Our (oik's) Father, or mother

Stephen Cottrell in 2014                    Source: Wikipedia

According to the Guardian, the 'Oik 'from Essex. Stephen Cottrell, archbishop of York has suggested that the opening words of the Lord’s Prayer,  may be “problematic” because of their "patriarchal association" despite being recited by Christians worldwide for 2,000 years.

The archbishop's views will come at little surprise to those Anglicans who strive to keep the faith rather than adapt it to their own desires

Cottrell is a member of the Society of Catholic Priests (SCP), a religious society of Anglican clergy who consider themselves a part of the liberal Anglo-Catholic tradition, a liberal substitute for the Society of the Holy Cross (SSC) so that they can enjoy the best of both worlds.

The make believe society believes that the churches of the Anglican Communion are part of the one holy and catholic and apostolic church despite distancing themselves from it by their unilateral actions.

Cottrell is also a member of Affirming Catholicism (AffCath), a liberal movement formed to suggest that the ordination of women is compatible with Anglo-Catholicism and supports ordination into the threefold ministry (bishops, priests, deacons) regardless of gender or sexual orientation. The archbishop  has been president since January 2015. 

The ordination of women to the priesthood has brought with it a host of ridiculous disputes over gender and sexual orientation where facts are replaced by assertions. These are likely to grow with the increasing numbers of female clergy. 

In the Church in Wales where half the bishops are female, thirty-one of the forty-seven recent Petertide ordinands were women, seventeen deacons and fourteen priests.  

The Church Times article, Petertide ordinations 2023, shows how numerous are Anglican women deacons, priests and bishops.

 This is where it can lead. The sparkle 'creed':

Favoured clergy

Source: Church in Wales Monmouth Diocese News

Inclusion and diversity give way to exclusivity at the bishop of Monmouth's LGBTQIA+ social evening to be held at the bishop's residence next month.

Imagine the outcry from allegedly discriminated against LGBTQIA+ people if there were a social evening for straight clergy and their partners at which gay and lesbian clergy were excluded.

Reading the bishop's invitation one wonders just how many gay and lesbian clergy there are if guests are directed to use an overflow carpark around the cathedral.

Postscript [27.04.2023]

For the favoured: Open Table East Cardiff celebration with Bishop Cherry Vann and OTN Coordinator Kieran Bohan

"Bishop of Monmouth Cherry Vann will celebrate communion,..
It is open to LGBTQIA+ people and allies of any Christian tradition, or none."

Better to be queer than Christian in the Church in Wales which continues to discriminate against Anglicans who remain faithful to biblical teaching and tradition.

Another 'BLM' bishop

Rt Revd Mark Tanner has been confirmed as the new Bishop of Chester.         Source: CheshireLive

The new Bishop of Chester has announced that he is a supporter of Black Lives Matter.

That should go down well with Stephen Cottrell the new Archbishop of York who also came out as a Black Lives Matter supporter while declaring that Jesus was a black man.

From the Telegraph (£):
"BLM happily self-identifies as a neo-Marxist movement with various far left objectives, including defunding the police (an evolution of the Panther position of public open-carry to control the police), to dismantling capitalism and the patriarchal system, disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure, seeking reparations from slavery to redistribute wealth and via various offshoot appeals, to raise money to bail black prisoners awaiting trial. The notion of seizing control of the apportionment of capital, dismantling the frameworks of society and neutralising and undermining law enforcement are not just Marxist, but anarchic."

There are more worrying facts from Alexander Boot about the BLM affiliate, Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) in his blog.

Assuming that 'going along to get on' aspirants in the Church of England understand what they are supporting this is another worrying development for orthodoxy.

Postscript [26.07.2020]

From Twitter: "The leader of Oxford Black Lives Matter Sasha calls for a black militia, compares the police to the KKK and calls for a revolution."

Previously on Twitter: "Oxford Black Lives Matter leader Sasha uses racial slurs and threats of violence to abuse a black man."

Will the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Chester reconsider their support for the BLM movement? I doubt it.

Llandaff clergy school off to a flying start

The Llandaff Diocese of the Church in Wales  is embarking on an 'ambitious' Year of Pilgrimage to 'reinvigorate its work and worship' as part of the Church’s 2020 centenary celebrations.

The 2019 clergy school is being held during Christian Aid Week in Santiago de Compostela, the location of the shrine of St James the Apostle, to 'train and equip priests to teach and lead pilgrimages in their own communities'.

In a novel twist the school suggests a cunning plan designed to demonstrate how not to organise a pilgrimage, even by plane, when the main attraction, the pilgrimage Cathedral, is closed for renovation. Brilliant!

As a bonus the 'misunderstood' Archdeacon of Llandaff may provide her personal insight on how not to do things after her failed attempt to hoodwink the Governing Body into believing that female ordinands in the Church in Wales are persecuted by the few surviving traditionalists.

Follow on Twitter: #LlandaffInSantiago

The Monmouth saga continues

Happier times? Bishop Richard Pain with the Archdeacon of Newport and the vicar of Caerleon
The Dean of Monmouth is behind them. Source: C in W

Martin Shipton stirred up a hornets' nest when he published his article in the Western Mail, Unholy row in Diocese of Monmouth. It was short on facts so readers were left in the dark about the cause of the row but that has not prevented people from taking their chosen side.

Comments appearing on this blog suggest that the lack of information about the row has led to entrenched positions making resolution more difficult. 

From the Introduction to the Church in Wales Disciplinary Policy and Procedure of The Clergy:

Good discipline is essential to the effective working of all organisations and the Church in Wales is no exception. Good discipline for clergy involves:

i) setting expected standards of behaviour;
ii) informing clergy of the standards expected and what will happen if those standards are not met;
iii) taking appropriate action if those standards are not met.

The Disciplinary Procedure applies to all Clerics exercising ministry in the Church in Wales. 

Disciplinary proceedings can be instituted where misconduct or poor performance is alleged to have occurred.  A single act or omission may be sufficiently serious as to justify instituting the procedure.

The grounds for instituting the procedure are as already set out in Section 9 of Chapter IX of the Constitution as follows:

(a)   teaching, preaching, publishing or professing, doctrine or belief incompatible with that of the Church in Wales;

(b)   neglect of the duties of office, or persistent carelessness or gross inefficiency in the discharge of such duties;

(c)   conduct giving just cause for scandal or offence;

(d)   wilful disobedience to or breach of any of the provisions of the Constitution;

(e)   wilful disobedience to or breach of any of the rules and regulations of the Diocesan Conference of the diocese in which such member holds office or resides;

(f)    disobedience to any judgement sentence or order of the Archbishop, a Diocesan Bishop, the Tribunal, or any Court of the Church in Wales.

All complaints should be forwarded to the Bishop in the first instance.  Where the complaint concerns the conduct, behaviour or performance of a Bishop the complaint should be referred to the Archbishop and where the complaint concerns the conduct, behaviour or performance of the Archbishop the complaint should be referred to the next most Senior Bishop.

In this case it appears that the correct procedure was followed. The complaints were not upheld but the complainants refuse to work with the bishop.

Working relationships have broken down. Without the benefit of the facts of the case, parishioners have been left to speculate, championing the bishop or the complainants according to preference.

That may be based on personality, prejudice, having been favoured or disappointed when unpopular decisions have had to be made or conveyed, often by archdeacons.

That the bishop is reported to have been cleared may have come as no surprise to many. The bishops of the Church in Wales stick together under Barry Morgan's blanket of collegiality.

Their stance on same sex marriage, contrary to section (a), above, teaching, preaching, publishing or professing, doctrine or belief incompatible with that of the Church in Wales, does not encourage confidence.

Neither did the appointment of the former bishop of Oxford to validate Morgan's plan to reorganise parishes into ministry areas so how much confidence can there be in the appointment of 'independent investigators' in a cloud of secrecy?

The Dean of Monmouth was the first to defend himself. Coming from a supporter of such clerics as the progressive professor Dean Martyn Percy who works to the detriment of orthodox Anglicanism as he strives to secularise the Church, readers may draw their own conclusions. Not that the bishop of Monmouth or the rest of the bench have done anything in support of Anglican orthodoxy. In that sense they are all tarred with the same brush

Petertide Ordinations 2018              Source:@MonmouthDCO

 The bishop's style is not to everyone's taste as regular readers of this blog will have observed from previous entries.

Similarly, the dean's expressed progressive views are an affront to traditionalists who were promised appropriate sacramental and pastoral care as faithful Anglicans who could not, in conscience, accept the ordination of women.

That promise evaporated on the retirement of the late Bishop David Thomas.

The accused archdeacons have said nothing that I am aware of. Often having to convey unwelcome advice, or doing the bishop's dirty work as some would have it, they find themselves in a difficult position.

Accusations of bullying have been made. That is a serious matter. There is a procedure for dealing with bullying but it is unclear whether the correct procedure has been followed.

Until the facts are known, speculation and damaging accusation are destined to continue.

There have been frequent calls, particularly from the diocese of Llandaff, for Martin Shipton to investigate unease in the Church in Wales but the requests fall on deaf ears. The decline continues.

Update [11/01/2018]

"An end to Bishop of Monmouth’s long absence may be in sight"

Bishop is likely to return to work in February - Church Times

Yesterday's man

It doesn't say much for the new Archbishop of Wales when the old is invited to share his destructive views with Bangor clergy school.

Barry Morgan of all people! Wrecker in chief of the Church in Wales with his radical policies spouting a load of old cobblers.

He persists in perpetuating the myth that the clergy have to do everything - apart from working together.

There are some clergy who pull above their weight but there are others who are bone idle. I could give him a few names.

In reality hard working, conscientious clergy have simply had enough of politics. Many of the more able have jumped ship leaving Ministry Areas in Wales in a sorry state. Who better to blame than long suffering laity for supposedly leaving it all to the clergy.

Morgan should realise that many of the problems have been caused by forcing out hard working laity leaving the Church of Wales on the verge of collapse.

He doesn't give a damn for them, nor do the increasing numbers of senior staff left in charge while area cooperatives struggle to survive with inadequate pastoral support.

When he retired he pledged that he would not interfere. Another broken promise.

Sad, deluded and failure are three words that spring to mind.

Caption corner 31 August 2018

'Proud' clergy celebrating Pride Cymru                                                                                        Source: Twitter @RoseHill797

As usual printable captions will appear under 'Comments'.

Wind of change

Interview with a Witch                                                                                     Source: Church in Wales

The diocese of Swansea and Brecon, the current Archiepiscopal see of the Church in Wales, has a web page devoted to Interfaith. On it can be found information about Witchcraft, Atheism, Peace Mala, Hare Krishna, Sufi, Islam, Yungdrung Bön, Judaism and Druids.

Adherents of those faiths are happy to push their own particular message, unlike the  Bishop’s Officer for Interfaith Dialogue who writes, "Interfaith dialogue is not about telling everyone how great our angle on faith is and trying to convert them to it. It is about respect and openness."

Does the Church in Wales believe that there is only one way to the Father or not?

Respect and openness includes the usual message of how the 'religion of peace' gets a bad press as if all the Islamic attacks on the innocent over the last 1400 years were fake news.

There is an interview with Brother Titus, a Cistercian Trappist monk living with another nine monks. They have taken themselves out of the world to live a reclusive life on Caldy Island. What of those of us who are in the world and not of other faiths? There is no dialogue with traditional, orthodox Anglicans. Anyone who conscientiously follows scripture and tradition is excluded.

The central message has been lost. Each diocese does its own thing. St Asaph has been busy promoting the gospel according to LGBT while Bangor is mired in tales of impropriety according to commentators.

In the South of the Province the long-running battle continues to rage in Llandaff between those who think everything is hunky-dory in their cathedral while others insist that the cathedral is mired in discontent as illustrated by the many comments under previous entries about alleged irregularities.

Those who expected the appointment to Llandaff of the second woman bishop in the Church in Wales to cause a whirlwind will be disappointed. The wind has blown one way, in the same direction emitting from the bishop of St Davids.

In St Davids the first woman bishop in the Church in Wales has lost no time in appointing as many women as she can. The first woman Dean arrives in May, months after her appointment. In the meantime the deanery has been gutted and completely refurbished. At what cost when parishes ministry areas are struggling to make ends meet?

That leaves Monmouth. Many clergy have. The CEO's solution there is to appoint a third archdeacon to prop up a failing re-organisation into ministry areas.

There has been a flurry of senior appointments and bishops' advisers. There is no shortage of money for those at the top while the begging bowl is out lower down the chain.

When the new archbishop took office he promised there would be 'more of the same - but faster'. It is a pity he didn't see which way the wind was blowing - or perhaps he did!

Postscript [03.05.2018]

As if to emphasis that there is no shortage of money at the top in the Church in Wales, the bishop of St Davids has announced an addition to her senior management team, a new 'Archdeaconry for New Christian Communities'.

There were Christian communities throughout the diocese and throughout the Province before Barry supported by his bench sitters hatched his innovative plan to copy the disastrous policies of the US Episcopal Church (TEC).

They were called Parishes.

More from St Davids [03.05.2018]

One wonders how any 'new Christian communities' will be properly cared for given: "the strain imposed on stipendiary, NSM and NSM(L) clergy and Readers when service rotas within LMAs include services that, even when all the licensed clergy and Readers were working, need retired clergy to take them.

"Retired clergy could of course be asked to take any service within the designated number but not be used to extend the rota to something that the licensed ministry team couldn’t cover healthily alone.

"The willingness of retired clergy to give their time, effort and energy, should not be used to prolong a way of being church that is no longer sustainable."

Taking stock

Archbishop of Wales John Davies                                                                       Source: Mail Online

The two great Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter provide an opportunity to re-connect with people who have given up on going to church and with newcomers. As Christ commanded: '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'. It is an opportunity too often missed. Hence full marks to the bishop Bangor for his Easter message.

Numbers regularly attending church continue to fall but the bishops keep digging.  See previous entry Digging their own grave

Opportunities to draw in people through the rites of Holy baptism, marriage and at funerals become less as faith is watered down. Much is trivialized as the church attempts to cash in on secular hatch, match and dispatch celebrations.

Before Christmas 2017 the newly elected archbishop of Wales, the Most Rev John Davies, bishop of Swansea and Brecon, featured in an article in the media magazine Christian Today, a global media ministry which "provides thoughtful, biblical perspectives on theology, church, ministry, and culture".

The 64-year-old former lawyer called for the Church in Wales to 'pause and draw breath' after his appointment. 'The coming into post of a new archbishop is an opportunity for me to say to the very good and very many people that we have as part of our church, that we need to take stock', the BBC reported Davies to have said.

"I want to try and refresh the vision of the church as that institution to support and nourish the lives of wider society" he said, as ever neglecting the many true believers who have not compromised their faith to remain in the church of their baptism.

Before Easter 2018 the archbishop was again interviewed for Christian Today. As usual politics reared its head - Archbishop of Wales interview: I am not 'left-wing' for backing justice, equity and compassion.

It was another damp squib. Previous intellectual positions were alluded to with unforeseen repercussions.

Moving on to talk about his forthcoming Easter sermon Davies said that his sermon would discuss the origins of the faith he used the headline grabbing suggestion – "and the initial belief that the resurrection story was 'fake news'."

Following the lead he had provided the archbishop was asked about  " 'the practical reality of the resurrection' and the empty tomb, a difficult concept for the modern mind to grasp".

"Davies is thoughtful. 'I don't think any of us actually knows, quite frankly. What I believe is that something radical happened that changed the lives of the people who were there at the time.'

He cites the late bishop of Durham, David Jenkins, who said the resurrection was 'not just a conjuring trick with bones'.

And Davies says: 'It is about something far more than a dead body coming back to life – it is the complete renewal of the being of Christ."

A simpler response would have been, "if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain." 1 Corinthians 15:14. Instead he circled around what the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams of Oystermouth had to say about the meaning of the empty tomb and came a cropper, as Rowan has done in the past leading some to speculate that he needed a minder to protect him from media traps.

Ironically Davies was caught out by the very people he and the liberal elite have used to advance their agenda, appealing to secularists with no concept of the spiritual implications for support. The Mail Online headline was

Unbelievable! Archbishop of Wales chooses EASTER to cast doubt on the Resurrection after saying 'I don't think any of us actually knows' when quizzed over Christ's biblical return

It was reported in 2002 that "a third of Church of England clergy doubt or disbelieve in the physical Resurrection and only half are convinced of the truth of the Virgin birth."

Trendy clergy are even more in evidence following the ordination of women and the sexual freedom they demand of the church. As one commentator put it when responding to my 'Easter Message' entry, "Many remain entombed in the dark ages with their misogynistic and homophobic rants against this that and the other; wake up and discover the resurrection life at work in those around out. Come out!"

Rowan Williams said in his lecture I referred to above, "Believing in the resurrection is believing that the new age has been inaugurated, the new world has begun. And that new world is, as you might put it, the final phase of the history of God's relation with his people. So to say 'Jesus is risen', is to say that we have now entered on the last days, on the final decisive phase of God's interaction with Israel and through Israel, with the whole world.

Too many people in the church interpret 'new age' as do as you please, taking the Christian understanding of love out of context. Instead of 'Love the Lord thy God...'  and 'Love thy neighbour...' we are bidden to 'discover' the meaning of love, anything goes under the umbrella of love. There is no hell as the Pope may or may not have said.

Archbishop Davies was right when he told the BBC that we need to take stock. I have heard on a number of occasions that the Church in Wales is finished. Save for the rare occasion the bench have nothing to offer but political posturing. Forget 20/20 Vision. There isn't any apart from setting up Local Ministry Areas which are designed to keep the liberal elite employed until they can draw their pensions.

The only hope for the Church in Wales is to  be re-absorbed into the Church of England which despite its many faults has a longer life expectancy.

Sorry Rowan but you are wrong this time

I have long been an admirer of Rowan Williams and never thought I would have to write this but I have to admit to being gravely disappointed by his Enough Waiting campaign which is designed to achieve a 'Yes' vote for women bishops regardless of the ramifications. It smacks of getting the issue out of the way to progress other things. I could understand that if it meant advancing the Gospel of Jesus Christ having made satisfactory provision for those who remain loyal to the tradition of the Apostolic Church but sadly it is not. Anyone who doubts this who hasn't already seen it should watch this heart-wrenching video to experience the devastating effect in South Carolina where the ruling liberal elite in The Episcopal Church (TEC) is destroying traditional Anglicanism. 

Up until now Rowan has always been even-handed while being clear in his support for the ordination of women, even when he was slapped in the face by them. No doubt in his heart he has reconciled himself to the notion of 'respect' believing that everything will be resolved after the vote but other people do not think like him. The truth is summed up in this report. Anyone and everyone is invited to join the bandwagon by contacting 'their' synod representative to press for a Yes vote. The Dean of Salisbury told The Independent on Sunday, "There's no sense at all – not theological, not rational – in making women priests if you are not going to make them bishops." Quite so. It was neither theological nor rational to make women priests because that is their only 'justification' for being made bishops. 

Today The Independent publishes an open letter signed by over one thousand clergy: 'The Biblical case for women bishops'. But there is none. The reasons given for their belief have nothing whatsoever to do with the appointment of bishops yet these people stand at the Altar In Persona Christi, the One who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.

Is there no shame in the Yes campaign?

The women who oppose female bishops

It is rare to read of opposition to women bishops when the trendy think they have a monopoly on truth. Never mind that they do not understand the argument, substituting secular values to fill the theological vacuum they so readily display.

How refreshing then to read of the stand taken by Emma Forward in a Guardian article yesterday. Emma nails the lie that Women and the Church (WATCH) accurately represent the Anglican tradition. WATCH may represent some women in the church, principally themselves, with their distorted view of Christianity that puts self above everything but they do not represent the many thousands of women who put faith above personal ambition. Predictably Christina Rees takes up her 'mightier than the sword' pen: "The impression I often have of these women is that they are highly intelligent and in positions of authority in their own profession. A lot of them show signs of leadership but it feels wrong to them to have female priests. If they had been formed in a different church tradition they themselves would be ordained or they would be in a position of leadership in their own church."

How condescending. If Ms Rees and her chums had formed a different church rather than invade the Anglican Church to peddle their secular wares before our limp liberal clergy we wouldn't be in the sort of mess we find ourselves today.