From Divinity to Deviancy

Mary Stallard the new bishop of Llandaff follows Delyth Liddell, Methodist University Chaplain

and LGBTQI+ Gathering church leader at the Pride Cymru parade.    Source: Twitter

Celebrating diversity at Pride Cymru, the new bishop of Llandaff lost no time in identifying with her LGBTQ+ promoting sister bishops, the former bishop of Llandaff, June Osborne, the retiring bishop of St Davids, Joanna Penberthy, and the bishop of Monmouth, Cherry Vann, patron of Open Table. 

Diversity has become a euphemism for deviancy.

As the time approaches for appointing the next bishop of St Davids the Church in Wales needs to rethink its priorities.

From St Davids Diocese: 

"An Extraordinary Diocesan Conference is to be held on Saturday July 22nd., following the announcement that Bishop Joanna Penberthy is to retire on health grounds. The half-day conference will be chaired by the Archbishop of Wales, Andrew John, and will take place at Newcastle Emlyn Rugby Club when conference representatives will have the opportunity to discuss the future of the diocese and what they would like from their new bishop when he/she is elected in October."

Much has changed in the sixty + years since Church in Wales bishops held Oxford Firsts in Theology.

A return from deviancy to divinity is essential to restore any credibility to the Church in Wales if it wants to avoid being characterised as the queer church. 

Announcing the retirement of the bishop of St Davids, the Archbishop of Wales said "I want to thank Bishop Joanna for her ministry in the diocese and province. She has contributed significantly to areas of church life in particular on environmental matters and with our Social Responsibility network." Quite! 

Environmental matters and social responsibility are important but faith and worship still matter.

The Church needs bishops who win souls in a spirit of true equality and diversity.

BBC Sounds recently broadcast on the All Things Considered series  a programme titled 'Gender and Identity'. University chaplain Delyth Liddell was joined by bishop Mary Stallard and Sarah Jones, a transgender Anglican priest and vicar of St. John's in central Cardiff.

From the programme notes:
"... Pride is not just a celebration, it's also about protest, designed to get people thinking about acceptance, equality and deeper matters about identity. Today, we turn our attention to that very matter, considering gender. What does it mean on its most fundamental level? What did God intend? How does it make us who we are to ourselves and each other? And what of the interplay between biology, psychology and faith? Big topics and ones which can stir confusion, concern, and generate challenging questions."

Personally I have never encountered non-acceptance or unequal treatment in race, colour or sexuality in decades of church life. Quite the reverse, yet comments are often received from protestors. But that is all they do, protest and abuse others. There is no supporting evidence. No engagement or acknowledgement of other commentators' desire to protect the sacrament of holy matrimony. Difference of opinion is simply dismissed as phobia to silence any opposition.  

After 2,000 years of scholarship and witness Anglicans are expected to believe that interpreting scripture to please oneself is the way to salvation. I think not.

This is the result: "I believe in a non-binary God whose pronouns are plural."

Next stop polyamory!

Postscripts 

[29.06.2023]

From the US:

The Queering of the Episcopal Church by David W. Virtue DD

Why is America tolerating indecent exposure at Pride events? by Family Policy Institute of Washington

[30.06.2023]

From C4M: PRIDE: THE ANTI-MARRIAGE PLATFORM

[11.07.2023]

Lesbian Methodist Minister and chaplain at Cardiff University, Delyth Liddell, says that "visible gay role models are key to changing attitudes about the LGBT+ community in churches".
On 'All Things Considered' the bishop of St Asaph, Gregory Cameron, is to share his thoughts with the chaplain on his vision for an "inclusive Church".

That is selective inclusion of course because the bishops have decided that there is no place in the Church in Wales for Anglicans who keep the faith.

They do it their way

Having a laugh at Confirmations in Church of England Mercia Deanery led by @BpRepton                                                                    Source Twitter @gprutter

Readers of this blog may recall a 2013 entry headed Archbishop opts for delusion after Justin Welby appointed Jan McFarlane, then Archdeacon of Norwich, to be to be his acting Press Secretary.

I wrote at the time: "As Communications Director for the Diocese of Norwich the Venerable Jan McFarlane is not simply being reunited with her former theological college fellow student, Justin Welby. She has demonstrated her skill as a communications person by her ability to turn a disaster into a success, well illustrated in an interview here after the news that according to the 2011 census, the City of Norwich was rated the most godless city in England but apparently the good people of Norwich are 'doing their church-going differently'!" - ie, staying away.

As a bishop in the modern Church of England McFarlane continues to do things differently from holding her crosier in the wrong hand to losing her pectoral cross, possibly in Morrison's she thought!

The Bishop of Repton mislays her pectoral cross and fears she may have left
 it in Morrisons  Source: Twitter@BpRepton

Following in the footsteps of Rachael Treweek, the bishop of Gloucester, Jan McFarlane is another former Speech and Language Therapist by training. Read about the speech therapist, the oil executive and the midwife in Divinity? - Who needs divinity, we've moved on!

Commenting on her appointment as bishop of Repton the bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham James, said: “She has been a fine communicator of the Christian faith in the local and regional media, and an archdeacon who has won the confidence and affection of lay people alike. We will miss her enormously in this diocese but we are thrilled that she has been called to be a bishop in God’s church.”

Another communications failure there.

The Church of England may be God's church to them but for the majority of Christians, including Anglicans, it has become another do-as-you-please church following the road to ruin along with the Church in Wales and The Episcopal Church in the US.

Divorced from the teaching and tradition of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, they simply do it their way. It's such a laugh for some being an Anglican bishop today.

The bishops of St Davids and Gloucester share a laugh.     Source Wales Online 

Divinity? - Who needs divinity, we've moved on!

The speech therapist, the oil executive and the midwife.    Credit: Christian Today

The former Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church was an oceanographer, the current Archbishop of Wales was a solicitor. The bishop of Llandaff is a social scientist, the bishop of St Davids has aspirations in Quantum Physics while the bishops of Bangor and St Asaph studied law.

The bishop of Monmouth was a civil servant and still appears so as he busily converts his patch to ministry areas with the zeal of a compliant functionary to the despair of all except those committed to self-advancement at the expense of others.

The absurdity of the appointment of an ex-nurse and midwife to be the 133rd Bishop of London, the third most senior post in the Church of England after the Archbishops of Canterbury and York is neatly summed up in this tweet

but more seriously in the "box-ticking" account here as the Church of England continues to fall for the mistakes of the US Episcopal Church, slavishly followed by the Church in Wales leading to the destruction of true Anglicanism in England and Wales.

Postscripts

[19.12 2017]

That the Anglican faith, catholic and reformed, should be reduced to this:

New bishop of London could pave the way for female archbishop, say campaigners

So sad.

[20.12.2017]

First female Bishop of London: God loves gay people too - Pink News

Of course He does, the 2% of the population which demands 98% attention and increasing.

A more accurate view from Christian Today:

Sarah Mullally, like Justin Welby, is no theologian. The CofE is losing its nerve

The Archbishop of Canterbury says: The Church of England “is very confident in its faith”

What faith?