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.

Are you listening Archbishop?

Yoke with plough formed as a cross drawn by a pair of oxen                                                                                                                       Source: The Hans India

Using analogies of yoke and cross in his Presidential address to the Governing Body of the Church in Wales archbishop John Davies said  "Readiness and willingness to take upon ourselves that yoke and to take up that cross does however demand certain things of us. I referred, a few minutes ago, to an important process which I want to strongly commend to and urge upon you. It’s the process of listening; 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." 

Following the plough drawn by yoked oxen inevitably results in trudging through piles of excrement, something Christians seeking the truth increasingly have to wade through. 

'Listening to each other's voices' in the Church in Wales has become a one-way communication system in which orthodox Christians are expected to hear the words of revisionists and accept them in good grace even if they contradict the voices of the Father, the Teacher and the Spirit.

This sounds very much like another softening up process, particularly when the archbishop adds:

"Readiness and willingness to demonstrate that respectful and gracious attentiveness of mind, soul and spirit, to the Father, to the Teacher, to the Spirit and to each other, may sometimes mean uncomfortably humbling ourselves by being attentive to and listening to things we don’t like and would rather not even hear; things with which we might disagree profoundly. There are almost certainly items on the agenda of this meeting which some of us will, undoubtedly, view in such ways. But hear about them we must, and be respectfully attentive to those who think differently, we must, shining upon them the light of the Father’s wisdom, the light of the Teacher’s love and the light of the Spirit’s grace."

In their Update from the Bench on Same Sex Relationships Statement the bench "pledge to keep listening, listening to everyone, listening for God."

The Governing Body will learn tomorrow what Church in Wales pledges are worth after Peggy Jackson's divisive motion is put to the vote.

If this is to be a new beginning, fine, but so far there has been no obvious humility on the part of the bench or their enforcer, the Archdeacon of Llandaff. A good start can be made by dropping Jackson's motion.

If it is to be more of the same - but faster, there is no hope for the Church in Wales.

Are you listening Archbishop?