Lay Presidency

From The Living Church: Lay Presidency Comes to the Church of England "The Church of England’s blessings for same-sex couples, which stop short of marriage rites, have prompted a comparable protest from low-church evangelicals."

Not that it will bother the Church in Wales which has long since ceased to keep the faith. Nor will it affect those of us who have effectively been denied the sacraments following archbishop Barry Morgan's shameless withdrawal of sacramental and pastoral provision for Anglicans who do. 

As Anglicanism becomes more secularised the number of attendees tumbles. Collapse is inevitable.

The Church Growth Modelling forecasts, optimistically, the extinction of the Church in Wales by 2060 with just 3,000 in attendance.

That it should come to this!

Lowlights: GB September 2023

Governing Body voting                                              Source: Church in Wales

The Church in Wales goes green is the main message to come out of the meeting of the Governing Body (GB) earlier this month.

Attendance may be in crisis but was not mentioned, apart from a brief reference to decline in one of the reports. That is despite the GB's guiding notes which state:

"Every year, a report on the current membership and finance statistics of the Church in Wales is presented to the meeting. This covers key information such as: church attendance, the level of financial giving towards the work of the church, details of what parishes are spending their money on."

Session Three was about 'Priorities, Growth and Resilience'. One of the items covered in discussion groups was "What stops us from growing?"

The Church in Wales, like the Church of England, The Episcopal Church in the US and others have become self-centred rather than God centred, using the name of Jesus as a passport to earthly desires. - Jesus loves me, therefore I do as I please.

The secularisation of the Church in Wales was made obvious by the archbishop of Wales when he commented on the recently announced 'historic appointments of Canons at Bangor Cathedral'. 

He said, "It is a real joy to be able to announce the appointment of eight new Canons to the Cathedral, five Honorary Canons and three Foundation Canons. .... Together they bring with them an enormous breadth of skills and experience to their new roles, enabling the Cathedral’s common life and witness to be a place where all can come and experience faith, hope and love. Each of these new Canons has been invited in recognition of the significant contribution they have made, and continue to make, within their field of expertise, and I invite you to join with me in praying for them as they take up their new positions and responsibilities."

The Canon Preacher's experience of the Anglican Church is short. He was ordained Deacon in 2021 after becoming an Anglican in 2020 but more importantly for the archbishop he becomes the "first gay, black Canon to serve in a Church in Wales Cathedral, a pioneering moment that highlights its commitment to diversity and inclusivity." 

Just the sort of experience the Church Wales has come to value above all else. But there is more.

'Glastonbury priest'         Sourcee: CinW

A new priest welcomed to the diocese of St Asaph by bishop Gregory is "part way through a professional doctorate exploring better ways for neo-Pagans and Christians to have open conversations about faith." 

 She should receive a good welcome from the Peace Mala while the Church in Wales struggles with its identity.

As the decline of the Church continues more senior executives are hired. The latest is a Director of Mission and Strategy on a salary of up to £70,000 p.a.

On the plus side, perhaps the archbishop of Wales feels better able to cope with his workload having sanctioned all these appointments. 

Last year he felt the need for someone to share the leadership of his Bangor diocese with while serving as Archbishop of Wales as if that were an onerous task. He appointed an assistant bishop who has since been appointed bishop of Llandaff with no replacement assistant bishop. Perhaps he discovered that he is not that busy after all being responsible for the souls of less than 1% of the population of Wales.

What about the souls of Anglicans in Wales? Pew sitters have been led astray by their bishops while others have simply been abandoned in the shift to secularism.

A timely reminder of the dire situation Anglicans in the Church in Wales find themselves comes from Bishop Stuart Bell a former Church in Wales priest who was ordained as an Assistant Bishop in The Anglican Convocation in Europe in March after serving in the Church in Wales for 51 years.

In an interview with Dr Tony Rucinski of Coalition for Marriage (C4M), Bishop Bell said the Church in Wales’ 2021 decision to bless same-sex partnerships was "hugely significant". He told Dr Rucinski that "substantial" numbers have left the Church in Wales, following its decision to turn its back on the Bible and go with contemporary culture.

He rebuffed claims the Church’s move was compassionate, saying: "Justice and compassion are not rootless, they are rooted within truth and they are rooted within Christ and they are rooted within an authority that is completely unchanging."

The Bishop warned that we are being seriously misled by people whose hearts are set on "anarchy and nihilism". That voice is growing stronger by the day and is being promoted at government level and  by the media, he said.

He urged Christians and traditional marriage supporters to be absolutely resolute in the face of LGBT activists’ attempts to push the country into a state of "total gender confusion and sexual confusion".

Full details of the Christian Institute interview can be found here. 

The response of the Church in Wales was: Clergy told to keep breakaway bishop at arm’s length. "No ministers affiliated with the Anglican Convocation in Europe should exercise ministry or leadership in a Church in Wales context, unless the explicit written permission of the appropriate Church in Wales diocesan bishop has been given."

That came as little surprise to the many Anglicans abandoned by the handful of heretic bishops in the Church in Wales for keeping the faith as received in common with millions of Anglicans around the world.

This is the legacy handed on by a former bishop of Bangor, later archbishop, Barry Morgan who decreed after the retirement of Bishop David Thomas that there would be further alternative Episcopal oversight 'over his dead body'.

Now in comfortable retirement Morgan's legacy lives on. He continues to meddle in Church affairs showing no shame for leaving so many faithful Anglicans who had been in his care in a spiritual desert, a situation perpetuated by the bench of bishops to this day to their utter shame.

 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Church in Wales: Managed decline?

GB voting                                                                       Source: Church in Wales

 The Governing Body of the Church in Wales meets in September 2023.

From the Annual Report and Accounts 2022 of the Representative Body [Session 2, Agendum 9]:

Risk Management Policy

"3. Accelerated decline in church attendance

"The continuation of declining attendance and an increasing age profile would result in declining financial income for dioceses: this would lead to an inability to present established patterns of ministry to the whole of Wales. The Representative Body endeavours to maintain the highest financial support to dioceses possible. Also, a renewed focus on mission and evangelism, including additional financial resources being made available, aims to stimulate church growth."

News Posted: 23 August 2023

"The distribution of more than £137m to churches across Wales will be discussed at a key meeting of Church in Wales members next month.

"The money is being released from historic reserves over the next decade to help churches grow and serve their communities more effectively. Investment will be made in development of new ministries and initiatives, as well as in strengthening existing work."

'New ministries and initiatives'! No doubt awaited with eager anticipation. 

No honour among thieves

 

In This is not Dibley I referred to the MailOnline story: "Remind me, it is 2023, isn’t it?’: Why has the Cornish town Dawn French loves risked such an unholy row by refusing its own Vicar of Dibley?"

The report: 'Cornish church reverses ban on female vicars' has given church feminists and toadying MPs a field day.

These feminists have used the Church for their own political purposes, accusing, scheming and reneging. Promises and agreements that enabled them to reach their goal mean nothing.

Listen to the blatant misrepresentation by the chair of WATCH as she seeks help [to] bring "discrimination" in the Church of England  to an end. As did the recently retired bishop of St Davids, WATCH regard difference of opinion, even when based on fact, as discrimination and prejudice

There have also been attempts to redefine gender language used about God. In The Mother Church: Turning God Trans published in Crisis Magazine [a recommended read - AB] it is suggested that a disproportionate number of those pushing for change would appear to be 'left-wing female vicars'.

No honour from certain MPs either, including the the Father of the House, a self-declared WATCH supporter, who appear unable or unwilling to distinguish between equality and theology regardless of measures agreed to,

Anglicanism in this country is dying. The Church in Wales is leading the decline with their one-track strategy of inclusion and diversity which again uses the Church to advance a political cause at the expense of others. 

If only a fraction of the effort put into their latest 'outreach-social justice' drive had been devoted to the excluded things may have been different. St Davids diocese is watched with trepidation as they prepare to elect their new bishop. Scripture, reason and tradition must not again be sacrificed to secularism.

Despite denials the Roman Catholic Church is creeping in the same direction in proposing women deacons and Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates. This has arisen as a real possibility through the Synod on Synodality, which was launched by Pope Francis in October 2021.

This is a repeat of the push for Anglican women deacons. It was claimed that it did not mean that they would become priests if made deacons. As deacons they argued that it was discrimination if they could not be ordained to the priesthood followed by the threefold ministry argument that it would be discriminatory not to allow women bishops.

Now that they have achieved their aim and converted Anglicanism to conform with their own desires they want to get rid of anyone who does not share their warped ideas of equality.

There is no honour among thieves.

Lambeth: Reply to an open letter to Justin Welby

The female bishops pose for their group portrait. Photo: Neil Turner/The Lambeth Conference                                                     Source: Episcopal News Service

Perhaps it is a generational thing but I have to admit that I am not a fan of Sandi Toksvig's brand of humour. Having watched bits of QI occasionally her success seems to me to be more to do with lesbianism than comedy. 

An admitted humanist Ms Toksvig has written a 'Dear Justin' letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury telling him of his mistakes at the Lambeth Conference. 

Before playing the usual victim card she writes: 
"So, you and your other religious pals got together at the Lambeth Conference and the main take away seems to be that gay sex is a sin. It was a sin in 1998 and you just wanted to make it clear in 2022 that no-one in you finely frocked gang has moved on from that. Seriously, with the state the world is in, that is what you wanted to focus on? You didn't have other more pressing matters like, I don't know, war or poverty?..."

What the LGBTQ+ lobby fails to understand is it is not about sex it is about marriage.

Civil Partnerships were created for same-sex couples who were not legally allowed to marry. They have legally recognized unions with rights similar to those of marriage. 

Having gained such acceptance the LGBTQ+ lobby are not satisfied. For them, marriage is the ultimate stamp of approval. For Christians marriage is the union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.

But the activists stop at nothing. What we have is a re-run of the campaign for the ordination of women. Originally they campaigned for deaconesses to be ordained deacons. Step by step they succeeded in advancing to the priesthood and the episcopate using the same strategy of stealth and deception. 

The result of their efforts can be seen in the women only photograph taken at this year's Lambeth Conference. The number of women bishops attending has grown to 97 in 2022 from 11 in 1998. "We’ve increased exponentially," said Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry. So much for just wanting to be deacons.

Same sex relations are now characterised as 'Human Dignity', just one of the 'Calls' in the Lambeth Conference programme. The agenda includes much more but for bishops in the Church in Wales and other provinces that have decided by committee that same sex marriage is compatible with Christian teaching, it was the main item for them and they went to Lambeth determined to push their agenda regardless of the cost to the Anglican Communion.

Like TEC in the US the Scottish and Welsh provinces are comparatively wealthy but with steeply declining memberships. They are counted in thousands compared with much poorer, more orthodox provinces in the Global South where membership is counted in millions.

Many of the bishops from poorer areas came to Lambeth intent on upholding the sanctity of marriage. Much was done to thwart them but they continued to fight under Christ's banner as Christians promise in our baptism.

If the will of the Anglican Communion as a whole counted for anything the Welsh bishops and their like would be regarded as a tiny, unrepresentative minority and told where to go.

Instead, synodical processes are manipulated by liberal bishops to drive forward their own agendas. They influence public opinion by appealing to humanists and those who have no religion, increasing secular resentment then claim that the Church is out of step. It is not. They are.

This deception is exemplified by the primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church who tweeted "Tonight I feel a burden lifted of what might happen at this conference and determined that we continue to be an example of diversity, an example of enabling people with differing opinions to remain part of the same Church... 'love means love' to use the latest catch phrase. Watch this video clip in which the primus claims that nobody is to be thrown out of the Communion and that there will be no sanctions for what people do. 

Complete garbage. 

Whilst pandering to the LGBTWQ+ lobby, thousands of Anglicans who identify with the traditional, orthodox faith, as in the Global South, have been left with no spiritual home. They have effectively been expelled whilst those continuing to attend services are made complicit.

Similarly the archbishop of Wales tweeted "I welcome this afternoon's #LambethCall affirming of the dignity of all people". He was quickly followed by affirming underlings.

If only these idiots could leave Christian marriage alone there would be no problem.

Another Bleak Midwinter

Of all the Christmas carols the Church of England could have chosen to update for their  #AtTheHeartOfChristmas campaign they chose Christina Rossetti's In the Bleak Midwinter. 

That is what the Anglican Church does best, tinkering with the familiar to replace timeless, simple beauty only to end up with something traditional worshippers barely recognise.

Gustav Holst's In the Bleak Midwinter has a timeless beauty with a clear message which has not been bettered despite the rise of the new version top of the classical charts.

Similarly the beauty of the Book of Common Prayer has not been surpassed by attempts to modernise it. Its language is timeless and comforting, presenting an otherness which modern attempts at revision frequently lack.

Ecumenical News reports that In England and Wales number of Christians falls to half the population, while in US similar pattern shows:

"Figures from 2019 show that only 51 percent of people in England and Wales are Christian, while those with no religion account for more than one-third., Christian Today reported on Dec. 17.

"A few days earlier, Pew Research Center published a survey showing that about three-in-ten U.S. Adults are now religiously unaffiliated, and self-identified Christians make up 63 percent of the U.S. population in 2021, down from 75 percent a decade ago."

This is in marked contrast to the #TeamBelieve campaign which would have us believe that everything in the twitter garden is rosy. 

It probably is for career women in the Church who now have everything they wanted - while it lasts!

Source: Twitter

Postscript [26.12.2021]

Royal approval? 

"While Covid again means we can’t celebrate quite as we may have wished, we can still enjoy the many happy traditions. Be it the singing of carols (as long as the tune is well known);..."

The Christmas Broadcast 2021

The big lie.

Church in Wales Governing Body Meeting 06 Sept 2021 discussing same-sex blessings                         Source: BBC News

                    

On his own admission the bishop of St Asaph prefers queers to evangelicals. That was his conclusion as bishop Gregory responded to the debate on same-sex blessings.

Sounding like a Taliban spokesman claiming every deed to be the will of Allah the bishop said, "I will not betray them, not for any price in this world or the next because I believe it is the will of Christ."

Others in the Church in Wales believe the opposite but the Bill passed when laity and clergy secured the necessary 2/3rds majority. Unsurprisingly the 4 bishops present voted for the Bill in one mind, that of the bishop of St Asaph.

Misinterpreting Galatians 3:28, the bishop of Llandaff, June Osborne, seconded the Motion. She invoked memories of the departed to help bolster support for the Bill. Ignoring the Chair's intervention as she over-ran her allotted time bishop June ploughed on. She just wanted to "honour the memory of archdeacon Sue Pinnington who tragically died at the end of July." 

Bishop Osborne suggested that the speech archdeacon Sue would have made would have put the proposed liturgy in the context of mission to which she had 'dedicated her life':

"It may well be that she would have spoken about her sense of God's blessing on her long and godly same-sex life partnership." - The first of a number of archdeacons who would tick the box.

A disproportionate procession of gay clergy from vicars to archdeacons came to the rostrum to support the Bill illustrating that their sexuality had been no hindrance to their careers.

There were claims of suffering among gay and lesbian people as though they have a monopoly on suffering but they still have a church to attend unlike others who have been rejected and left to pray at home.

A prominent supporter of same-sex blessings interviewed on BBC News with her same-sex partner was trainee priest Ruth Eleri James. Clearly she had not been properly briefed. 

On BBCRadioWales (37 Mins in) she told the reporter of the "real love and welcome they have experienced in their local churches." 

Replying to the debate bishop Gregory said his 'heart went out' to archdeacon Stephen and others who had been brave enough to 'open their hearts' in the debate. Brave enough to tell GB of the pain and the cost of what it is to live as a gay or lesbian Christian within our Church because of the unconscious bias and oppression that we unknowingly inflict upon them.

No evidence was presented to support bishop Gregory's assertion. Quite the contrary given the number of gay bishops, archdeacons and others who have made successful careers despite alleged bias and oppression.   

Speaking after the debate the senior bishop Andy John urged the church to 'respond to new challenges'. He warned that organisations failing to adapt to changes ran the risk of "fossilization", ignoring the fact that Anglican provinces that had done most to conform to the world had rapidly declining attendance.

The 'church' bishop John refers to is not the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Church rejects same-sex blessings along with the ordination of women but Wales is a minor province governed by bishops intent on moulding a compliant Governing Body to their will, leading their flock into darkness.

Going their own way by allowing same-sex blessings the Church in Wales has again put itself at odds not only with the vast majority of Christians but with most of the 80 million Anglicans worldwide, risking suspension from the Anglican Communion.

The Covid-19 pandemic has interrupted the annual update of regular church attendance figures but based on previous trends less than 0.8% of the population of Wales would regularly attend Anglican Sunday services.

In his keynote address as President of the Church’s Governing Body, its senior bishop Andy John urged the Church to look for God in the changing world and respond to new challenges. He warned that organisations failing to adapt to changes ran the risk of “fossilization”.

Speaking after the vote bishop Andy said that despite all the evidence to the contrary  'the Church' recognised it had "demonised and persecuted" gay and lesbian people. They were reaching out to a constituency that felt abandoned.

It has not bothered the bench one jot that another constituency, so-called traditionalists, have been abandoned despite the promise of twin integrities in the Church in Wales in its Code of Practice.

They may now be joined by evangelicals forced to "find accommodation as best they can" as a former LGBT+ supporting archdeacon of Llandaff directed.

The approval of same-sex blessings is based on the falsehood that gay and lesbian people have been demonised in the Church. Allowing same-sex blessings as a half measure to accepting same-sex marriage in church as an act of repentance. 

No doubt some examples of hurt can be documented but in well over 100 years of combined church attendance neither my wife nor I can recall a single example of such rejection, only of welcome as described by Ruth Eleri James and her partner.

The fact is that claiming persecution is part of a strategy based upon "deceptions and half‑truths":

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

The vote to accept same-sex blessings is based on a lie. Shame on the Church in Wales.

Postscripts

[08.09.2021]

How it looks from outside the Church in Wales. 

Anglican Unscripted 684 starting at position 10.15. A devastating critique.

[11.09.2021]

CHURCH IN WALES BACKS THE BLESSING OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGES - C4M

[18.09.2021]

"It may not be an accident that this endorsing of the secular view of the priority and importance of sex and romantic relationships takes place in association with a culture which also attacked the core beliefs of Christianity." - What should we make of the Church in Wales' gay marriage blessings? Gavin Ashenden in Christian Today.

[21.09.2021]

"My experience of "synodality" in  Anglicanism  is that it was a ham fisted PR exercise in which the liberal elite imposed their will but made it look like their novelties were the will of the people." - Fr. Dwight Longenecker @dlongenecker1

[28.09.2021]

Reflections of an Anglican theologian: "The reason I want to comment is because what Cameron said at the meeting of the Governing Body provides a classic example of the weakness of the case for blessing same-sex relationships, and thus shows both why the Welsh church should not have voted to permit such blessings, and why the Church of England should not follow the Welsh example."

Attitude! - The decline of the Church in Wales

Transgender award recipient, Rev Sarah Jones    Source:Twitter

Tweets from the first woman bishop in the Church in Wales have become notorious, causing the Archbishop of Canterbury to be ‘deeply embarrassed’.

The first transgender priest in the Church in Wales has also been tweeting, puffed up with pride after receiving an award from Attitude magazine.

The Rev Sarah Jones was 'ecstatic'. She said, "I'm honoured to be in such company. The LGBTQIA+ community are wonderful and glorious. You add immeasurably to the beauty of this world."

Sarah Jones speaks about the award here, proclaiming the message "God loves me".

And me. And me. And me.... The assertion is constant in endless self promoting tweets. 

Do as you please because God loves you for being who you are. 

No more struggles with temptation as Christ was tempted in the wilderness. How wonderful!

Christ came into the world to save sinners but He is not needed in the Church in Wales because sin has been banished. There are no sinners, just loved ones.

 

There is a certain irony in this. There has been much criticism of the bishop of Monmouth for living in a lesbian relationship but spiritually, for me, she is head and shoulders above most of her fellow bench sitters, not that it justifies her ordination! 

Then there is the bishop of Bangor who, again, for me, has an evangelical zeal superior to others on the bench but is the husband of a second wife following divorce.

Church in Wales bishops have become adept at interpreting the Bible to suit their cause.

The consequence is that the Church in Wales is regarded as a joke in the Anglican world, providing sinecures for 'bishops' who spend disproportionate amounts of time promoting political and LGBTQA+ causes rather than the need for repentance.

Decline is inevitable.

Postscript

June Osborne @BishopJuno has tweeted:

"Such a well deserved award. So proud to have Sarah as a colleague and grateful for the inspiration she brings to Llandaff."

Another Church in Wales 'bishop' shows where her priorities lie.

Decline in the Church continues

 

Pope Francis takes advice from the Archbishop of Canterbury                                   Source: Twitter

       

OK. I get it. Theology and tradition are now thought irrelevant.

Women are allowed to become deacons. Then you bend to secular claims of discrimination and misogyny and allow female deacons to be ordained priests.

People get used to seeing women at the altar so you have to agree that it is unfair if women priests are not allowed to be bishops.

So obvious. Why didn't Jesus Christ think of this?

Women Religious, Women Deacons Q&A: What about ordained women religious?

Postscript [24.01.2021]

Bishop Schneider shows why instituting women as lectors, acolytes is a huge problem

Another Church in Wales senior executive position

Icing on the cake at the Church in Wales HQ                                           Source: Twitter

The Church in Wales, home to the Mission/Ministry Areas, is advertising for a Head of Mission and Ministry, another senior executive post with a "Competitive salary commensurate with comparable roles across the organisation."

The role is "one of visionary leadership, strategy setting and dynamic operational management of a diverse range of activities. It involves working closely with the Bishops both corporately through meetings of the Bench of Bishops and individually as they lead their dioceses and oversee their portfolios."

The 2012 Church in Wales Review recommended (Recommendation XLVI) that: There should be a Board of Mission and Ministry responsible for all the spheres of work at present covered by the Bishops’ advisors...and that: There should be a Director of Mission and Ministry to direct the work, and an annual report and debate on their work by the Governing Body.

The Review also recommended (Recommendation XXII) that:There should be three administrative centres, one in the North and two in the South and South West...leading to (Recommendation XXV) that: The recommendations XXII, XXIII and XXIV should be reviewed after three years and a judgement made about whether the Church in Wales is best served by six dioceses with three administrative centres or whether it would be more effective to reduce to three dioceses, together with four area bishops.

At the current rate of executive expansion and declining attendance there will be far more chiefs than indians to divide the cake at the point of extinction.

Diocese of Portsmouth plants in Llandaff

Church in Wales parish church of SS Andrew and Teilo, Woodville Road, Cathays, Cardiff.                                                                              Source: Wikipedia

Not much has been coming out of the Church in Wales during the Covid-19 lock down but there is news of the diocese of Portsmouth moving in.

I have seen nothing about the event in Llandaff News flashes but there is confirmation that Portsmouth's largest church is 'looking West to plant a new church in Cardiff'.

Inspire Magazine reported on 1 June: a "team will be commissioned for its new role at a digital service on Sunday (Sun 24 May). The Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Christopher Foster, has recorded a video message to be played as part of the service, expressing his joy at the move."

There is no mention of the bishop of Llandaff.

In March last year I reported that the bishop of Llandaff had sacrificed parishioners in the university church of St Teilo, Cathays, Cardiff in an initiative "to give their church away to an evangelical church called Holy Trinity Brompton. The decision was made with no consultation with the clergy or members of the congregation and wider community and she says the decision is final."

The Living Church commented at the time that plans for a church-planting partnership between the Church in Wales and London’s Holy Trinity Brompton had drawn resistance...The project will receive funding from the new Church in Wales Evangelism Fund, which has £10 million available for six dioceses and is similar to the Church of England’s Strategic Development Grants fund.

According to a statement from the diocese of Portsmouth, their Harbour Church began in September 2016 with just 20 people, and now welcomes 700 worshippers every Sunday to three different locations. It now plans to send a team of 40 people to Cardiff to set up a brand new church there from September.

"It will be called Citizen Church and will be based at St Teilo’s Church in the Cathays area of Cardiff. The 40-strong team includes 10 worshippers who already live there, a family moving from Brazil, some moving from London, and 17 worshippers who will relocate from Harbour Church in Portsmouth. It will be led by the Rev Ryan Forey, currently curate at Harbour Church."

When the project was unveiled in 2019 the Church in Wales suggested that the project would “seek to attract young people who are currently outside the church, eventually planting more church communities in the diocese", displacing existing congregations in the process.

Displacing regular worshippers has a familiar ring for traditionalist Anglicans who were forced out because they sought to keep the Apostolic faith against a tide of secularism.

Church weddings decline along with regular church attendance

Church wedding                                                                                          Source: Church of England

While Anglican clergy, and Church in Wales bishops in particular, pursue their goal of same sex marriage in church, the latest figures indicate that fewer people are opting to make their relationship official with a traditional church wedding.

Figures published in Christian Today show that just 54,000 people chose a church wedding in 2017 - the lowest number on record - marking a steep drop from 184,000 in 1987. Religious ceremonies overall accounted for less than a quarter (23%) of marriages between opposite-sex couples in 2017.

"The statistics reflect a general drop in the number of people tying the knot, with a total of 242,842 marriages in England and Wales, down 2.8 per cent on the previous year and the lowest since records began in 1862. Of these marriages, some 6,932 were between same-sex couples.

"The figures continue to show a long-term decline in heterosexual couples choosing to wed, with numbers falling by 45% since 1972."

Ironically the bishops' desire to extend marriage in church to same sex couples occurs while traditional marriage ceremonies are in steep decline, as is church attendance in general.

Instead of following official teaching on Weddings, Anglican bishops in Wales along with the House of Bishops in the Church of England pander to secular trends in a mistaken attempt to appear more relevant to society.

From the Church in Wales Order for Holy Matrimony:
"Marriage is a gift of God through which husband and wife may grow together in the knowledge, love and service of God. It is given that, united with one another in heart, in mind and in body, they may increase in love and trust. God joins husband and wife in life-long union as the foundation of family life (in which children are born and nurtured and) in which each member of the family, in good times and in bad, may find strength, companionship and comfort, and grow to maturity in love. Marriage enriches society and strengthens community."

Mistaken ideas of equality, misrepresenting biblical meanings of love and substituting constructions of gender in place of traditional sexual identification have not enriched society or strengthened the community. More often they have led to confusion, bitterness and resentment.

The so called 'inclusive' churches have excluded far more Anglicans than thay have recruited as illustrated by the overall decline in attendance.

Those now complaining about being locked out of their churches under Covid-19 distancing rules are experiencing what they have previously forced on others who, along with the majority of Christians, including Anglicans, did no more than try to adhere to the traditional catholic and apostolic faith handed down through generations. 

A salutary lesson indeed. 

Path to extinction

Source: Church Growth Modelling 8 July 2015

"The Bishop of Monmouth-elect, the Ven. Cherry Vann, said that it would be a 'sad day if all the focus on growth was just about numbers', but that 'we can’t ignore the fact that church congregations, generally speaking, are either stable or declining'." - Twitter @ChurchTimes

Cherry Van is right on course to discover far more about decline when she takes her notion of stability to Wales.

The Church in Wales is heading for extinction in around 20 years time along with the Episcopal Church of Scotland and the US Episcopal Church. Fortunately for her and her liberal colleagues she will have retired before the collapse leaving others to sort out the mess the 'progressives' have created.

Decline continues as traditional roles are overturned. Over the last couple of decades, women have been leaving mainstream Christian churches at about twice the rate of men while more women than men are entering clergy training in the Church of England.

Promised benefits of the ordination of women have not just failed to materialise, they have been reversed.

In 1993 when Michael Alison (Second Church Estates Commissioner, representing the Church Commissioners) moved, That the Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure, passed by the General Synod of the Church of England, be presented to Her Majesty for her Royal Assent, he said:

"For those millions of people, the Church of England, with its formal state link, is a kind of valuable stalking horse by which they can bring pressure to bear on the powers that be to promote or to maintain Christian standards in education, complex moral and ethical issues, and so on."

Instead we have bishops who advocate same-sex marriage in Church and appear oblivious to the dangers of confusing children by spreading LGBT propaganda in primary schools in the guise of sex education.

In 2015 the Church Growth Modelling blog forecast that attendance figures for the Church in Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church of the USA (TEC), indicated extinction dates around 2040. The Church of England was "on the margins of extinction with some calibrations say yes, just; some say no, just."

The liberal leaning Canadian Episcopal Church must be added to the list.

Regular attendance figures from Canada show that the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) is in serious trouble, "running out of members in little more than two decades if the church continues to decline at its current rate". Statistics for 2017 indicate that average Sunday attendance has dropped to 97,421. The rate of decline is increasing suggesting an extinction date also of 2040 based on 'five different methodologies'. Figures for baptism, confirmation, marriage and funerals show an even faster rate of decline.

There is a common factor. Churches that have adopted liberal programs are in decline while conservative Protestant churches which take a more literal view of the Bible continue to thrive.

On his retirement the Archbishop of Wales reflected that he had supported numerous secular causes, including gay marriage. He has also backed women clergy during his 'leadership'. Commenting on the consecration of the Church in Wales' first female bishop he said: "I think that was pretty important as a matter of justice, as a matter of equality and as a matter of doing what was right".

No theology; pure secularism.

On gay marriage, Dr Morgan had previously called for the church's view on same-sex marriage to change with popular opinion adding "That's quite something, I think, in a church that hasn't always been known for its liberalism."

The Anglican Church is now soaked in liberalism and heading for disaster. Liberals have what they want at the price of extinction.

In Wales, Membership and Finance figures for 2018 show "continued decline in most measures of participation in parish life." Regular Sunday attendance has sunk to 26,110 or 0.8% of the population. The political appointment of Ms Vann to the position of bishop of Monmouth has been welcomed by liberals who no longer see the traditional teaching of the Church as relevant.

In the Church of Ireland clergy have objected to the appointment of a conservative bishop because of his membership of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). These clergy believe that GAFCON’s policies "are 'antithetical' to the principles a Church of Ireland bishop must commit to in the rite of consecration. These include 'fostering unity, care for the oppressed, and building up the people of God in all their spiritual and sexual diversity'" showing how far many Anglicans have strayed like lost sheep.

This from Church Times illustrates how absurd the liberal position has become in undermining traditional beliefs: The Dean of Waterford, the Very Revd Maria Jansson, told The Irish Times that "the Bishops’ attendance at GAFCON had undermined unity within the Church. 'How can Bishops Harold Miller and Ferran Glenfield reconcile the vows they made at their consecrations as bishops ‘to maintain and further the unity of the Church’ with their support of GAFCON, which stridently endeavours to undermine that very unity?', she asked."

More to the point, how can liberally progressive bishops reconcile their vows to maintaining the unity of the Church when they represent a small and shrinking percentage of the 87 million Anglicans worldwide?

The Church is in crisis. Only 2% of young adults identify as C of E. 

Interlopers have changed the Anglican Church to satisfy their own desires, driving forward an agenda to validate a lifestyle incompatible with the Gospel.

From Virtue Online: "Progressive Pansexualist 'Christians' have declared war on orthodox believers. Their goal is not mere acceptance, but to overthrow the moral order and destroy conservative churches who hold the line on faith and morals."

What we are left with is not Christianity but Churchianity and it is spreading.

Anglicans often described themselves as “Episcopally led and Synodically governed.” That is fine so long as bishops remain guardians of the faith but many are in the forefront of aggressive change, putting 'progressive' provinces at odds with mainstream Anglicanism.

Now Pope Francis is calling for a 'synodal' Church giving progressive Catholic bishops a similar platform to Anglican bishops for driving forward change with claims of being moved by the Holy Spirit.

Is there no end to this madness?

Do you want local churches to flourish?

Ven Cherry Vann, bishop elect of Monmouth               Source: Church in Wales

 From a Diocese of Monmouth job advert appearing in the Church Times:

"Do you want local churches to flourish?

"Monmouth Ministry Area is looking for 2 Ministry Area Leaders to share Ministry Area Leadership for the whole area and each to be incumbent of a group of parishes within it. One incumbency has a more urban base.

"The whole area has18 churches (6 looked after by House for Duty priests) A team of 13 active retired priests and a Reader Focal Ministers in most churches."

There are some sad average Sunday attendance figures in the Monmouth Ministry Area Profile which no doubt account for the advert headline. Granted they serve many small rural communities but with ageing congregations it is difficult to see how these churches are to flourish.

The average Sunday attendance figures are:

The Monmouth Town Group: Mitchel Troy 18, Monmouth Priory Church 51, Overmonnow 46, Rockfield 8, Wonastow 6.

 The Monmouth Rural Group: Cwmcarvan 3, Dingestow 9, Llanfihangel Ystern-Llewen 12, Llangattock-Vibon-Abel 12, Penyclawdd 10, Tregaer 8.

The Llanishen Group: Llanfihangel Tor-y-mynydd 15, Llanishen 5, Llansoy 7, Trelleck Grange 5.

The Llandogo and Tintern Group: Llandogo with Whitebrook 42, Tintern 7 (Estimated)

The problem extends beyond the Church in  Wales. The Mail Online reports that a typical Anglican congregation in England numbered just 27 worshippers last year. "Over a decade congregations fell by 15 per cent, church marriages by a third, and fewer than one in ten babies were baptised."

Churchgoing is becoming increasingly unpopular. Why?

Responding (@18.27) to a LBC questioner in my previous entry Justin Welby said he was "deeply, deeply sorry" that "the Church has historically been deeply intolerant, with society as a whole, but the Church has no excuse. Jesus said to someone caught, someone dragged up in front of Him, 'those without sin cast the first stone' and we shouldn't be throwing stones" as if to imply that Jesus condoned sin.

The Christian message would have been much clearer if Welby had quoted Jesus when asked by the woman caught in adultery: "Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.”

Biblical teaching has become so selective that for many people sin has been abolished so there is no need for redemption.

Welby also said: "People have to realise the reality of people's lives. The reason he is a Christian is because God came into the middle of the complexity, he didn't simplify it, he embraced it. It's what we need to do".

Hate the sin but love the sinner has become love the sinner so never mind the sin implying that Christ died on the Cross in vain.

Churches cannot be expected to flourish by surrendering the faith of Christ crucified to a 'do-as-you-please' society.

Church in Wales decline and fall

Membership and Finance 2018 | The Governing Body of the Church in Wales

Figures from the membership and Finance Report 2018 to be presented at the September meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales show continued decline in all measures bar one.

Confirmations were up 30% despite the unilateral decision of the bench of bishops to scrap confirmation as a prerequisite to Holy Communion - see Dodgy legal advice leads to Eucharistic free for all. There was a 36% fall in confirmations 2017 - 2016.

The 25% increase in weekdays only attendance between 2017 - 2016 fell back 19% between 2018 - 2017.

Perhaps more surprisingly the reported Sunday attendance increased between 2017 and 2018 in a number of important fields: under 7s; 7 to 10s; 11 to 17s; and families. The average attendance of under 18's was down 1%; down 7% between 2017 and 2016.

The Report also shows a worrying decline in total giving across a range of categories despite an increase in average giving per attender.

Archbishop George Carey's six-year-old prediction that "the Church of England was one generation away from extinction" unless more was done to attract young people into the Church was aired again in Norwich Cathedral where a helter skelter was thought to be the answer.

In Llandaff it is gay pride.

The predicted outlook for the Church in Wales is even more gloomy than for the Church of England with 'massive church closures from around 2025 onwards' leading to extinction around 2040.

The ordination of women was supposed to reinvigorate the Church. It has had the opposite effect importing a brand of liberalism summed up by Piers Morgan in an interview ‘Liberals have become utterly, pathetically illiberal’.

One cleric has had the guts to put down a question (Q.2) at GB about the declining moral standards of the Church in Wales. Perhaps he will inspire others to reclaim the Church in Wales from the bishops before they destroy her.

Postscript [05.09.2019]

From Not Another Episcopal Blog:

"The Church in Wales has bought into the LGBTQ formula for denominational decline. The statistics look eerily similar to those we have witnessed in most Episcopalian dioceses."

A point strongly made by George Conger on Monday's Anglican Unscripted (No. 529) when he said all the mistakes made by the Episcopal Church 20 years ago are being repeated by the Church of England. The Church in Wales has gone down the same path but has become so irrelevant that it no longer warrants a mention.

Marriage

Church wedding                                                                                          Source: Church of England

In 2017 Premier reported that Anglican church weddings had reach a record low: "Figures from the Office for National Statistics show they hosted 49,717 ceremonies in 2014, a reduction compared to 50,226 in 2013."

In April this year the Church Times reported that "for the first time ever, fewer than one quarter of all marriages in England and Wales were religious ceremonies. They accounted for 24 per cent of marriages in 2016, falling by nearly a half (48 per cent) from two decades ago. In the same period of time, the number of all marriages fell by 28 per cent. In 1966, a third of marriages were civil ceremonies. Since 1992, civil marriages have increasingly outnumbered religious marriages every year."

The Government plans to introduce a new system of registration for marriages, including church weddings, in England and Wales.

Premier reports that the new system could lead to criminal offences and £1,000 fines. Under changes which may be law before 2020, couples will no longer be given a marriage certificate at the end of a church wedding. Instead of being asked to sign a register and certificate, they will instead sign a "marriage schedule", the Faculty Office said. The couple then have to take this document to their local register office to record their marriage into a database and only then will they get a certificate, it added.

A London-based Anglican priest commented said it was "an astonishing change to the way marriages are recorded. Now, instead of marriages being registered then and there by the priest, the couple will get a temporary certificate which they then have to present to the register office within a week of the wedding. When they might want to be on honeymoon."

In addition the Government wants to give every married couple in England and Wales the chance to downgrade their marriage. As the Coalition for Marriage (CM4) points out, by allowing people to downgrade their marriage, the Government is creating new instability, a halfway house to family breakdown. Just because a tiny minority of people want the rights of marriage without the commitment.

The slide continues with another nail in the coffin for Christian marriage!

More marriages in Register Offices followed by Church blessings are likely to lead to more pressure to allow same sex blessings in church.

Civil partnerships were welcomed by many but it did not stop there as illustrated by CM4:

"It’s part of plans to introduce heterosexual civil partnerships, after the Supreme Court ruling last year. C4M predicted this ruling all along. It stems directly from introducing same-sex marriage for homosexual couples in 2014 when they already had access to civil partnerships. The court said this was discriminatory against heterosexuals, who only had access to marriage."

Once people start fiddling with an institution change by stealth takes over as illustrated by the decision to ordain women.

After women were made deacons they complained that they were discriminated against if they were not allowed to be priests. Once they were priests they complained of a stained glass ceiling. Before long virtually anything goes.

The Church of England has lost its way with All the fun of the fair in Cathedrals which are used to play mini golf and provide helter skelter rides at £2 a slide.

There are secularised archbishops charged with being 'not fit for office' by a vicar who says his disclosures about being sexually abused as a teenager were ignored by senior clerics while Justin Welby keeps digging a pit for himself over gay marriage.

One would have thought that the Church would provide some stability based on scripture but that is no longer what the Anglican Church is about. It is about satisfying personal desires regardless of biblical teaching.

In Wales Archbishop John Davies said after a Governing Body vote in September 2018: "The bishops are united in the belief that it is pastorally unsustainable and unjust for the church to continue to make no formal provision for those in committed same-sex relationships."

The Governing Body had agreed by 76 votes to 21 that the lack of formal provision was "pastorally unsustainable". Abdicating all responsibility the archbishop responded: "the vote was an important steer to the bishops in exercising pastoral care." So much for leadership.

Pastoral care used to be in line with scripture and tradition. Under the current regime it has become liberal social work in vestments.

Church in Wales takes a back seat

Three faiths and more                                                                     Source: BBC

A tweet from the Church in Wales contributor to the BBC documentary series Young, Welsh, & Pretty Religious, no doubt forgetting that pride is one of the seven deadly sins: "I'm proud to have had the opportunity to share a platform with @SaharAlFaifi in the making of #YoungWelshAndPrettyReligious. #MoreInCommon"

Sahar Al-Faifi responded with: "I am honoured to share it with you too father Ross ... God bless you :)". That would be her god not his. Job done.

Not to be outdone @LeanneWood for Plaid Cymru "congratulated the young Welsh people featured in the @BBCOne  programme #YoungWelshAndPrettyReligious - in particular work of anti-Islamophobia activist @SaharAlFaifi."

‏

Perhaps with an eye on voting intentions Plaid Cymru "adopted @RunnymedeTrust definition of Islamophobia and want to see people of colour and religion that face 'daily abuse' protected. As if to prove the point, in the first episode of the documentary the victim card is played but only at face value. There is more to follow in episode 2, hopefully with hard facts rather than opinion.

The UK government rejects racial definition of 'Islamophobia' , a catch all invention designed to ensure that Islam has protection not enjoyed by other beliefs but the protection campaign continues.

Unfortunately for him his pride earned the Church in Wales curate only a bit part in the first episode but he was up against Krishnas, pagans, Jews and Muslims, an anti anti-Islamophobia campaigner and a fashion designer for Muslim women's clothing. Evangelical Christians had a better showing due to their increasing numbers. 

The series introduction explains that three quarters of the 1,000,000 under 30's in Wales are not religious. Since the year 2000 religious belief has halved but as some beliefs are plummeting others are rising, doubling, trebling their following. 

"Since the millennium the number of Muslims has doubled to over 50,000 and is the fastest growing religion in Wales. [The average adult Sunday attendance in 2017 was 27,359.] In this century Muslim and Hindu numbers have risen in Wales but Christian numbers have plummeted. Out of a population of 3,000,000 people less than 1% regularly attend Church and if the current decline continues Christians will be a minority in Wales by 2050." 

In the next episode a Hare Krishna monk pays a visit to his parents, we meet bisexual Christian Will and Sahar "faces religious intolerance head on".  I can hardly wait.

Dreams to reality

Rev. Mary Glasspool (right)  the second openly gay bishop elected in the US Episcopal Church. (AP)

"ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) -  Pope Francis said on Tuesday more study was needed on the role of women deacons in the early Christian Church, which eventually could affect decisions on the role of women today.

"Francis and his predecessors have ruled out allowing women to become priests. But advocates of women priests say a ruling that women in the early Church were ordained ministers might eventually make it easier for a future pope to study the possibility of women priests."

The movement for the ordination of women has a clear track record. Claim victimhood, gain support of secularists, substitute equality for theology, foot in the door, deacon, priest, bishop, LGBT rights, gay church, exclusion of orthodox Anglicans, decline and collapse. Queering the Church continues unabated.

From Another screw in the Anglican coffin (2011): "The slow death of the Anglican church looks set to continue. While the role of bishops and priests becomes ever further divorced from traditional religious reality congregations continue to haemorrhage."

The writing on the wall has been clear for some time.

Postscript [09.05.2019]

On the plane again
"Catholics would do well to pay greater attention to the programme which resulted in the ordination of women in the Church of England." - ignatius his conclave