Repent, the end is nigh - for traditional Anglicanism

The Church of England is once again calling for repentance. This time for "historic links to the slave trade and anti-racism training" according to a leaked report referred to in the Mail Online: 

It claims that the Church of England will order a 30 per cent quota for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) candidates on its leadership programme and demand 'repentance' for historic links to the slave trade.

A Church of England taskforce was set up by the Church after the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said he was 'sorry and ashamed' that 'we are still institutionally racist'. Only one of the 42 diocesan bishops come from BAME backgrounds.

Officials are also planning to provide information "giving context to church statues which may have caused 'pain or offence' as part of plans to tackle discrimination".

The Church of England has previously called for repentance over the role of Christians in 'centuries of antisemitism'. 

And of course there was the call to the Church to 'repent' for its treatment of lesbian, gay and bisexual Christians after 'more than 100 senior Anglicans signed an open letter calling on the Church of England to do so.

There is unlikely to be a call to repentance for the treatment of 'traditionalist' Anglicans forced to keep the faith without pastoral and sacramental support.

Anglicanism has been ditched by the Church of England and other Anglican provinces such as the now irrelevant Church in Wales which continues to pump itself up by promoting same sex marriage as it accelerates the demise of Anglicanism in Wales.

We cannot undo the past, nor can we repent for actions of our predecessors however 'sorry and ashamed' later generations may feel. 

As for removing statues, far better to use them as teaching aids to help get one's message across. 

How would Welby feel if he were to be immortalised in stone only to find his likeness shattered by future generations who held him responsible for helping to destroy Anglicanism in favour of secularism.

Postscript [30.03.2021]

The BAME agenda

Disabled women of colour are encouraged to apply for the post of Dean of Hereford to exploit the Cathedral's treasures including the Magna Carta, Chained Library and Mappa Mundi in its mission.

I tried the reference http://ctjob.uk/JN9090 for more information but it did not work for me.

I am not in the running anyway!

BBC Gravy Train

The BBC has come under fire after it published accounts showing that staff pay had soared 3.5 per cent to £1.5billion this year - while the Corporation pushes ahead with its plans to strip a million over-75s of their free TV licences. (Mail Online)

The BBC's highest paid 'stars'.  Source: Mail Online

plus executive pay:

There are 91 BBC executives who are paid MORE than the Prime Minister and 11 bosses get more
than DOUBLE his salary.  Source: Mail online

The BBC's mission is "to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain".

It is a job they do well at their best but 'Auntie' is not what she used to be. Pay and 'bias' have again been dominating the headlines. 

Their salary bill is similar to the cost of running their main TV channels: BBC One- £1.2bn, BBC Two- £481.2 million and BBC Four- £52.3 million according to the BBC's Annual Report and Accounts for 2017/18.

In 2015, the government announced that the BBC would take over the cost of providing free licences for over-75s by 2020 as part of the BBC fee settlement. 

In a staggering breach of faith the BBC later claimed that "BBC Two, BBC Four, the BBC News Channel, the BBC Scotland channel, Radio 5live, and a number of local radio stations would all have been at risk" if they honoured the commitment that guaranteed their fee settlement.

Delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, demands for licence fees are being received by pensioners over 75 year old at the same time as the BBC published accounts showing that staff pay had "soared 3.5 per cent to £1.5billion this year".

There is no recognition in the BBC that part of the problem in honouring their obligation to elderly pensioners is the unjustifiable amount of money paid out in salaries when they cannot afford to do so.

I suspect that I am not alone looking at the photographs of the highest paid 'stars' only to find that just two of the ten have any impact on my life and then only because they are BBC newsreaders.

Personally I prefer Reeta Chakrabarti and Ben Brown at less than half the cost.

Programme content has become dire with endless repeats. New series are built around murder and violence while frequent soccer programmes pervade the airwaves, something that could well be left to other providers given the cost to the licence payer.

New content is bogged down in the BBC's 'diversity' drive. Knee deep in political correctness and wokism BBC's mission is increasingly questionable. Not all change is for the better as the BBC should learn from their mishandling of their previously successful Strictly Come Dancing.

In the 2011 census over 86% of the population were white with 13% identifying as  BAME but often the BBC's news coverage conveys the impression that white people are the minority in the UK. 

The BBC's Breakfast time programme constantly undermines the Government's strategy to defeat Covid-19 while some of the presenters adopt the role of official opposition to the Government.

One ought to expect the highest standards from a public service broadcaster but some of the trailers are jaw dropping. 

Following on from their promotion of BBC 3's Drag Race, the BBC are currently promoting Little Mix in a series that encourages grotesquely made-up youngsters to mimic their hosts by cavorting around in clothing that could easily be mistaken for underwear.

I do not watch EastEnders but the trailers illustrate life in the East End as constant misery and angst. No wonder the programmes are accompanied by health warnings.

As a public service institution the BBC should be readily available to all, informing and educating. 

Instead we have an over-paid politically correct woke elite constantly lowering standards by foisting their own liberal views on audiences thus 'normalising' abnormal behaviour.

The announcement by Gary Lineker that Sue Barker is to be replaced on A Question Of Sport by ex-soccer player Alex Scott brought one of the best suggestions: Alex Scott should replace Lineker.

That would be diversity!

Lives matter

Source: Twitter

Of course black lives matter, all lives matter. Not that one would think so after Thousands join Black Lives Matter protests around the UK, ignoring restrictions on gatherings and warnings about social distancing to avoid spreading the Covid-19 virus. 

Demonstrations have spread like a rash, invaded by various groups regardless of the facts as articulated by this courageous lady.

On the 80th Anniversary of the evacuation of Dunkirk, Winston Churchill's statue in Parliament Square was defaced as thousands took part in a Black Lives Matter rally. Police and police horses were attacked. The Cenotaph was vandalised.

This has nothing to do with the death of George Floyd, just one of many appalling incidents throughout the world, most of which go unreported.

Protect the NHS has been a Government cry from the start of the pandemic. Their strategy avoided the NHS being overwhelmed but tragically many lives have been lost among NHS staff and carers. There has been growing concern about the disproportionate deaths among BAME people.

If the demonstrations results in another spike in Covid-19 cases, the NHS will have to pick up the pieces with many more Black, Asian, and minority ethnic people in the front line.

For the demonstrators it seems that black lives do not matter.   

Postscript

Tweet from Toby Young: "I was in Minneapolis last year. Loved it. Such a beautiful city. It now looks like Aleppo." Footage here.

From Jack Montgomery: "Lincoln's statue vandalised even worse than Churchill's at the #BlackLivesMatter protest in London. Lincoln, of course, is the President who freed the slaves – and got an assassin's bullet in the back of the head for doing it. That still wasn't enough?" Image here.

Utter madness.

Postscript [08.06.2020]

London police 'on the run' from 'peaceful' protestors here.

The ultimate disgrace, police officers having to move in with riot gear to defend the Cenotaph as rioters attempt to set fire to our flag. The day after we commemorated D-Day, when our troops, those the Cenotaph honours, liberated Europe from *actual* fascists. Scumbags. Here.

No doubt these demonstrators will be first in the queue for treatment by the NHS if they become infected with Covid-19, demanding their rights as victims.

Postscript [15.06.2020]

Channel 4 News: "It turns out that the Leader of the Independent Police Advisory Group, who we must assume has a degree, doesn't know that Winston Churchill is dead. Why interview someone without knowledge? What do universities teach?"

Stephen Cottrell: A bit of an oik from Essex?

The Archbishop of Canterbury with Archbishop of York Designate Stephen Cottrell,  Source: CofE

A bit of an 'oik from Essex' has been nominated as the new Archbishop of York in succession to Dr John Sentamu. Not my description but Stephen Cottrell's description of himself in a Sheffield Diocesan Development Day lecture in 2011.

A gifted communicator, his appointment is understandable given the liberal direction of the Church of England. He had been widely tipped to succeed Richard Chartres as Bishop of London but lost out to former head nurse Dame Sarah Mullally.

A critic of the church for its 'shortcomings' in promoting BAME clergy into senior positions and a supporter of the ordination of women who looks forward to seeing a female archbishop of Canterbury, he can count himself lucky that he has not found himself sidelined like other men, a victim of his own political correctness.

Asked by the Guardian about the issue of same-sex relationships which has "divided the church for more than 20 years", he said there was “absolutely no place for homophobia in our church, and absolutely everyone, regardless of their sexuality, is welcome in our church”.

Christian Concern tweeted differently: "@CottrellStephen has previously shown he has no respect for Biblical truth on human sexuality and marriage."

Cottrell's appointment has caused some controversy, so much so that a spokesperson for the Church of England has issued a Statement on the Archbishop of York designate, the Right Reverend Stephen Cottrell denying accusations made against him by "a pressure group". He was said to have told clergy that 'if they disagree with the approach the Diocese is taking on matters of human sexuality' they should follow their consciences and leave.

The implication in the statement is that 30 clergy are lying or mistaken.

In June 2019 gafcon uk issued a statement by representatives of conservative evangelical clergy from the Diocese of Chelmsford confirming that “we are used to being told that we don’t belong”.

Christian Today reports the same issues with claims and counter claims in an article "Stephen Cottrell's appointment as Archbishop of York exposes divisions in the Church of England":  One thing is sure Stephen Cottrell's liberal views offend many orthodox Anglicans who have been left out in the cold by a self-styled inclusive church.

 Liberal Bishop Becomes Archbishop of York, No. 2 in Church of England was the headline in the New York Times: "Cottrell has been outspoken in his support for women clergy and has said everyone is welcome in the Church regardless of their sexuality."

Commenting on Bishop Stephen Cottrell's Presidential Address to Diocesan Synod on Saturday 11 March 2017, Andrew Symes of Anglican Mainstream wrote that Cotterell has given "one of the clearest indications yet of the next stage of major change in the Church of England’s approach to sexual ethics" after he called for “prayers of thanksgiving” for same sex relationships.

Ironically Stephen Cottrell replaced the openly gay priest Jeffrey John as bishop of Reading in 2004 after John was pressured to step down by the then Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

One can only speculate on the trajectory of Cottrell's career had Jeffrey John not been persuaded to step down as bishop of Reading but Jeffrey John must have been feeling particularly sick on reading of Cottrell's elevation. More able than many Dr John has played by the rules while lesser clergy have flaunted them. Had he defended the Church's traditional teaching on marriage he would have gained wider support.

By teaming a new, liberal Archbishop of York with an ineffectual Archbishop of Canterbury the Church of England looks destined to stray even further from biblical truth with a further exodus of disaffected Anglicans.

In conclusion, a quote from The Spectator in an article The slow, strange race to be the next Bishop of London by Ysenda Maxtone Graham, author of The Church Hesitant:

"But my money (and other people’s, too) would be on Stephen Cottrell, the Bishop of Chelmsford. He was state-educated in Leigh-on-Sea, so can be ‘a bit cor-blimey’, as some have said to me. It’s true that his recent talk in the cathedral to his clergy included the phrases ‘Who gives a toss?’, ‘Flush down the toilet’ and ‘What the bloody hell?’ But he grows on you. He’s a scintillating public communicator, straddles both the Evangelical and the Anglo-Catholic traditions, is self-deprecating, funny, articulate and imaginative. If he’s chosen, we’ll just have to blot out the Chartres voice from our memory: no point in comparing them."

Also mentioned in Ysenda's article is 'the once-tipped June Osborne' who seemed to have been 'shunted into sidings as cathedral dean and may well go no further'.

She did. Swept up by the Church in Wales, again at Jeffrey John's expense.

At least, in Cottrell terms, Dr John is "welcome in our church" which is more than many Anglicans can say.

Postscript [23.12.2019]

From Church Times:

"Bishop Cottrell had 'spoken out — when many others have been silent — about the need for the Church to respect and honour the LGBT+ community'." - Jayne Ozanne, a member of the General Synod and a prominent LGBT campaigner.

"He’s a great teacher and communicator of the faith, he’s rooted in Catholic spirituality, he speaks his mind, and he’s a voice for LGBT inclusion." - Revd Dr Johanna Kershaw, Associate Priest of Outwood, Stanley, and Wrenthorpe, in Wakefield.

Point scoring

Source: Guardian  Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

Following on from the Church in Wales (CinW) Christmas farce which continues to run over the festive season, the Church of England has announced her system for fast tracking ethnic minority clergy to senior roles:

"The Church of England (CofE) is to fast-track black and ethnic minority clergy into senior positions amid accusations of institutional racism. A “talent pool” of specifically black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) [oops! read here - Ed.] potential leaders will be identified in 2016 for training and mentoring with the aim of increasing representation among bishops, deans and archdeacons.

The church selected its first talent pool this year, but fewer than 7% of those chosen were from ethnic minorities. A second round is currently being selected. The church is to devote a third group specifically to Bame clergy."

Surprisingly the CofE has not followed the US lead of using 'people of colour' or 'visible minorities' in place of the outdated 'Bame' in their discriminatory scheme since they have followed the sexual ethics of the US Episcopal Church with great enthusiasm. No doubt the CofE will catch up eventually as will the CinW who continues to pursue the notion that self promoting women deserve preferment over more suitable male candidates.

When it comes to visibility I was interested to read that "Britain's rail bosses have censored an image of a saint from a display of art inside a railway station, saying it was 'overtly Christian' and would offend 'multi-cultural values'. Network Rail – which is partly funded by the taxpayer – banned an image of St John the Evangelist from Rochester station in Kent, which has just reopened after a £26 million revamp. The image of the saint, one of the apostles of Christ, was to be placed at the station entrance with other iconography inspired by Rochester's ancient cathedral."

Perhaps Britain's rail bosses have not noticed the Islamic dress worn by Muslims who have sought refuge in this country. Like it or not, it is something we have had to become accustomed to regardless of whether it offends others.

Rochester of course had a splendid bishop in Michael Nazir-Ali. A 'Bame' with a helpful understanding of Islam, but his adherence to the traditional Apostolic faith of the Holy Catholic Church was seen as too much of a handicap for an institution immersed in political correctness.

Let us hope that in 2016 state and religious leaders will take a step back to consider what has happened to this country by submitting to people who have nothing to offer but their misguided political correctness. To update a phrase borrowed from the late lamented Llandaffchester Chronicles (if I remember correctly), in the current climate, if a one legged, arse kicking, Jewish transgendered lesbian convert of colour were available she would have to be fast tracked to Archbishop in a system which awards points to minorities, unless they also belong to the minority of Anglicans who continue to adhere to the Apostolic faith of our forefathers.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!