Two cheers for the C of E

Archbishop  of Wales Andy John blesses a locomotive                                    Source: Herald Wales

The intention is in the title, Living in Love and Faith (LLF). The situation would have been clearer if LLF had been titled Living in Sin and Faith.

Today it has been announced that "For the first time, under historic plans outlined on Wednesday 18 January 2023, same-sex couples will be able to come to church to give thanks for their civil marriage or civil partnership and receive God’s blessing. The Bishops of the Church of England will be issuing an apology later this week to LGBTQI+ people for the “rejection, exclusion and hostility” they have faced in churches and the impact this has had on their lives."

Two cheers then for the declaration "The formal teaching of the Church of England as set out in the canons and authorised liturgies – that Holy Matrimony is between one man and one woman for life – would not change."

If the example of the Church in Wales is followed there will be moves to allow same sex weddings in Church as happened when the ordination of women to the priesthood was declared a half-way house having achieved their initial goal.

According to the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell: 

"This is not the end of that journey but we have reached a milestone and I hope that these prayers of love and faith can provide a way for us all to celebrate and affirm same-sex relationships.

"Over the last six years, we have been confronted time and time again with examples of the rejection, exclusion, and hostility that many LGBTQI+ people have received in churches.

"Both personally and on behalf of my fellow bishops I would like to express our deep sorrow and grief at the way LGBTQI+ people and those they love have been treated by the Church which, most of all, ought to recognise everyone as precious and created in the image of God.  We are deeply sorry and ashamed and want to take this opportunity to begin again in the spirit of repentance which our faith teaches us."

The trajectory is obvious. 

I do not know of anyone who has been confronted with examples of "rejection, exclusion, and hostility" of the many LGBTQI+ Abp Cottrell refers to. Only unsupported allegations by activists who label anyone with a contrary opinion to theirs as homophobic.

By contrast many others have experienced rejection and hostility resulting in exclusion simply for striving to remain faithful to their baptismal promises.

Church blessings have become commonplace. Some argue that if inanimate objects, as illustrated above, and animals can be blessed, why not same-sex unions. 

Inanimate objects and animals do not have souls, the cure of which is entrusted by the bishop in the clergy with the words "Receive this cure of souls which is both yours and mine."

Civil partnerships are in themselves a blessing but nothing is ever good enough for those seeking to secularise the Church. 

"The 'look and smell' of a traditional wedding"

 

"Fabiano Da Silva Duarte, left, and Father Lee Taylor were blessed by the Bishop of St Asaph"                                                                                   Source: BBC

From BBC News: "Father Lee and his partner Fabiano Da Silva Duarte have become what is thought to be the first same-sex couple to be officially blessed by the Church in Wales." 

Unofficially a former archbishop is rumoured to have performed at least one same-sex blessing for one of his diocesan clergy and same-sex partner.

Commenting on the official "landmark" blessing delivered by the bishop of St Asaph, bartender-turned-vicar Father Lee Taylor said with a choir, bell ringers and family and friends attending, the ceremony had the "look and smell" of a traditional wedding.

No surprise there, especially given that the Welsh bishops regard the new service merely as a stepping-stone to gay marriage in Church.

So why is the bench hell-bent on pursuing a policy that puts them at odds with the Church of England in particular and the wider Anglican Church in general, risking suspension from the Anglican Communion?

Having lost all credibility and most of its membership, perhaps the bishops have calculated that by becoming the queer Church in Wales they can avoid its predicted collapse and save themselves from the ranks of the unemployed.

In doing so the bench of bishops claim to be caring for the 'unloved and rejected' which is clearly a nonsense. 

They show no regard whatsoever for others who fit bishop Cameron's description of "real disciples of Jesus Christ...vulnerable, fragile human beings" whom the bishops have chosen to leave without any of the pastoral care they lavish on those who worship under the LGBTQ+ banner.

The future of the Church in Wales from the Archbishop in waiting?

Archbishop in waiting? the Bishop of Bangor. Picture: Church in Wales. Source: The National Wales

The future of the Church in Wales, or, more accurately, the future of the Church in Wales according to Andy John, Bishop of Bangor, is predicted in an 'exclusive' interview with The National Wales. 

Others insist the Church in Wales has no future. Not surprising given the mess created by the bench of bishops with their secular obsessions. 

In 2015 the Church Growth Modelling blog forecast that attendance figures for the Church in Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church of the USA (TEC), indicated extinction dates around 2040. 

Aged 57, if Buggins' turn prevails, Andy John will be the penultimate Archbishop of Wales leaving another to do the final sweeping up. Gregory Cameron, the next most senior bishop after Andy John is 62 so he is likely to miss out as is the Tory loathing bishop of St Davids, Joanna Penberthy who is 61.

At 68 the bishop of Llandaff, June Osborne, will soon be drawing her pension leaving only Cherry Vann, Bishop of Monmouth, who is 62.

Depending on his/her age the next bishop of Swansea and Brecon could also be the last Archbishop of Wales.

The new Bishop of Swansea and Brecon is to be elected this month* leaving the way for the election of the new Archbishop but if St Davids were to become vacant there would be a further delay. 

That may account for Andy John's extraordinary statement:

“I think the question whether Bishop Joanna resigns is done and dusted”, Bishop Andy states. “She made clear that she regretted what she had to say… I think if we cannot provide a way in which people can acknowledge wrongdoing, learn from their mistakes, and come back, then it begs questions about whether we believe people can change. Whether or not we think the Christian faith is about second chances. To me, fundamentally, it’s about that. And those who are baying and frothing at the mouth seem to me to be part of what I think is quite pernicious in society: which is that we dress up in virtue – or in the language of virtue – a kind-of campaign to persecute.”

Having found ''Biblical support for church gay marriages" the divorced and re-married bishop of Bangor can no doubt justify anything he fancies. 

In his interview for The National, Andy John was asked about the draft Bill which had been outlined at Governing Body (GB) in December. If passed by a two-thirds majority it would allow a five-year trial period for priests who would like to hold a service to bless a same-sex couple after their marriage or civil partnership.

Did the bishop of Bangor hope the motion will be approved? "Very much so", he replied before adding, "I think this will make us a more generous Church, which will make us a Church that provides space for people who demonstrate by their lives that they can be wonderful disciples of Jesus Christ when they want to live in love with a person of the same sex. I fail to understand… I fail to really understand why that is problematic.

Building up the pressure before the next meeting of GB, the former archbishop of Wales John Davies told ITV that it would be  a "slap in the face" for gay Christians if the church does not consider introducing services of blessing for same-sex couples.

"Simply to say", explained the archbishop, "that because it's always been so it must never change I think is a slap in the face to an awful lot of people who see something valuable in the church, but to some extent still feel rejected by the church."

That simply does not hold water. 

No generosity has been shown by the bench to an 'awful lot of people' who have been slapped in the face by a myopic bench of bishops, eager to impose their own liberal agenda at the expense of faithful Anglicans un-churched by the Church in Wales. 

As the recently retired Archdeacon of Llandaff, Peggy Jackson, a late convert to Anglicanism, put it with all the charity she could muster, "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." (The naked truth).

There have been no 'second chances' for traditionalists who remain outside in the cold in what the bishop of Bangor refers to as 'a kind-of campaign to persecute'. It is clear why. The Church in Wales is at odds with the vast majority of Anglicans, let alone Christians. Anglicans in the Church in Wales who seek to practice their faith in common with the majority of Anglicans are an embarrassment to a bench of bishops preoccupied with fleeting secular fads and fancies.

As bishop Andy told his interviewer: "The pandemic has reminded the Church of its purpose: to serve. “Our job is to argue for a more humane, compassionate, loving society, and to be unafraid and to be unapologetic about that." His colleagues have “done remarkably well” during Covid-19 too. And it is hard to disagree. Even more so considering that – in his words – that the Church in Wales is “a bit like an oil tanker: it takes ages to turn us around”.

In a nutshell. The Church in Wales has set its course - to extinction.

The interview ends with: "A very confident and unapologetic message from a bishop who is very confident and unapologetic. With the possibility of him at the helm, perhaps this Welsh oil tanker will chart the right course, after all."

The interview started with the interviewer's confession: "I don't generally do God, I tell Andy John." Exactly the sort of people the bench look to for support and justification.

If ever the Church in Wales needed a transfiguration it is now.

* Correction: Election of new Bishop of Swansea and Brecon
 The election is to be held in September.
https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/news-and-events/election-new-bishop-swansea-and-brecon/

The Bishop of Monmouth and partner

Bishop of Monmouth, Cherry Vann .  Source: Twitter

The Church in Wales tweeted an invitation to find out more about the new Bishop of Monmouth, Cherry Vann, in an interview on BBC Woman's Hour broadcast on February 20th.

Out of curiosity I tuned in on catch up. There was nothing spiritual, just sex

There was a nervous quiver in the bishop's voice as though her participation was part of  an organised campaign that had thrust her into the limelight. Her part of the deal was speaking frankly about her situation, thus enhancing the LGBT+ credentials of the bench of bishops.

Straight in, the interviewer explained that Cherry Vann's appointment had coincided with the statement issued by the Church of England suggesting sex should take place only within heterosexual marriage but bishop Vann is 'the first openly gay female bishop and the first to be in a civil partnership in the UK'.

 Vann explains how she hid her sexuality out of fear: "Like a lot of other gay and lesbian people it is not an easy place to be in the Church and fear means it is easier to keep silent rather than the risk of being rejected, or losing your job or losing friends."

Has she not noticed that the only people rejected in the Church in Wales are orthodox Anglicans!

Bishop Vann said that she and her partner decided to make their civil partnership public when Vann was first invited to have her name put forward for the post of bishop. They decided that this was the time to be more open and honest.

However, The cover-up was maintained until after the Sacred Synod confirmed her appointment.

It is all out in the open now. Vann says the Church in Wales is "more accepting as an institution of gay and lesbian people". The Church in Wales is a "different Church".

She claims that the Church as a whole is on a journey with 'stiffened' resolve to work 'positively and creatively' until we get to a place where "everyone is accepted and welcomed irrespective of their sexuality".

Vann continues, the Church in Wales is more open with the courage to take a positive lead enabling bishop Vann and people like her to be honest and open about who they are - unlike the Church in Wales which has pursued its agenda by stealth. - Vann is sure that same sex marriage in church will come in time.

The reason she was appointed is made clear in her interview. It is to further the gay agenda of the bench of bishops leading to same sex marriage

There is no mention of the Gospel or of salvation, only that we are all sexual human beings.

The clearest message yet from the bench.

Postscript [26.02.2020]

More self justification with some dangerous views from Cherry Vann in an 'acast' interview recorded with Martin Shipton, Chief Reporter for Wales Online https://play.acast.com/s/9b06ea45-4ded-49de-9368-7590ce8c831f/038a13f8-b566-4c13-9d73-d37731ea2f03 .

On religion she talks about the 'multiplicity of faiths' [@ position 11] . At their best she thought there was an awful lot of congruence between the different faiths and particularly between the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism Christianity and Islam: "There is a lot in common, a lot about respect for one another. A lot about mutual tolerance. A lot about living in harmony and I think that is what I would urge us all to aspire to. The very best."

Her views do not sit comfortably with the Quran: "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (Q 9:29)

Presumably the bishop failed to listen to Anglican Unscripted edition 570
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=679&v=Q5x_ZO-6GKw&feature=emb_logo

Laid bare

Ancient stone carving with apple

 ‘We asked for bread but you gave us stones‘ became a familiar cry from the movement for the ordination of women.

What has been revealed since they achieved their objectives is that they have hearts of stone.

Provisions made for orthodox 'traditionalist' Anglicans to ensure the successful passage of their 'equality' legislation have been gradually eroded.

Alternative episcopal oversight was cruelly withdrawn by archbishop Barry Morgan after bishop David Thomas retired.

The axe is hovering again, waiting to strike the final blow against orthodoxy. A blow by Morgan's hatchet woman that will change the Church in Wales forever, turning it into a feminist sect on the outer fringes of Anglicanism.

Following the Canon to enable the Ordination of Women as Bishops a Code of Practice in relation to the Ministry of Bishops was added.

There was a nod towards the Code of Practice adopted by the Church of England but it was twisted by the Jackson/Wigley amendment to ensure that there would be no similar structure to provide alternative episcopal oversight in Wales:

[4.] "Within the Church in Wales, those who on grounds of theological conviction and conscience are unable to receive the sacramental ministry of women bishops or priests continue to be within the spectrum of teaching and tradition of the Anglican Communion. The Church in Wales therefore remains committed to enabling all its members to flourish within its life and structures as accepted and valued. Appropriate provision for them will be made in a way intended to maintain the highest possible degree of communion and contributes to mutual flourishing across the whole Church in Wales."

Another paragraph was added:

[5.] " Since the Code of Practice needs to be both strong and flexible enough to respond to a changing situation in the future, and since the Governing Body has entrusted the Bench of Bishops with the task of agreeing a Code which commits the Bench to making provisions for all the members of the Church in Wales, the Bench reserves the right to amend the provisions of this Code as may be necessary in the future."

The sting was in the tail. Jackson's strategy is laid bare. Unless it is voted down the final blow will be delivered at the next meeting of the Governing Body (GB) of the Church in Wales.

An alleged "changing situation" private member Motion submitted by Archdeacon Peggy Jackson reveals her original intent. 

It seeks to remove any provision for conscience in the Church in Wales:

"the Bishops should not in future allow conscience provisions to be extended towards anyone who seeks ordination from this point on; nor should they be prepared to consider for ordination in the Church in Wales anyone, who intends from the very outset of their ministry, to restrict the exercise of that ministry, by their reliance upon conscience provisions."

Archdeacon Peggy Jackson's Motion:

"That this Governing Body rejoices that the Church in Wales has now received the consecration of two Bishops who are women, and: 

1. requests that all Bishops, consonant with previous undertakings, agree not to hold in future separate ordination services for any candidates, on the grounds of the candidates’ views on gender. 

2. calls on the Bench of Bishops to resile from paragraph 5 of the Explanatory Note to their 2014 Code of Practice, and cease to ordain those who, refusing the sacramental ministry of women, expect to rely upon the conscience clauses of the Code."

Code of Practice procedures which were designed to allow those who 'on grounds of theological conviction and conscience are unable to receive the sacramental ministry of women bishops or priests' to continue have been gradually eroded. 

In her final blow Jackson seeks to renege on a Church in Wales commitment designed to enable all its members to flourish within its life and structures.

In her explanatory note Jackson writes: 

"The purpose [of the Code of Practice] was to  recognise and honour the long allegiance and service many such people had given to the Church in Wales, and to mitigate as far as possible any feelings of rejection that they might otherwise experience, by the enactment of this doctrinal change. The provisions were never intended to maintain within the Church in Wales a parallel, or alternative, doctrinal tradition to that which had been decided by Governing Body; nor were they intended to uphold, or sustain on behalf of others, different doctrinal traditions belonging to other provinces of the Anglican Communion, with whom the Church in Wales has chosen to disagree."

Her duplicity is clear. Jackson portrays women as victims deserving sympathy despite having no sympathy whatsoever for the many women and men she has successfully shut out from her 'inclusive' Church:

"The Code of Practice set out, as a priority, its intention to promote as far as possible the mutual flourishing of all within the Church in Wales, and made provisions accordingly.  The cost of these provisions has been borne, at times painfully, by many people across the Church in Wales, but most specifically, and constantly, by women who serve the church: women ordinands who have been obliged to train alongside other ordinands who, with impunity, have been allowed to question and deny the validity of their vocations; women clergy who have been made to feel, in the context of some clergy gatherings where shared communion is impaired, that they are the ‘problem’, or who have been asked to tolerate the public  rejection of their ministry by fellow clergy, in the name of ‘tradition’ or ‘conscience’;  women exploring their vocations, who have had to overcome additional hurdles in discernment, over and above their male counterparts, because of a prevailing attitude among some influential people, that their vocations were somehow questionable.  A survey undertaken in 2017 indicated that, four years after the passing of the legislation on women bishops, women were still disproportionately being subject to these experiences."

It is difficult to see why anyone would believe the archdeacon after the lies, distortion and duplicity used by the women's movement when mere differences of opinion are deliberately exaggerated and represented as prejudice.

The women who are suffering are not those exploring their vocations but those with conscientious beliefs who have been shut out of their own Church. 

Conscience is not something to be turned off like a tap however Jackson wraps it up.

When she was a member of the Church of England Jackson is on record as saying that anyone who could not accept the new order would have to make their own arrangements. It is as if she was talking about changing social clubs:

"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." - Canon Jackson in a GRAS Newsletter.

On the contrary, it is Jackson's view that is "not that sanctioned by the ‘church’ as a whole, and upheld through Synod and Parliament."

  

The Church in Wales is not a world leader in Anglicanism. It is a tiny Province which, thanks to Barry Morgan and Peggy Jackson, chooses to disagree with orthodox doctrinal traditions in the Anglican Communion and beyond. But it still represents the Anglican Communion in Wales. 

Faithful Anglicans who have had unorthodox doctrines imposed on them have no choice but to leave or be accused of hypocrisy. That there is nowhere else to go within the Communion is of no concern to Jackson and those sharing her views. 

Many have left, hence the dramatic fall in attendance leaving mainly elderly people with something to do on a Sunday as the Archbishop of Wales succinctly commented in an ITV interview.  

Average Sunday attendance in 2017 was 27,359 representing 0.8% of the population of Wales. A dismal figure which would cause many to stop and think but not those determined to pursue their own agenda at any cost.

Few elderly people are involved in Church politics. Under their noses the Church in Wales is being changed into a feminist cult using the hash tag #lovewins. It does not. More accurately #sex triumphs, now with the aid of the two women bishop activists glorified by Jackson in her Motion.

This callous disregard of faithful Anglicans by feminist entryists is un-Christian. It lacks even the slightest semblance of fair play. 

The faith held by the overwhelming majority of Christians has served the Church for two thousand years. A late convert, Peggy Jackson's approach to Anglicanism is warped in favour of her personal preferences as if she knows better than the Apostles and even Christ Himself.

She does not represent the majority of Christian women, only a certain type of woman. One standing naked in the garden tempting others with an apple. 

If the bench associate themselves with Jackson's motion they will deserve their share of odium that should be deservedly heaped on the archdeacon for dishonouring the Church with her blatant misandry.

Her Motion has to be rejected if the Church in Wales is to retain any shred of credibility.