What a gay couple of days!

Bishop of Llandaff is surrounded by senior staff                                                      Source: Twitter

A nice little jolly for senior staff in the diocese of Llandaff has been highlighted on Twitter: "The Llandaff Senior Staff are enjoying the hospitality of Mill House Retreat Centre for a couple of days of team building including our new Archdeacon! Down to work!" 

No dingy church hall for them. Compare the lifestyle at the top with Ministry Areas struggling to make ends meet and it is clear where priorities lie in the Church in Wales. 

Archbishop John Davies was right in his presidential address to members at the recent meeting of the Governing Body when he acknowledged that the church was facing ‘confusing and challenging times’. He urged members to follow the example of people in the Bible by putting their faith in God and acting confidently to make change happen. 

There has been a flurry of archdeacon appointments lately. The appointment of the Archdeacon of Margam follows the appointment of an additional Archdeacon in Monmouth to jolly along the switch to Ministry Areas with more advertised in the expectation that they will improve a dire situation.

From 'Ministry Share: A Guide' issued by the diocese of St Davids: "Put simply, it is the financial cost of spreading the Gospel and maintaining ministry in our diocese, shared among all the parishes of St Davids. It is a commitment of our faith, rather than a tax or imposition, which finds its beginnings in the earliest days of the church and a very similar financial pool of funds is described in Acts.

It is more about spreading the load than spreading the Gospel. The widows' mites funding life at the top.

The current position is unsustainable. The guide explains that the funds required for the pool are calculated each year in the diocesan budget. The Bishop and senior staff have to calculate the number of clergy required and this is the biggest single item in the budget.

A commentator pointed out under a previous thread, Taking stock,  "Meanwhile....Cwmbran has gone from 5 full time clergy to a ministry area with no paid clergy since August....a roaring success hey? 5 churches and a CiW school.......but the parish share has remained at over £120K per year.......But at least the governing body will be debating politics soon, that will really help this crisis and grow the Church!

Not all change is for the better it seems.

Postscript [24.04.2018]

Emergency food bank supplies increase in Wales

The number of emergency food bank supplies given to families in crisis in Wales increased by 3% in the past year, figures show. The Trussell Trust food bank network said 98,350 three-day food bags were given out from April 2017 to March 2018 - 35,403 of which were to children.  BBC News report here.

Easter reflections

"One supermarket chain buyer apparently asked the company
 that supplies the eggs what Easter had to do with the Church"

The caption under the cross is a quote from an article by Caroline Wyatt, the BBC's new religious affairs correspondent in which she poses the question: "Is Easter still about religion for most?" She writes: "A large, feathery Easter egg stands in the middle of a small street in a shopping area in north London.
Beneath it is an Easter message: 'This egg is to remind people to shop at independent retailers'.
I had thought that it might be to remind people of the other message of Easter - the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, for example, which churches across the country will be marking on Sunday.

... For many years now, leading church figures have bemoaned the fact that in a country that is still officially Christian, with almost 60% of people identifying themselves as such in the 2011 census (although far fewer actually attend church services, or believe in God), the religious message of Easter has been drowned out by the secular festival of chocolate and shopping being celebrated at supermarkets across the country." To which I might add relevance to society.

I was more encouraged by the BBC's headline coverage of Caroline Wyatt's news report: "Easter services to denounce killing of Christians" or, as The Australian put it: Holy Thursday massacre prompts Easter reflections.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's Easter message paid tribute to persecuted Christians while the Pope prayed for "killed Kenyan students [and] decries persecution". All credit then to Metropolitan Hilarion who said it as it is: "There is the genocide of Christians in the Middle East".

Muslims are not exempt if they don't toe the line. Just two of the latest examples here and here. Despite all the carnage and misery it has been reported that "Islam is set to rival Christianity for global adherence by 2050". This is not a time to cast doubt on the Resurrection. We are an Easter people "and if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith".

Anglicans in particular have paid a heavy price for being more 'relevant to society' than to the faith of the Church, few more so than in the Church in Wales where their Archbishop parodied Je suis Charlie when when he claimed "Nous sommes Jesus" in his Chrism Mass sermon. He then delivered his Easter message claiming: "while we may not be able to prove the existence of God or that Christ rose from the dead, Resurrection moments are part of daily life." Given his record that is taken to mean softening up his flock to accept same-sex marriage in the same way that he manipulated the Governing Body to accept women bishops before reneging on promises made to members of his flock who remain faithful to the Apostolic faith. His priorities are wrong.

Humanity is facing a grave crisis in the face of creeping Islamisation but there is a choice. Murder, rape and servitude under Islam or Christian faith, hope and charity. This is not a time to cast doubt on the Resurrection. It is a time for conversion