the BLM movement ‘provides a particular context to the conclusion of our work and brings into sharp focus the issues of diversity highlighted throughout our report’." 

According to the New York Post, Marxist BLM leader and co-founder reportedly "raked in big bucks from jail reform initiative". 

NYP also tweeted that the BLM founder has 'built up a million-dollar property empire with at least four homes'. Something else for the Church of England's Marxist bishops to ponder.

Another minority, the Church in Wales, reports that "the Church is on track to be more inclusive, better organised and equipped and more focused on outreach", according to their Archbishop who was making his final Presidential Address to GB members before he retires in May.

The Archbishop's hope was that the Church "might grow in an ever-deepening, radically inclusive love for each other and for those not yet a part of us".

 'Inclusive' has come to mean openly gay while many have been set apart by the policies of the Bench of Bishops. 

Charity begins at home but there is no love in the Church in Wales for anyone who fails to comply with their woke agenda. 

Source: Church in Wales

One of the ironies of the GB meeting held online earlier this week was the enthusiastic support for a private members motion calling for 2022 to be a year of Biblical literacy.

Voting was: For 92, Against 1 with 3 abstentions.

Archbishop Davies supported the motion 'with all his heart' but the problem for the Bench is not literacy (the ability to read and write) but interpretation.

The Rev Dr Kevin Ellis who seconded the motion posed the question: How can we tell the story if we don't know it? Quite! The more so if the story is re-interpreted for reasons of political expediency.

The Standing Committee reported that:  "A  Bill to authorise experimental use of proposed revisions to the Book of Common Prayer (a service of blessing following a civil partnership or marriage between two people of the same sex) has been submitted to the Standing Committee by the Bench of Bishops", undeterred by earlier criticism that it is not legitimate to set aside the Church’s traditional understanding of what the Bible has to say about same-sex relationships to satisfy a handful of homosexuals and lesbians who may or may not choose to avail themselves of the opportunity of having their union blessed. Explanatory memorandum here.

The divorced and re-married Bishop of Bangor who will be the senior bishop in the Church in Wales following the archbishop's retirement and first inline for election to Archbishop if Buggins' turn applies again. He has also been told that his plea for gay marriage was not convincing.

Another well received Report, Faithful Stewards in a Changing Church (Understanding Ordained Ministry in the Light of the 2020 vision) concludes as follows:

Our Pilgrimage

            If the metaphor of an expedition has any merit, then ours is not simply a long trek in

a wilderness (however much it may seem that way at times). It is a pilgrimage from an upper

room in Jerusalem to the multicultural Wales of today, in which we follow in the footsteps of

Jesus Christ, in whose life we minister. Like any long pilgrimage, our own has experienced

many highs and lows, times when we have marched on with energy and determination and

times when we have become lost among the temptations and concerns of our world. But in

every stage, those called to ordained ministry have rediscovered their priestly vocation to

offer themselves in holy service to all within their care. As we embark on the next phase of

our pilgrimage within the fast-changing social landscape of 21st-century Wales, it is our prayer

that we may come to embrace a renewed vision of our shared ministry to God’s people and

find our deepest joy in Christ Jesus “in whose service lies perfect freedom”.

'Multicultural Wales of today' has come a long way from the upper room in Jerusalem. 

The Bench of Bishops is hell-bent on interpreting the Bible to reflect secular changes but as the bishop of Monmouth aptly reminded GB, only a tiny minority of the population of Wales, less than 1%, regularly attends Church in Wales services. 

Another minority (mis)leading a minority.

Another 'BLM' bishop

Rt Revd Mark Tanner has been confirmed as the new Bishop of Chester.         Source: CheshireLive

The new Bishop of Chester has announced that he is a supporter of Black Lives Matter.

That should go down well with Stephen Cottrell the new Archbishop of York who also came out as a Black Lives Matter supporter while declaring that Jesus was a black man.

From the Telegraph (£):
"BLM happily self-identifies as a neo-Marxist movement with various far left objectives, including defunding the police (an evolution of the Panther position of public open-carry to control the police), to dismantling capitalism and the patriarchal system, disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure, seeking reparations from slavery to redistribute wealth and via various offshoot appeals, to raise money to bail black prisoners awaiting trial. The notion of seizing control of the apportionment of capital, dismantling the frameworks of society and neutralising and undermining law enforcement are not just Marxist, but anarchic."

There are more worrying facts from Alexander Boot about the BLM affiliate, Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) in his blog.

Assuming that 'going along to get on' aspirants in the Church of England understand what they are supporting this is another worrying development for orthodoxy.

Postscript [26.07.2020]

From Twitter: "The leader of Oxford Black Lives Matter Sasha calls for a black militia, compares the police to the KKK and calls for a revolution."

Previously on Twitter: "Oxford Black Lives Matter leader Sasha uses racial slurs and threats of violence to abuse a black man."

Will the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Chester reconsider their support for the BLM movement? I doubt it.

Essex "Oik" to be Confirmed as Archbishop of York.

BLM supporter Cottrell is also a vocal supporter of same‑sex relationships          Source: The Times

The self proclaimed “Oik from Essex” is to be confirmed as the 98th Archbishop of York at 11am on Thursday 9 July, 2020, in a service broadcast entirely via video conference due to the Coronavirus restrictions.

An apt description for a bishop in favour of same-sex relationships who has come out as a Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporter claiming that Jesus was a black man rather than a Jew.

It is reported in The Press that the new archbishop also claimed "the country's leaders had 'let us down' saying he despaired of a political culture that could not see beyond the five-year term of the next election."

That's rich coming from one of the Church of England bishops who have made the Church of England largely irrelevant in its attempt to become more relevant to society, jettisoning faithful Anglicans in the process with disastrous results as indicated by ever decreasing attendance.

Cottrell also warned of the "dangers of extremism rising up" but he backs the BLM movement, a movement that is about revolution.

According to The Spectator BLM want to ‘dismantle capitalism’, abolish prisons, get rid of borders and the police. They claim climate change is 'racist', unemployment is 'violence', that Churchill was 'staunchly racist' and that the government appointment of a Pakistani heritage woman is 'racist'. They 'condemn stop and search' and the suffragettes while describing big charities as 'colonisers'.

Writing about qualities required of Church leaders Christian Today commented that a Sunday Times interview with the new Archbishop of York was startling, puzzling – offensive?:

"The New Testament is pretty clear that those in leadership should be able to control their tongues better than most.

"It is surprising to read in the Sunday Times  that Cottrell 'peppers his talks to his clergy with phrases such as "what the bloody hell" and "who gives a toss?".'...Why use these words when there are more than 170,000 other ones in English to choose from? Cottrell needs to read Ephesians 4 v29. This is no trivial thing.

"Another quality the Bible tells us to expect from a church leader is that they 'must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine'.  Not for nothing does the Church of England consecration service for Bishops state that they must be 'guardians of the faith of the apostles'.

"But how can Cottrell do that in relation to issues of sexual morality? Far from teaching the doctrine of Christ in this area as the Church of England believes it, and handing it on in its entirety, he only 'understands it and respects it' according to the interview. Indeed, as is well known, he wants to change it."

Asked if there was any room for New Testament teaching on leadership? "On that, Bishop Cottrell, in this interview at least, remains silent."

He has however apologised for not properly reporting allegations of domestic abuse made against a parish priest a decade ago.

There were allegations that Cottrell's predecessor Archbishop John Sentamu failed to respond properly to a report of clerical child abuse to protect bishops from allegations of misconduct but any evidence was, allegedly, washed away in the Yorkshire floods.

In the last century four archbishops were translated from York to Canterbury.

One can but speculate on the qualities that will be required for the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

As Cottrell replaces a black man as Archbishop of York he has called for greater equality for black and minority ethnic (BAME) clergy in the upper echelons of the church, and said bishops “must take responsibility” for a lack of diversity.

The bishop of Dover has made similar calls.

You couldn't make it up.

Postscript [09.07.2020]

During Archbishop Welby's confirmation of Stephen Cottrell as Archbishop of York he referred to "the care, government and administration of the spirituals of the Archbigot of York" before hastily correcting himself . [After position 34 in the video.]

Freudian slip?

Woke Welby and his 'white Jesus'

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby                                 Source: Rebel Priest

From The Jerusalem Post: The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the Anglican Church should reconsider its portrayal of Jesus as a white man.

It is not clear for whom he was speaking when he expressed his belief that Anglicans thought of the Son of God as a white man. The archbishop and most of his trendy episcopal colleagues long since abandoned the faith as orthodox Anglicans along with the Church in Wales and the Episcopal Church of the United States (TEC), both of which have become irrelevant as Churches for the faithful.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Justin Welby said that in light of the Black Lives Matter protests, the West needed to question whether the traditional portrayal of Jesus as a white man by Western churches was the correct approach to take.

The archbishop added, “Jesus is portrayed in as many ways as there are cultures, languages and understandings."  He did not think that "throwing out everything we’ve got in the past is the way to do it" but thought "that’s not the Jesus who exists, that’s not who we worship. It is a reminder of the universality of the God who became fully human.”

Commenting on the Black Lives Matter campaign to remove statues to figures deemed controversial, he said that people should forgive the 'trespasses' of those who were being commemorated, rather than remove statues, but added that the church would be reviewing the monuments it holds.

When asked if people should forgive the trespasses of those immortalised in the form of statues, rather than tearing them down, Welby said: "Some will have to come down. We can only do that if we've got justice, which means the statue needs to be put in context.

"Some names will have to change. The church, goodness me you know, you just go around Canterbury Cathedral, there are monuments everywhere or Westminster Abbey, and we're looking at all that, and some will have to come down."

Described as the Woke Archbishop the Archbishop of Canterbury, Welby is “ashamed of our history” and of his supposed advantages as a straight white male.

He has become leader of the self loathing brigade, apologising for anything and everything in the past that is questioned in the woke culture.

He preaches the gospel of woke and slanders his own flock. With no supporting evidence he asserted "There is no doubt," that "when we look at our own Church we are still deeply institutionally racist."

Bending the knee to the latest trend is not leadership. It is capitulation.

Source: BBC/LORNA MAY WADSWORTH

It encourages gestures such as that in St Albans Cathedral where a copy of a picture of the Last Supper showing a black Jesus was placed at an altar "in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement" presumably without knowing what the BLM movement stands for.

According to BBC News the artist used a Jamaican-born model for the basis of her interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's 15th Century work because she wanted "to make people question the Western myth that [Jesus Christ] had fair hair and blue eyes".

Jacob Epstein's 'Christ in Majesty'

 One aspect lost in the controversy about the suitability of artwork is the effort put into producing the work and possible motivations behind it. It may represent an interpretation by the artist or sponsor or result from a specific commission.

If someone in a free society objects to a work they are at liberty to criticise it. Once gone the opportunity for criticism is lost, along with the hard won freedoms which allow extremist pressure groups to behave as they do.

The example of ISIS destroying artefacts they disliked should be a warning of the destructive power now being unleashed, something religious leaders should be speaking against, not for.

Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew born in Bethlehem of Judea. He would have been neither black nor white but somewhere in between - see So what colour was Jesus?

 As the Religious News Service (RNS) aptly put it: We can’t cancel ‘white Jesus,’ but we can keep telling our church’s story.

Fashionable minorities

Source: Church in Wales

Not to be left behind, the trendy Church in Wales has published their support for the #BlackLivesMatter campaign with an International Group statement released by their Chairperson, Joanna Penberthy, 129th bishop of St Davids, in which the Church in Wales' commitment to combating racism is affirmed in its response to the murder of George Floyd in the USA:

"Current events in the USA have brought to the attention of the world the extreme injustice of white supremacy and racism. In challenging racism the Church has much to learn and to repent of."

What has escaped the Church in Wales is that Islam is a supremacist ideology which uses the Quran as its authority for subjugating non-Muslims who they regard as infidels yet the Church in Wales is happy to fraternise with Muslims bringing into sharp focus the double standards of the bench of bishops.

Islam is not a race but the all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims claimed that "Islamophobia is a type of racism", thus offering further protection to an ideology that has problems with the truth and denies the basic tenets of Christianity.

In its reign of terror against infidels and the wrong sort of Muslims ISIS damaged and destroyed many ancient sites in their war on cultural heritage, attacking archaeological sites with bulldozers and explosives.

Less severe, a similar attempt to blot out history has been mounted by the 'Topple The Racists' website which has named 78 statues and monuments that 'celebrate slavery and racism' it wants torn down in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests. It will not stop there.

With more foresight they would recognise that these statues are reminders of the past when standards were very different. If 'black history' is to be taught as demanded by protestors they have ready made examples to point to, for now.

Slavery is abhorrent but rather than trying to erase history, symbols of the evils of the past should be used to inform society. The past cannot be changed. The future can.

Voices need to be raised to stop modern slavery in the UK but few are.

Previous minority movements have led to undreamt of consequences. The campaign to pardon WW2 'enigma' hero Alan Turing developed into a tide of protests ultimately resulting in gender confusion, same sex marriage and, in the Church in Wales, a transgender priest and an openly lesbian bishop while orthodox Anglicanism has been jettisoned along with orthodox Anglicans.

The LGBT movement is now deeply embedded in Church, State and media. Constant efforts are made to spread LGBT propaganda in our schools.

Hand in hand with the LGBT campaign, the feminist movement previously used victimhood  and sympathy to invade the Anglican Church by stealth, inching their way forward from deaconess to deacon, priest and bishop after protesting that they had no ambitions beyond being ordained deacon.

After the success of the unscrupulous WATCH campaign the Roman Catholic Church is now being similarly targeted.

Fashionable minorities have a habit of taking over resulting in confusion as exhibited by the ignorant, intolerant mob culture that has developed, often encouraged by trendy, leftist bishops.

The Church in Wales has indeed much to learn and to repent of.

Postscript [12.06.2020]

That it should come to this

Outrage as Sadiq Khan BOARDS UP the Cenotaph, Churchill's statue and other 'at risk' monuments to protect them from attack ahead of a weekend of Black Lives Matter protests in London