May Day!

Source: Twitter @stpetercarms

It is fitting that the Eucharist service advertised on the left is to be held on 1st May given the intention and pagan origins of May Day.

Victimisation is implicit in praying for equality while celebrating diversity. There are others far less equal who are never mentioned apart from being told to find somewhere else to worship.

The bishop of St Davids again identifies her ministry most closely with advancing homosexuality in the church while pursuing her policy of gender parity.

The bishops of Llandaff and St Asaph have similar agendas so at least half the bench is closely allied with the aspirations of Changing Attitudes. 

The former Archbishop Barry Morgan liked to remind anyone who had to listen to him that the bench spoke with one voice so the Church in Wales is off course travelling in the wrong direction.

May Day!

Sexuality, tolerance and institutional inclusion

 Changing attitude in St Davids Diocese                                            Pub talk in Llandaff                                   Source: Church in Wales

By accident or design 'sexuality, tolerance and institutional inclusion' were some of the 'hot topics' under discussion when young people were invited to ‘Grill the Bishops’ in a Cardiff pub this week. Sexuality not spirituality was the first word in the diocesan press release.

Asked about the way forward for the church on the LGBT issue, Bishop June said, “The way forward is that the church gets past the issues that it is struggling over and embraces marrying couples in church of whatever sexuality.”

The event was organised jointly by the Revd Becca Stevens, young vocations advisor for Monmouth Diocese and the Revd Wendy Tayler of Llandaff Diocese. There is an amusing link from the Monmouth Vocations site to a series of photographs on Facebook showing June's dominant use of the microhone although Richard did have to manage his wine glass, no doubt conscious of 1 Timothy 3:3. Looking through the photographs I was left wondering if +Richard was there as her minder or was ♀June mentoring him on the 'inclusive' Church in Wales.

There was nothing amusing about an earlier diocesan press release in which the bishop of St Davids rejoices in her Presidency of a new group aimed at "offering a ministry of welcome to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians" which has been launched in St Davids Diocese, Changing Attitude Transnewid Cymru (CATAC). 

That is despite the presence of numerous gay people in the church who, far from being unwelcome, are in many senior positions.

"It asserts that there is integrity in being both Christian and gay and that, for many people, it is a God-given reality, not a sin or sickness, and that LGBT people offer evidence of the fruits of the Spirit. In her address to the group’s inaugural Eucharist in St Patrick’s Church, Pennar, near Pembroke Dock,  group President bishop Joanna Penberthy suggested it "seeks a re-evaluation of Scripture and tradition". She said:

“After 2000 years, we are still learning how to work out our Christian faith. We are learning to cope with changing attitudes. Love is patient, it is kind, not envious or boastful, arrogant or rude. (St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians). “Let us be able to express what we think in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 13 

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal…". In other words, anything is acceptable in love.

But there is no love outside full inclusion of LGBT people. Outsiders are not even permitted an opnion.

Prior to her 'secret' baptism, Gavin Ashenden wrote in his blog entry 'Meghan Markle, Justin Welby & The Use And Abuse Of Baptism':  "The Reich Church of our day has given way not over race but over gender, not to a fascist culture but to the new-Marxist values and concepts, peddled and enforced by universities, schools, state agencies, the police, and more recently the judiciary.

 "The neo-Marxist or cultural Marxist agenda sets itself not only against Judaeo-Christian revelation and values, but goes further to set itself against free speech."

Neo-Marxism or cultural Marxism is described by Bishop Ashenden in Anglican Unscripted #374 [@ 9.12] as a process beginning with feminism which presents as equality and fairness and then moves on to gay marriage because of the notion of equal treatment and re-imagining gender which moves on to the whole trans movement. 

The Christian Post reports that Queen's University in Belfast has denied a Christian ministry's request to screen a new documentary featuring the testimonies of people who have left homosexuality. An exact reason why it couldn't show the documentary at Queen's Film Theatre was not given but the university's response "suggests that the film doesn't match its idea of inclusivity".

Given her endorsement of CATAC (Changing Attitude Transnewid Cymru), a national organisation working towards the full inclusion of LGBT people in the life of the Anglican Communion, the bishop of St Davids would agree with that. So by implication would the bench of bishops.

It was reported after the appointment of bishop Joanna Penberthy that her election was a "stitch up". Indeed, her name was being circulated widely as the next bishop of St Davids long before her 'election' despite her inability to communicate in Welsh, the first language of many in her diocese.

Both she and June Osborne had known track records of using the church to push their feminist, LGBT agenda. The bishops who appointed them are complicit because they must have been aware of this. They should all pack their bags and take their neo/cultural Marxism with them.

Postscript [09.03.2018]

There is more propaganda from the bishop of St Davids using the sanctity of St Davids Cathedral to promote feminism in the church dressed up as equality in another press release 'International Women’s Day: The Bishop & the Suffragette'.

One hundred and ten years after suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst, Annie Kenney and Mary Blathwayt signed the Visitor's Book much has changed. Read how much in 'Feminists reign supreme – men are the new second sex' by By Kathy Gyngell in The Conservative Woman which illustrates how out of touch ♀Joanna is.

She stopped short of referring to the promiscuous lesbian love trysts of the suffragette leaders. An opportunity lost in her promotion of Changing Attitude Transnewid Cymru.

Why are so many of the clergy gay?

Openly gay new bishop Mary Glasspool (right)            Photo credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

'Puzzled' commentator posed the question in a comment under my previous entry, "Why are so many of the clergy gay??? It seems to be the norm these days. I cannot understand it." A little 'Googling' finds some interesting facts given the current protests by LGBT activists about exclusion.

Twenty-two years ago Andrew Brown wrote in Why gays are called to the church: "... There are still large areas of Christianity which remain no-go areas for gays. Most evangelical churches are passively hostile to homosexuality...On the other hand, there are areas, especially of the Church of England, in which gays are hugely over-represented. In the diocese of London, for example, one of the Bishop's advisers once estimated to me that about 200 of the 900 priests in the city are in homosexual relationships. The Bishop, incidentally, once ran St Stephen's House in Oxford, by common consent the campest of all theological colleges, where he was known to his ordinands as Ena the Cruel, since it was a college tradition to give everyone female nicknames..."

The fate of the US Episcopal Church should have provided sufficient warning of the likely fate of the Anglican Church in the UK if it adopted the same liberal agenda. Instead it has been used as justification for more liberalisation.

I blogged in 2011: "The slow death of the Anglican church looks set to continue. While the role of bishops and priests becomes ever further divorced from traditional religious reality congregations continue to haemorrhage. Despite earlier pleas for restraint from Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, after the Bishop Gene Robinson affair, Canon Mary Glasspool (pictured) was elected a bishop in Los Angeles while being in an openly long standing lesbian relationship. 'Restraint' is now turning to farce as synodical Christians seek additional ways of bending Christianity to their will rather than the will of the church Universal."

Church Militant reported: As much as half of priests and bishops are homosexual. From 'the Vortex' video presentation on the number of homosexual men in the Catholic priesthood:
"Numerous independent sources inside the Church began polling and interviewing and questioning and researching. Their results were jaw-dropping. One survey done by a New Jersey Franciscan priest and researcher revealed that 45 percent of 500 priests surveyed volunteered that they were gaym and that one in four of them had AIDS — proving a rampant promiscuity."

The admission of women to the priesthood and the episcopate has added a lesbian dimension through lesbian feminism links. Changing Attitude "campaigns for equality in the selection, training, ordination and appointment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender clergy". They estimate that about 10% of clergy are LGBT compared with 1.7% of the UK population who identified themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual in 2015.

So why are so many of the clergy gay, around ten times more than are represented in the general population? The usual answer is that homosexuals are drawn to a caring profession. To an extent that probably remains true but a more sinister element has developed. One which goes beyond acceptance to control condemning as homophobic anyone who dares to hold orthodox opinions.

LGBT agitators complain of being oppressed but they have become the persecutors of the very people who helped them gain acceptance. Writing about LGBT rights in the Guardian Giles Fraser argues: "The clergy has moved on. It’s the bishops who are out of touch."

It is not about 'moving on'. It is about remaining faithful. Under Archbishop Justin Welby the Church of England appears destined to 'move on' from ‘good disagreement’ to ‘radical inclusion’. As former Queen's Chaplain, the  Reverend Canon Gavin Ashenden blogged, The Radical Call To Go The Wrong Way.

Clearly claims of exclusion are a nonsense. Archbishop Welby should think again. In the Church in Wales the bench sitters should hang their heads in shame, in particular the bishop of St Asaph, for being taken in by the Iris prize winner for fake news, Trawsnewid Agwedd Cymru.

If the bishops do not stand firm it will be an open sesame for LGBT activists and their fellow travellers - but the treasure will be gone.

Now you see it, now you don't. Now you see it...

Proudly proclaimed (again) as a St Asaph Diocesan press release on the Church in Wales web site:

 LGBT+ film shown in St Asaph Cathedral shortlisted for a prize

This 'shortlisted' film was previously referred to in 'The Host', an entry made on 7 December 2016. The film was later taken down 'for private viewing', possibly after second thoughts, only to re-surface as courage gripped those responsible.

Shortlisted for a prize it may be but it is the biggest load of old tosh that I have come across even if it is much admired by the LTGBQ+, etc, etc, community and the diocese of St Asaph as they try to outdo Llandaff as the most gay friendly diocese in the Church in Wales. Viewed from outside the Church the 'agony' 'suffered' by this bunch of bellyachers must appear compelling. From the inside it is garbage. The Church in Wales is full of gay people. Those in the closet must be praying that gay marriage is accepted on a par with traditional marriage so that they can come out. 

The most interesting aspects of the film are Llandaff's liturgical dance leader, Archdeacon Peggy 'the pilot' Jackson sanctimoniously crossing herself after all the damage she has done to the Church as the chief architect of exclusion, closely followed by the then soon to be 'synthetic fire-dancing' bishop-elect of St Davids making the whole thing appear a conspiracy turning the Church in Wales into a haven for self-indulgent feminists, lesbians, gays and anything but traditional Anglicans who, in Jackson's words, are expected to look elsewhere.

The bench of bishops made a public apology to the LGBT community for the 'wrong' they have suffered. I challenge them to view this film and compare the treatment of the LGBT community which has a presence at all levels in the Church in Wales with the exclusion of loyal members of the Church in Wales who have been consistently snubbed since Bishop David Thomas retired in 2008.

Jackson lectured the Governing Body in 2014: "The Bishops should draw up a code such that all may have security in their accepted and valued place in the Church in Wales. It should not be interpreted as meeting the needs of a minority.” 

In 2015, 1.7% of the UK population identified themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB). The Church in Wales decided not to recognise 'traditionalist' Anglicans so why the clamour to accord special treatment to the LGBT community? Can it be that they already form a majority where power is exercised? Changing Attitude indeed!

Postscript

Meanwhile in the Church of England, "LGBT Campaigners Plot Shock Defeat Of Church’s Gay Marriage Stance" (here).

Postscript [17.02.2017]

In England the LGBT plot succeeded. Synod voted not to take note of the bishops' Report (see above).

In Wales "Stories of LGBT+ Christians" wins the Iris Community Short Film Award.
Mike Jones from Changing Attitude, Trawsnewid Agwedd Cymru, one of the 'stars' of the film said: “Our hope is that the film will challenge and inspire the Church in Wales to fully include LGBTQIA people in its life and ministry, and be a sign of God’s love and justice in a broken world.”

The fact that LGBTQIA people are included in the life and ministry of the Church in Wales must have eluded the judges as it has its target audience.

If the sob stories were true the protesters would deserve some sympathy but in St Asaph the agenda is dominated by LGBT+ issues. In Llandaff the facts speak for themselves as they do in the Church of England where the clergy told their bishops what to do with the doctrine of the Church.

Marriage is between a man and a woman. If the Church gives in and accepts the campaigners demands for same sex marriage in church we may as well switch off the lights now.

The hypocrisy of it all

Bishop-elect of St Davids                     Archbishop Morgan                  Archdeacon of Llandaff

The Changing Attitude gay propaganda film 'All One in Christ' was premiered in St Asaph Cathedral on Tuesday evening. Defying the logic of observation and current practice it pleads for 'inclusion & equality'.

Showing her support for inclusion and equality along with the bishop-elect of St Davids is the architect of exclusion in Wales, the Archdeacon of Llandaff, the Ven Peggy Jackson who has done more than most, apart from Archbishop Barry Morgan, to exclude faithful Anglicans who in common with the vast majority of Anglicans are unable in conscience to accept their understanding of scripture and tradition.

What is it about late converts that they cannot tolerate cradle Anglicans? They claim to have heard God calling them. So did Muhammad and Joseph Smith!