C of E agrees to bless sin on trial basis

General Synod November 2023                             Source: Church of England

Despite the Church of England's belief that marriage is between one man and one woman, its General Synod has agreed that special services of prayer and dedication asking for God’s blessing for same-sex couples should be introduced on a trial basis.

The religious service could follow a civil wedding ceremony with readings and prayers, music, flowers and confetti, giving the appearance of a wedding in all but name.

The Church of England Evangelical Council said the decision "will tear local parish congregations apart, damage the relationship between large numbers of clergy and their bishops and cause churches across the dioceses to feel as though their shepherds have abandoned them."

Sadly, most of the bishops of the Church of England could not care less, as in the Church in Wales, where many faithful Anglicans have already been abandoned for keeping the faith.

Canterbury calling?

Archbishop of York (Source: Diocese of York)                                         Bishop of London  (Source: Crediton Courier)

Rumours abound that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will resign after the coronation of King Charles III.

He has said that he hoped to remain the Archbishop of Canterbury until he reaches retirement age in 2026, if he is in "good health" and "people are happy" with him in the post. 

Very many people are unhappy with Welby's performance as Archbishop of Canterbury, including the majority of Anglicans. Schism looms. Will he go?

Welby's role in turning a Christian coronation service into a multi-faith event has not gone down well. 

His 'off-piste' oath plan has backfired. "Buckingham Palace officials fear the Coronation oath could cloud the ceremony due to the criticism surrounding the 'Homage of the People'."

Those of us old enough to recall the solemnity of Queen Elizabeth's coronation will witness a different ceremony, one built around wokery to include people with entirely different beliefs, some of which reject the Christian message.

The Coronation Liturgy shows that the Epistle (Colossians 1: 9-17) is to be read by a Hindu Prime Minister. Hindus worship many gods so which god will the Prime Minister have in mind? 

Nothing seems to matter in the Church of England other than being conformed to the world.

On that score, if Welby were to retire, the Archbishop of York and the bishop of London have both shown themselves to be unsuitable.

Bishop Sarah Mullally ended  her Living in Love and Faith Presentation  with the words:

"I hope that we will not just ‘look to your own interests, but to the interests of others.’
...May God hold us in the redeeming love of Christ and bless us with the guiding
presence of the Holy Spirit.
Amen."

The guiding  presence of the Holy Spirit is evident not in the Church of England  but in GAFCON:

"Despite 25 years of persistent warnings by most Anglican Primates, repeated departures from the authority of God's Word have torn the fabric of the Communion. These warnings were blatantly and deliberately disregarded and now without repentance this tear cannot be mended."

The Archbishop of York has not heeded the message. In his presidential address at the April 2023 York synod he claimed that "We are not judged by 'doctrinal orthodoxy' but 'love', reminiscent of TEC presiding bishop Michael Curry's Love is the way!

What the Church of England needs is an Archbishop of Canterbury can bring the Church back to faith as neatly explained here by Calvin Robinson in his Common Sense Crusade.

Ageing Christians

About a quarter of the young adults who dropped out of church said they disagreed with their church’s stance on political
and social issues. Photograph: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images.  Source: The Guardian

The above image is from a Guardian article Losing their religion: why US churches are on the decline.

Where the US episcopal church (TEC) has been the Church of England has been quick to follow and the Church in Wales even quicker. Consequently the latest 2021 census figures confirm what has been apparent to all but the Church hierarchy for some time. 

Christian Today has summarised a data set from the 2021 Census which reveals that "Christians are the oldest on average among people of faith in England and Wales. The average age of a Christian is now 51. By contrast, those describing themselves as Muslim had the youngest average age of 27 years old, followed by those who reported "no religion" - 32 years old."

People of faith are lumped together as though there is little difference between them. That was the position of the newly elected bishop of Llandaff when she responded to a question put to her by the Secretary General Muslim Council of Wales Abdul-Azim Ahmed on the BBC's 'All Things Considered' on the census results and the 'growth of minority religions across Wales' in particular.

Bishop Stallard said that she had always been helped and encouraged by people of faith of diverse traditions. She had spent a lot of time as a student studying Hinduism and Buddhism and had been encouraged in her faith by a Muslim sister. A great comfort for persecuted Christians living at the sharp end around the world!

Presumably the bishop had so little time for biblical study that she skipped over "I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" and the the Great Commission: Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

The Bible counts for little in new Anglicanism other than to provide an opportunity to take passages out of context to provide some phoney legitimacy to the latest hot issue such as Living in Love and Faith (LLF) which many bishops are eager to endorse without any theological reasoning, probably because there isn't any. 

By contrast a small group of bishops has published a 'short theological summary of the doctrine of marriage as the Church of England has received it'. 

Hooray for them but too little too late as the census figures indicate. Without younger people replacing the aged Anglicanism will surely perish.

Two cheers for the C of E

Archbishop  of Wales Andy John blesses a locomotive                                    Source: Herald Wales

The intention is in the title, Living in Love and Faith (LLF). The situation would have been clearer if LLF had been titled Living in Sin and Faith.

Today it has been announced that "For the first time, under historic plans outlined on Wednesday 18 January 2023, same-sex couples will be able to come to church to give thanks for their civil marriage or civil partnership and receive God’s blessing. The Bishops of the Church of England will be issuing an apology later this week to LGBTQI+ people for the “rejection, exclusion and hostility” they have faced in churches and the impact this has had on their lives."

Two cheers then for the declaration "The formal teaching of the Church of England as set out in the canons and authorised liturgies – that Holy Matrimony is between one man and one woman for life – would not change."

If the example of the Church in Wales is followed there will be moves to allow same sex weddings in Church as happened when the ordination of women to the priesthood was declared a half-way house having achieved their initial goal.

According to the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell: 

"This is not the end of that journey but we have reached a milestone and I hope that these prayers of love and faith can provide a way for us all to celebrate and affirm same-sex relationships.

"Over the last six years, we have been confronted time and time again with examples of the rejection, exclusion, and hostility that many LGBTQI+ people have received in churches.

"Both personally and on behalf of my fellow bishops I would like to express our deep sorrow and grief at the way LGBTQI+ people and those they love have been treated by the Church which, most of all, ought to recognise everyone as precious and created in the image of God.  We are deeply sorry and ashamed and want to take this opportunity to begin again in the spirit of repentance which our faith teaches us."

The trajectory is obvious. 

I do not know of anyone who has been confronted with examples of "rejection, exclusion, and hostility" of the many LGBTQI+ Abp Cottrell refers to. Only unsupported allegations by activists who label anyone with a contrary opinion to theirs as homophobic.

By contrast many others have experienced rejection and hostility resulting in exclusion simply for striving to remain faithful to their baptismal promises.

Church blessings have become commonplace. Some argue that if inanimate objects, as illustrated above, and animals can be blessed, why not same-sex unions. 

Inanimate objects and animals do not have souls, the cure of which is entrusted by the bishop in the clergy with the words "Receive this cure of souls which is both yours and mine."

Civil partnerships are in themselves a blessing but nothing is ever good enough for those seeking to secularise the Church. 

God Save the Queen - and the CofE

Archbishop Stephen Cottrell. By Bashereyre (CC 3.0)     Source: Nation Cymru

Nation Cymru reports that the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has called for Wales to sing God Save the Queen before international sports games.

He also complained about Scotland singing Flower of Scotland, the Scottish national anthem, before its Euro 2020 match with England.

Singing national anthems at international events has become standard practice but with no specifically English national anthem, England often chant the African-American spiritual song Swing Low, Sweet Chariot at international rugby matches.

The archbishop made his suggestion in a column in the Telegraph. He said many people in England feel left behind by "metropolitan elites in London and the South East".

Rather like the Church of England and its bishops.  

The Archbishop Cranmer blog puts it this way after the Archbishop of York called for the Church of England to be a church for England, rather than just ‘of’:
 "The Church of England tolerates you, but it isn’t for you. It is there for you to come and go in common worship and to feed on Christ by faith, but thousands upon thousands of its clergy (including 99% of Bishops) truly despise everything you believe and represent, and quite a few of them can’t wait for you to leave so the liberal new order might arise and their theology be consummated.

Having already alienated many with their current LLF obsession, Living in Love and Faith, the Church of England has created fury with "an ambitious target of planting 10,000 new, predominantly lay-led churches by 2030".

The recommendations come in a briefing paper GS 2223 [Simpler, Humbler, Bolder. A Church for the whole nation which is Christ centred and shaped by the Five Marks of Mission] issued by the Church of England’s Vision and Strategy group. 

The church-planting initiative’s leader, the Rev. Canon John McGinley of New Wine, touched off a firestorm of criticism when he labelled stipendiary clergy, church buildings, and theological college training as “limiting factors” for growth at a church planting conference.

The strategy was outlined thus: "Lay-led churches release the Church from key limiting factors. When you don’t need a building and a stipend and long, costly college-based training for every leader of a church . . . then actually we can release new people to lead and new churches to form. It also releases the discipleship of people. In church-planting, there are no passengers."

As reported in the Guardian, Traditionalists in the Church of England have launched a campaign to defend the centuries-old parish system against plans to promote innovative church gatherings in unconventional settings:

"At the campaign’s launch this week, Father Marcus Walker, the rector of St Bartholomew the Great in central London, said parishioners were facing the 'last chance to save the system that has defined Christianity for 1,000 years'.

"He said: 'In the last 10 to 15 years, particularly under [the archbishop of Canterbury] Justin Welby, there has been heavy skew away from traditional parishes with a relationship to a church building and local community, to a style of church set up in a cinema or barn or converted Chinese takeaway'."

Lay led 'house groups' within the parish system are one thing, groups set up outside traditional parishes are something else. 

With no properly ordained priests to administer the sacraments the Church of England will drift further towards nonconformity before she expires.

Phobias used to silence opposition

Source: imgur

I have not read of any reference in reports of the recent Church of England Synod to epistemophobia or sophophobia, unlike transphobia and homophobia, the clubs being used to silence opposition to revisionists. 

 Dr Ian Paul probably came closest when he asked at Synod: "Do you think it is at all helpful or permissible for members of this Synod to describe voices in the videos on Living in Love and Faith (LLF) as transphobic to seek to silence them?"

Former nurse, Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London, who was leading the 'Passing the Baton' session on LLF had said that the Church of England 'should be a safe space for people with opposing theological views on the issues of marriage, gender and sexuality'.

In response LGBT activist Jayne Ozanne accused conservative Anglicans on General Synod of "transphobic and homophobic rhetoric".

Ms Ozanne told the bishop: "The LGBT community feel they are constantly being asked to love those who are abusing them and that in itself is abusive.

"There is transphobic and homophobic rhetoric even in these questions coming from people, which we are not even allowed to call transphobic and homophobic.

"I would remind people of what the definition of that is. It is views that are seen as transphobic by the person they are aimed at." [My emphasis - Ed.]

How convenient. The NHS definition of phobia is "an overwhelming and debilitating fear of an object, place, situation, feeling or animal".

Phobia charges have become weapons as have charges of misogyny. There is a well trodden path in Anglicanism of people claiming victimisation. Anyone who differs is charged with being phobic, a misogynist or, as the bishop of St Davids claimed, being 'at the receiving end of prejudice and discrimination' simply for taking a different position.

Such tactics stifle debate, perpetuating the notion of victimhood. 

The Church of England is being dragged along the road to secularism, seemingly ignorant of the fate of other Anglican Churches that have taken the same path.

David Virtue writes in The Episcopal Church: The Day The Music Died:

"Slowly, but surely, The Episcopal Church is being depleted of people. We still don't know what COVID has done to overall church attendance. As long as there is no scandal, the Episcopal Church is glad to see the back of orthodox bishops and clergy as they leave.

"Why and what does it really matter if bishops like Love, Howe, Bena, Herzog, Wantland, Ackerman, Iker et al., leave? After all, why would you want someone to stay if they did not share the same progressive views as you do about the faith once for all delivered to the saints? Why have a thorn in the flesh when you can have it removed?"

Closer to home the CofE has only to look at the fate of the Church in Wales on the other side of Offa's Dyke where virtually anything goes now that traditional Anglicanism has been all but snuffed out.

The days of both are numbered with ever decreasing attendances.

There is a personal price too. Christian Concern reports on the case of a Christian pastoral administrator who was sacked for two Facebook posts that raised concerns about transgenderism and sex education at her son’s Church of England primary school.

"Having worked for 7 years as a pastoral assistant at Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, Mrs Higgs was summarily dismissed in early 2020 after sharing a petition against the extension of relationship and sex education on her private Facebook case.

"After an anonymous complaint attacked Mrs Higgs’s views as “homophobic and prejudiced”, the school promptly dismissed her for bringing the school into disrepute. Last October, Bristol Employment Tribunal rejected Mrs Higgs’s claim for religious discrimination." She has won the right to appeal her case.

There is a much wider problem. 

While the Islamic terrorist organisation ISIS has been driven underground or dispersed, there is more evidence of atrocities committed by the Taliban which enforces a strict interpretation of Islamic law in Afghanistan.

A video has emerged of Afghan commandos being shot dead after an apparent surrender. The Taliban rejects the video, saying it's fabricated!

From All Africa: "After the so-called 'Islamic State' saw its influence in the Middle East wane, the group and its affiliates have targeted poorly governed areas in Africa.

"Jihadis have taken control of significant territories in the Sahel and the Lake Chad regions, which include parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and Nigeria. In 2018, the West African Centre for Counter Extremism (WACCE) reported up to 6,000 West Africans, who had fought with the 'Islamic State', returned home from Iraq and Syria after the group's self-proclaimed caliphate collapsed.

"It was only a matter of time before we would begin to see ISIS activities replicated in their home countries," says Mutaru Mumuni Muqthar, director of the WACCE in Ghana."

The UN has told the BBC that the situation unfolding in Afghanistan is a "humanitarian catastrophe" and one of the worst crises in the world. Around 18 million people, more than half the country’s population, are in urgent need of life-saving support.

The fate of non-Muslims (Dhimmitude) in Islamic states has been made plain many times but still, in countries where Islam is not dominant, any questioning of Islam attracts charges of Islamophobia. 

Instead of heeding the warning, revisionist have taken the practice on board to silence opposition, leading to the slow demise of the Church of England, following in the steps of the Church in Wales and TEC. But nobody in authority seems to care!

Plot losers

Marriage!                                                                            Source:church Times

Great Britain's fourth largest Christian denomination, the Methodist Church, has voted to change the definition of marriage, thus permitting same sex 'marriage' along with the Scottish Episcopal Church, United Reformed Church and Quakers.

The Church of England continues its convulsions as trendy Lefties push to follow fashion rather than faith. 

The bench of bishops of what is becoming the LGBT Church in Wales have made no secret of the fact that they support same sex marriage but they rarely make the headlines unless plugging the latest LGBT news or having to apologise for offences caused as here and here.

A report to be presented to the General Synod of the Church in England says that, by July, approximately 5500 people will have participated in a Living in Life and Faith (LLF) event. Each diocese has at least one LLF Advocate and 9000 people have registered on the LLF learning hub.

Foremost among those losing the plot on this occasion is the bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev Paul Bayes, who says that "the Church of England should recognise marriage between people of the same sex and allow such ceremonies in church." A move that would break with centuries of Christian teaching.

Bishop Bayes told a conference of the neo-Marxist organisation ‘Mosaic Anglicans‘ that he wanted a gender-neutral marriage canon such as they have in the Episcopal Church or in the Scottish Episcopal Church.

As Archbishop Cranmer puts it in his Blog: "It is not only all gendered language which must be expunged – all mention of male and female, man and woman, husband and wife – but also every mention of children, for in a gender-neutral marriage canon there can be no presumption of or preference for procreation. The nuclear family becomes a partnership of two for mutual society; a contract to keep each other company (though why limit it it just two?): marriage ceases to be about a union to be blessed with babies for the future flourishing of society, because unions in a gender-neutral marriage canon must have a presumption of barrenness in the present. To talk of children is to presume fertility and so to discriminate against the naturally sterile union of man and man and woman and woman."

If that sounds far fetched, the LGBT charity Stonewall has told organisations to stop using gendered terms like mother and father and to close down single-sex toilets while teachers have been told to drop the terms 'boy' and 'girl' in favour of 'learners'. 

Bishop Bayes is not alone in his view of Christian marriage. Commenting on Matt Hancock's resignation as Health Secretary after he breached his own Covid regulations, the bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Dr David Walker dismissed Hancock's 'lies, deception and unfaithfulness' and as 'a bit of a fling', not something to be 'unduly concerned about'.

Bishops Bayes and Walker are just two Anglican bishops who have lost the plot who happen to be in the news.

Why is the Church so woke? asked Giles Fraser following a Savanta ComRes survey which revealed that only 6% of Church of England clergy admitted to voting Tory in the December 2019 General Election, whereas 40% voted Labour.

Writing in Christian Today, former Church of England vicar Julian Mann posed the question Why the left-wing bias of so many Anglican clergy? 

"The short answer would seem to be because that is the way of the world. Or at least the world of this country's institutions, from the BBC to the police, to the educational establishment, to the National Trust, since the 1960s.

"Britain's institutions, including the CofE, are now run by men and women who absorbed the left-wing doctrines that were becoming predominant in the universities they went to in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly the belief that the State is the most effective agent of human betterment."

"The watering down of the CofE's historic biblical teaching since the 1960s is arguably the reason why it has become so woke.

"Because historic Christianity stresses "the resurrection of the body, And the life everlasting" - as the Apostles' Creed concludes - the kingdom of woke, in which humanity can achieve a rainbow utopia in this world, is fundamentally opposed to the kingdom of God and of his Christ."

Exactly. They have lost the plot.

Postscript [06.07.2021]

Apology from the Bishop of Liverpool.