Cherry picking

Still from 'Lambeth Conference 2022 - a reflection by Bishop Cherry'                                                                                                                    Source: YouTube

Reflecting on Lambeth 2022 the bishop of Monmouth, Cherry Vann, shares some of her initial thoughts in this video.

Still processing everything that happened there, Cherry says that there was much that was 'rich and inspiring'.

For her that was the greatly increased number of women bishops and the well publicised presence of seven LGBT+ bishops (up from just one at the previous conference) who were "taking a full part in the sessions making them feel very held in the fellowship of allies as well as the love and the prayers of many at home. "Thank you" she says, "Things are shifting, albeit slowly".

For the vast majority of the 85,000,000 Anglicans worldwide things are shifting too quickly and are unacceptable when biblical teaching is sacrificed for secular desires. 

The Cherry picked items are an impediment to Christian unity and are changing Anglicanism from a Communion into a fellowship to please a minority whose motives are questionable.

Cherry concludes:
"Underpinning all this was the letter of 1 Peter and how its message of faith and hope in Christ in the midst of suffering, exile and persecution can sustain, inspire and strengthen our witness today. We left renewed in our desire to walk together, listen together and witness together so that we might truly be God's Church for God's world - today.! 

 Walking together for most bishops in minority western provinces means walking in step with them or leave the Church as the many unchurched Anglicans in Wales, England and elsewhere can testify.

A shorter statement from Cherry could have been 'Pull up the ladder girls, we are in the lifeboat' which is all that appears to matter to them while the majority of provinces follow the traditional path of The Great Commission.

Locked out

Many regular Sunday church attenders will be feeling lost following the closure of churches in accordance with government instructions on defeating the spread of the coronavirus. In time of need they are denied the comfort of Holy Communion and fellowship. 

Many of us have been there for years. Effectively excommunicated, orthodox Anglicans have in many areas been left with no church to attend, especially in Wales where the Assistant Provincial Bishop David Thomas was not replaced following his retirement in 2008. 

My experience of virtual services has not been inspiring, unlike the above video link which was sent to me by a well wisher. 

We have lost so much.

“Women of Jerusalem, do not shed your tears for me, but for yourselves and for your children! For the days are coming when men will say, ‘Lucky are the women who are childless—the bodies which have never borne, and the breasts which have never given nourishment.’ Then men will begin ‘to say to the mountains, Fall on us! and to the hills, Cover us!’ For if this is what men do when the wood is green, what will they do when it is seasoned?”
Luke 23:28-31