The Way

I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.

In their coverage of Pope Francis' visit to Iraq, Sky News report that Pope Francis met Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani - Iraq's top Shia cleric - at the Islamic scholar's home in the Iraqi city of Najaf.

"The Pope arrived at the cleric's small home in a bullet-proof vehicle. As he entered the house, white doves were released, reflecting the themes of this four-day visit to Iraq - peace, reconciliation and inter-faith dialogue. The meeting - the first of its kind between two such senior leaders in the Christian and Muslim world - was held privately and holds huge symbolism."

Later at an inter-faith prayer service Pope Francis condemned extremism saying, "Hostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart. They are betrayals of religion." 

But Islam is a political ideology diametrically opposed to the faith of Christians and others. Convert to Islam, pay the jizya, leave or die is the message in Islamic countries.

Violence and persecution against Christians in the Middle East has been cited as one of the key reasons for the exodus of Christians from the region. A century ago, Christians in the Middle East comprised 20 percent of the population; today, they constitute no more than 3-4 percent of the region’s population - The Persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

Followers of Islam live a life of complete submission to Allah, relegating Jesus Christ to the role of a  prophet. 

Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

How many Christian leaders believe that today as they engage in dialogue with Muslims as though all Abrahamic faiths were basically the same.

 

I do not doubt the sincerity of Christian leaders but to date the result of dialogue has merely led to greater tolerance of Islam, excusing every atrocity as the work of radicalised fanatics while ignoring the Islamic aim of dominance and submission of all to Allah.

In Wales the diocese of Llandaff is currently pushing The Landscapes of Faith Festival: "a community treasure hunt to celebrate our world faith traditions in Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Paganism and the prehistoric sites in South Wales."

Nothing new of course. We have been here before.

Peace Mala. The Archbishop of Wales with supporters @StDavidsNeath.                         Source: Twitter @WelshMuslims

Postscripts

[16.03.2021]

Mozambique insurgency: Militants beheading children, aid agency reports

While religious leaders talk, "Aid agency Save the Children says Islamist militants are beheading children as young as 11 in Mozambique's northern province of Cabo Delgado...More than 2,500 people have been killed and 700,000 have fled their homes since an Islamist insurgency began in 2017.The militants have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group."

So sad.

[20.03.2021]

Ethiopian Christian Excluded by Muslim Family

Another example of Islam's inhuman regard for Christians. "Excluded by his Muslim relatives. Forced to leave he was left with no food, shelter or source of income."

For the love of God!

Church in Wales in denial

Church in Wales bishops

The duplicity of Church in Wales bishops knows no bounds.

Responding to concerns expressed by Anglican Essentials Wales in the Church Times in advance of their inaugural conference in March, a spokesperson for the Church in Wales said that it was “committed to proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God, and this includes both a call to personal faith and commitment, and bearing witness to God’s call to justice and peace in society.

“All major policy decisions are, and have been, taken either by its Governing Body, which is made up of elected representatives from across the Province, or in consultation with it. This is a fair and democratic process, representative of the whole church, and we believe it is the best place for people to express their views and seek to bring in change.

“We do not recognise the criticism expressed by Anglican Essentials Wales as a fair description of our common life.”

'Proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God' in the Church in Wales has become how the bishops presume to interpret the message.

In the interests of 'democracy' they have embraced “a thoroughly this-worldly message” instead of upholding orthodox faith and practice.

Far from representing 'the whole church' as claimed, traditional Anglicanism is not officially represented. In an appalling breach of faith, commitments given to secure the ordination of women were abandoned when Bishop David Thomas retired.

Faithful worshippers have been left with nothing while overtures continue to be made to high profile minority groups who claim to be persecuted while enjoying their privileged status with access to special chaplaincies.

Movements such as Mae Cymru claim to be "a group of people with a vision of the Church in Wales as a community of God’s people where, regardless of gender, justice and equality prevail". That is exclusively on their terms.

'Gender, justice and equality' have become twisted. Love is everything so everything is permissible. But it is not agape, it is Eros, blatant sexual licence that has little if anything to do with the Gospel message.

Sad to say the ordination of women has proved to be nothing to do with equality. It is about power. Feminist power. Feminists demand equality. Equality demands equality 'regardless of gender'.

In the Church in Wales that means parity regardless of suitability, embracing everything LGBT+, advocating transgenderism and working towards same sex marriage even though the innovation failed to win the necessary votes at the Governing Body of the Church in Wales.

The bench did not accept the 'democratic' decision against same sex marriage in church after a heavily weighted discussion in favour. Instead they decided that more work was needed to implement their decision, using their Governing Body as a tool, drawing participants into heresy. 

In my entry Another farcical Church in Wales 'consultation'? I outlined how the bench of bishops use consultations to cherry pick comments they find favourable while binning those which fail to accord with their predetermined agenda. Their idea of democracy.

Small wonder that the Church in Wales is in terminal decline. The latest press release shows that Wales' struggling rural churches look to tourism for survival. The churches will be fitted out with sleeping stalls and 'services built for cycling'. Services for the faithful are no longer required.

The Church in Wales has entered into dialogue with followers of Witchcraft, Atheism, Peace Mala, Hare Krishna, Sufi, Islam, Yungdrung Bön, Judaism and Druids. Only orthodox Anglicans are regarded as beyond the pale. Unworthy of consideration because they remain true to the historic Apostolic faith in common with Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

That is the 'fair and democratic process' of the Church in Wales.

Catholic-Anglican dialogue

Pope Paul VI (right) presents his episcopal ring to Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey when the two met in 1966 in what was the first public meeting
between a Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury since the Reformation. Source: Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS)

Years ago I would have been thrilled by the publication of the first report by Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission in 13 years which considers authority and role of laity. Now I recoil in fear and trepidation for the Church.

"Among the considerations in the 68-page report, released July 2, are questions of how the Catholic Church might learn from the Anglican experience to empower local church leaders to act more independently from Rome at times, and to give more governing authority to consultative bodies such as the Synod of Bishops.

It says that the Catholic Church can also "fruitfully learn from the inclusion of laity in decision-making structures at every level of Anglican life."

In March 1966 there was a Common Declaration by Pope Paul VI and Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey after their meeting in Rome. They gave "thanks to Almighty God Who by the action of the Holy Spirit has in these latter years created a new atmosphere of Christian fellowship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Churches of the Anglican Communion."

"In willing obedience to the command of Christ who bade His disciples love one another, they declare that, with His help, they wish to leave in the hands of the God of mercy all that in the past has been opposed to this precept of charity, and that they make their own the mind of the Apostle which he expressed in these words: ‘Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’ (Phil 3:13-14)."

Anglicans in the West have become obsessed with 'love'. Not love in the sense referred to in the Declaration but as a do-as-you-please passport. In a word, eros. When an openly gay man in a realationship, Gene Robinson of the US Episcopal Church (TEC) was appointed of New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop it caused a hiatus.

Western Anglicanism is in disarray. So much so that it has been reported that TEC spends "$8 million brokering rites for sodomite marriage into the Episcopal Church and messing with the Book of Common Prayer (over three triennium) to change it so non-heterosexual marriages are forever enshrined in the BCP in order to cater to the behavior of a handful of homosexuals and lesbians who may or may not choose to get married. And Jesus will weep. https://tinyurl.com/yc2l8eqw "

Ahead of their General Convention three bishops from the TEC have proposed a "compromise resolution on same-sex marriage which they hope will move the church forwards in an 'atmosphere of mutual respect, reconciliation and the love of Jesus Christ'."

Anglicans landed in this mess because faith is decided by committee, dominated by special interest groups which claim to be persecuted, while appealing to secularists for support. This is the well tried strategy:

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

Taking one step at a time Western Anglicanism has moved from deaconess to women bishops, from a sympathetic understanding of homosexuality to brazen homosexual relationships among clergy who demand to be allowed to marry in church. All in the name of love.

The deviousness of special interest groups knows no bounds. Governance by committee has allowed them to infiltrate, dictate and regulate to the point that many cradle Anglicans now find themselves excluded while the infiltrators drive the wedge ever deeper between the Anglican Church and the Holy Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

"The future of ecumenism is in great peril with the gap widening between orthodox and progressives, said Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church a noted theologian and church historian."

Back in 2008 Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council of Christian Unity posed the question to Anglicans: "Are you Protestants or Catholics? He said it was time to decide: "Ultimately, it is a question of the identity of the Anglican Church. Where does it belong? Does it belong more to the churches of the first millennium, Catholic and Orthodox, or does it belong more to the Protestant churches of the 16th century? At the moment it is somewhere in between, but it must clarify its identity now and that will not be possible without certain difficult decisions." See Fr Z's blog entry at the time here.

Against this background it seems almost incomprehensible to read: "Will the Amazon synod open the door to women deacons?" as reported by the Catholic News Agency.

That was the road to disaster for the Anglican Church. Read The journey's end but for whom?

Bishop Gene Robinson putting the Anglican Church on the road to ruin

Mad or bad? If you are dead you're dead.

“All of you are infidels… we will go to paradise if we kill you and you will go to hell.”

There is no shortage of Muslims who believe that they will have a place in paradise if they die killing infidels even if their stock of virgins is depleted. It is neither here nor there that the vast majority of Muslims do not kill infidels. The God they worship sanctions death for unwilling converts as well as apostates. Unless Muslims face up to this reality and enter into serious dialogue about their supremacist religious ideology, the killings will go on and on.

After each atrocity the media scurry around to find any excuse they can to point the finger away from Islam. Why? It is the common thread that has linked 1400 years of violence. Two questions are usually asked. Was the perpetrator in need of psychiatric help? - as if other perpetrators are normal - and, Has the 'so-called' Islamic State claimed responsibility or is there any evidence of a link? The introductory video, 'Persecuted and Forgotten' clearly illustrates that the persecution of Christians is not peculiar to ISIS.

The quote "All of you are infidels… we will go to paradise if we kill you and you will go to hell" is taken from an article in the Catholic Herald: "A priest is slaughtered at Mass in rural France. This is what life is like for Christians in the Middle East". The article recalls: "One priest, Fr Thaer Abdal, was shot dead at the altar. In total, 58 innocent people were murdered. Their killers were members of an Iraqi faction of Al-Qaeda that had declared war on churches, “dirty dens of idolatry”, and in particular “the hallucinating tyrant of the Vatican. The Baghdad massacre was one of countless atrocities that have reduced ancient Christian communities in the Middle East to shrivelled and terrified ghettos or underground churches".

In Egypt: Muslim attacks on Christians are "increasing at alarming rate". So widespread has the problem become that after the French priest was murdered a 'UK Church leader' who asked to remain anonymous has warned that "it may be sign of things to come". He said:

"There needs to be a connection made between what is happening here and what has been happening in places such as Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Iraq. Suddenly we are seeing this in Europe. It could be an alarming sign of things to come. There is a lot of copycat psychology in these kinds of attacks. We are hoping this does not turn into anything more serious and get out of hand, but we are concerned that it might." Full report here.

For Christians there is only one way to the Father, through Jesus Christ. There is no compulsion.

For Muslims "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger".
This is the basic statement of the Islamic faith: "anyone who cannot recite this wholeheartedly is not a Muslim".

When a Muslim recites this they proclaim:
That Allah is the only God, and that Muhammad is his prophet
That they personally accept this as true
That they will obey all the commitments of Islam in their life

Little surprise, then, that other religions are held in contempt by Islam. 'Blasphemy' is a tool often used in Islamic states. Sadly this process is aided by attitudes in the West which imply that only Islam is sacred. In the wake of latest atrocity in France it has been reported that a "Fireman Sam" episode has been pulled amid a "Koran row" in marked contrast to the persecution of Christians highlighted in the "Persecuted and Forgotten" video above.

In the following video, former Prime Minister Tony Blair along with former US Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton insist, contrary to all the evidence available, that Islam is a religion of peace, ignoring the opinions of experts. Only a sensible dialogue will expose the truth but while Islam is regarded as above criticism the West will remain compliant without uttering a word of the Shahadah.

Meanwhile the slaughter of the innocents continues.

Postscripts [31.07.2016]

From The Telegraph: Islamism is an attack on our civilisation – this must be recognised, not evaded.

also [03.08.2016]

From OnePeterfive ISIS Rejects Pope’s Interpretation of Their Own Religion

A new beginning?

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Pope Francis met at the Jose Marti
 airport in Havana Feb. 12, 2016 – the first-ever papal meeting with the head of the Russian
 Orthodox Church, a historic development in the 1,000-year schism within Christianity.
 (Crux / Max Rossi / AP)

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21

The key points in the declaration signed by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill after their historic meeting on Friday 12 Feb 2016 reported by Crux include:

• An acknowledgement that “we have been divided by wounds caused by old and recent conflicts, by differences inherited from our ancestors.”
  
• Deep concern for “Christians [who] are victims of persecution.” The two leaders said, “In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated. Their churches are being barbarously ravaged and looted, their sacred objects profaned, their monuments destroyed.”
  
• A plea for greater inter-religious dialogue: “Differences in the understanding of religious truths must not impede people of different faiths to live in peace and harmony,” the two men said.
  
• Worry about secular hostility to religion: “We observe that the transformation of some countries into secularized societies, estranged from all reference to God and to His truth, constitutes a grave threat to religious freedom. It is a source of concern for us that there is a current curtailment of the rights of Christians, if not outright discrimination.”
  
• Defense of immigrants and refugees: “We cannot remain indifferent to the destinies of millions of migrants and refugees knocking on the doors of wealthy nations,” they said.
  
• A strong call for preserving the “natural family” based on marriage between a man and a woman, and the “right to life,” including opposition to abortion and euthanasia.
  
• An invitation to “prudence, social solidarity and action aimed at constructing peace” in Ukraine.

Full report here. 

In the words of St Benedict "Always we begin again" -

 "that the world may believe that thou hast sent me".