True colours

WATCH gathering                                                                                                                    Source: WATCH/Church Times

From the Church Times: "A CAMPAIGN to end the provisions that accompanied the women-bishops legislation of 2014, put in place to provide for those unable to accept women’s ministry (News, 28 July 2014), was launched by Women and the Church (WATCH) on Saturday.

"The campaign group hopes to see a motion brought to the General Synod, asking members to consider “whether it is right for the 2014 House of Bishops’ Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests to continue in perpetuity and, if not, to set a date for it to come to an end”. The plans were discussed at the “Not Yet Equal Conference” at St John’s, Waterloo, in London. WATCH aims to roll out roadshows across dioceses in the coming months, in the hope of getting the motion carried by diocesan synods. An alternative approach would be a private member’s motion.

"WATCH is also encouraging women clergy to log experiences of “harassment”, with a view to bringing a case under the Equality Act (2010)." Full report here.

The bishop of Croydon, Dr Rosemary Mallet (pictured above), said "The Principles 'help to reinforce' the 'unequal and iniquitous gendered culture of the current Church of England', Dr Mallett said on Saturday. The foundations of this culture lay in the 1993 settlement, which established Provincial Episcopal Visitors (PEV) and 'allowed . . . churches to limit women’s roles on grounds of theological conviction'."

Dr Mallet lays bare the guiding principles of WATCH, feminist equality in a secularised Church. Theology has no place in the minds of these deceitful women. 

She went on: "With hindsight, we never really thought through how this agreement would build on those foundations, cementing in both official and unofficial practices in churches a perpetuation of women’s unequal treatment and the continued discrimination against women."

The deceit is mind blowing. Using the Church to further their feminist ideals, these women have reached their goal of women bishops by stealth, regardless of the hurt they have caused for those who on theological grounds are unable to accept their secular agenda.

Step by step WATCH have argued that it did not mean that women would become priests if they were allowed to become deacons. When they were made deacons they argued that being a deacon was preparation for the priesthood. When women were admitted to the priesthood they claimed that the Church was dicriminating against women if they were not allowed to become bishops in a three-fold ministry.

'Mutual flourishing' enabled these feminists to achieve their goal. Now they want to end the provisions that accompanied the women-bishops legislation. 

Sadly the people to whom WATCH appeal have the same secular outlook. They are unable to see through the lies because many attending Church have become secularised.

WATCH's Not Equal Yet Campaign claims that "Our national Church is getting away with discriminating against women, limiting female leadership, at every level of the organisation."

It shows them in their true colours. They want those of us who do not agree with them to be left with nothing.

It is appropriate that the article is dated 1st April. WATCH have made fools of the Church.  

Postscript

  Promises to traditionalists should be kept, Forward in Faith says - Church Times    

Truth will out!

Many thanks to Dr Gavin Ashenden for his Ashenden Scripted presentation. Truth will out!

More promised from Calvin Robinson on X (formerly Twitter)

Postscript {25.01.2024]

What Happened at the Mere Anglicanism Conference? Calvin Robinson's response.

This is not Dibley

Fowey Parish Church: Source Parish Website

From Mail Online: "‘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?"

Yes, it is 2023  but the author of the Mail article headlined above appears unable or unwilling to separate fact from fiction. It is riddled with prejudice against those who follow traditional Christian teaching rather than the fad of the day.

Under the Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure 1993 (No. 2) a Resolution may be made "That this parochial church council would not accept a woman as the minister who presides at or celebrates the Holy Communion or pronounces the Absolution in the parish."

That is the factual position.

The Vicar Of Dibley is a TV fantasy show but it is portrayed as reality by people with no religion of their own and feminists in the Church wishing to undermine fellow Anglicans who, on theological grounds, are unable to receive the sacramental ministry of women. 

Ignorance offers no hinderance.

Some comments from the Mail article:

'It appears the parish church representatives here are obviously bigots,' said one comment on a community Facebook page.

'You should hang your heads in shame, such a bad decision,' read another. 'Remind me, it is 2023 isn't it?'

Progressives resort to lies and false accusations because they can muster no valid arguments to defend their own position This is typified by the Chair of Women And The Church (WATCH) who endlessly protests on Twitter and elsewhere about so called discrimination, simply because others disagree with her misrepresentations.

In this Christian Institute video the question is asked Do Christians want to drown children who 'might turn out to be gay'? 

The video illustrates how LGBT activists Jayne Ozanne and Peter Tatchell think so while Archbishop Justin Welby appears to agree with them. 

Also present at the confrontation was Ben Bradshaw MP who yesterday introduced a ‘ten minute rule motion’ aimed at forcing the Church of England to conduct same-sex marriages. It was passed by the House of Commons without a vote. This was despite Bradshaw himself saying in 2013 that it was the “prerogative” of the C of E’s leadership to decide not to allow gay weddings.

Beth Rigby of Sky News peddled the same discrimination line when mixing unrelated issues in an interview with Archbishop Justin Welby after the Ozanne/Tatchell demonstration. In the interview the archbishop refers to 'equal marriage' which implicitly accepts the redefinition of Holy Matrimony as not being solely between one man and one woman for life. 

The concepts of mutual flourishing and twin integrities have been swept under the carpet under the guise of equality. Traditional beliefs are now classified as bigoted, homophobic discriminatory simply because progressives have no valid arguments to support their stance.

People not toeing the progressive line are shut down or removed. Witness Christian theology lecturer Dr Aaron Edwards who was sacked for misconduct and threatened with a counter-terrorism referral by a Methodist Bible college for allegedly “bringing the college into disrepute” on social media for a tweet on human sexuality that went viral.

On 19 February 2023, Dr Edwards posted: "Homosexuality is invading the Church. Evangelicals no longer see the severity of this b/c they’re busy apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it’s true. This *is* a 'Gospel issue', by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Saviour."

The Ordinariate has also succumbed to intimidation. The Rev Calvin Robinson, an orthodox Anglican deacon, fighting the culture wars on behalf of the Christian faith is being cancelled 'step by step, day by day'. 

Robinson has been cancelled by a group of Catholic choir singers and the Catholic clergy to whom they made an ultimatum. According to Church Militant, the English Ordinariate withdrew an invitation to broadcast Robinson's celebration of Easter on GB News after complaints allegedly initiated by members of the choir who disagreed with views expressed by the preacher.

This is progress?

Anglican Bishops

Church in Wales new bishops consecration 2022                                                                                                                                           Source: Church in Wales

The election of the 73rd bishop of Llandaff commences on January 18 following the retirement of June Osborne who was appointed by the bench of bishops in 2017 after the failure of the electoral college to agree on a candidate.

A disaster waiting to happen, Osborne was tipped to be one of the first bishops in the Church of England. Instead she was appointed Dean of Salisbury. With a background in sociology Osborne was a prolific LGBTQ+ campaigner but suffered from allegations of bullying. She was found, on the balance of probability, to have a case to answer until the then Dean of Llandaff withdrew his allegations and resigned. 

The Vicar of Radyr also resigned as incumbent and Ministry Area Leader saying that she could no longer, with integrity, knowing the many things she knows, serve in the diocese where she believed a 'culture of fear' exists. A diocesan survey conducted after her initial exposure 'brought up the same results'. 

New bishop Joanna Penberthy in 2017    Pic: BBC

The 'best person to be a bishop', in the eyes of former archbishop Barry Morgan, has been another disaster. The bishop of St Davids has been on a second bout of sick leave since the end of August 2022 with no official updates which is reminiscent of the secrecy surrounding the extended absence of the former bishop of Monmouth. The only news is this report from a commentator under a previous entry:

"Yesterday at meeting of LMA's priests archdeacon updated us on Johanna La Loca. Her sick leave has been extended again - to end of February, as she is suffering from depression and anxiety. At present on half pay, her stipend will cease on 28 Feb. Is this the moment she resigns and diocese starts to recover? It was suggested that people ought to write to ++ Andy to pile on the pressure. Lovely thought if we can celebrate St David's day sede vacante."

'Affirming Love' Pride Eucharist with bishop
Cherry Vann . Source: Twitter

Joanna Penberthy along with the bishop of Llandaff, June Osborne, campaigned vigorously on secular matters while the bishop of Monmouth, Cherry Vann, is patron of Open Table. 

Following her appointment the Church in Wales tweeted:

"Find out more about the new Bishop of @MonmouthDCO @cherry_vann in an interview with her on @BBCWomensHour today from 10am."

I tuned in on catch up. There was nothing spiritual, just sex. See The Bishop of Monmouth and partner.

Contrary to biblical teaching, bishops in England and Wales are hellbent on conforming to the pattern of this world rather than being transformed.

In the Church of England there has been the predictable outcry from Women and the Church (WATCH) following the appointment of the Rt Rev Philip North to be the 10th Bishop of Blackburn:

Their Chair, the Rev Martine Oborne tweets under the heading 'Trying to lift the lid off the ongoing sexism & discrimination in the CofE & how this impacts women. Chair of WATCH but these tweets my own'. 

More apt would be Using the Church for self validation at the expense of others. 

Oborne said of the Bishop of Backburn appointment: "The appointment sadly reflects … institutional discrimination in the church and we are effectively told that we must just suck it up and get on with it."

This is a familiar feminist tune, regularly tweeted by the WATCH chair and well worn by bishop Joanna Penberthy. Disagreement is labelled discrimination regardless of facts. Integrity has been replaced by duplicity.

Inclusive Church said Bishop North's views made it "a painful appointment". 

So what is the problem with Bishop North's appointment? 

Simply it is because his beliefs are not based on false notions of equality but on biblical teaching and tradition along with the vast majority of Anglicans and the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

Holy Catholic Church showing the 2% accepting the ordination of women (OW)

Provision was made in England and Wales for those who, in conscience, could not accept the sacramental ministry of women. WATCH has been picking at it ever since. In Wales Barry Morgan simply abandoned provision following the retirement and untimely death of the Provincial Assistant Bishop David Thomas.

Pray that the Electoral College meeting in Llandaff will follow the example of the Church of England and elect a holy man of God to be the next bishop of Llandaff, not leaving the appointment to a bench of bishops to appoint another in their image when they have clearly lost their way. 

How bad must it get for a bishop to resign?

 No economy at the top: "Bishop Mary and Bishop John join the Church's Bench of Bishops"                                                                    Source: Church in Wales

The Vicar of Radyr has announced that she has submitted her resignation as incumbent and Ministry Area Leader to the bishop of Llandaff. 

The Reverend Vicki Burrows said that she could no longer, with integrity, knowing the many things she knows, serve in the diocese where she believed a 'culture of fear' exists. A diocesan survey conducted after her initial exposure 'brought up the same results'. The senior leadership team acknowledged there was room for improvement. See the vicar's statement in this video link  starting at position 1.00.15  

The problem for the vicar and those for whom she is sacrificing her ministry is that the bench ditched integrity as soon as they had their own way on the ordination of women. See Brood of vipers!        

It is not expected that the bishop of Llandaff will consider her position having already been engaged in a long running battle with her side-lined Dean and the new archbishop confirming his impotency in such matters. 

Bishop June also has the precedent of the bishop of St Davids sitting tight until the storm blows over after the Twitter scandal in which she insulted many of her flock. Bishop Joanna is now making more frequent appearances as if she had never blotted her copybook. 

Vicars are expendable it seems while bishops expand their empires despite Recommendation XXV for diocesan reform in the 2012 Harries Review.

Instead we have feminist triumphalism praising their latest 'successes'. Recently the Church in Wales tweeted: Our new bishops, Mary Stallard and John Lomas, join the Bench of bishops. We now have more women bishops than men, which we think is a first in the Anglican Communion @AnglicanNews @ChurchTimes.

This is somewhat ambiguous. Presumably they mean joining the bench for a photograph. According to the constitution the “Bench of Bishops” means the Archbishop and the other Diocesan Bishops but the gloating "We now have more women bishops than men, which we think is a first in the Anglican Communion" implies the prospect of an expectation of feminism influencing the Church in Wales even more.

It has been said that the hat makes the man so perhaps the mitre may be thought to make the women. That could explain the biggest mitre being sported by the assistant bishop. If I remember correctly she saw a woman wearing a mitre on a visit to the USA and was even more convinced that women bishops were right!

Postscript [01.04.2022]

Church Times - Dean’s complaint of bullying by Bishop of Llandaff to be heard at tribunal:

"No date for the tribunal has yet been fixed. A spokeswoman for the Church in Wales confirmed on Tuesday that the tribunal panel was currently being appointed by the president, Mark Powell QC. It can have five members, and must include a diocesan or assistant bishop from another diocese.

"The Church in Wales has appointed Gavin Foster QC — joint registrar in the diocese of Salisbury, a former Crown Prosecutor, and former domestic chaplain to the Bishop of Winchester, Dr Tim Dakin — as Proctor to bring the case. The tribunal has considerable powers, ranging from absolute or conditional discharge, rebuke, or monition, to deposition from Holy Orders."

'Women's rights' bishop to retire

Christine Hardman Bishop of Newcastle in the House of Lords                          Source: BBC News

BBC News reports that the Right Reverend Christine Hardman is to step down as Bishop of Newcastle on 30 November.

"The 70-year-old said great progress had been made in achieving equal rights for men and women in the church leadership. However, Mrs Hardman said there was still a lot of work to do to make the church more diverse.

"The church does feel like a different place now and it's not about women's rights, it's about men and women being equally represented in the leadership of the church she said." 

Equality, diversity and parity have far more to do with secular ambitions for so-called women's rights than for spreading the faith as received.

From The London Economic: "Feminist theologian Dr Niamh M. Middleton, author of new book Jesus and Women: Beyond Feminism, says that the Roman Catholic Church will lose all its female practitioners within two decades, and will become extinct within a generation, unless it takes urgent steps to address inherent gender-based discrimination.

"The Roman Catholic church will become ‘women-free’ in Britain and Ireland within 20 years and die out completely within a generation unless it reverses its “sexist and unbiblical” policy that only men can become priests and bishops, a leading academic and theologian has warned.

"Worshippers are already said to be turning their backs on Catholicism “in their droves” in response to its views on women’s rights, LGBT rights and contraception."

A review of Dr Middleton's book in The European put it this way:

'Challenging gender inequality in the Church' it 'dissects institutional sexism within the Church, and outlines how women must lead the way in restoring gender equality'.

The review continues: "Christianity is in crisis, with congregations continuing to fall away both within the Catholic and Protestant Churches. One of the main issues remains the institutional sexism found within Church hierarchies. This discrimination, which finds its apex in the Catholic Church’s prohibition of female ordination, alienates women, leading to them and their families abandoning the pews."

Feminists start from the presumption that institutional sexism exists in the Church but they use secular criteria to achieve their secular aims. It is that which puts Christianity in crisis

In the UK and abroad, where feminist principles have been allowed to influence the direction of the Church it has been downhill thereafter.  

Postscript [23.11.2021]

Pioneering Church of England woman bishop who campaigned for LGBT rights to retire

No change there then! The complete feminist package. They should be campaigning for Christ not using His name to advance their secular cause.

Bishop in name only

Contempt? Bishop of St Davids enthronement          Source: Twitter/Nation Cymru

"THE Bishop of St Davids, Dr Joanna Penberthy, apologised last week for a tweet that she had posted in March, in which she had urged: “Never, never, never trust a Tory.” This was her contribution to a debate in which some Welsh Tories were believed to be subverting the Welsh Assembly: a serious issue, and one on which a responsible bishop could well have an opinion.

"But the opinion here was hardly a measured contribution, merely a repeat of a well-worn banality. It left Tory-voting Anglicans (a majority among the laity) with the impression that she held them in contempt." 

That is the view of the Rev Angela Tilby writing in the Church Times yesterday. She continues: "The public nature of episcopal office has been understood from antiquity. Bishops are meant to be visible, to be seen and known, to be a focus of unity in the Church, and a point of mediation between Christian communities and civic authority. “He must be well-thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace. . .” (1 Timothy 3.7).

Such comments are in marked contrast to the glowing tribute archbishop Barry Morgan paid to Joanna Penberthy when he struggled to justify his manoeuvrings to get her elected as the first woman in the Church in Wales. He said: 

“What is really important to stress is that Joanna wasn’t elected because she was a woman but because she was deemed to be the best person to be a bishop.

“She has considerable gifts – she is an excellent preacher and communicator, can relate to all sections of the community, is a warm, charismatic, caring priest and someone who is full of joy."

Not so. After her appearance in the TV programme 'The Hour' I wrote: "Joanna Penberthy’s contribution was worse than I feared, aligning the Church with a political movement rather than the Kingdom of God. She was unbalanced, dishonest in her claims and blatantly sexist. I doubt that she brought anyone to Christ."

The TV programme was previewed on Twitter. The new bishop complained that, as the 129th successor to St David and the first woman to hold the office, it was 'hard': 

While "all those men in my diocese who don't think that women can be bishops have treated me with respect, and so they accept my authority, they don't accept that I am able to to celebrate the sacraments so they wouldn't receive communion from me or be ordained by me. It's hard to have a group of people in the diocese who see women as that different."

It has been much harder for the many women and men who have been martyred to the political posturing of the Church in Wales, effectively un-churched by a Governing Body resolution that gave Joanna Penberthy the authority she claims but which is not recognised by the vast majority of Anglicans or Christians in other denominations.

According to commentators on another thread, clergy in the diocese of St Davids have received a letter of apology to be read to congregations without comment. It states that bishop Penberthy is taking time off to 'reflect, recuperate and respond appropriately'.

'Recuperate' implies she is staying put. Buying time, hoping the storm clouds will settle but the damage has already been done. 

Bishop Penberthy shows contempt for those who do not agree with her. She is not a source of unity. For the good of the Church she should go and take her party political gospel with her.

Postscript [18.06.2021]

Another apology, no action.

"The Senior Bishop of the Church in Wales has apologised for offence caused by tweets published by the Bishop of St Davids concerning members of the Conservative Party.

In a statement, Bishop Andy John, the Bishop of Bangor, also reassures people of all political persuasion that they welcome in the Church in Wales.

Bishop Andy is the Church’s Senior Bishop following the retirement of the Archbishop of Wales in May."

Full statement here.

Postscript [21.06.2021]

"Church in Wales working to 'restore damaged relationships' after bishop's 'never trust a Tory' tweet" - Christian Today.

As did the former bishop of Monmouth when the going became tough, the bishop of St Davids is reported to be on sick leave, perhaps waiting for the dust to settle. It did not settle in Monmouth where the report on the investigation into the bishop's departure is long overdue. 'We do as we please' could be the motto of the Church in Wales.

What-a-mistaka-to-maka!

Captain Alberto Bertorelli and Private Helga Geerhart in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo

In the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo, Capt. Bertorelli's response to his latest faux pas was, "What-a-mistaka-to-maka", sentiments that could well be shared by the former Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, having done everything possible to ensure that his favoured candidate Joanna Penberthy was elected to the office of Bishop of St Davids.

A political appointment to advance the cause of feminism in Wales, Penberthy's 'election' was a disaster. Labour politician and LGBT+ activist, she unashamedly uses a sacred office to promote her own secular causes. Any hint of criticism is simply brushed aside as prejudice and discrimination.

Part of her antipathy towards Tories may result from her being placed bottom of the poll with 5% of the votes as the Labour candidate in the 2015 Blackmoor Vale election in Somerset. While the two Liberal Democrat candidates received 37% the two Conservative Party candidates were elected with 59% of the votes, a sizable majority 'never to be trusted'. 

The bishop's position is untenable but she doesn't have the balls to do the honourable thing and resign to pursue her secular interests outside the Church. 

Following an unprecedented wigging by the Church in Wales one would have thought that the bishop would have put the Church before her own self interests but there is no indication that she is considering her position.

The diocese of Winchester had a remedy. Will St Davids follow their example?

Postscript [06.06.2021]

"The Church in Wales is a joke within the Anglican world" - the Rev George Conger on Anglican Unscripted. Starting at position 37.20, George Conger explains that the diocese of St Davids has an average Sunday attendance about the same size as his Deanery in North Western rural Florida. 

He explains how the 'aggressively, left wing' bishop of St Davids, Joanna Penberthy has tweeted on average 20 or 30 times a day, over 40,000 times in the last few years, wearing her emotions and her politics on her sleeve in a Conservative area. Her one notable feat is that she is the first woman bishop in Wales. Click on the link for a withering commentary on the state of the Church in Wales today.

Foot in the door

'Sailing Nun' to help steer Church course with key Vatican job

 (Photos source: Twitter)

Translated from Vida Nueva: "Nathalie Becquart: the woman with a voice and (for the first time) with a vote at the Synod" - and a foot in the door!

"A female undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops. Make no mistake about what it means. It is not an administrative responsibility anymore. The French nun Nathalie Becquart will be in charge, along with the Spanish Augustinian Luis Marín, named after her on February 6, to take care of the proper functioning of this Roman department that is in a prominent place on Pope Francis' reform agenda. And they will do so under the guidance of Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod since last year.

Marie-Lucile Kubaki, Vatican correspondent for the French Catholic weekly La Vie, observed, "With her arrival at the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, the Pope deepens his logic of appointing more women to positions of responsibility in the Vatican, as he did with Francesca di Giovanni, undersecretary in the Section for relations with States in 2020, for example.

"Small but firm steps. That seems to be Jorge Mario Bergoglio's strategy. It is clear that Nathalie's voice and vote will not change things on their own. But for the first time, the opinion of one of the 660,000 religious women on the planet counts. Will others follow?"

'Small but firm steps' will sound familiar to Anglicans. Step by step women who, allegedly, only wanted to be deacons used every trick in the book to be ordained priest  and to be admitted to the episcopacy.

Remember when it was said that if women were allowed to be accepted as deacons, it didn't follow that they would then be allowed to become priests? When deacons wanted to be ordained priests, it didn't mean that they would be allowed to become bishops?

Jolly June Osborne, bishop of Llandaff, admitted recently in a podcast that "once you've made women priests there isn't a theological reason at all why they shouldn't enter the episcopacy."

June along with her colleague Joanna Penberthy, bishop of St Davids, both complain that anyone taking a different theological position to them is prejudiced.

In a television interview in April 2018, bishop Joanna asserted, "if you can be prejudiced in the soft institution of the church, what does that say about your attitude to women?"

The 'soft institution of the church' to use Penberthy's words has been used by feminists to advance their own cause at the expense of the Church, trampling on the faithful in the process as Women and the Church (WATCH) have demonstrated when they have reneged on the agreement that gave them what they wanted, feminist power.

A foot in the door is just the beginning.

It's Wimmin Wot Matters

 

#GoodNews: So glad to follow the lead of St David’s. Historic for @ChurchofEngland and very welcome alongside Diocese
of St Davids in @ChurchinWales with female Bishop Joanna and female @DeanofStDavids Sarah  Source:Twitter

The tweets in the caption above suggest that the diocese of St Davids (not St David's) has become the model for feminist expansion in the Church of England. 

Four out of five Cathedral clergy are female. The bishop, dean and two minor canons are female with one solitary male, the sub-dean.

Looking at the various published figures for ordinations in 2020 more female than male deacons and priests have been ordained in St Davids diocese, a trend in the Province as a whole.

Gender parity, or Church by numbers, is the name of the game. 

Early in 2019 the Church in Wales concluded that there was 'more work to do on gender parity'. In September 2019 Cherry Vann was appointed Bishop of Monmouth. This allowed the former Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, architect of the Church in Wales' demise, to brag last night on S4C's Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol that the smallest Anglican province was the first to achieve parity among bishops.

Archbishop Morgan also spoke of the part played by the bilingual Church in Wales in helping to maintain the Welsh language. Not something regarded as important when aiding the feminist cause by 'electing' the three women bishops in St Davids, Llandaff and Monmouth. 

None of the three female bishops is a natural Welsh speaker. Neither is the current Archbishop of Wales which necessitated wheeling out the retired archbishop to speak of the achievements of the Church in Wales one hundred years after disestablishment. 

Archbishop Morgan was also given the opportunity to advance another of his 'achievements'. His policy of accepting same sex relationships on a par with traditional marriage. This policy has not been accepted by the Church at large and this, along with the ordination of women, has seen many faithful Anglicans leave the Church through exclusion.  

New worshippers have not been attracted by these failed policies. After years of decline a mere 0.8% of the population in Wales regularly attend Sunday services. 

Between 1996 and 2016 the number of signed-up Church in Wales members dropped from 91,247 to 45,759. The 2018 Membership and Finance Report shows that the average Sunday attendance of people over 18 had fallen to 26,110.

At its demise the Church in Wales will be a feminist institution along with the Church of England. In 2019 the CofE ordained more women deacons than men.

Sweden already has a majority of women priests and a female archbishop. In 2009 Eva Brunne became the world's first openly lesbian bishop, another example of feminist 'equality'.

The process of 'feminisation' went much quicker than the Swedish Church had foreseen. In 1990 it was estimated that it would take another century before half of the clergy would be made up of women. But the 50 percent threshold has been reached just thirty years later.

None of this prevented Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland, warning that "people are leaving the Catholic Church 'in droves', tired of 'little old men' who continue to 'beat the drum of obedience'."

Complaining that she is "ignored completely by the Church's hierarchy" McAleese should not be surprised after all the false promises made by women's groups such as Women and the Church and their supporters.

Describing herself as a person with a "thinking brain" it doesn't take much thinking to see where the Catholic Church would be heading after ordaining women based on the experience of Protestant Churches.

For feminists it is wimmin wot matters, not the Kingdom.                                                                      

Another change at Llandaff's deanery?

Another Llandaff vacancy?

In 2013 the Church in Wales lost probably the best woman priest appointed to serve in its tiny province. Janet Henderson resigned her position as Dean of Llandaff after only two months in the post.

The episode opened a can of worms. There were rumours, charges and counter-charges. To her credit Janet Henderson did not allow any of the mud to stick on the accused.

The real reason for her departure remains a mystery so, undeterred, archbishop Morgan carried on as before regarding the Church in Wales as his personal fiefdom.

Former commercial property developer and the archbishop's Chaplain Gerwyn Capon was appointed Dean of Llandaff in 2017. The appointment did nothing to resolve the problem. It exacerbated it.

Two camps formed. The 'antiques' group being largely in favour of the appointment and those who thought the elevation of a relatively inexperienced priest to a senior position was asking for trouble.

Commentators have made their views clear on this blog since Barry Morgan made the appointment. Comments made under the preceding entry suggest that the matter may soon be resolved by the departure of Dean Capon. Currently on sick leave it is thought in clergy circles that the dean is unlikely to return other than to allow access for the removal men.

I had already received uncorroborated information that a complaint of bullying had been lodged by the dean after he was confronted by the bishop about 'a web of deception'.

The Church in Wales is becoming a woman's world.

The dean's departure would provide June with the opportunity to make another feminist senior appointment.

The bishop of Llandaff has already proved to be provocative as a LGBT+ campaigner and in her appointment of the first transgender vicar, now Canon Sarah Jones.

After news that most deacons ordained in the Church of England in 2019 were women it has been reported that the Church of Sweden which encourages its clergy to use gender-neutral language now has more female than male priests for the first time, described as "a sign of huge strides for gender equality since women were first allowed to be ordained in 1960."

The priesthood is not about gender equality but secular criteria have been used to sway public opinion resulting in a secularised church making politically correct appointments.

Archbishop Morgan has much to answer for. He was in the forefront of the drive for the ordination of women and same sex marriage. The Church in Wales now has the first lesbian bishop living openly in a same sex relationship. With her two LGBT campaigning sister bishops they now have gender parity on the bench. No doubt they will be insisting that the next archbishop of Wales will be a woman.

The Church in Wales is heading for extinction by 2040, largely as a result of archbishop Morgan following the example of his heretical mentor, Katharine Jefferts Schori the former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States (TEC).

Katharine Jefferts Schori                   Barry Morgan

Along with the Church of England TEC is on a downward spiral 

Some legacy!

Neither male nor female

Joanna Penberthy in PhD secular doctorate attire           Source: Church in Wales

The diocese of St Davids has a new website. After a brief reference to problems imposed by the Covid-19 virus the site features first and foremost the Bishop of St Davids noting: "She is the first woman to be appointed bishop in the Church in Wales, following the Governing Body’s decision in September 2013 to enable women’s ordination to the episcopate."

Similarly at the enthronement of Cherry Vann as Bishop of Monmouth: "guests were all there to see the first woman bishop take her seat – or ‘throne’ – at Newport Cathedral."

Fond of (mis)quoting Galatians 3:28 supporters of the ordination of women have been telling people that there is neither male nor female so why do they have to keep emphasising their sex? It is all about feminism and power regardless of the cost to others.

At the 2017 services of celebration held in Wales' six Anglican cathedrals to mark 20 years since the Church in Wales first ordained women priests, Bishops’ Adviser for Church and Society, Canon Carol Wardman, was the preacher at Brecon Cathedral. Following the example of "bullshitting" Barry Morgan she put her own interpretation on Galatians 3:28.

Self-centred feminist claims about so-called equality and gender fluidity have been brought to a head in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Higher death rates for men brutally emphasise what, to the majority of us, was self evident:  Men and women are biologically different.

Postscripts

[05.05.2020]

The Department of Health and Social Care have announced a review of "emerging evidence to suggest that #coronavirus may be having a disproportionate impact on some ethnic groups, as well as certain genders."

For 'certain genders' read 'men'.

[06.05.2020]

"..our acceptance of our bodies and biological sex is a mere social construct, not a physical reality. It tells young children that they have an ‘inner gender identity’ which may or may not align with their biological sex." - From ‘Free to Be’ produced by a group called EqualiTeach. It is designed for use in our primary schools with the intention of challenging something the transgender lobby calls ‘cisnormativity’. - The Conservative Woman

Grandstanding

Source: Twitter

Rachel Treweek @BishGloucester tweeted:

"Amid all that we’re living in the present, I am pausing today to give thanks for the joy of this day in 2015 when I was announced as the next Bishop of Gloucester @churchofengland Thank you @GlosDioc it is such a privilege to be here.."

Why do women clergy find it necessary to parade themselves on social media claiming to be privileged, proud, etc?

It is a privilege that has been abused, substituting feminism for Anglicanism. It is nothing to be proud of.

Sacred Synod!

The bishops of Monmouth, Bangor, St Davids (Bp-elect), Llandaff (Abp), Swansea and Brecon and St Asaph in Sacred Synod, 2016.  Source: Church in Wales

The bishops of the Church in Wales will meet in Sacred Synod on Sunday 5 January in Brecon cathedral to confirm the election of Cherry Vann as Bishop of Monmouth.

Pictured above is former Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan in Sacred Synod in 2016. He retired to his newly built Cardiff bunker in January 2017 after engineering the disastrous election of the first female bishop in the Church in Wales.

Much has happened since the new bishop of St Davids was appointed. She lost no time in surrounding herself with women clergy, turning Wales' national shrine into a feminist enclave while trying to eject elderly male priests from further service in her diocese. 

Gone in mysterious circumstances is the then bishop of Monmouth giving rise to claim and counter-claim in a long, drawn out process which did no-one any favours apart from his replacement which turned out to be more about the mission of feminism in the Church than the redemptive mission of the Church.

Persistent rumours of an improper relationship continue to dog another bishop on the bench while John Davies, bishop of Swansea and Brecon, has replaced Barry Morgan as Archbishop of Wales promising 'more of the same - but faster'. He has proved to be true to his word, dragging the Church in Wales into the secular world at an increasing pace.

Barry Morgan was replaced as bishop of Llandaff by LGBT campaigner, June Osborne, following in the footsteps of Joanna Penberthy. The previously tipped Sarah Rowland Jones, vicar of St John's in the heart of Cardiff, was instead made Dean of St Davids, offering Osborne the opportunity of extending the sexual diversity of clergy in her diocese by filling the resulting vacancy at St John's by a transgender vicar who appears to believe that her primary mission is to normalise transgenderism.

The sexual revolutionary mission of the Church in Wales continues with normalising same-sex relationships following the appointment as bishop of Monmouth of Cherry Vann who invited her electors and Monmouth diocesan officers to Bishopstow before Christmas for 'drinks and nibbles' with the new bishop and her partner Wendy.

The Notice of the meeting of the Sacred Synod to confirm the election of Cherry Vann was posted the day after the drinks and nibbles party. It states: "This will be a public meeting and, should any member of the Church in Wales wish to draw to the bishops' attention any matter in relation to this episcopal election, they are invited to attend the meeting in person."

Much has changed in the sixty + years since this photograph of Church in Wales bishops was taken when five bishops held Oxford Firsts in Theology:

Source: Anglican Misfit

Sacred in name only, it is unlikely that any member of the Church in Wales attending the Synod will wish to draw to the bishops' attention any matter in relation to this episcopal election given the current mission of the Church in Wales.

This is where it is leading. The new 'norm': Proud dad Reuben Sharpe has revealed how he gave birth to miracle baby Jamie with partner Jay in Britain’s most modern family - and even the couple's doctor was transgender.

2020 is the anniversary of the disestablishment of the Church in Wales. Preaching to the converted and those willing to 'go along to get on' the 2020 Vision video has been viewed a mere 2,840 times in the five years since its appearance in September 2014. A make believe world skips over the reality of the situation as regular, adult Sunday attendance continues to plummet; 14% down from 30,424 in 2014 to 26,110 in 2018.

The 2020 Vision initiative seeks a "reimagined Church in Wales" agreeing to support the "continued development of a unity scheme - the Church Uniting in Wales - incorporating Methodist, Presbyterian, United Reformed, and Baptist Churches alongside the Church in Wales."

There will be nothing sacred about Sunday's synod. It will merely confirm the bishops' intention to separate further the Church in Wales from the Holy Catholic Church to which it jokingly claims to belong - 'locally adapted' into a do-as-you-please Church.

Happy New Year!

A Female Diaconate!

Representatives of the Women's Ordination Conference stage a protest in front of St. Peter's Basilica
at the Vatican on Tuesday, June 8, 2010.   Source: Washington post Photo by Pier Paolo Cito

 "Amongst a lot of social change, we too continue to see the loss of Sunday churchgoing. And this can feel as if we’re in terminal decline. Add to that the loss of connectedness many once had with the church – now more than half our neighbours happily describe themselves as having ‘no religion’. And then add the lost trust in what the church stands for - ask anyone under 30 what they make of the Church and they’ll pretty soon mention our unhealthy preoccupations with gender and sexuality. Those multiple losses feel really significant for those who love the Church and all it stands for."

The words of the bishop of Llandaff, June Osborne, delivered in her Presidential Address at the Llandaff Diocesan Conference 2019 following her observation that churches in the Gwent Valleys had suffered 'a 37% loss of membership within just the last few years'.

Despite similar evidence from other Anglican Provinces that have ordained women, the Roman Catholic Church appears oblivious to the dangers of creating a female diaconate. It is clear from experience in the Anglican Communion that ordaining women deacons provided them with a stepping-stone in a planned progression from women deacons to women bishops resulting in exclusion for many and indifference to their plight.

Once women deacons established a toehold in the Anglican Church, equality of opportunity, not theology, took hold. The rest is history. People who rarely if ever set foot in a church have become arbiters of what is or is not acceptable in Anglicanism as liberal leaning bishops strain to be evermore relevant to society.

In 2010 the US Washington Times reported the results of a Poll that showed 80% of Catholics were 'comfortable' with the idea of women priests but it is worth remembering that the US Episcopal Church started the Anglican rot which spread to England and Wales resulting in many faithful Anglicans finding themselves effectively unchurched.

Other Catholics claimed that the Catholic Church would never ordain women but within a decade of that poll Pope Francis appears open to reversing claims made by Pope John Paul II that the Church had no authority to ordain women (1994) and those who continued discussing women’s ordination were effectively excommunicating themselves (1998).

One Catholic bishop, Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, has claimed that the Amazon Synod was being used as a “tool” to change the Church and create “a new kind of religion", a situation familiar to orthodox Anglicans who find themselves excluded by newcomers.

Speaking after the conclusion of Rome’s Amazon Synod which approved a document calling for  further discussion on allowing women deacons, the former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, described a male-only priesthood as "codology dressed up as theology".    

It is difficult to take such women seriously when their interests appear to be more about feminine power than spreading the Gospel. True they use the Gospel but for their own ends. They talk of love and inclusion but are content to see women and men who do not share their views excluded, leaving them with no church to attend and no pastoral care.

Continuing her presidential address at the 2019 Llandaff diocesan conference June Osborne said "So many want to tell me how church life enriches their existence and is precious to them."

Church life did that for many others before they were excluded but the breed of woman that seeks power in the Church couldn't care less who is hurt on their march to the top. Instead they complain of discrimination and misogyny if anyone dares to disagree with them as they look to society for support.

Osborne started her address by referring to the September Electoral College which chose a new Bishop of Monmouth. She described the decision as excellent saying, "I know Archdeacon Cherry Vann will be an outstanding bishop for our friends in Monmouth."

There have been rumours that Cherry Vann was not the choice of Monmouth diocese and that their candidate was rejected which suggests yet another stitch up by the Church in Wales establishment in pursuit of their liberal agenda.

In her first interview following her election the bishop-elect said: “I am also aware that the church is struggling to be relevant in people’s lives. I want to work with people to find ways of communicating, what is essentially, a message of love and hope to people who find the institutional church difficult or inaccessible."

St Paul spoke of love in action. He also said: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

The movement for ordaining women to the priesthood peddles a false concept of equality in defiance of the message received through scripture and tradition which have been followed by generations in a broad Church. All has changed.

After women were ordained deacons in the Anglican Church demands for priesting quickly followed employing claims of discrimination and misogyny if they were denied what they claimed was the next logical step. They claimed that it did not mean that women wanted to be bishops, until they were priests.

After women were admitted to the priesthood, it was the 'stained glass' ceiling and promises of mutual flourishing if women were allowed to become bishops. Another false promise. 

Now that there are women bishops parity is demanded using the usual slogans of discrimination and inequality. Parity has already been achieved in the Church in Wales following the 'election' of Cherry Vann.

In her presidential address Osborne referred to the "lost trust in what the church stands for" adding: "ask anyone under 30 what they make of the Church and they’ll pretty soon mention our unhealthy preoccupations with gender and sexuality".

That preoccupation has been manifested most prominently in female bishops. Presumably they haven't finished yet.

Rome beware.

Double standards

Sydney Anglican Archbishop Glenn Davies has said to supporters of same-sex marriage:
‘Please leave us.’  Source: Guardian. Photograph: David Moir/AAP

The Bishop of Liverpool rebuked the Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, after he called for gay marriage supporters to leave church saying he ‘seems to want to exclude people rather than to engage with them’.

That's rich.

From the Guardian: "Archbishop Glenn Davies said last week that those who supported same-sex marriage should abandon the church. If people wish to change the doctrine of our church, they should start a new church or join a church more aligned to their views – but do not ruin the Anglican church by abandoning the plain teaching of scripture,” he said. “Please leave us.”

The Australian Newcastle Herald reports that "Anglicans have joined two other Australian dioceses to support same-sex marriage church blessings at a Hunter Synod where Bishop Peter Stuart said he had "spoken frankly" to a Sydney archbishop against the move. Newcastle Anglicans strongly supported changes to church rules that could allow clergy to bless same-sex marriages and protect clergy in a same-sex marriage from church discipline."

The Dean of Newcastle, the Very Reverend Katherine Bowyer supports the diocese's move to bless same-sex marriages. She rejected comments by the Archbishop of Sydney that supporters of same-sex marriage should leave the church, saying differing views deserve respect.

Her views and those who side with the Bishop of Liverpool have nothing to do with traditional Church teaching.

The Archbishop of Sydney is correct. If Western Anglican leaders had adopted the same approach many of us would still have a church to attend.

Dean Katherine Bowyer's attitude typifies the double standards of liberal Anglicans amply illustrated by Mae Cymru the Welsh offshoot of the feminist organisation Women and the Church.

Mae Cymru recently tweeted an article from cruxsolablog An Open Letter to John MacArthur (re: Beth Moore). The author states:
"Recently John MacArthur commented that Beth Moore (Christian leader and teacher) should “go home.” As I have pondered this over the last few days, I wondered what Paul would say to John. So, I wrote an open letter.

It is not my intention to comment on the letter's content. Readers of the letter can draw their own conclusions but I was drawn to the double standards of the new breed of Anglican.

The membership secretary of Mae Cymru the Ven Peggy Jackson, Archdeacon of Llandaff and scourge of  orthodox, often cradle Anglicans is a late convert to Anglicanism. Their idea of engagement is exclusion dressed up as inclusion.

Before Barry Morgan imported her from the Church of England as his hatchet woman the then Rev Canon  F A Jackson wrote in a paper for GRAS (Group for Rescinding the Act of Synod):

"New individuals with conscientious difficulties over women’s ministry will simply have to make personal decisions and individual choices, to find accommodation as best they can – just as many already have to do over a host of other current issues, some very uncomfortable, where people find themselves representative of a view which is not that sanctioned by the ‘church’ as a whole, and upheld through Synod and Parliament." 

Ten years later with attendance figures still plummeting, thousands of often cradle Anglican women and men have been abandoned by their Church.

Far from relenting Jackson has attempted to turn the screw ever tighter by seeking to exclude from ordination anyone who does not conform to her wishes, misrepresenting genuine theological doubt about sacramental assurance as misogyny.

The concept of twin integrity has been all but abandoned. As Sir William Fittall said in response to a complaint:
"To expect someone whose theological conviction does not enable him to receive the sacramental ministry of women routinely to turn up to a celebration of Holy Communion when he cannot discover in advance whether he will be able to receive Holy Communion seems to me to be asking too much."

Following the appointment of a third woman bishop in the Church in Wales half the bench will be female.

The diocese of St Davids has been quickly feminized after the appointment of the first woman Bishop. She lost no time in appointing a woman Dean. Two female minor Canons have also been appointed. If the Canon in Residence is a female cleric the sub-Dean is the sole male priest at Wales' premiere place of pilgrimage.

There is no indication for pilgrims who will be celebrating yet the Cathedral online Worship Sheet merrily quotes St David's last words to his followers, “...Be Joyful, Keep the faith and do the little things that you have heard and seen me do...”

The Bishop of Liverpool should have looked closer to home before whinging about the Church in Australia.

It's becoming a woman's world

Petertide ordinations 2019                                                                                                                                                                              Source: Church in Wales

As predicted, women are gradually taking over Western Anglicanism. At the shrine of St David men are becoming a rarity as Joanna continues her policy of feminising the church in her diocese. 

It is not just the feminisation. Solemnity has been replaced by a carnival atmosphere highlighted in many tweets following this year's Petertide ordinations. Dignity has given way to frivolity, mystery to madness. Just about anything goes.

"25 years on"                                                                                                                Source: Twitter

There have been endless celebrations to mark women priests celebrating 25 years of women’s ordination giving the impression that the Anglican Church has become little more than a vehicle for feminism in a do-as-you-please religion.

Figures reported in the Church Times show that more women than men are going forward for training for ordination for the first time in more than 15 years. The total number of female clergy has risen steadily from 5310 in 2013 to a record high of 5690 last year, the total for men declined by about 860 in this time, contributing to the overall decline in clergy in the past four years.

Meanwhile, those whose consciences prevent them from engaging in 'Churchianity' are advised to make other arrangements as best they can which generally means leaving them with no place of worship.

So much for the new, loving, friendly inclusive church.

Postscript [05.07.2019]

CoE General Synod Q&A — Who has flourished under mutual flourishing?

Since the enactment of the legislation in 2014:

• 22 women have been ordained Bishop;
• 4 women have been appointed Deans
• 23 women have been appointed Archdeacons
• 31 women have been appointed Residentiary Canons

The diversity monitoring data for those appointed to senior roles since that time indicates that:

• 1 diocesan bishop;
• 2 suffragan bishops; and
• 1 archdeacon

identify themselves as either traditional catholic or conservative evangelical. However, the labels which people use to describe their church tradition do not necessarily correlate with whether they are unable for theological reasons to recognise the priestly or episcopal ministry of women.