'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.

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.                                                                      

Holiness lost in the Church in Wales

Ven Cherry Vann, bishop elect of Monmouth                                               Source: Church in Wales

In the run up to the Electoral College charged with electing the 11th Bishop of Monmouth the President of the College, Archbishop John Davies, gave an account of the qualities required of the successful candidate. If I recall correctly it implied an element of holiness based on biblical guidance of the qualities needed to be a bishop.

I can no longer find the link, only "Page or file not found". No doubt it has been taken down to avoid embarrassing comparisons based on this reaction in conversation with others from an internationally respected commentator on Church affairs to the election of the "first partnered lesbian bishop", that we know of, in the UK:

"Merit and holiness has nothing to do with the election of bishops in the Church in Wales. This is a political process. There are 23 clergy electors in the electoral synod. All but 7 are bishops, archdeacons and deans and you need to have a two-thirds vote so what this means is that the establishment by the way they pack the Electoral College is able to select those people whom they wish to put forward as bishop… Barry Morgan the former archbishop has been pushing for this outcome. Pushing for women clergy, pushing for women bishops, pushing for the normalisation of homosexuality.

"Members of the Archbishop's Council tell me that Archdeacon Vann is a complete nonentity, not as a person but in her role in the substantive debates within the Archbishop's Council. In other words she is not someone who has ideas, is a mover or a shaker, who people when we come to an issue, they look at her and think: What does she have to say? She is just another grey face at a long grey table. She is a committee person, she sits on the dais at General Synod and in 10 years has made no meaningful contribution whatsoever.

“Within the diocese where she is archdeacon she has made life miserable for conservative evangelicals, I'm told, through a passive, aggressive approach to things. In other words she is not a warrior for this cause, she is just an apparatchik. And so now we have another mediocrity who has a good CV of positions but no actual real holiness or merit or intellect or heft…

"The option taken by the Church in Wales is effectively to say the gay issue does not matter to us. We are not going to go through the perambulations that the Church of England has gone through. We are just saying this is who she is, like it or lump it."

All the more surprising therefore to see so much acclamation on Twitter although much of it had more to do with feminism, gender equality and parity than holiness. I also read a congratulatory tweet from the gay activist Sandi Toksvig but as in the case of the Archbishop's letter I can no longer find the tweet as if there were something to hide.

Cherry Vann is a member of the Church of England's Pastoral Advisory Group considering matters such as ‘Next Steps in Human Sexuality’ (GS Misc 1158). She is also a Trustee of the Ozanne Foundation.

The Bishops of the Church in Wales agreed the following statement on marriage between same-sex couples in March 2012.

"We abide by the Christian doctrine of marriage as the union of one man with one woman freely entered into for life. We acknowledge that whilst issues of human sexuality are not resolved, there are couples living in other life-long committed relationships who deserve the welcome, pastoral care and support of the Church. We are committed to further listening, prayerful reflection and discernment regarding same-sex relationships."

The Rev Jenny Wigley who, along with the Ven Peggy Jackson, did everything they could to undermine traditional Anglican orthodoxy, was the Guest Editor for a special edition of Theology Wales In her Introduction she referenced "The statement of the 1998 Lambeth Conference affirmed heterosexual marriage or sexual abstinence as the only choices for Christians; homosexual practice was declared to be incompatible with scripture. But the statement also committed the bishops to listening to the experience of homosexual persons and called on people to “minister  and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation".

Heterosexual marriage was affirmed but has been undermined ever since. The bench of bishops have used every means at their disposal to force through same sex marriage in church, including a one sided presentation by the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church to the Governing Body last September. See Church in Wales bench of bishops in renewed push for same sex marriage.

On the face of it the appointment of Cherry Vann is entirely political. Llandaff boasts the first transgender priest. Now the bench can pride themselves on appointing the first female bishop with a same sex partner. She is also an interfaith enthusiast supporting the removal of church pews to allow Muslim events in church.

No wonder the archbishop expressed his delight in a video announcing the appointment.

It is a sobering thought for any priests stood at the altar in whose name they will be celebrating.

Postscript [23.09.2019]

Bishop-Elect for Monmouth Diocese Cherry Van gives her first interview since being elected to the post

"She said: 'I was quite struck by the process the Church in Wales adopts to find new bishops. It seems to me to be heavily dependent on the guidance of the Holy Spirit and that gives me great encouragement'."

Jill Duff to be new bishop of Monmouth?

In response to a previous post about the election of the new Bishop of Monmouth a commentator wrote, "Its an open secret that this will be Jill Duff."

If Jill joins Joanna and June it will be reminiscent of the appointment of the first woman bishop in Wales after it had been widely rumoured that Canon Joanna Penberthy would be the next bishop of St Davids following the retirement of the Rt Rev Wyn Evans.

Initially the rumour seemed absurd, designed to wind up orthodox Anglicans until the grubby manipulation of the electoral process for political purposes became obvious.

Archbishop Barry Morgan stage managed his announcement of the 'election' by lining up nine adults on the bank overlooking the Afon Alun outside St Davids Cathedral as if parading before a firing squad. On the archbishop's command they were to applaud the announcement but eager to please their master, some jumped the gun like nervous squaddies.

The archbishop went on to justify Penberthy's appointment saying that it was "really important" to stress 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."

I doubt that recipients of her Dear John letter would agree with that description but, then, Morgan always was opinionated if nothing else.

By contrast fellow feminists will be delighted with Joanna's policy of parity although overkill would be a better description when in comes to St Davids Cathedral which is being turned into a feminist paradise with a token male priest to do most of the work.

There is more than enough evidence of the dismal failure of the first two women bishops to turn things around. There has also been experimentation and there has been profligacy. Evidence enough that the bench needs the inclusion of a man of God inspired by the Holy Spirit not by the spirit of the age.

Postscript [11.06.2019]

The Electoral College will meet on 17 September 2019 with the chance of electing the 11th, and possibly the last, bishop of Monmouth. Assuming Dr Duff has not already been chosen in the manner of the bishop of St Davids, given the divisions caused by a few disgruntled clergy favoured by the retiring bishop, the decision may have to pass to the bench to impose their own nominee. The flavour of the bench indicates that would be another disaster waiting to happen.

Bishop of Monmouth appointment

A tweet from Governing Body:

#govbody agreed that the right to appoint to the see of Monmouth will not pass to the bench of bishops until 31st October to give time for Monmouth diocese to have time to prepare properly for the Electoral College.

Time for reflection! 

No doubt there will be the usual calls for gender parity by adding a third woman bishop to the bench. 

The consequence of such a move would result in three women bishops in perpetuity in southern Wales, assuming that whenever a female bishop retires she would be replaced by another female bishop to maintain gender balance.

To break this undesirable cycle and provide a better balance for the future, a male bishop is preferable after two female appointments using subsequent appointments to provide a more even balance throughout the Province.

Given the Governing Body's resounding rejection of Archdeacon Peggy Jackson's motion which would have put an end to mutual flourishing, this is an opportune time to take note of the Archbishop's Presidential Address in which he urged members to be ready and willing to listen, "even to things you don’t want to hear...Take upon ourselves that yoke and to take up that cross", to "listen more particularly, listening to the voice of the Father; listening to the voice of the Teacher; listening to the voice of the Spirit; and listening to each other’s voices too."

The appointment of an orthodox bishop would help heal the divisions that have been created unnecessarily. Orthodox opinions need to be heard and balanced against current trends rather than dismissed as irrelevant as defined by the Jackson coterie.

That was the implication of the consultations held to discuss the appointment of women bishops in the Church of Wales. Diocesan meetings called to discuss the Code of Practice consistently called on the Bench of Bishops to provide a traditionalist bishop to minister to Anglicans who wished to retain the original Apostolic integrity of the Province.  

Archbishop Barry Morgan and his bench sitters ignored pleas of the faithful and embarked on a strategy which resulted in Jackson's final assault on orthodoxy at Governing Body.

Taking over the reins after his new Dean of Llandaff, Janet Henderson, spectacularly resigned two months into post, Morgan decreed that the Cathedral Office was not to publish the names of officiants at each of the Cathedral services. His purpose was clear.

Twin integrities were anathema to Barry Morgan as was the appointment of the Provincial Assistant Bishop to provide sacramental assurance and pastoral care for those who in conscience could not receive the sacramental ministry of women in common with the majority of the world's 85 million Anglicans. 

Bishop David Thomas died broken hearted and much of the Church in Wales died with him.

Belatedly there is an opportunity to move forward in hope that the years of decline can be turned around. 

It is too good an opportunity to miss and certainly not one to be bungled.

Feminizing St Davids diocese clergy

Farmer priest relaxes on the silage                                                                 Source: Farmers Weekly

From a St Davids Cathedral tweet: "Congratulations to Canon Eileen Davies, Archdeacon designate of Cardigan in succession to The Ven Dr Will Strange who retires in May. Canon Davies will be installed and collated here in June."

Diocesan Rural Life Adviser and 'farmer priest', Eileen Davies was interviewed for BBC News in 2013 as the Church in Wales prepared to vote on women bishops.

If God calls a woman to be a bishop she said, "therefore the Church in Wales should not actually put a stumbling block there and say sorry you cannot because of the various reasons that the Representative Body of the Church in Wales  might put forward" !

It is not clear whether she thought Barry Morgan was God or his agent when he shoehorned Joanna Penberthy into St Davids to be the first woman bishop in the Church in Wales. 

Claiming to have heard God's calling herself, Canon Davies said it was important that the Church in Wales was prepared to look forward.

"We have many new ideas upon our agenda now. As a Church in Wales we have various new strategies that are now being proposed to move the Church forward. And to be able to move the church forward also we should lead the way as a Church in Wales to offer the opportunity for women to become bishops."

Women bishops have  proved to be an utter disaster. 'Moving the church forward' proved to be driving forward the LGBT agenda towards same sex marriage in church. New ideas have included misandry, deception and profligacy with a fixation on gender parity. 

Being unable to distinguish between forwards and backwards are obvious assets in the eyes of 'the best person to be a bishop'. With such callings perhaps we are to assume that God has a sense of humour.

Today is 1st April but this is no joke.

Wrong direction

Pub talk in Llandaff . The bishop of Llandaff with the bishop of Monmouth before his absence from duty        Source:  Church in Wales

Following in the footsteps of her sister bishop Joanna in St Davids who has made appointing women a priority while seeking to rid her diocese of  elderly male priests by sending them 'Dear John' letters in thanksgiving for many years of devoted service to Christ, the bishop of Llandaff has appointed the Revd Dr Jan van der Lely to be Canon Chancellor according to Church Times 'appointments'.

Llandaff Cathedral previously announced the appointment as a new Residentiary Canon.

There are other similarities. Both bishops have an appetite for getting passionately involved in liberalising the Church. June with her megaphone and Joanna with her microphone using the Church to push their sex and gender agendas.

Following the import of the Church of England's first transgender priest, jolly June has imported the Chair of Modern Church to be Canon Chancellor of Llandaff Cathedral.

Among the Vice Presidents of Modern Church are the Most Revd Barry Morgan, former Archbishop of Wales and the Very Revd Prof Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. Say no more!

Modern Church promotes liberal theology with resources on marriage, sexuality & gender identity. Right up June's street!

The whole armour of God has become redundant for anyone who wants to succeed in the Church in Wales. All that is needed is a rainbow scarf and knickers.

Another jolly!

Bishops of Llandaff and St Davids with their mentor Katharine Jefferts Schori            Source: Twitter

There is news on the grapevine that June's jollies are more extensive than previously recorded, most recently accompanying the bishop of St Davids to the US.

Presumably they met up with their mentor, the former 'heretical mentor' to Barry Morgan, Katharine Jefferts Schori. She preceded Michael Curry as presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church (TEC) which has taken the lead in secularising Anglicanism. That explained her popularity with Barry and his bench sitters in Wales and the deference shown by the current Archbishop of Canterbury to Michael Curry.

Throwing away the best opportunity ever presented for taking forward the Great Commission, Justin Welby proposed presiding bishop Curry to preach at the Royal wedding, offering one of the foremost advocates of same sex marriage a platform to speak to around 2 billion people around the world in the knowledge that he favoured policies contrary to those of the Church of England. *

Readers may wonder why reputedly able women need mentoring after Barry Morgan confidently proclaimed without qualification that Joanna Penberthy was the best person to be a bishop. Presumably June was at least second best.

The purpose of the US visit is not entirely clear but I would be surprised if Joanna and June were not entertained by their episcopal, feminist counterparts. TEC has been in the lead in promoting same sex marriage and penalising anyone who is unable in conscience to accept TEC's liberal policies.

Consider just one example of many. A letter written to a local newspaper by a disillusioned correspondent in 2013. He was "saddened and appalled" by the "vindictive and mean-spirited language" Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori used in her "ugly" sermon:

"Alluding to Bishop Mark Lawrence as a 'tyrant' and comparing him to 'citizens' militias deciding to patrol ... the Mexican border for unwelcome visitors' was unconscionable. And to say, 'It's not terribly far from the state of mind evidenced in school shootings, or in those who want to arm school children, or the terrorism that takes oil workers hostage,' was despicable. That any Christian, much less a presiding bishop, would use such invective and incendiary words says more about the speaker than the person she is attempting to vilify.

"However, she is the same person who has spent over $22 million [currently estimated to be around $50 million - Ed.] to sue churches over their property, who refused to sell a church back to its congregation and instead sold it to a Muslim organization, and who sued beloved, retired bishops because they challenged her authority. It is not surprising that the fruits of Bishop Jefferts Schori's leadership of TEC are a significant decline in members, controversy and confrontation with the majority of the Anglican Communion, and financial problems resulting in the need to sell prized land in Manhattan."

Although the reason for the latest jolly is unclear, the similarities between TEC policies and those favoured by the bench are plain to see raising the suspicion that 'More of the same - but faster' promised by the new archbishop of Wales will see the jolly feminist pair taking the lead on further liberalisation given their secular credentials.

That will be more women clergy in the drive for parity regardless of suitability and more LGBTQI+ initiatives leading eventually to same sex marriage given the enthusiasm of the bench for the change.

What a catastrophe for the Church in Wales these politically motivated appointments have been.


Postscript [03.06.2018]

* Reported in the Mirror:

Meghan and Harry's preacher Bishop Michael Curry destined for Britain's Got Talent final after THAT impassioned royal wedding sermon.

The American bishop will deliver a special message for the remaining contestants as they prepare for the performance of their lives.

The "most watched show on TV" provides yet another platform for the presiding bishop of TEC, thanks to Archbishop Justin Welby. Curry sounds good but he has a distorted, permissive view of God's "almighty hands of love" that allows people to pick and choose what to believe leading them astray, as did his predecessor.

Well done Welby!

Suffrage

Suffragette arrest                                                                                            Source: Huffington Post

Things have moved on in the 100 years since (some) women were given the vote but the Guardian view on women’s suffrage is that there is still no real equality:

"After a campaign that had lasted more than 50 years, that had seen violence and death – as well as the forcefeeding of a thousand suffragettes in prison – women had at last won “the full rights of citizenship”; some women, at least. The Representation of the People Act 1918 extended the vote to those women over 30 who owned property or were married to a man who did. At a stroke, 40% of British women were enfranchised. An intellectual revolution rapidly became a political one as Britain absorbed ideas about gender equality and the purpose of political representation...

...Britain still has a serious democratic deficit: women make up more than half of the population, but less than a third of MPs. While Theresa May is the country’s second female PM, only after a byelection in 2016 did the total number of women ever elected finally exceed the number of men elected at a single election. This raises questions of legitimacy: “who” is present in political institutions directly affects whether they represent the public symbolically and substantively."

The following percentages are provided in a Commons Library briefing paper, Women in Public life, the Professions and the Boardroom. The table provides an overview of female representation in the public sphere across the UK:

                                                                           %

MPs (2017)                                                       32
Lords (2017)                                                     26
Cabinet (2017)                                                  26
MSPs (2016)                                                     35
AMs (2016)                                                       42
MLAs (2017)                                                     30
Board of public bodies (2016)                          39
Senior civil service (2017)                                41
Justice of the Supreme Court (2017)                 9
GPs (2015)                                                       54
NHS Consultants (2015)                                  34
Secondary head teachers (2015)                     39
University Professors (2015-16)                      24
FTSE 100 directors (2016)                              26

The table shows that GPs are predominately women. In the teaching profession women represent a majority of teachers in English state-maintained nursery and primary education. The proportion of  female teachers was 85% in 2016. Unlike their male colleagues, many women GPs work part time while teaching offers the attraction of being home for much of the school holidays suggesting choice rather than discrimination accounts for the apparent imbalance.

Feminists use numerical parity as a synonym for equality to gain an advantage through positive discrimination. This is particularly so in the Anglican Church where feminism is rife. Women bishops in the Church of England are being fast-tracked while the women bishops in Wales have made it clear that they regard parity as a priority.

The Conservative Woman blog gave its own particular take on the  Presidents Club "pearl-clutching hysteria" which was about the behaviour of some men and the reaction of some women. As comedian Jimmy Tarbuck pointed out women attending hen parties are also known for "bad behaviour", and that "it has to be both ways".

The Channel 4 News interview with clinical psychologist, Professor Jordan B Peterson was another attempt to show males in an a poor light. That confrontation has been viewed over 6 million times on YouTube. As The Atlantic put it, a British broadcaster doggedly tried to put words into the academic’s mouth. A more comical response is available here.

One hundred years after the female heroes who led the suffrage movement gained the vote, the battle continues.

Feminizing the Church in Wales continues at what cost?

 Springtime at St Davids Cathedral

In Spring 2018 there will be an unwelcome change for many in what they regard as the holiest site in Wales. A place of pilgrimage beyond politics. The Rev'd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, LVO, OBE, currently Priest-in-charge of Cardiff’s city centre civic church of St John the Baptist, will take up her new post as Dean of St Davids. 

That is no reflection on her ability. It is not a question on whether she can do the job but whether she should given that the Church in Wales is merely the current custodian of this place of worship when the Church in Wales represents only a tiny minority of Christians who believe that the Church has been wrong on scripture and tradition for two thousand years.

Canon Jones says in the Church in Wales Press Release today: "The Cathedral and its surroundings so strongly convey the sense of being holy ground. For so many, over so many centuries, it has been a sacred place to sense the presence of the living God who is beyond time and space, and yet who is also intimately close to each of us with the offer of redeeming love. It will be a tremendous privilege to join the community of those who today bear the responsibility of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with pilgrims and visitors from near and far".

For many this sacred place will become a museum used to advance the cause of feminism rather than a place of pilgrimage and worship. The Church in Wales plays a dangerous game. St Davids Cathedral is unlike any other in the province. "Nearly £2,000 per day" is needed for the maintenance, upkeep and running costs of "this wonderful working Cathedral" to quote from their web site. Visitors are essential for survival 

As women in the Church in Wales increase their power, with 'quota' appointments to gain parity, they play a very dangerous game.

The new Dean of St Davids, the Rev'd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones  (CinW)

Silencing the lambs

Source: Infowars

The Facing Islam Blog reports that Google is enforcing Sharia Law by blocking ads containing the keyword 'jihadwatch'.

From Infowars in 2015: After I made a video in which I explained that executing gay people and stoning women to death was a bad thing, and that this may indicate Islam is not a very “peaceful” religion, someone on Facebook reported me to the police for committing a hate crime.
“You do realize that spreading hate is illegal in the UK….I’ve reported you stupidity to facebook, the police, and several online hate crime organizations. Best of luck in the future ya tool,” wrote the individual.

On a more trivial level but equally important in terms of free speech Gavin Ashenden recently reported the latest muzzle being used by modern liberals is Twitter blocking:  "I just love it that you can block people on twitter. What a joy.  'Bigotry'- block. 'Hatred' -block. 'Stupidity-block.  'Ad-hominem'-block!!"

With their feet firmly under the table, conditioning minds with their political correctness and twisted views on equality progressive liberals are having a field day. The devoutly Christian tennis legend Margaret Court, who takes a conservative view on gay marriage, has been denied renewal of her local club membership in Australia.

One would think that same sex relationships are the natural order, that there is something really rather quaint in the belief that marriage is the natural union of men and women for the procreation of children. There is nothing natural about a transgender male giving birth to a child from the womb she was born with even if she does believe she is a man. The liberal buzz word is 'love' which 'normalizes' everything

When it comes to 'equality' there can be little more bizarre than when a "senior Anglican academic" calls on the Church of England not to appoint any 'traditionalists' – those opposed to women priests – until a third of all bishops are women. Warning the Church is damaging 'its public witness and Christian credibility' by promoting those who oppose female ordination, Prof Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, says the CofE 'needs to embrace equality unequivocally'. I wonder how he would feel if his position had been part of a quota system with parity the first consideration.

Percy's church is not the Body of Christ. It is one of many parts, barely a toenail. Even in Anglicanism it is barely a toe yet insidious liberalism has so infected Anglicanism that the progressives would have people believe that they represent Christian thinking. They do not. They are on the margins but they have succeeded in marginalising traditional Christian faith and values while turning the Church of England, and the Church in Wales, into secular institutions to further political causes such feminism and LGBTQ+.

To comment contrary to progressive liberal values is portrayed as hate which must be suppressed. The irony is that hating hate has become more hateful than hate itself so the lambs are silenced while the wolves are left to rampage.

New Bishop of Llandaff to be elected

Mesdames Gould, Wigley, Wolf, Jackson and Ford in Llandaff Cathedral      Photo: Church in Wales

Possibly in the mix, the three clerics without a mitre, Gould, Wigley and Jackson, hoping for another possible 'historic' appointment.

In the photograph the three Llandaff hopefuls were helping to 'make history' in an expensive stunt which saw bishop Geralyn Wolf flown in from the US to be the first woman Anglican bishop to lead a service in Llandaff Cathedral.

Of the three eligible wimmin, the cleric in trousers must have the edge. The Jackson/Wigley duo are well past their sell by date having already caused enough damage to the Church with their scheming to outlaw faithful Anglicans. Added to which, whenever the name of Peggy 'the pilot' has been mentioned as being in line for a mitre there have been gasps of horror at the thought. And rightly so. If disunity were the criterion she should be home and dry.

Tambourine cleric Canon Wigley has done herself no favours either. Celebrating 20yrs of women in the priesthood she danced down the main aisle of Llandaff Cathedral with Peggy the pilot before telling a BBC interviewer that she "looked forward to the day when there were no more minds to be changed about the acceptance of women priests" revealing a complete lack of understanding of the theological position, not only of members in her own Church but in the Anglican Communion and beyond.

All three were part of  Archbishop Barry Morgan's inner circle. The Rev Jan Gould BEM has been in evidence working in the more deprived areas of the diocese while the Jackson/Wigley duo have been politicking from more affluent areas. Married to the Rev Dr Peter Sedgwick, a former Head of St Michael's Theological College (now defunct) and Chairman of the Church in Wales Doctrinal Commission, Jan Gould appears to be better placed than many.

Apart from this trio, a former diplomat, the Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones LVO OBE OStJ, Vicar of St John's in central Cardiff has been hotly tipped. She hosted the recent 'Light for Our Darkness' Sunday Worship service for BBC Radio 4 at which the former Archbishop preached. His address was to be shot down yet again for using his own interpretation of the Bible.

Any male candidate, including those poor souls who eagerly helped their former Archbishop to realise his political ambitions, can dream on. Reports suggest that many in Llandaff Cathedral are dreading the thought of a woman bishop. Others regard it as a well deserved penance. After the travesty of the St Davids stitch-up anything is possible bar rationalising the bloated bureaucracy that the bench has become.

In the press release announcing the election it was stated that "the new bishop will be the 72nd Bishop of Llandaff, a diocese which serves nearly half the population of Wales as it includes most of Cardiff, the South Wales Valleys and the Vale of Glamorgan".

So, there are five diocesan bishops covering about half the population of Wales while one bishop covered the other half in addition to his duties as Archbishop. He also found time to to act as Dean of Llandaff for a spell when his appointee quit after nine weeks in post. Perhaps realising he had made a serious error of judgement Dr Morgan asked Archdeacon Peggy to pilot things for him. Llandaff Cathedral has gone down hill ever since with financial problems and factional fighting leading to disunity.

The Church in Wales was assessed as 'cumbersome and top-heavy' five years ago in the Church in Wales Review. The parish system has gone, replaced by ministry areas with lay leaders while most of the worshippers have gone. Only the bishops carry on regardless. They and their comfortable livings appear immune.

Recommendation XXV:

The recommendations XXII, XXIII and XXIV should be reviewed
after three years and a judgement made about whether the
Church in Wales is best served by six dioceses with three
administrative centres or whether it would be more effective to
reduce to three dioceses, together with four area bishops. 

The Review was presented to the Governing Body in 2012. Five years later, barring a miracle, the non-Welsh speaking, liturgical dancing feminist and supporter of Changing Attitude is to be enthroned as the 129th bishop of St Davids following a line of bishops stretching back to the Patron Saint of Wales, Dewi Sant, the first bishop in the 6th century. The bishop of Llandaff is to be elected this month and next February the bishop of Swansea and Brecon could retire creating a third vacancy. 

Given the imbalance between Llandaff and the rest, one has to wonder what the bishops of the Church in Wales do all day. Taking account of the relevant populations, population density and church attendance, the Province of Wales is similar in size to the Diocese of Oxford. But the bishops in the Diocese of Oxford care for almost twice as many regular worshippers than the Welsh diocesans without their assistants.

Of course Llandaff already has an Ass bishop who was appointed to help out because the Archbishop was busy with his political ambitions. My understanding of his possible elevation is once bitten, twice shy. Unless a male candidate who is the next "best person to be a bishop" emerges, a second female bishop is set to be appointed. Swansea and Brecon will provide parity on the bench

MAE Cymru will continue to demand parity at all levels until they achieve dominance. It is no longer be jobs for the boys but jobs for the girls. That is while there are enough worshippers left in the Church in Wales to care for. 

MAECymru                                                                         Source: Church in Wales

The 'Result' [23.02.2017]

After three days of deliberations, the Bishop-elect of Llandaff is.................. No result. "Statement to follow". https://twitter.com/ChurchinWales

Church in Wales Statement here