Llandaff Cathedral steps

                                                       Llandaff Cathedral steps                                                                 

Spotted on Twitter: "Did not expect to see this from @LlandaffCath but HOW UTTERLY BRILLIANT. A bold and welcoming move.

Brilliant? Bold indeed but how was a faculty obtained?

 As for welcoming, the rainbow colours are on the risers so unlikely to be seen until leaving.

All is now clear. 

A second picture shows a tape hazzard for someone to trip over. Perhaps the second best person to be a bishop in the Church in Wales!

Holy smoke

Celebrating Llandaff style                                         Source: Naked Truth/BBC

Apparently there is smoke without fire. That is the conclusion of the eagerly anticipated Llandaff Cathedral report. It reminds me of the Church in Wales Standing Doctrinal Commission telling the former bishop of Llandaff what he wanted to hear but it is as it is.

The hand-picked review team describe Llandaff Cathedral as "a wonderful place with committed clergy and staff. It has a healthy attendance at services with many young people and a wealth of skills and experience in the congregation. The reviewers recognise that the Cathedral is now in better shape having stabilised its finances and controlled its operating costs, as well as having fully recovered its rich tradition of music. It also has one of the best organs in the country."

Nevertheless, the challenges ahead "require a better business model that is more sustainable to help finance the repairs and the redevelopment of key areas of the building whilst also helping to fund the mission and ministry of the Cathedral. The reviewers recommend major changes to the way the Cathedral is governed for it to shape and deliver a bold and extensive strategy. Key to that restructuring will be the involvement of more lay people with specialist skills."

No doubt many commentators who have used this blog to air their grievances will not be satisfied with the findings but perhaps it is time to draw a line and move on.

If commenting on this blog, may I implore commentators to refrain from using derogatory pseudonyms which serve only to detract from what is intended to be a legitimate commentary on the direction of Anglicanism today.

A word about comments. These are sent from the anonymised address "noreply-comment@blogger.com". There is no information which identifies the sender. Consequently I am unable to reply to commentators directly when asked, neither am I able to amend comments to remove what some readers may find offensive. 

Over the last few days I have been experiencing a problem with the receipt of comments. I apologise in advance if you try to comment within the rules (see leading Blog notes) but without success.

Crises! - What crises?

Installation of the Dean of Llandaff                                            Original photo: Church in Wales

"Repairs being carried out at historic Welsh cathedral after piece of stone fell from building during funeral." 

From WalesOnline.

I am not without sympathy for the Dean of Llandaff, regarded by some members of the Cathedral congregation as a decent man who is trying to do a difficult job under difficult circumstances but by others as an inappropriate appointment by an unscrupulous Archbishop and completely out of his depth. He certainly seems to have been dropped in it, something Janet Henderson was wise to avoid. 

Despite the mathematical skills of his predecessor, Bonaparte, a number of miscalculations have come to light from doubts about the accounting procedures used for the organ appeal funds, to the appropriateness of the organ project itself, given the financial problems of Llandaff Cathedral and dwindling congregations.

Obsessed by the ordination of woman and now by the advancement of the gay agenda, Dr Morgan's main concern appears to be focused on the acceptance of same-sex marriage in Church. Manipulation towards this end has been in evidence for some time at parish, deanery and diocesan levels, all geared to deliver the Governing Body result programmed by the Archbishop whether consonant with the faith or not. 

Gay activists have learned a thing or two from the feminist infiltration of Anglicanism by using their strategy:

•  Exploit the “victim” status;
• Use the sympathetic media;
• Confuse and neutralize the churches;
• Slander and stereotype [traditionalist] Christians;
• Bait and switch (hide their true nature); and
• Intimidation.

So being gay has become the in-thing, picked up by politicians, bishops and career minded priests. Journalists were not slow in seeing which way the wind was blowing. Honestly held views are attacked under the guise of 'equality' while activists make accusations against anyone who begs to differ. For a flavour of this phenomenon read some of the comments made in response to an article by Peter Mullen for the Church of England Newspaper (here) for questioning "the £360,000 bill for 'facilitated conversations' which, it is hoped, will break the deadlock between liberals and traditionalists on the contentious issue of the Church’s attitude towards homosexuality".

With women bishops firmly in place in the Church of England the emphasis now is on manipulation, abandoning the concept of equality which was the basis of their complaint to ensure that they are considered for preferment above men regardless of ability. But the best laid plans....! Read "Drive to make CofE less 'male, pale and stale' backfires" here.

While the feminist agenda is being fine-tuned and the gay agenda advances, the poor disenfranchised pew sitters continue giving more money than many can afford to support a failing institution which treats them with contempt for keeping the faith rather than kneel before each new sacred cow. It cannot last.

Crises! What crises?

Llandaff Cathedral - Sneak

From the Church in Wales web site: "Link to video of Sneak a Peek at Llandaff Cathedral – where the work of  the Llandaff Diocesan officers and committees was exhibited. Day hailed as a great success." - See above.

At last some success to report from Llandaff Cathedral, but only self satisfaction. Their real purpose is to serve God and man. What are they doing about that?- [Feminists please note that is mankind, human beings considered collectively; the human race.]

Perhaps this is a fitting entry for today 'celebrating', if that is the correct word, over 400,000 page views. When I started this blog I didn't have a specific aim in mind other than to have a bit of fun using a free facility to get things which irritated me off my chest (see 'Welcome' here). The Church wasn't one of them but the mean spirited antics of Women and the Church (WATCH) advancing the feminist cause at the expense of the faithful in the Church of England and the even worse fate of traditional worshippers in the Church in Wales has tended to take over, especially when urged on by readers who simply wish to be treated with the respect they are due and to worship God according to their own tradition rather than to a formula imported from the Archbishop's heretical mentor, the Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church.

Entries about the goings on in the Church in Wales are, save one, the most popular read and commented on with interest around the world as indicated by the Flag Counter. But there are far more questions than answers. Most concern the fate of the Church in Wales and its archiepiscopal Llandaff Cathedral. 

Now if the worshipping life of the Cathedral as an exemplar for the Diocese and the Province could be "hailed as a great success" that really would be something to cheer about! 

Over to you Archbishop.

First woman bishop to celebrate the Eucharist at Llandaff Cathedral

Photo: Islam Times                                                           Bishop Geralyn Wolf

You couldn't dream up a story like this. Before women bishops are legal in the Church in Wales, the near bankrupt Llandaff Cathedral (where, as acting Dean, the Archbishop of Wales tore up the notion of twin integrity) is to host a celebration of the Eucharist where the President will be a converted Jewish, Episcopalian woman bishop who defrocked another female priest in the US Episcopal Church for being a 'Christian Muslim'. While the Archbishop himself is partial to a spot of clergy discipline he is more inclined to matters of the flesh than the spirit where more or less anything goes. Nevertheless he may have some explaining to do with his Muslim friends for welcoming a cleric who in their eyes will be guilty of Islamophobia because Jesus would be regarded as a lesser prophet in Islam.

In another step towards nonconformity the celebration is the culmination of  "Crossing the Threshold!", a "day conference to mark the opening of the Episcopate to women in the Church in Wales". Other participants are the Revd Dr Jenny Hurd, Chair Wales Synod Methodist Church and Jane Williams, "Theological writer and educator" - better known as Mrs Rowan Williams, now Lady Williams of Oystermouth, the sort of honour feminism still has to suffer.

The story appears as the very last item  in the Pentecost 2014 edition of the Monmouth Diocesan Newsletter [bottom of page 12]. Page 8 has a report on the April meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales. Most prominent are Assisted dying [killing] and Same-sex marriage: "the Bench of Bishops asked the Standing Doctrinal Commission to look at the issue of blessing of civil partnerships". The Chairman of the Commission is the Reverend Canon Dr. Peter Sedgwick, Principal of the failed St Michael's College, Llandaff. His wife is the Revd Jan Gould, organiser of "Crossing the Threshold!", who tried to get a previous meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales to agree that no candidate could be presented for ordination if they opposed women’s ordained ministry.

Conspicuous for its absence from the Newsletter's GB report is any reference to the discussion on the Code of Practice. From Highlights:

4. In approving this Canon, the Governing 

Body entrusts the Bench of Bishops 

without delay to agree a Code of Practice 

which commits the Bench to making 

provisions such that all members of the 

Church in Wales, including those who in 

conscience dissent from the provisions 

of section 1, may have a sense of 

security in their accepted and valued 

place within the Church in Wales. 

The "Crossing the Threshold!" celebration takes place at St Michael’s College, Cardiff on 4th September 2014 ending with a Eucharist at 7.45pm in Llandaff Cathedral, a week BEFORE the 12 September 2014, the date from which it will be possible for women to be ordained as bishops (details here) and well before the next meeting of the Governing Body which takes place on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 September 2014 where further dissent is possible if the bishops renege on their pledge.

This is unacceptable in any democratic organisation and another example of how Barry and the Bench have used the Church for political ends.

As for the Governing Body, the Bishop of Monmouth was spot on when he wrote (page 5), "People seem to nod approval (or congregations are just too polite!)".

The message is clear: WAKE UP GB!

Llandaff Cathedral bucking a trend

Llandaff Cathedral with the Archbishop of Wales (also Bishop of Llandaff), Archdeacon of Llandaff and the still vacant Deanery

Among the dismal, declining attendance figures in the Church of England (CofE) there has been a ray of hope where cathedrals have bucked the trend with an increase in attendance over the last decade although the CofE report cautions that "almost all the increase in attendance in the past decade is due to increased midweek attendance rising from 8,900 in 2002 to 16,800 in 2012". Nevertheless there is a glimmer of hope amidst the gloom; analysis here.

Not so in Wales where Llandaff Cathedral has bucked the trend but in the opposite direction. As predicted, seven professional members of Llandaff Cathedral choir have lost their jobs in a bid to save £45,000 as part of the cost-cutting measures to reduce the £81,000 deficit. Having a mathematician in the Deanery and a chartered accountant in the Archdeaconry may have aided the cathedral's acquisition of a magnificent £1.5 million organ but has resulted in a severely depleted choir which it accompanies. Story here with comments from 'Let nothing you dismay' here.

Much has been made in news items about the timing of the sackings but should anyone be surprised? After all the Archbishop believes that the church should reflect society where sackings in time for Christmas are not uncommon. But why the choir? Take a look at the diocesan information page which lists personnel including an Archbishop, an Ass Bishop, three Archdeacons and 28 others in support excluding a Dean. - Apparently nobody wants the job and who could blame them.

According to published figures the minimum figure for stipends for three Archdeacons is over £101,000, while the Archbishop receives (minimum figures) of £44,254 and the Ass Bishop £37,616. When the Church in Wales Archiepiscopal See Working Group looked at stipends in 2006 an Ass Bishop's stipend was £31,079 but the total cost including employers NI and pension contributions and secretarial support was £58,246. If this figure is uprated by the same movement in the Ass Bishop's stipend that is around £65,000 today plus significant housing costs. The absence of a Dean, covered first by the Archbishop and then by the Archdeacon, shows that there is spare capacity at the Cathedral where savings could be made among senior staff and most probably in the supporting structure so why sacrifice the choir in what Dr Morgan described as "the diocesan church par excellence"?

Last Sunday the Archbishop preached, somewhat nervously I thought, at a service in Swansea which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4' Sunday Worship. His subject, The Coming of Christ as Judge which may explain his delivery. As usual he managed to insert 'gender' into his Address: "And Jesus’ whole life was spent ministering to those on the margins of His society because of their gender, occupation, race or illness." If only Jesus had completed His work by appointing women Apostles and handing the keys of heaven to one of them the Archbishop would not have such an onerous task convincing people that the Church has been wrong for 2,000 years.

Instead Dr Morgan and others like him have been able to carve out careers for themselves doing what Christ did not do. The consequences are plain for all to see.

Swan song? If only...

The Archbishop of Wales                                                                                      Photo: Church in Wales

[NOTE: According to the Church in Wales web site the programme referred to below has been re-scheduled for broadcast on 8 December 2013 by which time the Archbishop should have retired from the scene had he been employed in the secular world he so much admires but since he is responsible only to himself no doubt he will continue to apply his own personal standards and stay put. - Ed.]

Whether the English 'Songs of Praise' or the Welsh 'Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol',  first, praise where praise is due. My thanks to the Church in Wales for providing bloggers with such fertile ground for blogging.

From a recent press release: "The Archbishop of Wales will present a special edition of the S4C worship singing series Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol on Sunday 17 November (8pm, English subtitles) to celebrate his tenth anniversary as head of the Church in Wales".

'Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol' is the Welsh language version of  Songs of Praise broadcast on S4C which, just like the Church in Wales, serves a minority of people in Wales. It is ranked ninth in the top twenty S4C viewing figures with 31,000 viewers. That's 1% of the population, curiously a similar number of people who attend Church in Wales services regularly each Sunday. But the Archbishop likes minorities, always providing that they are secular, see here and here . They give him the platform he otherwise would be denied for his political posturing to the detriment of the Church. For minorities viewing outside Wales S4C can be accessed online, by satellite and cable, see here.

The S4C programme is produced by a Cardiff-based independent TV production company, Avanti, strangely the same company that was used to produce Songs of Praise sessions from Llandaff Cathedral which resulted in allegations that procurement rules may have been broken. If that rings a bell, so might this headline: "First female Dean of Llandaff Cathedral quits after two months". Full story here but discount the mischievous and unsubstantiated claim: "Church in Wales sources have told WalesOnline that Dean Henderson had had “a 'difficult time' since her appointment, with some clergy resenting the appointment of a woman", a story put about to influence the vote on women bishops with great success after two prominent women clergy in the Archbishop's entourage succeeded in removing statutory provision for worshippers who have not been taken in by the current fad for using the church as an organ of society. 

It is fitting that the Archbishop will be celebrating his own ministry since everything has to be done his way. A chapel boy from Neath, he clothed himself as an Anglican after using his local Anglican Church to learn to play the organ, obviously one of his passions! His journey ends in Llandaff, Cardiff, "where he now lives and where he was first ordained 41 years ago". He says: “I’m deeply aware that I’m following in a line of some of the giants of the Christian faith – people such as the translator of the Bible to Welsh, William Morgan, Alfred Oliver, Joshua Hughes and Richard Lewis and that makes me feel very humble.” Humility is not an obvious trade mark. No bishop from Dubricius in 522 to the much loved Roy Davies in 1999 has done more than Barry Morgan to marginalise the Church in Wales. His magnificent Cathedral is in dire straits with the prayerful few constantly pressed to increase their giving sacrificially to support his 'take it or leave it' regime which is designed to marginalise those who disagree with his secular approach to religion.

If you were to ask people what first came to mind on hearing the word 'Cathedral' no doubt many would say music. A musical tradition to match the splendour of the architecture, the diocesan church par excellence as Barry described his Cathedral. In Llandaff the reality is very different with talk of financial irregularities, nepotism and in-fighting - see comments under the 'Morgan's organ' entry here.

Relations in the Cathedral have taken another knock with the news that 'Peggy Pilot', the omnipresent Archdeacon of Llandaff and part time Cathedral overseer cum temp Dean is to investigate allegations of homophobia within the Cathedral’s choir, story here. No prizes for guessing who will be exonerated.

Two thousand years after Christ appointed His Apostles, Dr Morgan believes that it has fallen to him amongst all the "giants of the Christian faith" to break with the Apostolic Succession. That is not humility, it is conceit. Only he and his fellow bishops now enjoy positions of security in the Church in Wales. While they are adding to their pensions, lesser mortals face an uncertain future under the Church in Wales programme of managed decline. Instead of adding to the number of Christians, they have done the opposite while pursuing their narrow objective of appointing a woman bishop for purely political reasons contrary to the beliefs of the Apostolic Church. Barry's goal now looks likely to succeed unless the church collapses beforehand under the weight of episcopal incompetence.

Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol is often recorded in Welsh chapels with congregational singing rather than a large formal choir, the fate that awaits Llandaff Cathedral on current trends although they will have a magnificent £1.5m organ to accompany the handful of worshippers left in the congregation.

If only Dr Morgan were returning to his roots and this programme were his swan song. Then there would indeed be songs of praise, thanking God for an overdue retirement, 'Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol' yn wir!

Postscript

Fans of Dr Morgan, another minority no doubt, will be disappointed to learn that Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol this week has been cancelled/postponed having given way to a fundraising concert for the Philippines appeal, details here.

Donations can be made here

Starbucks service

Out of the same mould? Abp Morgan and Canon Wigley enjoying the moment in Lampeter. Photos: BBC

A former Dean of Llandaff was fond of saying that he liked women with balls, ie, loud.  Womanly virtues were secondary.

The vote engineered by the softly-spoken but utterly ruthless Dr Morgan and the vocal Canon Wigley effectively emasculates the Church in Wales. In the words of the Ven. Peggy Jackson who co-sponsored the fatal cut, the Church in Wales has changed for ever. Not just Wales. These women and their sycophantic supporters will stop at nothing to achieve dominance. Calls for equality will evaporate.

Members of  WATCH are eagerly licking their lips in preparation to deliver the fatal blow to the Church of England with the collusion of their weak-kneed bishops. Canon Wigley said she hoped women in the Church of England would be encouraged by the result: "Sisters across Offa's Dyke, look to us," she said.

One of the 'sisters' in England, the Archbishop of Canterbury's new Acting Press Officer intrigued me after the news that according to the 2011 census the City of Norwich was rated the most godless city in England. She claimed that the good people of Norwich are "doing their church-going differently". The answer to that puzzle may be found in the Church in Wales Membership and Finances 2012 (here).

The report indicates that while Easter communicants, average Sunday attendance and Electoral Roll membership have fallen by close to 50% in the last twenty years, statistics gathered over the last two years suggest that there is growth in the Church’s work in non-traditional forms of activity with people of all ages. Termed “Other Acts of Worship” these include:

• Cafe style worship, and pub Bible study;

• Healing services;

• Pet and other animal blessing services;

• Messy church;

• Discipleship groups;

• Taize-inspired services;

• Quiet times and meditations;

• Singing groups and music projects for children;

• Celtic services and Benedictine compline.

Perhaps the ever popular 'coffee' services can be expanded and sponsored by Starbucks to provide people with what they want without commitment together with an element of financial security.

For now the girls will need lots of patience. Barry has his tail up. He is the oldest bishop but will be in no hurry to retire and then there is the inevitable question of downsizing. When a vacancy does arise there will be calls from those who constantly claim discrimination to appoint a women regardless of the abilities of male candidates. By then the scales will have fallen from the eyes of male clerical supporters and they will see that they have no future, the end of Anglicanism many of us have known and loved since childhood.

For the present Barry's next aim will be same-sex marriage in church. He has already expressed his firm approval of gay bishops so his dream retirement present will be two lesbian bishops coming to plight their troth under Jacob Epstein's Majestas as the new £1.5m organ in his bankrupt cathedral blasts out: "Here come the brides".

Lining up at Governing Body                                                        Picture: BBC

More bad news for the Bishop of Llandaff

On the eve of a Bill being introduced by the Welsh bishops at their Governing Body to allow women to become bishops in the Church in Wales - presumably the Holy Spirit wasn't listening last time - comes the news that the Cathedral Church of the Bishop of Llandaff who is also the Archbishop of Wales is all but bankrupt. 

The Church in Wales as a whole had an operating deficit last year of £518,000 while Llandaff Cathedral’s accounts show that in the 12 months to December 2012 its spending was £71,673 more than its income. The remedy? The Bishop of Llandaff made a personal appeal to all members of the Cathedral parish’s Electoral Roll to pay more: "It has suggested a weekly sum of £8.56, which is actually less than the average amount of £8.73 given across the Church in Wales. The Church encourages worshippers to give 5% of their take home pay". Many do, even when treated as lepers because they do not subscribe to fashionable fads promoted by their bishops, but for how much longer? 

Fewer and fewer worshippers are expected to pay more and more to keep afloat a bloated hierarchy and out of date provincial structure. In politics ministers line up to tell the Prime Minister that it is time to go when things get really bad but relevance to society is only useful in the church if it suits, just as claiming the work of the Holy Spirit if things go according to plan.

Barry Morgan's record is hardly inspirational. The latest in a string of disastrous appointments saw his new Dean disappear overnight - perhaps after looking at the books! How in conscience can the Welsh bishops be proposing such a fundamental change to the Apostolic faith when they have already failed the church so abysmally? If the hierarchy can't be trusted to look after the church they have inherited why should they be trusted to make changes to our patrimony?