St David's Day - 900 years on

The Dean of St Davids (second left) with cathedral clergy                                                                   source: Friends of St Davids

Friends of St Davids Cathedral will have received a message from the Dean, Sarah Rowland Jones, wishing all a 'joyful celebration of St Davids Day, and blessed and holy Lent'. 

The message begins:

"As St David’s Day approaches, I’m delighted to share with you details of two upcoming TV programmes, and a whopping 25 radio programmes, which are being broadcast between this weekend and Easter, wholly or largely about St David and aspects of the 900th anniversary of the papal recognition of Dewi as an 'international saint' and of two pilgrimages to St Davids being of equal value to one to Rome. I'm quite bowled over that BBC Radio Wales in particular have embraced the celebrations quite so enthusiastically."

The Dean enjoyed a jolly in Jerusalem to help her consider whether David may have made a similar journey. Wondering why she could not have contemplated the conundrum at her desk in the Deanery I listened to her broadcast on All Things Considered. In her 4 minute interview with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Theophilos III, his opinion was that it was quite likely that David did visit Jerusalem. 

The Dean asked the Patriarch to explain 'Patriarch' and 'Patriarchate'.

Advance to position 22 of the All Things Considered video for the Patriarch's probably unexpected answer in which he explained that the patriarch is the "living  testimony to the Apostolic Succession. That is to say that the Patriarch of Jerusalem is the successor to the first bishop, not only of Jerusalem but of the whole Church of St James, the brother of Our Lord. This succession has been without any break throughout the ages."

 

That is something for the still absent bishop of St Davids to contemplate privately as she celebrates the granting of a privilege from Pope Callixtus II in Rome that two pilgrimages to St Davids Cathedral were equal to one to Rome.

In my 28 February 2019 entry Bishop steals clothes I reported how the bishop had high-jacked Credo Cymru's motto "Be joyful and keep the faith". 

It was ironic then, now even more so. The Church in Wales abandoned the received faith years ago.

The ordination of women closed any hope of unity with Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Now the Anglican Church is split by the decision of some western provinces such as the Church of England and the Church in Wales to bless same sex marriages.

We were warned by the apostles:

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.-  The Letter of Jude (17-19)

Good Friday in Jerusalem

The Golgotha Chapel of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Thanks from unchurched Anglicans to Richard Sewell @sgcjerusalem for this short video clip.

Unity or division? You decide

Vatican City, Sep 19, 2013 

Quoting the Vatican II document “Lumen Gentium”, Pope Francis reminded new bishops participating in a private audience that “the Bishop is a man of communion and unity, the ‘visible principle and foundation of unity.’”

The pontiff pressed the bishops to ask themselves during their daily work, “how to live the spirit of collegiality and collaboration in the Episcopate” and how “to be builders of communion and unity in the Church the Lord has entrusted” to them.

“They call you and establish you as Pastors not from yourselves, but from the Lord; and not to serve yourselves, but to serve the flock entrusted to you, to serve it even to the point of giving your life, like Christ, the Good Shepherd.”

If they “welcome with magnanimity” and with an open door, those who are in their care, said the Pope, “will experience the paternity of God and understand how the Church is a good mother that always loves and welcomes them.” The Holy Father also imparted to the new bishop’s the necessity to journey with one’s flock, a journey which cannot be completed without affection for his priests and his presence among his people.

Lampeter, Sep 12, 2013

THE Bench of Bishops of the Church in Wales will "not please everybody" with a code of practice containing provisions for those who dissent from women bishops, the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, has said.

Dr Morgan said that he did not know why the issue of women bishops caused so much more anguish than other contentious issues facing the Church. "Some people feel that it is unbiblical, that it is against the tradition, and that we are at variance with the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church.

"Well, we are at variance with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. If that was the only issue that divided us, I would say: 'Well, let's hang on a minute.' But, of course, the Roman Catholic Church doesn't actually recognise our orders.

Jerusalem, AD 33

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

The way of the cross

Jerusalem then and now

Christian - Muslim dialogue

Jerusalem, Jerusalem

Two reports today from the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East. The first from the Catholic News Service in which two bishops at synod question the effectiveness of dialogue with Muslims. The second from the Catholic News Agency which focuses on political Islam with its "increasing pressure throughout the region from extremist groups who want to “to impose an Islamic way of life on all citizens, sometimes by violence".”