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.

Shame on Patriarch Kirill

Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian Orthodox Church has often been accused of serving the
interests of the State. Photo: NovayaGazeta.ru.   Source: Euromaidan Press  

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has suggested that the World Council of Churches (WCC) could be justified in expelling the Russian Orthodox Church over its failure to condemn the war in Ukraine. And rightly so.

Patriarch Kirill's support for Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine has been nothing short of shameful. 

The death and destruction witnessed through the media has been an abomination but the suffering will extend far beyond the borders of Ukraine as food shortages set in.

The Times of Israel reports on the Russian war against Ukraine in the ‘world’s breadbasket’ and how it may threaten global food supply and, consequently, millions of others: 

"Millions in Europe, Africa, Asia rely on fertile farmlands in Black Sea region; price of wheat surges by 55%; violence could create food insecurity, push more people into poverty."

Shame on you Patriarch Kirill. 

Prayer for Ukraine:

Ladies first

"Bishops' hat-trick"                                                                                   Photo: Church in Wales

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” ― George Orwell, 1984.

For older Anglicans the year '1984' is most likely to invoke memories of George Orwell's novel 'Nineteen eighty-four' but for 50% of the Bench of Bishops of the Church in Wales it is the year that they were ordained by the late Derrick Childs, former Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Monmouth, in his Cathedral - story here. Who could have imagined that all three would become bishops occupying half the Bench a generation later. Much has changed in the church since Derrick Childs was Archbishop.

In 1984 two were ordained deacon, the third, Gregory Cameron, was ordained priest. Since then he has been out in the world serving the wider Anglican Communion - see here - but not the rest of the Bench which is made up of local boys, safe pairs of hands becoming Barry's apparatchiks putting the ordination of women first before any ability (see here) to spread the Gospel or adding to the church. Inward investment has been limited at the highest levels to Barry's blunders here and here although he has achieved a remarkable success (in his terms) with a convert who has succeeded in robbing faithful Anglicans of the promise of an honoured place in the church secured by statute. 

Great Britain has not become the 1984 'Oceanian province of Airstrip One' but 'perpetual war' has broken out within the church and between church and society. This was summed up by the current Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan in 2007 when he said the new phenomenon of "atheistic fundamentalism" in British society was dangerous because it refused to allow any contrary viewpoint and affected public perception of religion. He went on to say: "All of this is what I would call the new "fundamentalism" of our age and any kind of fundamentalism, be it Biblical, atheistic or Islamic, is dangerous, because it allows no room for disagreement, for doubt, for debate, for discussion. It leads to the language of expulsion and exclusivity, of extremism and polarisation, and the claim that because God is on our side, He is not on yours."

The Church in Wales today no longer allows any contrary viewpoint, only expulsion and exclusivity. This was demonstrated by the Governing Body in its decision to make no statutory provision for anyone with a contrary viewpoint as it rubber stamped Dr Morgan's view of his church. The Archbishop should choose his words more carefully if he is to avoid charges of double standards.

“Big Brother is Watching You.”                      Photo: Anthony Devlin/PA Wire

“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” ― George Orwell, 1984