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| Former Second Church Estates Commissioner addressing the Commons Original source: Mirror |
Former Second Church Estates Commissioner, Sir Tony Baldry, attended the recent drag-queen gala at St James’s church, Piccadilly.
The Church Times reports that Sir Tony was one of the 300-strong audience who attended the event.
Interviewed during the interval, he contrasted the event with the last time he had been in St James’s, for a debate between Theresa May and the Archbishop of York. He defended the drag evening: “It’s not hurting anyone, and making tons of money for the church. I just can’t see the problem.”
Sir Tony couldn't see the problem when he addressed the House of Commons back in 2012. Much was made of the Commissioner's buffoonery in sporting a male-only club tie while he was berating orthodox Christians for being sexist. He claimed that the Church of England's decision to reject the introduction of women bishops "makes it look like a sect".
It didn't then but is going that way. I wrote at the time "Sir Tony Baldry displays an unusual understanding of the word sect which in Christian terms means a group of people with somewhat different religious beliefs (typically regarded as heretical) from those of a larger group to which they belong.
The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) points out that having recently legitimised and incorporated into the Church’s liturgy the blessing of same sex unions, the Church of England has "departed from the historic faith passed down from the Apostles in the liturgies of the Church and her pastoral practice and disqualified herself from leading the Communion as the historic 'Mother' Church."
Sadly most of the Anglican bishops in Great Britain can't see the problem.
The Rector of St James's Church, Piccadilly, is the Revd Lucy Winkett, staunch promoter of the F word which is where the problem started.
