Lowlights: GB September 2023

Governing Body voting                                              Source: Church in Wales

The Church in Wales goes green is the main message to come out of the meeting of the Governing Body (GB) earlier this month.

Attendance may be in crisis but was not mentioned, apart from a brief reference to decline in one of the reports. That is despite the GB's guiding notes which state:

"Every year, a report on the current membership and finance statistics of the Church in Wales is presented to the meeting. This covers key information such as: church attendance, the level of financial giving towards the work of the church, details of what parishes are spending their money on."

Session Three was about 'Priorities, Growth and Resilience'. One of the items covered in discussion groups was "What stops us from growing?"

The Church in Wales, like the Church of England, The Episcopal Church in the US and others have become self-centred rather than God centred, using the name of Jesus as a passport to earthly desires. - Jesus loves me, therefore I do as I please.

The secularisation of the Church in Wales was made obvious by the archbishop of Wales when he commented on the recently announced 'historic appointments of Canons at Bangor Cathedral'. 

He said, "It is a real joy to be able to announce the appointment of eight new Canons to the Cathedral, five Honorary Canons and three Foundation Canons. .... Together they bring with them an enormous breadth of skills and experience to their new roles, enabling the Cathedral’s common life and witness to be a place where all can come and experience faith, hope and love. Each of these new Canons has been invited in recognition of the significant contribution they have made, and continue to make, within their field of expertise, and I invite you to join with me in praying for them as they take up their new positions and responsibilities."

The Canon Preacher's experience of the Anglican Church is short. He was ordained Deacon in 2021 after becoming an Anglican in 2020 but more importantly for the archbishop he becomes the "first gay, black Canon to serve in a Church in Wales Cathedral, a pioneering moment that highlights its commitment to diversity and inclusivity." 

Just the sort of experience the Church Wales has come to value above all else. But there is more.

'Glastonbury priest'         Sourcee: CinW

A new priest welcomed to the diocese of St Asaph by bishop Gregory is "part way through a professional doctorate exploring better ways for neo-Pagans and Christians to have open conversations about faith." 

 She should receive a good welcome from the Peace Mala while the Church in Wales struggles with its identity.

As the decline of the Church continues more senior executives are hired. The latest is a Director of Mission and Strategy on a salary of up to £70,000 p.a.

On the plus side, perhaps the archbishop of Wales feels better able to cope with his workload having sanctioned all these appointments. 

Last year he felt the need for someone to share the leadership of his Bangor diocese with while serving as Archbishop of Wales as if that were an onerous task. He appointed an assistant bishop who has since been appointed bishop of Llandaff with no replacement assistant bishop. Perhaps he discovered that he is not that busy after all being responsible for the souls of less than 1% of the population of Wales.

What about the souls of Anglicans in Wales? Pew sitters have been led astray by their bishops while others have simply been abandoned in the shift to secularism.

A timely reminder of the dire situation Anglicans in the Church in Wales find themselves comes from Bishop Stuart Bell a former Church in Wales priest who was ordained as an Assistant Bishop in The Anglican Convocation in Europe in March after serving in the Church in Wales for 51 years.

In an interview with Dr Tony Rucinski of Coalition for Marriage (C4M), Bishop Bell said the Church in Wales’ 2021 decision to bless same-sex partnerships was "hugely significant". He told Dr Rucinski that "substantial" numbers have left the Church in Wales, following its decision to turn its back on the Bible and go with contemporary culture.

He rebuffed claims the Church’s move was compassionate, saying: "Justice and compassion are not rootless, they are rooted within truth and they are rooted within Christ and they are rooted within an authority that is completely unchanging."

The Bishop warned that we are being seriously misled by people whose hearts are set on "anarchy and nihilism". That voice is growing stronger by the day and is being promoted at government level and  by the media, he said.

He urged Christians and traditional marriage supporters to be absolutely resolute in the face of LGBT activists’ attempts to push the country into a state of "total gender confusion and sexual confusion".

Full details of the Christian Institute interview can be found here. 

The response of the Church in Wales was: Clergy told to keep breakaway bishop at arm’s length. "No ministers affiliated with the Anglican Convocation in Europe should exercise ministry or leadership in a Church in Wales context, unless the explicit written permission of the appropriate Church in Wales diocesan bishop has been given."

That came as little surprise to the many Anglicans abandoned by the handful of heretic bishops in the Church in Wales for keeping the faith as received in common with millions of Anglicans around the world.

This is the legacy handed on by a former bishop of Bangor, later archbishop, Barry Morgan who decreed after the retirement of Bishop David Thomas that there would be further alternative Episcopal oversight 'over his dead body'.

Now in comfortable retirement Morgan's legacy lives on. He continues to meddle in Church affairs showing no shame for leaving so many faithful Anglicans who had been in his care in a spiritual desert, a situation perpetuated by the bench of bishops to this day to their utter shame.

 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Nolights

This is the page returned on clicking the link below: 

"church in wales As-it-happens update ⋅ October 18, 2022

NEWS 

What does the Church believe?

The Church in Wales

The Church in Wales believes and proclaims the Good News of Jesus Christ, namely: that God is active and personal, a Father who cares for his ... "

It seemed most apt. 

The Church in Wales is in a mess, struggling to quantify its beliefs when its bishops have substituted secularism for the Christian faith as received.

The secular agenda of the bishops is leading their flock away from scripture and tradition by embracing secular trends that are at odds with traditional beliefs held by the majority of Anglicans around the world.

What the majority of Anglicans continue to believe has been rejected by the Church in Wales bishops in favour of woke secularism. The sanctity of marriage has been abandoned. Anything goes in the misuse of  the meaning of 'love'.

I have seen no 'Highlights' of the September 2022 meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales, hence 'Nolights' rather than 'Lowlights'. 

Elsewhere there was the announcement that "The Church in Wales will spend more than £100M of its capital reserves over the next decade to help its churches serve their communities more effectively." 

Throwing money around is not going to save the Church in Wales. The bishops need to get back to basics if they care anything for the souls of the faithful.

Postscript [31 Oct 2022]

Highlights - September 2022 Now available on the Church in Wales website.

Highlights September 2021 - the big fix

Church in Wales Governing Body September 2021                                                                                                                                                   Source: YouTube

Highlights of the Church in Wales (CinW) meeting of the Governing Body, September 2021, have been published. 

Highlights for bishops of the CinW they may be but for the vast majority of Anglicans, they will be anything but that. Attracting widespread criticism, the process has been a gigantic fix.

Built around a Bill to authorise a service of blessing for same-sex partnerships, the meeting's opening prayers invited us to show "love, compassion and concern for all those who are anxious about the day's debate, especially for the members of the LGBTI+ community." Especially for the LGBTI+ community! Do others merit no concern?

Even the response 'In your love and tenderness, remake us' was geared towards voting in favour of the measure. The cleric leading the prayers was far from neutral having already been remade, 'living happily' in a civil partnership with a younger man, he is a noted LGBT activist in common with all three women bishops.

One of the more illuminating speeches came from the Revd Dr Jonathon Wright (S&B), who submitted an amendment that, according to the Chair, Judge Andrew Keyser QC, 'touched on a fundamental part of the Bill'. Dr Wright wanted to have it delayed until it could be considered holistically as part of the Church’s doctrine on marriage, and introduced with same-sex marriage at some future date.

The bishops were in no mood to stop and reflect on their actions, typified by the response the bishop of Monmouth, Cherry Vann, also in a same sex civil partnership, said that it would be "a huge missional and pastoral opportunity lost for yet another generation. . . The cry will go up, ‘How long, O Lord, how long?'"

Not the Lord, bishop Vann but GB members. The amendment was lost by 77 votes to 27, with no abstentions. 

The Bill itself was proposed by the bishop of St Asaph who was "conscious that some members saw the Bill as a departure from Biblical teaching and the historic faith of the Church", probably his most accurate statement, but nevertheless he asked if members would be “bold enough to take a decision in favour of faithful love and mercy, which will bring hope and joy?”

The bishops won, the Bill passed. The Church in Wales lost.

Lowlights September 2018

This tweet sums up the Highlights of latest meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales

There has been an increase in mid-week attendance with an extra 0.03% of the population who do not attend church on Sundays.

By contrast the average Sunday attendance by people over 18 continues to plummet. Down another 3% on 2016 figures to 27,359 representing 0.8% of the population of Wales. Attendance by those under 18 was down by 7%.

Baptisms were down by 10%, Confirmations down by a massive 36% and Weddings down by 8%.

Not regarded as sufficiently important to warrant an agenda item of its own despite concerns previously expressed the Membership and Finances Report 2017 was hidden away in presented as part of Bishop Andy’s presentation on the Evangelism, Pioneering Ministry and Growth report.

He said he was "encouraged by two of its statistics: the increase in attendance at midweek services, which suggested that new kinds of Christian gathering were bearing fruit; and the gentle increase in young people aged under 17 – 'That mustn’t be a fitful figure, but a normal investment in young people to hear the good news,' he said."

If it doesn't bear fruit and quickly the future for the Church in Wales is grim.

Lowlights April 2018

Highlights, the report of this month's meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales is available via a Press Release web link. 

The provincial press release provides a fair summary:

From the Church’s role in the public square to a report from our delegate at a UN summit on women – a full round-up of the news from April’s meeting of the Governing Body can be read in Highlights.

If you don't get enough politics elsewhere and you are obsessed with gender equality regardless of ability you are likely to find Highlights a good read.

If you still regard the Church in Wales as a spiritual organisation don't bother.

One empowered woman's comment received in advance: A complete waste of time, effort and money. Debating non-issues just to look as if they are doing something. I truly believe the church is terminally ill.

Highlighting what we understand marriage to be

Like many readers,  I have been awaiting the publication of 'Highlights' following the April meeting of the Church in Wales Governing Body to read how the Archbishop's determination to open his churches to same sex marriage ceremonies regardless of the cost to the Church would be presented.

'Highlights' absence may be due to the retirement of the well respected Archdeacon who put it together or perhaps the bishops' same-sex marriage statement and Pastoral Letter are intended to replace the publication this time.

The above video graphically illustrates differing attitudes to marriage today and nails the notion that defenders of traditional marriage are either homophobic or religious bigots but this does not stop militant gay rights activists from condemning anyone who holds a contrary opinion to theirs as lacking in love and understanding.

The bishops of the Church of England are "all in agreement that the Christian understanding and doctrine of marriage as a lifelong union between one man and one woman remains unchanged". The bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada avow to guard church unity against "mounting pressure", but the bishops of the Church in Wales have again sold out to secularism by offering prayers (not a blessing) which may be used to celebrate same sex unions in church.

This comes as no surprise when the Archbishop, Dr Barry Morgan, fervently follows the lead of the US Episcopal Church (TEC) in dumping traditional Christian values in favour of TEC's disastrous Liberation Theology.

In the process of endorsing gay marriage the Bench of Bishops has engaged in deception on a massive scale using sympathetic clergy to influence what remains of their flock. This has included attempts to persuade the Mothers Union to support the policy and to vote on a personal basis regardless of views canvassed from congregations while demeaning the views of supporters of the traditional doctrine of marriage as the basis of family life.

The Archbishop's liberal leanings were well known before he sought the support of the Standing Doctrinal Commission of the Church in Wales. The Commission's sympathetic findings, summarised here, were duly printed and made available to congregations prior to diocesan 'consultations'. The procedure was for guidance only so a positive response could be used as justification while a negative response could be dismissed as the result of prejudice.

All this was designed to ensure that the Governing Body delivered the required verdict but when that failed the bishops simply did their own thing and published their Pastoral Letter to permit what had been rejected. What is unlikely to be found in churches is the theological rejection of the bishops' Pastoral Letter. But then the bishops' understanding of marriage is not Christian, it is secular.

Lowlights

Source: BBC video here

Have you ever felt ashamed to be an Anglican? Those of us in the UK who feared that the influence of the US Episcopal Church would have dire consequences for Anglicanism have been proved correct but perhaps few realised the depths to which newcomers would sink to achieve their liberal objectives.

A report of the recent meeting of the Governing Body (GB) of the Church in Wales now appears in 'Highlights' here under the headline Moral, Doctrinal and Ecumenical. What a laugh!

The piece on Women Bishops is a real eye-opener on the levels of deceit the bishops and their minions are prepared to sink to achieve the objectives of His Darkness. Here is an extract:

"The Bishops were present at the open forum, but did not participate. Members of GB were encouraged to share their views about what provision should be made in the Code of Practice, but not to return to general principles about women bishops that were made during the original debate last September. [my emphasis - Ed.]

The Venerable Peggy Jackson (Llandaff) reminded GB that it made a very important decision last September that there should be no ongoing discrimination in law on the grounds of gender, and that should be built into the process by which women should be made bishops. “From that date, we have all been members of a Church that no longer discriminates on grounds of gender. So the Church changed on that day.” “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.” “Women must fully grow into their place of equality alongside men within the Church—that is a reassurance that the code should reflect.”

Archdeacon Peggy applied three principles: that the provisions of the code should apply equally to male or female bishops; that the code should honour the authority of the diocesan bishop in her or his diocese; that all the bishops should be willing as necessary and as needed to assist one another in meeting pastoral or sacramental needs in each others’ dioceses. “This means that the concept of a Provincial Assistant Bishop should be resisted, as this role would set up a two-tier episcope.”"

That the bishops would not participate was fair as was the guidance "not to return to general principles about women bishops". The bishops had no need to speak; their mouthpiece was allowed free rein. But why was the Archdeacon of Llandaff allowed to speak putting an entirely different slant on her original proposals? Effectively it was her motion that was carried at the previous GB, a motion which promised fair play but on a voluntary basis. That 'voluntary' was going to have any force can now be seen as a complete delusion bar a miracle that the Bench will do the honourable thing and disregard the latest contribution of the Venerable Peggy Jackson, a woman who does not understand the meaning of discrimination other than as a propaganda tool. They have good reason for doing so since she, like some of her fellow-travellers who tried to derail the process at the diocesan meetings by returning to general principles, is clearly determined not to let traditionalists have the sacramental and pastoral oversight they have pleaded for to maintain a link with the Holy Catholic Church which the Church in Wales is so busy cutting after reading Highlights.

The Governing Body of the Church in Wales

The cat is out of the bag! Today sees the publication of "Highlights of the Church in Wales Governing Body September 2011". Apart from the reference to 'the Church' in its leading article Equal opportunities for all in the Church and an obscure piece on page 4 headed ‘Worship’, the Report could be that of of a minority political party or Trade Union. What sets it apart is its priorities.

Relegating impending disaster to the back page, as predicted, gender balance, provides the lead theme with some interesting figures given that the ordination of women was supposed to reinvigorate the church and make it more relevant to society. Despite the gloomy outlook, the Governing Body heard “that change in the representation of women in the Church has taken place faster than expected and in a positive way”. Ironically Page 8 illustrates how, commensurate with the feminising of the church, it is having the opposite effect with the church heading for oblivion. Church attendance was reported to be falling rapidly with its associated financial difficulties. 

Here is an extract: 

“Sadly the Church plays scant regard to all the data it has. It does not give it the time or the resources it deserves if we are to properly form, measure and monitor our strategy making and policy forming.” 

“So often in the Church we move from one half-baked initiative to another, often at great financial cost with little or no thought at measuring outcomes and the difference we make, and learning lessons for future strategy and work.” 

“There is little good news in the Report. We have experienced an alarming rate of decline in average attendance, and that is clearly undermining our ability to perform financially particularly at a parish level. The difficulty in maintaining large buildings and making the 

books balance remains. Large numbers of parishes are having to dip into diminishing reserves to make ends meet.”

If the official report is alarming enough, unofficial reports reaching me are worse. In September 2008 the Church in Wales issued a Press Release which began: “The Bishops of the Church in Wales today promised to provide continuing care for those opposed to the ordination of women, following a decision not to appoint a new assistant bishop. They stressed there was still a place in the church for those unable in conscience to accept the ordination of women and emphasised their commitment to sensitive pastoral care for all people and parishes in each diocese.”

The cat jumped out of the bag when a woman vicar suggested that candidates for ordination must be refused if they do not support women's ordination. Such is his 'commitment to sensitive pastoral care’ that His Darkness conveniently forgot it and remained silent other than to announce that discussions would take place in the GB next year, leading to legislation being prepared for a vote to make it possible for women to be bishops. This announcement came as much of a surprise to his fellow Bishops as it did to everyone else, confirming Bazzer's conviction that the assembly exists merely as a rubber stamp. So much for Equal Opportunities for all in the Church. It should have read Equal Opportunities for all in the Church who agree with the Archbishop.

Leaving aside the ‘pastoral care’ aspect, another Press Release issued prior to last week’s meeting (now confirmed in the report) provides some interesting financial figures: “On average, church members last year gave £7.79 each Sunday – an increase of 1.8% on the previous year. This represents 2.5% of the average Welsh gross weekly adult income. However, with fewer people going to church the total increase from direct giving continues to fall.”

So for many traditionalists, what Equality of Opportunity in the church amounts to is a willingness to contribute considerably more than £7.79 each Sunday as an act of faith with no Episcopal support or understanding, thus subsidising not only the people who oppose them but the Theological College that trains women to peddle their feminist agendas. By comparison in the Church of England Archbishop Rowan demonstrates his commitment to continuing care for those opposed to the ordination of women. Now those in Wales adhering to the traditional faith can only pray for a successful outcome when their Ordinariate Exploration Group meets on 5th November. Please pray with them.