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| 'Chez Barry' built on former Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff land. There's unity for you bach! |
If readers think that Archbishop Barry Morgan's retirement pad looks like a prison block, most will no doubt be happy that he is retiring there but the
specifications are far more grandiose. From the outside it appears that he has taken his inspiration from the Hajj in Mecca which will not surprise readers who recall his preference for putting the
interests of his Muslim chums before members of his own church who have remained faithful to the wider Anglican Communion.
Whatever your views, 31 January 2017 is a great day for the Church in Wales. One which has not come soon enough for many who have despaired of Dr Morgan's complete disregard for anyone who disagrees with his vision of a secularised church. As usual Llandaff diocesan office has gone into overdrive leading with their own valedictory
appraisal of Morgan's ministry which has been dutifully picked up as an Establishment item by the
BBC and
ITV, but much slower in the press, example
here. Perhaps they have rumbled him at last after reading the official release.
An unelected politician in vestments, Dr Morgan has used the influence of his office to push a personal, liberal agenda. He has appointed acolytes eager to do his bidding advancing their own careers at the expense of others. A glaring example is seen in the Ass Bishop of Llandaff's letter to diocesan clergy in preparation for Barry's ticket only leaving ceremony in Llandaff Cathedral on Sunday in which he appears to liken Barry Morgan to Jesus Christ. A typical example of deluded obsequiousness, here is an extract from the letter in which the Ass+ claims "The Archbishop’s final service on Sunday will rightly be his hour":
"Archbishop Barry is supremely a mountain top person, who has looked wide to horizons far beyond those who toil on the plain. Volcanoes are exciting if dangerous places, and surprise us with heat and light and molten rocks which change the landscape for ever, and the Archbishop has had the nerve and courage to do that. In the words of Cardinal Basil Hume, he has been a bishop who has come to where people are and taken them to places they have never dreamt of going.
"
Of all the five archbishops I have worked with, Barry is the one who has most displayed the hallmarks of our Lord, surely the ultimate mountain with attitude! Unashamed of his own tenderness, he has a deep and genuine compassion for the underdog and marginalised, and has been a champion for the people of Wales, so often down-trodden. Prophetic to the core of his being, he has been unafraid to overturn tables and fiercely denounce white-washed sepulchres. It seems fitting that Candlemas is on the horizon for his final days as Archbishop, a faithful servant of the one whom Simeon predicted ‘was destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, to be a sign to be opposed, with the inner thoughts of many laid bare – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’ "
Much has been made of Dr Morgan being the longest serving Archbishop in the Anglican Communion. If length of service were a measure of success Robert Mugabe would be way out in front. Based on Church in Wales own membership
figures, over 99% of the population do not attend Barry Morgan's church so any understanding of the Anglican faith by the population at large and the media in particular will be negligible at best. From a position of profound ignorance they confidently report on matters of faith as if it were a secular issue affecting people in the workplace.
As in the Church of England, the Church in Wales has been targeted by a
feminist onslaught which has left many cradle Anglicans with nowhere to express their faith sacramentally, something deliberately orchestrated by Barry and his bench sitters and enthusiastically
engineered by the Archdeacon of Llandaff who takes the view that people can leave the church she joined later in life if they do not like what has been inflicted upon them.
None of this is reported in the media let alone explained. The new drive by the bench is to have gay marriage in church accepted. This has been Barry Morgan's ministry. He claims the support of the bench and the Governing Body, most of whom owe their position to Morgan's patronage. His mission has effectively wrecked the Church in Wales in pursuit of political ambition without the courage to test his convictions at the ballot box.
His methods of operation have been devious. Consultations have been ignored when the bench has disagreed with the outcome resulting in much dissatisfaction. So what has Barry Morgan done to deserve the praise and adulation heaped upon him? It cannot be his success as a Pastor because the Church in Wales is predicted to become extinct within a generation. It is because he has followed secular fads to the point of adapting scripture to suit his case which has earned him the dishonorific '
Bullshitter' Barry Morgan: "
To claim that they can interpret the Bible in a manner that condones and blesses what it explicitly and unambiguously forbids and prohibits is bullshit par excellence".
Claiming to have been "
gobsmacked" when buggin's turn resulted in him being elected as Archbishop of Wales in 2003 he said, "God has made me a different kind of person" [from his predecessor, Archbishop Rowan Williams] and consequently I can only bring the gifts he's given me to the job." Whatever he thought those gifts were, none has been of any benefit to the church.
The sign to the left was spotted in 'The Lion' in Criccieth. In 1986 Barry Morgan was appointed Archdeacon of Meirionnydd and Rector of Criccieth with Treflys. Could this be where his views on the ordination of women were formed?
He was later to claim to have been '
astonished' that when he 'trained for the ministry' in the early 1970s, he did not even question why the ordained ministry was restricted to men. Only in his little world has it changed.
His triumphalism at the consecration of the bishop of St Davids diminished the Church. There was nothing spiritual or uplifting. Simply that '
I have done it'. Dr Morgan
said “I can’t think of a nicer way to end my ministry – it is fantastic.” The price? A diminished church which has left many cradle Anglicans. Hardly worthy of praise.
Dr Morgan said in his
address at the consecration of the bishop of St Davids, “
The Church in Wales can now claim to be a universal Church”. Unless he deludes himself in having set up another universal Church, the 'universal Church', the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church does not share the Archbishops views. In fact the Orthodox and Catholic churches wholeheartedly reject them as do the majority of Anglicans. It is so disappointing to have to read public plaudits for a man who has done so much damage to the Church while enhancing his own profile.
In doing so he has displayed an amazing schoolboy naivety. Obsessed with as sense of
equality which is reduced to sameness, his own sense of justice has led him to penalise those who fail to follow him. If he recognised that the body is made of many parts, though many, still making up one body, he would have been much the wiser.
Remember the giants of the Church in Wales before bishops were replaced by '
prefects'. Five held Oxford Firsts in Theology. Need one say more?
