Six green bishops sitting on the bench

Church in Wales bishops 2022 from left: Bishop John Lomas, Bishop June Osborne, Bishop Gregory Cameron, Archbishop Andrew John, 
Bishop Joanna Penberthy, Bishop Cherry Vann and Bishop Mary Stallard.                Source: Church in Wales

According to the 2021 census for Wales, 46.5% of the 3,063,456 population have no religion. Christians represent 43.6% while 6.3% declined to answer the 'Religion' question.

From Wikipedia, three Roman catholic dioceses, the Archdiocese of Cardiff, the Diocese of Menevia and the Diocese of Wrexham care for 209,451 Catholic souls (nearly 70,000 per bishop).

The (Anglican) Church in Wales with six dioceses has become rather shy in publishing statistics. In 2018 the adult average Sunday attendance was 26,110 giving a figure of 4,352 souls per bishop. Today the attendance figures must be very much lower.

Illustrated above are the seven Church in Wales bishops who were to attend the 2022 Lambeth Conference giving them "a chance to 'speak and act for the good of our world'." Sadly their view of the world is no longer in step with the majority of Anglicans.

Assistant bishop Mary Stallard was appointed by the archbishop to assist him in the management of Bangor diocese because he was said to be too busy in his capacity as archbishop. Stallard has since replaced the bishop of Llandaff, June Osborne who retired amid allegations of bullying.

The diocese of St Davids has had to manage without a bishop as a result of Joanna Penberthy's long periods of sick leave documented in Church Times suggetsing that they are not that busy after the long absence of the former bishop of Monmouth.

From published sources it appears that the archbishop's 'busy schedule' is mainly political with a spot of PR beach cleaning thrown in. 

He would have more credibility as archbishop if he turned his attention to the spiritual life of the Church in Wales. Instead he chose to promote the Energy Footprint Tool in his presidential address to the Last meeting of the church's Governing Body. 

He also announced that "the Church would hold an Environmental Summit next year to bring together key stakeholders with the aim of making Wales 'an exemplar of good practice'." - Unlike their position in the Anglican Communion, part of the 15% criticised for 'dragging the Church into apostasy'. 

The archbishop has since been invited to join the Gorsedd by accepting the Honorary Druid Order, the Blue Dress, which is for Service to the Nation!

It is expected that a new bishop of St Davids will be elected in October following Joanna Penberthy's retirement at the end of July. So no more politics please. 

Joanna in St Davids and June Llandaff fulfilled an agenda which has seen the first partnered lesbian bishop in Great Britain being installed in the diocese of Monmouth.

The rot has deepened. A Christian teacher was dismissed from The Bishop of Llandaff Church in Wales School, Cardiff, after sharing his beliefs on marriage at a staff training seminar. He had been urged to talk about his beliefs on marriage but was sacked the next day for 'hate speech'.

The teacher called his dismissal an "attack on Christianity" and “an affront to freedom of speech and freedom of thought".

He is not alone in his views. Many souls have been lost to the Church because there is no room in the Church in Wales for Anglicans who maintain their traditional Christian beliefs.

A revival is needed to regain them and slow the Church's decline. That will require a holy man of God, not an apostate.

The Church in Wales can not afford to fluff the election of the next Bishop of St Davids, The motto of the patron saint of Wales was 'Keep the faith' not abandon it.

"What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?"

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.

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.

Christianity on the wane in England and Wales

Homage of the Archbishop of Canterbury at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey. Source: Royal UK

The latest release from the ONS Census 2021 reveals  that "for the first time fewer than half of people in England and Wales describe themselves as Christian."

The ONS release emphasises that the religion question is voluntary but 94.0% (56.0 million) of usual residents answered the question in 2021, an increase from 92.9% (52.1 million) in 2011. 

“No religion” was the second most common response, increasing by 12.0 percentage points to 37.2% (22.2 million) from 25.2% (14.1 million) in 2011.

Wales had a greater decrease in people reporting their religion as “Christian” (14.0 percentage point decrease, from 57.6% in 2011 to 43.6% in 2021) and increase in “No religion” (14.5 percentage point increase, from 32.1% in 2011 to 46.5% in 2021) compared with England and Wales overall.

Following my previous entry a commentator trolled: "Another possibility is the infantile and derogatory nature of the thoroughly unChristian contributors to this site. The rest of us, however few in number, do at least try faithfully to address the injunction to love one another and leave the judging to God."

So what is a Christian? What is love? We are made a Christian at our baptism when we pledge to turn away from sin, reject evil and remain faithful to Christ to the end of our life.

Many of us are challenged for being unchristian because we do not accept the secularisation of Christianity. "All you need is love" say revisionists using the word synonymously for same sex relations despite the various forms of love referred to in the Bible.

Church going has declined because for many it has ceased to have any of the 'otherness' of old. Others continue to attend from habit or to seek affirmation of their life style based on the claim that 'all you need is love'.

The issue is coming to a head.

Warning bells are sounding as the coronation of  Charles III approaches. The King's coronation must not be 'woke-fest celebration of so-called modern Britain', former minister Sir Edward Leigh told the Commons. The event must be a 'spiritual one', he said. 

Concerns had been expressed following an interview in 2015 whether Charles would be 'Defender of Faith' or 'Defender of The Faith'. This was the response of the then Prince of Wales:

"No, I didn’t describe myself as a defender: I said I would rather be seen as ‘Defender of Faith’, all those years ago, because, as I tried to describe, I mind about the inclusion of other people’s faiths and their freedom to worship in this country. And it’s always seemed to me that, while at the same time being Defender of The Faith, you can also be protector of faiths. It was very interesting that 20 years or more after I mentioned this – which has been frequently misinterpreted – the Queen, in her Jubilee address to the faith leaders, said that as far as the role of the Church of England is concerned, it is not to defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions. Instead, the Church has a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country. I think in that sense she was confirming what I was really trying to say – perhaps not very well – all those years ago. And so I think you have to see it as both. You have to come from your own Christian standpoint – in the case I have as Defender of the Faith – and ensuring that other people’s faiths can also be practised."

The desire to protect freedom of beliefs is laudable but contradictory in part given the nature of some 'religions'. Under Article 9 of the Human Rights Act 'Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.'

One has only to read the appeal from Release International to see how Christians are persecuted in Muslim countries. Blasphemy laws are used to persecute Christians in Pakistan while Islamic terrorism is rife in Africa.

One cannot justify defending a political ideology that does not respect the rights of others and mandates the death sentence for apostates.

Breaking the trend in the census results apart from the increase in “No religion”, there were increases in the number of people who described themselves as “Muslim” (3.9 million, 6.5% in 2021, up from 2.7 million, 4.9% in 2011) and “Hindu” (1.0 million, 1.7% in 2021, up from 818,000, 1.5% in 2011).

In 2015 a survey found that Islam was the fastest growing religion in the UK while the Church of England was in decline. "In 1983, the number of people following Islam stood at 0.6% of the population compared to a little under 5% in 2014." It needs no encouragement

In the past, leaders in the UK and in the USA have claimed that Islam is a religion of peace despite all the evidence to the contrary. Many in the Anglican Church follow the same line.

The BBC has already taken the lead in promoting Islam by appointing Muslims as Religion Editors. If this spills over to the coronation of King Charles the Church of England may as well shut up shop now along with the Church in Wales where the 2021 census showed that Wales had a greater decrease in people reporting their religion as “Christian” (14.0 percentage point decrease, from 57.6% in 2011 to 43.6% in 2021).

Postscript [01.12.2022]

From Christian Post: Christians are being butchered in Africa. What are we going to do about it?

"The number of Christians who paid with their lives for their faith was 5,898 in 2022, which is up from 4,761 in 2021, according to the Open Doors USA organization.

"Out of that number, around 4,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria by Islamist groups, such as Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, and Ansaru, which teach that Christians should either convert to Islam or die."

What are we going to do about it? 

Religious and political leaders can stop endorsing Islam's claim that it is a religion of peace.

Religion to become 'extinct'

The 2011 census forms are due for completion on 27 March. Included is the voluntary question, 'What is your religion?' giving eight options including 'No religion' and 'Any other.....'. In addition to English and Welsh forms, translations are available in 56 languages which should lead to some interesting answers. In 2001 'Jedi' was the talking point but this time the emphasis is on persuading people with no religious belief to indicate 'No religion' rather than ignore the question. 

To coincide with the census, a poll commissioned by the British Humanist Association suggests that two-thirds of Britons are not religious. This comes on top of another report that suggests religion may become extinct in nine nations.


The 'nine nations' referred to were Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland, countries in which the census queried religious affiliation. The implication that Christianity is on the wane appears to be confirmed. For Humanists that may be welcome news but the religious vacuum increases the risk of cultural jihad.


The BBC has been doing its best to achieve the extinction of Christianity for some time. After the appointment of a Muslim as Head of Religion and Ethics, previously held by an agnostic, we are offered programmes such as the "Bible's buried secrets" presented by a senior lecturer from the Islam indebted Exeter University pondering such questions as the existence of King David and whether God had a wife. Given that Islam regards Jews and Christians as inferior and little better than heathens perhaps such propaganda is to be expected:

The treatment of non-Muslims is also carefully

spelled out in classical Islamic teaching. Pagans are

to be fought until they convert to Islam, but Jews

and Christians (known as the People of the Book)

are permitted to practise their faith within the

Islamic state. This is however conditional on them

conforming to various demeaning regulations

designed to reinforce their lowly dhimma status in

comparison with Muslims. One particular condition

imposed on them was the payment of a special

poll-tax called the jizya. Like women, they receive

less compensation and their testimony carries less

weight than that of a Muslim man.

'What is Islam' The Barnabas Fund

Some religions may become extinct but that only increases the danger of Islamisation, then where will we be!