New Year's resolution

King Charles delivering his Christmas Day speech   Source: Christian Today

I did not have the same enthusiasm for the King's Christmas message as I did for his mother's messages. 

As head of the Church of England, HM Queen Elizabeth II could always be relied on to uphold the Christian faith.

In a 2022 entry I wrote Christianity on the wane in England and Wales commenting on Charles' wish be 'Defender of Faith', rather than 'Defender of the Faith', as though all faiths are the same when they clearly are not. 

The speech, broadcast from an ex-hospital chapel which is available to all faiths as if to emphasise the point, was watched by 6.8 million out of a UK population off around 69 million people. For comparison Gavin and Stacey: The Finale was warched by 12.32 million and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl by 9.38 million.

In his 2024 message Charles said, "But, on this Christmas Day, we cannot help but think of those for whom the devastating effects of conflict – in the Middle East, in Central Europe, in Africa and elsewhere – pose a daily threat to so many people's lives and livelihoods."

King Charles went on to say "Diversity of culture, ethnicity and faith provides strength not weakness" but as commented on in Christian Today 'That is not self-evidently true'.

There is one faith/ideology that frequently appears in the news as the main source of conflict. Less frequent is the reporting of the deaths, kidnappings and other atrocities regularly perpetrated in Africa and elsewhere around the globe. According to Open Doors, three fifths of the countries listed suffer persecution as a result of this one ideology.

While the hand of friendship is extended to its adherants in the United Kingdom, blind eyes are turned to world events. Thousands of people who do not share our values continue to enter the UK seeking to replace our culture with theirs. 

As demonstrations in the UK are becoming more devisive it has become risky to comment on such matters for fear of attracting accusations of a hate crime. Free speech in Britain is at risk.

Christianity is being diluted in the name of diversity. Recently I read a report “Woke” MoD Bosses to Strip Cross From Military Cap Badge  as part of efforts to make the British Army chaplains department more diverse and multicultural. I wonder what Queen Elizabeth would have had to say about that.

The situation is becoming dire. We have a woke government and a woke church.

For full assessment by former Queen's Chaplain Gavin Ashenden watch King Charles Christmas Speech - A Declaration of Civil War. 

 A good New Year's resolution would be to pray for our increasingly dis-United Kingdom.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Postscript 03.01.2025

PRAYER ALERT: One-year-old killed as Nigerian Christians targeted at Christmas

Users

Source: Twitter

It is a sad reflection of society today that I am again pushed for my first comment on the news in 2023 onto a familiar theme.

It is hard not to take notice when images such as that above appear with ridiculous claims that are contrary to biblical truth. 

The latest person to claim 'God's will' is the 'first non-binary Church of England priest'. A 'first' the Church in Wales has missed out on.

As friction over LGBTQ issues worsens in the global Anglican church, the ONS has published 2021 census data which show that around 1.5 million people (3.2%) identified with an LGB+ orientation (“Gay or Lesbian”, “Bisexual” or “Other sexual orientation”), comparatively few when compared with the 43.4 million people (89.4%) who identified as straight or heterosexual.

These figures illustrate the extent to which the tail wags the dog in western Anglicanism.

There is no escape from the propaganda. The London 2023 New Year fireworks display which, for many, represents a new beginning was filled with political propaganda including a ‘we’re here, we’re queer’ celebration of LGBT rights which illustrates the depths of homophile infiltration, even among young children and how adept their strategists have been at manipulating public opinion. 

What is particularly offensive is how the Church has, and is, being used to further the interests of a relatively small group of people who have no regard whatsoever for the faith of those they have displaced.

Their desire to validate a minority life style at the expense of others cannot be met with silence less it implies tacit acceptance of the fantasies of these users of the Church.

Sacred Synod!

The bishops of Monmouth, Bangor, St Davids (Bp-elect), Llandaff (Abp), Swansea and Brecon and St Asaph in Sacred Synod, 2016.  Source: Church in Wales

The bishops of the Church in Wales will meet in Sacred Synod on Sunday 5 January in Brecon cathedral to confirm the election of Cherry Vann as Bishop of Monmouth.

Pictured above is former Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan in Sacred Synod in 2016. He retired to his newly built Cardiff bunker in January 2017 after engineering the disastrous election of the first female bishop in the Church in Wales.

Much has happened since the new bishop of St Davids was appointed. She lost no time in surrounding herself with women clergy, turning Wales' national shrine into a feminist enclave while trying to eject elderly male priests from further service in her diocese. 

Gone in mysterious circumstances is the then bishop of Monmouth giving rise to claim and counter-claim in a long, drawn out process which did no-one any favours apart from his replacement which turned out to be more about the mission of feminism in the Church than the redemptive mission of the Church.

Persistent rumours of an improper relationship continue to dog another bishop on the bench while John Davies, bishop of Swansea and Brecon, has replaced Barry Morgan as Archbishop of Wales promising 'more of the same - but faster'. He has proved to be true to his word, dragging the Church in Wales into the secular world at an increasing pace.

Barry Morgan was replaced as bishop of Llandaff by LGBT campaigner, June Osborne, following in the footsteps of Joanna Penberthy. The previously tipped Sarah Rowland Jones, vicar of St John's in the heart of Cardiff, was instead made Dean of St Davids, offering Osborne the opportunity of extending the sexual diversity of clergy in her diocese by filling the resulting vacancy at St John's by a transgender vicar who appears to believe that her primary mission is to normalise transgenderism.

The sexual revolutionary mission of the Church in Wales continues with normalising same-sex relationships following the appointment as bishop of Monmouth of Cherry Vann who invited her electors and Monmouth diocesan officers to Bishopstow before Christmas for 'drinks and nibbles' with the new bishop and her partner Wendy.

The Notice of the meeting of the Sacred Synod to confirm the election of Cherry Vann was posted the day after the drinks and nibbles party. It states: "This will be a public meeting and, should any member of the Church in Wales wish to draw to the bishops' attention any matter in relation to this episcopal election, they are invited to attend the meeting in person."

Much has changed in the sixty + years since this photograph of Church in Wales bishops was taken when five bishops held Oxford Firsts in Theology:

Source: Anglican Misfit

Sacred in name only, it is unlikely that any member of the Church in Wales attending the Synod will wish to draw to the bishops' attention any matter in relation to this episcopal election given the current mission of the Church in Wales.

This is where it is leading. The new 'norm': Proud dad Reuben Sharpe has revealed how he gave birth to miracle baby Jamie with partner Jay in Britain’s most modern family - and even the couple's doctor was transgender.

2020 is the anniversary of the disestablishment of the Church in Wales. Preaching to the converted and those willing to 'go along to get on' the 2020 Vision video has been viewed a mere 2,840 times in the five years since its appearance in September 2014. A make believe world skips over the reality of the situation as regular, adult Sunday attendance continues to plummet; 14% down from 30,424 in 2014 to 26,110 in 2018.

The 2020 Vision initiative seeks a "reimagined Church in Wales" agreeing to support the "continued development of a unity scheme - the Church Uniting in Wales - incorporating Methodist, Presbyterian, United Reformed, and Baptist Churches alongside the Church in Wales."

There will be nothing sacred about Sunday's synod. It will merely confirm the bishops' intention to separate further the Church in Wales from the Holy Catholic Church to which it jokingly claims to belong - 'locally adapted' into a do-as-you-please Church.

Happy New Year!

Happy Christmas!

Nativity. Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (1714 - 1789). Private collection, Source: Wikimedia Commons

Wishing you a Joyous Christmas

and a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year 2014

Watch the moments when clean water brought celebration and hope into the lives of people all over the world – moments made possible by your generosity. Thank you from Water Aid

Makes you think about what really matters in the world, doesn't it?

Simple moments of joy. Happy New Year!

New Year 2013

"We are all in this together." (6)

Bonus time!

Britain's poorest households may soon pay a higher tax rate than major banks according to TUC calculations. Chancellor Osborne, the banker's friend, has confirmed that this trend will continue.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!