Feminizing of the Church in Wales to accelerate?

The launch of MAE Cymru, a 'Charitable Incorporated Organisation' to promote gender equality in the Church in Wales                         Photo: Church in Wales

Last week I received three 'anonymous' comments without content apart from the name of one of the female clerics listed in the Diocese of Llandaff''s Bishops, Clergy & Diocesan Personnel. All has become clearer.

I shall spare her the embarrassment of naming her in case the rumours circulating prove to be untrue but I understand that the bishop of Llandaff has chosen the named female cleric to be her chaplain.

Mae Cymru's 'charitable' aim along with gender parity and the advancement of all things gay are high on the list of priorities of the first women bishops of Llandaff and of St Davids where the Dean of St Davids has announced that he will retire at the Friends Festival on 9th September. 

The Canon Residentiary will also be leaving St Davids to become the next Archdeacon of Carmarthen in November leaving two key Cathedral vacancies to be filled with serious implications for attendance on current feminizing trends.

Women bishops 2 : 0 Jesus Christ

In a previous entry (in May) I gave details of arrangements being made for the Rt Rev'd Geralyn Wolf to be the first woman bishop to celebrate the Eucharist in Llandaff Cathedral, one week before women bishops become legal in the Church in Wales on the 12 September 2014 and while the Code of Practice which is part of the Women bishops legislation remains a closely guarded secret among the Bench of Bishops until it is presented as a fait accompli to the next meeting of their Governing Body - see here.  

Unable to control their enthusiasm for seeing a woman bishop at the Altar in the Church in Wales the Bishop of St Asaph has upstaged the Llandaff event by arranging for the Rt Rev Gayle Harris to celebrate in St Asaph Cathedral on Sunday 31 August 2014 when she will become the first Anglican woman bishop to preside and preach at a Welsh cathedral. Story here.

Out-manouvered by St Asaph, apparently Swansea and Brecon could not find a one-legged a**e kicking transgendered Episcopalian woman bishop who was free and so trump the PC Jewish and black guests to make it 'Women bishops  3 : 0  Jesus Christ'.

But 'Crossing the threshold' has little to do with Jesus Christ, other than as a vehicle for political ambition. It is about equality of opportunity in the workplace. As the Rev'd Jan Gould, priest-in-charge of Glan Ely benefice in Cardiff puts it: "This conference is about how we ‘cross the threshold’ to a transformed leadership with the Church in Wales. Anglican women bishops in the USA have a huge amount to share and this is a unique opportunity to engage with their experience and to see together what that might mean for the future of the Church in Wales".  

True, the leadership of the Church in Wales needs to be transformed but the Episcopal Church in the United States where 'Integrity' is the current driving force is far from a model of Christian orthodoxy. The Church in Wales, and indeed the Church of England, need to be informed by the tradition of the Holy Catholic Church, not adapt the Catholic faith to reflect the whims of society. That path has done wonders for feminism but at the expense of the Anglican Church as explained by Alice C. Linsley, a former woman priest in the Episcopal Church, in "The Feminization of Anglican Orders"(here).