The Great Church in Wales Giveaway

Original source: X (formerly Twitter)

The Church in Wales has announced that it is to invest almost £10m in four projects designed to promote growth in church attendance in Wales. 

The Church explained that "The grants are being made from the Church Growth Fund, in which the Church is investing £100m to support projects in a once-in-a generation opportunity to resource confident and consistent evangelism throughout Wales."

The diocese of Monmouth is dedicating £1 million to 'help grow new worshipping communities' by targeting local schools.

This news has not been universaly welcomed.

The South Wales Argus described it as a 'Cynical move' to use schools to ease 'plummeting' church membership. 

Their community content editor writes: 

"Campaigners have urged local authorities to ensure schools 'will not be used as mission fields', after the Church in Wales announced plans to 'build stronger links' with schools in South Wales.

"The diocese plans to install a 'Schools Engagement Pioneer' in areas including North Monmouthshire, Islwyn and Abergavenny to focus on 'relationship-building with primary and secondary school-age pupils in a manner which goes beyond school assemblies'."

A spokesperson for he Diocese of Monmouth explained that it has secured funding of more than £1m to help grow new worshipping communities by building stronger relationships with schools.

What is a Church in Wales 'worshipping community' today and what sort of relationships?

Recently a pride service was held at Newport Cathedral. Their same sex partnered bishop preached. The Celebrant was transgender.

For building 'inclusive' relationships in the Church in Wales see this entry published six years ago. The then preacher now occupies an influential post at Newport Cathedral while the concelebrant has been appointed bishop of Bardsey.

For the love of Christ?

Church in Wales attendance statistics

 

The Archbishop of Wales addressing Governing Body, September 2023                     Source: Church Times/Church in Wales

One of the highlights of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales (CinW) used to be the Membership and Finance Report but no more.

The Annual report and Accounts 2023 presented by the Representative Body prepared for September 2024 meeting of the Governing Body summarises the position as follows (page 9):

"3. Accelerated decline in church attendance

The continuation of declining attendance

and an increasing age profile would result

in declining financial income for dioceses:

this would lead to an inability to present

established patterns of ministry to the

whole of Wales. The Representative Body

endeavours to maintain the highest financial

support to dioceses possible. Also, a

renewed focus on mission and evangelism,

including additional financial resources being

made available, aims to stimulate church

growth. A membership app is being rolled out

to assist with monitoring church attendance

statistics."

'Declining attendance' puts it mildly. British Religion in Numbers (BRIN) showed that the average Sunday attendance (over 18) in 2004 was 41,771. By 2009 attendance had dropped to 36,836.

Ten years on, CinW adult Sunday attendance (over 18) was given in their Membership and Finance Report as 30,424 in 2014. A year later it was 29,019. [See Sept 2016 entry.]

I have been unable to find any reference to current attendance figures for some time which suggests that the Church in Wales has something to hide.

Access to the 'membership app' referred to in the RB Report is by invitation, thus obscuring the data from inquisitive eyes.  I wonder why?

Church in Wales excesses

The Catholic Church in Wales                 Dioceses                       The Anglican Church in Wales

The Archbishop of Cardiff, the Most Rev Mark O’Toole, who is also the Bishop of Menevia, has announced that he wants to merge two of the three Catholic dioceses in Wales which would result in just two dioceses covering the whole of Wales, one in the North and one in the South.

According to Wikipedia the estimated Catholic population of the Diocese of Menevia is 26,266 out of a total population of 788,550 (3.3%). Googling indicates that the Catholic population in the Archdiocese of Cardiff was 132,450 in 2021.

Current Church in Wales attendance figures are a matter of speculation since they are no longer reported but the latest membership  figure for the whole of Wales published in Wikipedia was 45,759 in 2016 compared with 91,247 in 1996. The average Sunday attendance of Anglicans over 18 in 2016 had fallen to 26,110.

Ignoring the recommendations in the 2012 Church in Wales Review, the ever shrinking Anglican Church in Wales still maintains six dioceses with six diocesan bishops, deans, numerous archdeacons and a growing army of administrators to assist the bishops.

Church in Wales bishops are out of control. They have abandoned the Christian faith for the excesses of secularism and have left many faithful Anglicans with no sacramental or pastoral provision. 

A wicked end to a once great Church.

Lowlights: GB September 2023

Governing Body voting                                              Source: Church in Wales

The Church in Wales goes green is the main message to come out of the meeting of the Governing Body (GB) earlier this month.

Attendance may be in crisis but was not mentioned, apart from a brief reference to decline in one of the reports. That is despite the GB's guiding notes which state:

"Every year, a report on the current membership and finance statistics of the Church in Wales is presented to the meeting. This covers key information such as: church attendance, the level of financial giving towards the work of the church, details of what parishes are spending their money on."

Session Three was about 'Priorities, Growth and Resilience'. One of the items covered in discussion groups was "What stops us from growing?"

The Church in Wales, like the Church of England, The Episcopal Church in the US and others have become self-centred rather than God centred, using the name of Jesus as a passport to earthly desires. - Jesus loves me, therefore I do as I please.

The secularisation of the Church in Wales was made obvious by the archbishop of Wales when he commented on the recently announced 'historic appointments of Canons at Bangor Cathedral'. 

He said, "It is a real joy to be able to announce the appointment of eight new Canons to the Cathedral, five Honorary Canons and three Foundation Canons. .... Together they bring with them an enormous breadth of skills and experience to their new roles, enabling the Cathedral’s common life and witness to be a place where all can come and experience faith, hope and love. Each of these new Canons has been invited in recognition of the significant contribution they have made, and continue to make, within their field of expertise, and I invite you to join with me in praying for them as they take up their new positions and responsibilities."

The Canon Preacher's experience of the Anglican Church is short. He was ordained Deacon in 2021 after becoming an Anglican in 2020 but more importantly for the archbishop he becomes the "first gay, black Canon to serve in a Church in Wales Cathedral, a pioneering moment that highlights its commitment to diversity and inclusivity." 

Just the sort of experience the Church Wales has come to value above all else. But there is more.

'Glastonbury priest'         Sourcee: CinW

A new priest welcomed to the diocese of St Asaph by bishop Gregory is "part way through a professional doctorate exploring better ways for neo-Pagans and Christians to have open conversations about faith." 

 She should receive a good welcome from the Peace Mala while the Church in Wales struggles with its identity.

As the decline of the Church continues more senior executives are hired. The latest is a Director of Mission and Strategy on a salary of up to £70,000 p.a.

On the plus side, perhaps the archbishop of Wales feels better able to cope with his workload having sanctioned all these appointments. 

Last year he felt the need for someone to share the leadership of his Bangor diocese with while serving as Archbishop of Wales as if that were an onerous task. He appointed an assistant bishop who has since been appointed bishop of Llandaff with no replacement assistant bishop. Perhaps he discovered that he is not that busy after all being responsible for the souls of less than 1% of the population of Wales.

What about the souls of Anglicans in Wales? Pew sitters have been led astray by their bishops while others have simply been abandoned in the shift to secularism.

A timely reminder of the dire situation Anglicans in the Church in Wales find themselves comes from Bishop Stuart Bell a former Church in Wales priest who was ordained as an Assistant Bishop in The Anglican Convocation in Europe in March after serving in the Church in Wales for 51 years.

In an interview with Dr Tony Rucinski of Coalition for Marriage (C4M), Bishop Bell said the Church in Wales’ 2021 decision to bless same-sex partnerships was "hugely significant". He told Dr Rucinski that "substantial" numbers have left the Church in Wales, following its decision to turn its back on the Bible and go with contemporary culture.

He rebuffed claims the Church’s move was compassionate, saying: "Justice and compassion are not rootless, they are rooted within truth and they are rooted within Christ and they are rooted within an authority that is completely unchanging."

The Bishop warned that we are being seriously misled by people whose hearts are set on "anarchy and nihilism". That voice is growing stronger by the day and is being promoted at government level and  by the media, he said.

He urged Christians and traditional marriage supporters to be absolutely resolute in the face of LGBT activists’ attempts to push the country into a state of "total gender confusion and sexual confusion".

Full details of the Christian Institute interview can be found here. 

The response of the Church in Wales was: Clergy told to keep breakaway bishop at arm’s length. "No ministers affiliated with the Anglican Convocation in Europe should exercise ministry or leadership in a Church in Wales context, unless the explicit written permission of the appropriate Church in Wales diocesan bishop has been given."

That came as little surprise to the many Anglicans abandoned by the handful of heretic bishops in the Church in Wales for keeping the faith as received in common with millions of Anglicans around the world.

This is the legacy handed on by a former bishop of Bangor, later archbishop, Barry Morgan who decreed after the retirement of Bishop David Thomas that there would be further alternative Episcopal oversight 'over his dead body'.

Now in comfortable retirement Morgan's legacy lives on. He continues to meddle in Church affairs showing no shame for leaving so many faithful Anglicans who had been in his care in a spiritual desert, a situation perpetuated by the bench of bishops to this day to their utter shame.

 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

The future?

To gain a better understanding of boosting rural churches amid falling congregation numbers the Church in Wales is urging people of all ages and backgrounds to get involved and have their say in shaping the future of rural churches in their communities. - Powys County Times

Commentators may have their say but will anyone be listening if what is said is not what 'progressive' Anglican bishops want to hear?

One newspaper report claims that a witch, Harmony Nice, has so many devotees on social media she is outdoing the Church of England. She boasts "more than one million followers on YouTube and Instagram combined, compared to the church’s 335,000."

The archiepiscopal diocese of Swansea and Brecon has dabbled there but with entirely different results.

In 1996 the Church in Wales claimed a membership in excess of 91,000. Regular Sunday adult attendance slumped to just over 26,000 in 2018 and probably lower when the 2019 figures are published.

In their attempt to become more relevant to society, parts of the Anglican Communion have departed so far from the Christian message that they appear more akin to an arm of social services.

A highlight of the Church in Wales 2020 celebrations is a visit to the Welsh province by the Archbishop of Canterbury, described by The Conservative Woman as the 'Archbishop of Woke' who 'slanders his own flock' after he apologised for the Church of England being ‘deeply, institutionally’ racist.

The Gospel message is no longer good enough for progressive Anglicans.

The result can be seen in the above photographs published by Mail Online in 2013:

"The photo on the left shows St Mary's Church in Cable Street while the photo on the right shows worshippers gathered for Friday midday prayers outside a nearby mosque in Spitalfields, both in East London.

"What these pictures suggest is that, on current trends, Christianity in this country is becoming a religion of the past, and Islam is one of the future."

Postscript [19.02.2020]

From A Badge of Disgrace: The Fall of the Boy Scouts

"Right now, too many churches, Christian colleges, even businesses are dangerously close to making the same mistake [as The Boy Scouts of America]. They're so desperate or fearful -- or both -- that they're willing to water down who they are to protect the small space they're standing on. There's just one problem: the gospel's truth isn't up for negotiation. And in their rush to soften the blow of its confrontation, some believers are selling out their identity as followers of Jesus."

Church in Wales decline and fall

Membership and Finance 2018 | The Governing Body of the Church in Wales

Figures from the membership and Finance Report 2018 to be presented at the September meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales show continued decline in all measures bar one.

Confirmations were up 30% despite the unilateral decision of the bench of bishops to scrap confirmation as a prerequisite to Holy Communion - see Dodgy legal advice leads to Eucharistic free for all. There was a 36% fall in confirmations 2017 - 2016.

The 25% increase in weekdays only attendance between 2017 - 2016 fell back 19% between 2018 - 2017.

Perhaps more surprisingly the reported Sunday attendance increased between 2017 and 2018 in a number of important fields: under 7s; 7 to 10s; 11 to 17s; and families. The average attendance of under 18's was down 1%; down 7% between 2017 and 2016.

The Report also shows a worrying decline in total giving across a range of categories despite an increase in average giving per attender.

Archbishop George Carey's six-year-old prediction that "the Church of England was one generation away from extinction" unless more was done to attract young people into the Church was aired again in Norwich Cathedral where a helter skelter was thought to be the answer.

In Llandaff it is gay pride.

The predicted outlook for the Church in Wales is even more gloomy than for the Church of England with 'massive church closures from around 2025 onwards' leading to extinction around 2040.

The ordination of women was supposed to reinvigorate the Church. It has had the opposite effect importing a brand of liberalism summed up by Piers Morgan in an interview ‘Liberals have become utterly, pathetically illiberal’.

One cleric has had the guts to put down a question (Q.2) at GB about the declining moral standards of the Church in Wales. Perhaps he will inspire others to reclaim the Church in Wales from the bishops before they destroy her.

Postscript [05.09.2019]

From Not Another Episcopal Blog:

"The Church in Wales has bought into the LGBTQ formula for denominational decline. The statistics look eerily similar to those we have witnessed in most Episcopalian dioceses."

A point strongly made by George Conger on Monday's Anglican Unscripted (No. 529) when he said all the mistakes made by the Episcopal Church 20 years ago are being repeated by the Church of England. The Church in Wales has gone down the same path but has become so irrelevant that it no longer warrants a mention.

Archbishop of Wales

The bishops of St Davids, St Asaph, Llandaff, Swansea & Brecon, Bangor and Monmouth                                                              Source: Church in Wales

One of the bishops in this lineup is destined to become the next Archbishop of Wales when the Electoral College meets in Llandrindod Wells between 5 and 7 September. Many think it a ludicrous title when a mere 0.9% of the population regularly attends Anglican services in Wales but it affords its occupier a dignity and status to be milked for all its worth based on the example of the previous office holder.

Given Archbishop Barry Morgan's slavish adherence to the reckless policies of the former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, I am surprised that he has not suggested that 'Presiding Bishop' would be a more apt title. 

Nevertheless, under the Church in Wales Constitution one of the six diocesan bishops is elected Archbishop but not necessarily the one with the biggest hat unless it proves to be Buggins' turn.

Subsequent elections could be a different matter if the bishops ever decide to progress Section 15 of the 2012 Harris Report (Dioceses: their number and administration) as eagerly as they have attacked the parish system to introduce Ministry Areas:

"The present number and shape of dioceses may not be ideal. If we were starting again we would have three. However, the present number and configuration works and we think that the Church should continue, at least for the next four years, with the present six dioceses. ... These recommendations should be reviewed after three years, with a view to evaluating the effectiveness of the change." 

If there were only three bishops to choose from, the first female Archbishop in Wales would be more likely - or even earlier! Could it be an omen that the latest addition to the bench also carries a crosier?

If it is not to be Buggins' turn I guess there will be another episcopal vacancy next year, possibly two as I also hear that a bishop up North is seeking to escape to England. More women bishops leading to less members on current trends.

After the Llandaff Electoral College farce when the JJ appreciation society attempted to direct proceedings, I hear that lay members of the new College have hatched a nomination plan that would silence the bishops by requiring them to absent themselves from the process before voting.

The former Archbishop launched a review of the role and responsibilities of the "the demanding role", which involves "duties within the church and nationally", mainly of his own making as he carried out his personal, liberal agenda to secularise the Church in Wales.

Whatever the result, the new Archbishop would do well to concentrate on advancing the Kingdom of Heaven instead of an agenda which has resulted in a much reduced membership of 29,000 in the Anglican Church in Wales and falling at a rate of 5% a year out of a population of 3 million souls. A demanding role indeed.

Church in Wales attendance down 5% 2014-2015

Source: The Church in Wales Membership and Finances 2015

The average Sunday attendance of worshippers over 18 in the Church in Wales dropped another 5% between 2014 and 2015 according to the latest figures published in The Church in Wales Membership and Finances 2015. That represents just 0.9% of the population of Wales.

British Religion in Numbers (BRIN) puts the problem of declining numbers into perspective. In 2004 the Over 18 average attendance on Sundays was 41,771 making the 2015 figure of 29,019 all the more startling, a fall of 12,752 on the 2004 figure (-31%), but the Church in Wales simply carries on regardless continuing its "Gadarene slide" as VirtueOnline puts it in Viewpoints.

Attempts to bolster numbers by adding 'Non-traditional Acts of Worship' such as Animal blessings, Café churches, Teenscreen clubs and Interfaith engagement have served only to emphasis the decline: "Overall, it would seem that just over 30,000 people in total participate in some form of nontraditional worship, compared with 36,000 in 2014".

The Membership and Finance Report (pdf) is way down the Agenda at item 19 for the next meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales to be held 14 - 15 September 2016. There will be a Motion: That the Governing Body do take note of this report.

Given the seriousness of the situation one would have thought that 'taking note' of the Report is somewhat short of the mark but with "Evangelism" coming last on the agenda it puts the current state of the Church in Wales in context. 

The Report follows "Admission to Holy Communion – Pastoral Letter " [item 18]. There is no clue as to what surprises the bishops have in store in their Pastoral Letter which is to be "distributed at the time", a device favoured by the bench sitters to avoid anyone with an enquiring mind being forewarned.

This is reminiscent of the same sex marriage manoeuvring and of the women bishops saga which provided a worthless code of practice for anyone who holds their faith in conscience making the forthcoming Conference to "preserve the breadth of Anglicanism in Wales" all the more confusing. Dr Morgan has remained true to his word that there would be alternative Episcopal oversight in Wales 'over his dead body'. He retires as Archbishop of Wales in January 2017 so is there to be new life? Simply to carry on as before would make nonsense of the conference.

The un-Christian Jackson/Wigley Amendment to the women bishops legislation established that unlike other Anglican provinces 'provisions for conscience should not be included in the body of  formal legislation' and that 'legislation should not include structural provision to accommodate dissent' thus removing the prospect of any meaningful sacramental and pastoral provision for church members who in conscience could not accept the ministry of women bishops.

It would be absurd to have a male assistant to a woman bishop on whose authority he would act so given that there will be no "structural provision to accommodate dissent" in Wales the way forward must be to allow Society bishops to minister in Wales. The Welsh bishops have already invited US women bishops to celebrate the Eucharist in the Church in Wales and I see from Item 20 on the GB agenda, "Evangelism – Report from the Evangelism Conference", that Bishop Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford, was able to lead 2 key sessions. To refuse loyal Anglicans access to Society bishops would not just be uncharitable, it would be hypocritical.

As the Church in Wales continues to decline in numbers the Ordinariate is increasing and is gaining more priests. In this month's edition of New Directions, the Chairman of Credo Cymru (FiF Wales) quotes the previous Archbishop of Wales Rowan Williams who stressed the value of promoting internal ecumenism. By allowing bishops from outside Wales to minister to 'traditionalists' the bench would regain some much needed credibility and provide a reason for worshippers to remain in the Church in Wales.