Thirty years on...

Dawn French playing the Rev Geraldine Granger, Vicar of Dibley, who dons a joke bishop's hat
 in a 2013 Comic Relief sketch.  Source: Mail Online

A tweet from one of the Church of England's celebrity priests indicates that thirty years on from the approval by General Synod of the final legislation for women to become priests, a third of all those who are in ordained ministry are women and 31 women have been made bishops.

The Rev Kate Bottley along with the fictional Vicar of Dibley are about as far removed from the traditional view of priesthood as we could have possibly imagined 30 years ago but they fit in perfectly with the aims of Women and the Church. Their 'charitable' objectives are purely secular -

"The promotion of gender equality and diversity with the Church of England as experienced by both lay and ordained people for the public benefit by:

1. The elimination of discrimination on grounds of gender;

2. Advancing education and raising awareness in gender equality and diversity;

3. Conducting or commissioning research on equality and diversity issues and publishing the result to  the public; and

4. Cultivating a sentiment in favour of gender equality and diversity."

The secular aims of gender justice, equality and inclusion are far removed from the 'otherness' enjoyed by churchgoers thirty years ago. They have split communities and friendships as false notions of equality have replaced theology. 

More 'diversity' has resulted in bishops and archbishops abandoning traditional understanding of biblical teaching which has been handed down over two millennia.

The Five Guiding Principles which provide guidance for candidates for ordination in the Church of England have been consistently undermined by WATCH under the mask of ‘institutionalised discrimination’, something the absent bishop of St Davids, Joanna Penberthy, regularly complained of.

When pressed to describe the alleged discrimination the best the bishop could come up with was that some people disagreed with her. That precisely sums up the attitude of WATCH. 

The same tactics have been adopted by LGBT complainers to accuse anyone who disagrees with them of discrimination and homophobia with no evidence whatsoever, something with which readers of the blog will be very familiar.

All of which has led to blessing same sex couples with same sex marriage on the horizon, which is driving Western Anglicanism further away from the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of which they claim to be part of in such as the Five Guiding Principles.

It is predicted that the Church of England will be extinct by the 2060's and the Church in Wales well before that.  Equally dead!

Wimmin not listening

ReutersAntje Jackelen, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden, at Uppsala Cathedral                                                                                    Source: Christian Today

The Church of Sweden is opting for gender-neutral language when referring to God, with designators like 'he' and 'Lord' being omitted....'Theologically, for instance, we know that God is beyond our gender determinations, God is not human,' said Archbishop Antje Jackelén, who leads the Church of Sweden. She said the change had been in conversation for decades, as early as 1986. Full report here.

In response Christer Pahlmblad, associate theology professor at Sweden's Lund University, criticsed the move. He told Denmark's Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper that the change undermined 'the doctrine of the Trinity and the community with the other Christian churches'.

Antje Jackelén is not the first female archbishop to ignore the wider church and please herself. The  heretical mentor of the former Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, liked to put her own spin on the Gospel. Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori used 'violent images' for God. She described the Son of God as a Hell's Angel "Gang Leader" and "Party Animal".

Less extreme but also obsessed by secularist feminism in the church, Australia's first female Anglican archbishop, Kay Goldsworthy, would like to see more women in church leadership roles, a constant theme of women bishops in England and Wales.

More women than men are going forward for training for ordination for the first time in more than 15 years according to a recent report, strengthening the view that church ministry is going the same way as primary school teaching where there are few male role models, and primary medicine with Health Centres often staffed by part-time female GPs, a problem which is also affecting hospital care with many female consultants working part-time.

But still the clamour for more women continues regardless of the consequences. As the Guardian headline put it, Amid fight for equality, new bishop of London unlikely to be a woman. The feminist pressure group Women and the Church puts it succinctly as they move towards their true goal after the Church of England was beaten into submission and accepted the ordination of women priests and bishops: Just getting started - working actively for gender justice, equality and inclusion in the Church of England - as if there were no justice, equality or inclusion. Ironically that is just what these feminists are creating leading some to speculate that the Church of England is about to split over theological liberalism.

After her appointment, the second woman bishop in Wales boasted in a BBC interview that Wales was the province in the Anglican Communion with the highest percentage of female bishops before going on with the familiar feminist theme about gender parity, equating equality with sameness.

As if Wales were an example. Their own theological college has closed. Out of the ashes, St Padarn’s Institute, the 'training arm of the Church in Wales' is inviting  all licensed minsters to share what makes them [my emphasis Ed.] flourish and what they struggle with in a series of ‘listening days’ taking place across Wales.

Recent history shows that wimmin issues, not listening, has become the driving force in the Church in Wales. Consultations that have not worked out as the bench of bishop desired were simply ignored. Traditional Anglicanism has been virtually extinguished.

Those churches that are not on the redundant list should not have long to wait as congregations become increasingly elderly. Similarly in England, "Women clergy become the death of the Church of England" as attendance continues to slide.

All are equal in death!

Postscript [27.11.2017]

"Reforming" Church of Sweden looks to Islam:

"It would be foolish to assume that Jackelén's ecclesiastical revolution will end with this victory. On the contrary, there is every reason to believe that her success at Thursday's synod will inspire her to redouble her efforts to transform the Church of Sweden into a more Islam-friendly institution – one that ultimately, at the very least, puts Muhammed on an equal plane with Jesus Christ. No, we cannot know what is really in this woman's heart; but one thing we can be sure of is that when Islam does eventually take over Sweden, her remarkable history of appeasement will not save either her or her Church from a brutal reckoning." Full report here.

Oath of British values

Moderate Muslims?                                                                                                                             Source: Communities Digital News

"I know that for some, the content of this review will be hard to read, and I have

wrestled with what to put in and what to leave out, particularly because I know that

putting some communities under the spotlight – particularly communities in which 

there are high concentrations of Muslims of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage – will

add to the pressure that they already feel. However, I am convinced that it is only by

fully acknowledging what is happening that we can set about resolving these

problems and eventually relieve this pressure." - The Casey Review

The Casey Review is a review into "opportunity and integration" by Dame Louise Casey DBE CB. The above quote is from the Forward to her report. As ever the "pressure" indicates concern only for Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage communities, the politically correct attitude which rendered the police and social services impotent while British Girls were raped by Muslim Gangs on 'Industrial Scale'.

Watching the BBC News at Six this evening it was telling that ethnic minorities who were interviewed saw no problems when asked about integration. Only an indigenous white couple, now in a minority, admitted that the situation was worse than it had ever been. Predictably Muslims are already complaining that the Report is divisive, a victimisation ploy currently being used by the gay community and previously by Women and the Church (WATCH) to achieve their aims to the detriment of others.

The report shows that there were an estimated 65.1 million people living in the United Kingdom in June 2015, with the population having risen by 4.1 million between 2001 and 2011. More than half of this growth was due to immigration. [1.15]

Among faith groups the number of people identifying themselves as Muslim grew most significantly, by 1.2 million people. This 72% increase is higher than for any other religious group and Muslims make up the largest non-Christian religious population in the UK at 2.8 million in total, compared with 0.8m Hindus, 0.4m Sikhs, 0.3m Jews and 0.3m Buddhists.

The Guardian typifies the problem in their account of the Report: 'Louise Casey's integration plan is behind the times' going on to say that "It was odd for the government’s tsar to focus so relentlessly on Muslims, and her aggression is likely to be counterproductive". Is the author blind to what is going on all around the world?

Because most Muslims live relatively peacefully in Great Britain and claim to be peace loving it is easy to be taken in, especially if one has been brought up in the Christian spirit of 'love thy neighbour'. Evidence that Islam is at the root of the integration problem is ignored. Witness ISIS in the Middle East, now spreading to Europe and the UK, Boko Haram in Africa and numerous other Islamic organisations elsewhere in addition to the legalised  oppression of non-Muslims in Islamic states such as in Pakistan and in Saudi Arabia where there is no religious freedom.

Islam does not believe in democracy. Sharia rules. In this article a Muslim writer explains why Islam and democracy are incompatible. Nevertheless, political and religious leaders are still taken in, believing that "if we can just get Muslims to understand the democratic way of life, then all our problems will vanish".

To paraphrase a quote by former US presidential candidate Al Gore, "Once in control, however, all bets are off, because Islam takes over. It is the "controlling legal authority" for Muslims.

Given that the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya encourages Muslims "to lie" to achieve their goals an 'Oath of British values' can have no value.

In the following video the Chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools says that "as Muslims we have a right to bring up our children in accordance with our beliefs which have served us all the centuries well". He said that it is the parent's right to educate the child until he is old enough to decide for himself.

Some recent examples here and here illustrate that Islamic education is completely divorced from British values. At the end of the video clip the Association Chairman is forced to admit that, contrary to British values, the penalty for apostasy in Islam is death. There is no escape. Islam is Islam. No other values count.

Holy Saturday: Muslim Jesus v. Christian Jesus

This video portrays in simple terms the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ whom Muslims claim as a prophet. They deny His death on The Cross and His Resurrection, condemning themselves and those they convert to Islam to be judged:

   23 so that all will honour the Son even as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent Him.

   24"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

   25"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.…