Leadership by example!

Archbishop of Wales Andy John                                    Source: Church in Wales

'Happy' and 'glorious', two words from the National Anthem that have been used to sum up the celebrations of The Queen's Platinum Jubilee. A tribute not only to HM The Queen but to the skill of all those who arranged and took part in the various events.

Among the events was the magnificent Thanksgiving Service held in the splendour of St Paul's Cathedral but there were two notable absences, that of Her Majesty The Queen which was explained, and that of His Grace the Archbishop of Wales which, so far as I can establish, was not.

Glancing at the order of procession in the Thanksgiving Service booklet (page 8), the only dignitary to send a representative was the Archbishop of Wales.

Curiously 'The Representative of the Archbishop of Wales' was not the next most senior bishop, Gregory Cameron, bishop of St Asaph, but the most junior, the recently appointed assistant bishop in Bangor, Mary Stallard.

Why? When Ms Stallard was appointed the archbishop said "I am delighted that Mary has agreed to take on operational responsibility for much of the life of our Diocese to assist me while I take on the role of Archbishop of Wales."

What, one wonders, was so pressing in the archbishop's diary that he was forced to absent himself from probably the most important event since he was elected archbishop, representing the Church in Wales at the Thanksgiving Service for a monarch who has led by example, keeping the faith when too many bishops have not.

Postscript [08.06.2022]

More embarrassment caused to the Church in Wales by its leadership: "The Church of England has its Mississippi and that's called the Church in Wales".

Anglican Unscripted's take on the Archbishop of Wales' Thanksgiving Service snub (starting at position 41.30):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKfBGINajXY

Platinum Service

HM Queen Elizabeth II                                                                                                                                              Source:NYF

"I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong."

Words spoken by Princess Elizabeth on her 21st Birthday in Cape Town in 1947. 

Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Her Majesty has been true to her word and an example to others in the Church. 

God Save The Queen!

Tory loathing bishop of St Davids issues apology

The bishop of St Davids, Joanna Penberthy, with Barry Morgan (ABp), Andy John (Bangor) and Richard Pain (Monmouth) in 2017    Source: Anglican Journal 

In 2017 the then archbishop of Wales led the applause after the Church in Wales ordained its first woman bishop, Joanna Penberthy, the best person to be a bishop - in Barry Morgan's opinion!

Penberthy does not care much for views which do not accord with her own. She labels genuinely held opposing views on the ordination of women as discrimination. There is no engagement.  She has described views contrary to her own simply as 'water off a duck's back' to her.

A proud Corbynista, Penberthy has issued a statement of apology following a 'private tweet' on 25 March about Conservative Party supporters in which she tweeted Never never never trust a Tory.

As Adrian Hilton (AKA Archbishop Cranmer) aptly puts it: "The Rt Rev'd @jo_penberthy, Bishop of St David's @ChurchinWales, believes she can say one thing on her 'private' Twitter, and another in her pulpit.

Orthodox Anglicans are well familiar with such tactics. Feminist appeals to neighbourliness soon evaporated after they achieved their goals of women's ordination to the priesthood and to the episcopate.

Looking again at the above 2017 photograph it sums up the disaster the Church in Wales has become. In 2018 bishop Penberthy wrote her 'Dear John' letter dispensing with the services of loyal, elderly male clergy.

The report on the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the early retirement of the former bishop of Monmouth, Richard Pain, is still awaited after being promised within six months in May 2020 while the divorced and re-married bishop of Bangor is in line to be the next archbishop of Wales. 

Having achieved parity on the bench no doubt the three women bishops will be insisting that it is time for a woman to lead the Church in Wales, especially if another woman is elected to fill the Swansea and Brecon vacancy.

Postscript

A slap on the wrist for the bishop of St Davids, Joanna Penberthy in this Church in Wales statement:

“The Church in Wales expects all its clergy to engage robustly in public life. However, they need to do so in a way which is respectful, responsible and fair, acknowledging the breadth and diversity of political opinion within the Church. We do not support intemperate claims or poorly informed commentary and we urge all clergy to recognise that, as public office holders, there should be no expectation that personal views will be regarded as private.

“The Bishop of St Davids’ strong political views are well known. We recognise that she has apologised for causing offence and are pleased she has acknowledged the hurt and damage she has caused and deactivated her personal Twitter account.”

Wimmin called to ministry

Canon Anne Dyer at St Andrew's Cathedral in King Street.
Canon Dyer is set to become the first female bishop in Scotland.
Source Press and Journal/Picture by Colin Rennie.

Another 'social worker' is to be enthroned as the first woman bishop in the Scottish Episcopal Church this week. The new Episcopalian Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney has already made it clear she isn’t interested in restricting herself to "prayers, pews and parochial parish life". She is focused on "fighting for social justice, sexual equality".

Responding to critics of her backing for gay marriage, the new bishop said, “The Scottish Episcopal Church officially acknowledges that there is not one view on marriage within our church today. We hold differing views according to our consciences, but also after varied readings of the bible and prayer. Whatever view a person holds, they are welcome. It is the bishop’s role to try to hold diversity together, to enable those who disagree to find common cause and purpose, and see Christ present in every person."

She should have a word with the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Most Rev'd Mark Strange. There was no common cause when he dismissed objections from traditionalist Anglicans who accused the bishops of having chosen to “ignore the opinion of the Diocesan Synod”. Bishop Strange stated that he, the other electing bishops, and Canon Dyer “fully believe and trust that they have been led by the Holy Spirit”.

The Holy Spirit is having a busy time allegedly supporting all these wimmin who claim to be called to ministry based on controversial readings of the Bible.

Another +selfie: "We literally could not have got another person in the chapel!
Eucharist, fellowship & conversation enjoyed by all." Source: Twitter

In another example, a Church in Wales tweet has been promoting an interview with the bishop of Llandaff by a student who attended a well publicised Cardiff University Chaplaincy event to welcome their new bishop. 

Apparently the event was so well attended that  all 22 students present had to squeeze themselves into the chapel, including some of considerably riper years looking at the +selfie.

Had it not been for the big squeeze in the chapel the event could have provided yet another metaphor for the state of the Church in Wales. 

There are 30,676 students in Cardiff University giving an attendance figure for the welcome visit of 0.07%, somewhat short of the 0.9 % of the population worshipping in Church of Wales congregations on average Sundays - see Church in Wales attendance plummets.

Undeterred bishop June obligingly explains how she had been called to ministry. She had a "developing sense that God was calling [her] to the ministry of the church". Sorry June. That wasn't God. It was synodical voting by feminists and their sympathisers who have independently used Anglican church provinces for political advantage with no regard for the consequences.

A word count of the bishop's interview illustrates the secular approach to ministry by career wimmin. It shows Jesus, along with men and Châteauneuf-du-Pape, had one mention each while sex had six and women eleven.

What they have is a ministry of self-advancement based on 'varied readings' of the bible which appeal to secularists who, in turn, use it as ammunition to attack the church. The consequences are all too evident.

Ministry is about service. It is not a strategy for the advancement of wimmin, casting aside other women and men because they follow Christ's example along with the vast majority of Anglicans and most Christians.

But the saddest result of the feminist mission is that some genuinely faithful women have been misled into thinking that ordained ministry is part of God's plan when the contrary is obvious from any normal reading of the Bible.

Postscript [02.03.2018]

As if to prove my point, an article in the Church Times 'Women in ministry: the next steps' is described as a "response to Women’s History Month" in which Johanna Derry looks at issues faced by women clergy.

A word count shows not one reference to Jesus but 52 to women.

From the article: "I think that no one looks twice now when they see a woman priest — it’s accepted, and most people are very happy with it. It seems normative rather than quirky, and I think we’ve made very quick progress on the way women bishops have been received, too," the Revd Sheridan James, Vicar of St Catherine’s, Hatcham, says. She is the dean of women’s ministry for the Woolwich Area."

That is the same argument being used by clerics promoting gay marriage - people will accept it, they claim, as they have re-marriage after divorce. When the Vicar of St Catherine’s says that 'most people are very happy with it', she must be referring to the few Anglicans remaining who still regularly attend Sunday services. Tens of thousands are not. They have left.

In Wales where no provision has been made for Anglicans who are not swayed by relativism, their church has simply left them. There is no love, no charity, no concern. Just nothing. That is negativity.

If you are not for the revisionist agenda you are labelled a bigot, guilty of sexism, misogyny and all the usual phobias. Alternative views are not permitted even when, as the 1928 Book of Common Prayer put it when I was received into the congregation of Christ’s flock, one manfully fights under His banner against sin, the world, and the devil.

Nevertheless I welcome different shades of opinion but sadly some interesting comments are lost because they are unsigned and have no pseudonym to separate them from other 'anonymous' comments. Here are two opposing views by way of example.

Anonymous 1 - "I am sick and tired of the comments made on this blog. I am a woman and I object to wimmin being used to describe the females who serve God and His Church. You should look at the past and see how successful men have been. Not. Perhaps God is trying something new and wants to change the attitude that prevails."

Anonymous 2 - "Have you noticed this positive discrimination in the Church of Scotland where they more or less stopped recruiting men in favour of women with the result that they have run out of ministers. Once upon a time the discerning of a call to the ministry was the main role of the hierarchy when they encouraged and supported those with a vocation to listen to the call. Wider society is not turning the church into a minority - the church is doing that job by turning away from the search for true gifts of ministry and mission."

I again urge commentators to observe this rule when comments are submitted for publication.

Two remarkable women

Yesterday Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 90th birthday. Having dedicated her life to service, her long reign is a consequence of the tragic early death of her father, George VI, at the young age 56. The BBC broadcast a family tribute here. 

The BBC re-scheduled their programmes to broadcast another tribute yesterday following another early death, that of the Queen of comedy, Victoria Wood. Her observance of life informed her remarkable ability to make us laugh. I haven't laughed so much in years.

To two remarkable women. Thank you.  

Christ humbled Himself on a cross; women insist on honour. How did it come to this?

The GAFCON Jerusalem cross has been brought from Jerusalem where the first GAFCON was held 
in 2008. It was carried in procession during the final communion service. It will stay in Nairobi
 until the next GAFCON to which the Conference committed itself.

"Synod to consider women bishops ‘ombudsman’"

- + -

I discovered the above juxtaposition while looking through the entries on the 'Anglican Mainstream' site (Right hand column). Under the picture of the GAFCON cross was this entry: Synod to consider women bishops ‘ombudsman'. (Story here).

From the days when you could buy a 'penneth' of chips with one old penny I well remember Sunday School posters which illustrated life in areas of Africa which were known then as Tanganyika, Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Every Lent we eagerly collected coins in sealed cardboard boxes to aid the spread of the Gospel in Africa. Now the countries which spread the Word in those far off days are being taken to task for re-interpreting scripture to justify the wants of minority groups from women's ordination to same-sex relationships. Read Peter Ould's important article on Pilling here.

The women bishops measure was lost fairly at Synod but the result was not accepted. A more aggressive, winner-takes-all campaign was launched by Women in the Church (WATCH) and their supporters. Desperate to have women bishops at any cost, the latest proposals have been published. The Church of England should have "an ombudsman-style arbitrator" to rule on rows about the issue of women bishops: "The Church's ruling general synod will decide next month whether to introduce an "independent reviewer" to resolve disputes between Anglicans." ... "Under the latest proposals it is hoped can break the deadlock, an arbitrator – similar to a health service ombudsman – would rule on disputes about the guarantees offered to traditionalists."

For the love of God, how has it  come to this? Essentially because, while claiming the contrary, WATCH along with their fellow travellers are more concerned with power and authority than serving as chief pastors.  Pope Francis put it concisely when he consecrated two new bishops last week, the Episcopacy is a service, not an honour: 

“It is Christ who, in the bishop's ministry, continues to preach the Gospel of salvation and to sanctify believers, through the sacraments of the faith”, he said. “Indeed, 'episcopate' is the name of a service, not an honour. It is the bishop's responsibility to serve rather than to dominate, according to the commandment of the Master: 'the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves'”... Finally, Francis encouraged them to pay close attention to “those who have strayed from the fold of Christ, because they too have been entrusted to you by the Lord. Pray for them (full report here).

This issue is now so politicised that the media constantly report it in secular terms of women's rights and job opportunities with no regard for conscientious beliefs. The BBC report referred to above links to a previous article in which "BBC Radio 4's Charlotte Smith, a regular church-goer herself, samples the views of clergy and congregations". One churchgoer told her "It is absolutely ridiculous, it looks like we are stuck in the 1740s. My daughter loves this Church because of our attitude towards women but says she is not going to come back to the Church of England 'til they actually get this sorted out." Not thy way O Lord but mine!

And this: "The issue was certainly enough to bemuse the 10 and 11-year-old girls at a recent schools day at Winchester cathedral. They were not really planning careers in the church. Singing and doctoring seemed better options to them. But they could not understand why women could be vicars but they could not be bishops. Some of the volunteers working in the cathedral were equally mystified. "If women are made priests, inevitably, if they're good, they should become bishops," one said." Doubtless nobody bothered to explain that it is a problem of the Anglican Church's own making because in the wider church, woman are not admitted to the priesthood.

Despite that, opponents of the ordination of women, including other women, who simply want to keep the faith of the Holy Catholic Church are constantly portrayed as bigots and misogynists as though they are against women per se. That is absurd. So what is the problem? There isn't one. It is simply that a contrary view is not tolerated. WATCH and their supporters want outright victory with no provision for opponents. Claims of being demeaned as second class bishops are mere devices to crush any opposition using secular criteria because they don't have a theological leg to stand on.

That is why they are now pointing to the Church in Wales as an example after the shabby procedure there resulted in a vote to accept women as bishops with no statutory provision for dissenters, a decision greeted with loud applause by 'broad church' Anglicans! The Church in Wales campaign has been as devious and underhand as in the Church of England with suggestions of collusion by the bishops but they are not interested in anything Pope Francis has to say because Rome does not recognise their orders. Once we have women bishops neither will many Anglicans.

"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love"! 

God Save the Queen!

Before I set off with my wife to spend Christmas with family I read an advance report of what the retiring Archbishop of Canterbury would say in his final Christmas sermon as Archbishop. My heart sank. I comforted myself with the thought that the headline remark may have been taken out of context. But no, in his sermon there was indeed another dig at those accused of damaging the credibility of the church in the vote over women bishops. The Archbishop added: "Faith is not about what public opinion decides, and it is not about how we happen to be feeling about ourselves. It is the response people make to what presents itself as a reality – a reality which makes claims on you". You can listen to his remarks here and make of them what you will but this part of his sermon is clear enough: In the deeply painful aftermath of the Synod’s vote last month, what was startling was how many people who certainly wouldn’t have said yes to the census question [referred to at the beginning of his sermon] turned out to have a sort of investment in the Church, a desire to see the Church looking credible and a real sense of loss when—as they saw it—the Church failed to sort its business out.

I interpreted Rowan's contorted departing message as meaning that while "Faith is not about what public opinion decides" people outside the church have some sort of investment in the church which they desire to see looking credible. In other words, they have no real interest in the church and support her even less but public opinion in its ignorance is a useful tool which conveniently 'supports' the view that Rowan and his entourage are correct on the question of women bishops while the rest of us, including the much larger universal church of East and West, are wrong and simply don't understand Jesus properly.

In the 'women bishops at any cost' campaign, the Queen's position as 'Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England' has been tossed into the debate to justify the call for women bishops with remarks such as: "The queen is the head of the Church of England; if the Queen can head the Church of England why can't we have female bishops". This shows either a lamentable ignorance of the Church of England and of the priesthood itself or it is an attempt to influence those outside the church who feel that they have some sort of an investment in the church which entitles them to an opinion on the faith of people who are being unfairly criticised by their own clergy.

It was most heartening therefore to watch the Queen's traditional Christmas Day broadcast. Her Majesty delivered a simple Christian message that could be readily understood by all with the words: "This is the time of year when we remember that God sent his only son 'to serve, not to be served'. He restored love and service to the centre of our lives in the person of Jesus Christ. It is my prayer this Christmas Day that his example and teaching will continue to bring people together to give the best of themselves in the service of others. The carol, 'In the Bleak Midwinter', ends by asking a question of all of us who know the Christmas story, of how God gave himself to us in humble service: 'What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a wise man, I would do my part'. The carol gives the answer, 'Yet what I can I give him – give my heart'." 

A clear simple message to live by Christ's example, not from a priest but from one who clearly understands the meaning of 'to serve, not to be served'. Something that the laity recognises but which has been largely forgotten by the clergy in their quest to see the Church of England relegated to the status of a Protestant sect.