The future?

To gain a better understanding of boosting rural churches amid falling congregation numbers the Church in Wales is urging people of all ages and backgrounds to get involved and have their say in shaping the future of rural churches in their communities. - Powys County Times

Commentators may have their say but will anyone be listening if what is said is not what 'progressive' Anglican bishops want to hear?

One newspaper report claims that a witch, Harmony Nice, has so many devotees on social media she is outdoing the Church of England. She boasts "more than one million followers on YouTube and Instagram combined, compared to the church’s 335,000."

The archiepiscopal diocese of Swansea and Brecon has dabbled there but with entirely different results.

In 1996 the Church in Wales claimed a membership in excess of 91,000. Regular Sunday adult attendance slumped to just over 26,000 in 2018 and probably lower when the 2019 figures are published.

In their attempt to become more relevant to society, parts of the Anglican Communion have departed so far from the Christian message that they appear more akin to an arm of social services.

A highlight of the Church in Wales 2020 celebrations is a visit to the Welsh province by the Archbishop of Canterbury, described by The Conservative Woman as the 'Archbishop of Woke' who 'slanders his own flock' after he apologised for the Church of England being ‘deeply, institutionally’ racist.

The Gospel message is no longer good enough for progressive Anglicans.

The result can be seen in the above photographs published by Mail Online in 2013:

"The photo on the left shows St Mary's Church in Cable Street while the photo on the right shows worshippers gathered for Friday midday prayers outside a nearby mosque in Spitalfields, both in East London.

"What these pictures suggest is that, on current trends, Christianity in this country is becoming a religion of the past, and Islam is one of the future."

Postscript [19.02.2020]

From A Badge of Disgrace: The Fall of the Boy Scouts

"Right now, too many churches, Christian colleges, even businesses are dangerously close to making the same mistake [as The Boy Scouts of America]. They're so desperate or fearful -- or both -- that they're willing to water down who they are to protect the small space they're standing on. There's just one problem: the gospel's truth isn't up for negotiation. And in their rush to soften the blow of its confrontation, some believers are selling out their identity as followers of Jesus."

Women in the Church

The 'dark' side.

"Women bishops would humanise the priesthood" said the then Archbishop of Canterbury in 2011. Dr Rowan Williams warned the Church hierarchy to prepare for the “culture change” that would come with the “full inclusion” of women. Not the full inclusion the Archbishop would have expected. Instead it is inclusion to the exclusion of anyone with views not in accord with Women and the Church (WATCH) and their fellow travellers as highlighted by the "Sheffield controversy".

At the time Ann Widdecombe was closer to the truth when she said,  "Christianity in Britain today is under severe persecution. And it will get much worse. I do not resent this persecution. I welcome it. For it will weed out the pseudo-Christians, the wimpish bishops and the caved-in Synod. By persecution we discover who our true friends actually are." In 2017 that has come to pass.

Feminists have mercilessly used the Church for their own political ends. On the face of it WATCH ran a legitimate campaign, as they saw it, for the ordination of women. But, as with the world wide web, there is a dark side. A deception which has been gnawing away at the soft underbelly of Anglicanism. Say anything, do anything to gain the advantage. Thus the five guiding principles were agreed allowing women to become bishops in the Church of England. Perhaps they were crossing their fingers behind their backs as they voted but either way, they have reneged on the agreement rendering the whole procedure untenable.

Critics of WATCH were accused of misogyny from the earliest days when Canon Lucy Winkett said in a keynote speech, "Never mind Gordon Ramsay, we have in modern society a new F-word: Feminism." Extracts from her speech can be read here, eg,

Now women are on the inside, are exercising authority in
state and church, although the power is not yet equally
shared and the pay is certainly not equal. We are in a
new situation; I am not here to make a case for women
to be bishops – that case is obvious...

From the historical perspective of exclusion, women are
able to speak with authority from long centuries of marginalisation,
to bring these perspectives into the decision
making structures of society and church.

In the West, we live in a half changed world. There are
now very few areas of public life not open to women –
except those protected by organised religion."

In their campaign WATCH have used Christian values as a weapon to secure an advantage over their target audience, secularists and Anglicans who have been brought up on 'love thy neighbour', 'turn the other cheek', etc. Many have been bullied into submission for fear of being branded un-Christian while the majority outside the Church either do not care or have become so secularised they no longer understand the issues. When Bishop Philip North withdrew from his appointment as Bishop of Sheffield a BBC News reader said it was because 'his congregation' had complained.

Similar tactics, including false accusations, are being used by LGBT campaigners to bully the Bench of Bishops of the Church in Wales into appointing the Dean of St Albans to Llandaff. In an undignified campaign Members of Parliament have become involved. They have been led to believe that Dr John has suffered discrimination because he is in a civil partnership.

The MPs wrote "We understand that Dr John, a fluent Welsh speaker, was born in Tonyrefail in 1953. He grew up there and went to Hertford College, Oxford where studied both Classics and Modern Languages and was awarded a First. He was ordained to a title at Holy Nativity, Penarth. From Penarth he went back to Oxford to study for a DPhil and became Dean of Divinity to Magdalen College."

Many Welsh Anglicans have been asking themselves why, as a fluent Welsh speaker, Dr John was not appointed to St Davids in what looks more than ever like the politically motivated appointment of the first woman bishop in Wales. A gay priest and friend of Dr John’s for 40 years said "There’s homophobia everywhere but that’s no reason to stop a gay person from becoming a Bishop."

It is not homophobia and not because Dr John is gay and living in a civil partnership. The reasons why Dr John was rejected are open to speculation but for Church members who have been alerted to the controversy it is because he has campaigned for same sex marriage in Church which was rejected by the Governing Body. Moreover, he has used an unorthodox interpretation of the Bible account of the healing of the centurion’s servant in Luke 7 to justify his stance.

Looking to feminism, to gay rights or any other secular cause to swell congregations is not what the Church is about. That has failed. Decline continues. False claims by campaigners are leading astray a politically correct audience for selfish, political ends. That is not the Way of the Cross.

WITCH way

House of Bishops’ Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests

Chrism Masses: Report of the Independent Reviewer

"Part of the package enabling the consecration of women to the episcopate in the Church
of England was the introduction of a process for the resolution of disputes relating to the
operation of the House of Bishops’ Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests
(GS Misc 1076). The Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests (Resolution of
Disputes Procedure) Regulations 2014 provide for the appointment of an Independent
Reviewer to consider individual grievances from a parish as well as more general
expressions of concern arising from the operation of the House of Bishops’ Declaration.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, with the concurrence of the Chairs of the
Houses of Clergy and Laity of the General Synod, confirmed my appointment to this new
role which took effect from 17 November 2014.

2. On 13 April 2015, Hilary Cotton, Chair of Women and the Church (‘WATCH’) wrote to
me expressing WATCH’s concern about the fact that a number of chrism masses were to
be held in 2015, as in former years, at which bishops of the Society of St Wilfrid and St
Hilda (‘the Society’) – an ecclesial community dedicated to maintaining catholic teaching
and practice within the Church of England – would preside. Ms Cotton asked in what
possible way continuing these occasions honoured the five principles embodied in the
House of Bishops’ Declaration, in particular the first two of those principles and the call
in the Declaration to promote mutual flourishing...."

“Mutual flourishing is, we believe, not meant to be about each group flourishing
independently, ‘tolerating’ the other’s presence, but flourishing together even
though that causes tension – which is why all clergy renewing their vows
together would seem to be a case in point.” - Chair of WATCH

Now that women bishops are part of the structure of the Church of England, that mean-spirited, feminist group,WATCH seek to unpick the agreement which gave them what they wanted so that

"those within the Church of England who, on grounds of theological
conviction, are unable to receive the ministry of women bishops or
priests continue to be within the spectrum of teaching and tradition of
the Anglican Communion, the Church of England remains committed to
enabling them to flourish within its life and structures",

'flourishing' can be only on WITCH terms. True to form!

The complaint was not upheld. Report here.

With crisis reports appearing such as "Demise of Christianity: 1,000 churches could shut across Britain as congregations shrink" and "'Gay marriage' all about attacking Christianity, says author" one would have thought there were more pressing issues but the feminist cause must be served regardless. Their campaign has always been motivated by politics rather than spirituality no matter what the cost, especially to others who do not share their distorted view of the Apostolic Church.

See also "WATCH your backs - they really are hunting you" on the Let nothing you dismay Blog.

Postscript [10/08/2015]

A report from the Independent Reviewer regarding All Saints, Cheltenham:
In multi-parish team benefices, licences issued to female assistant clergy (other than members of the Team) should specify the nature and extent of the ministry they are authorized to undertake in resolution parishes." H/T Forward in Faith

Postscript [14/08/2015]

From Ruth Gledhill " The CofE needs a fresh start to reconcile its differences" here.

The witch, the crone, Christina Rees and others

The Rev Crone

Not satisfied with what Women and the Church (WATCH) has done to reduce the Anglican Church in Great Britain to a pale reflection of her former glory, its former Chair and "prominent Church of England campaigner", Christina Rees, will be among the speakers at a conference in Philadelphia later this year of the Catholic movement for women's ordination, Women's Ordination Worldwide. (H/T Ruth Gledhill).

The BBC's Religious affairs correspondent, Caroline Wyatt, recently posed the question: Is the UK still a Christian country? The answer was 'Yes'. But based on analyses by the US Pew Research Center, the conclusions suggest that in the UK, if current trends continue, the proportion of the population identifying themselves as Christians will fall from 64% in 2010 to 45% by 2050, while the proportion of Muslims will rise from 5% to 11%. The proportion of the population claiming no religion in the UK - the "unaffiliated" - will also rise significantly, from 28% to 39%.

One would have thought that alarm bells would be ringing but no, feminism, LGBT and what is absurdly labeled 'equality' is all today. Faith and regular worship have been sidelined.

Ruth Gledhill was reporting on the latest in the Westminster Faith Debates series at London's "liberal flagship church", St James' Piccadilly. Among the guest speakers was the Rev Kate Bottley, described as a 'Gogglebox tv' vicar. She amused her audience by relating a story about how she had told her hairdresser that she was coming to London to take part in the debate on women bishops and the difference they can make. "What's a bishop?" her hairdresser asked. After the vicar explained, the hairdresser said she did not know what the Church of England was either.

If the Rev Kate Bottley's hairdresser, or anyone else wants to know what a real bishop is like, they should watch this video as Bishop Mark Lawrence speaks to his text from Hebrews 12: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith".

But the event wasn't about traditional Christian values. Adam Dinham, the only man on the panel, and who is married to a Muslim man, and who was there as director of the Faiths and Civil Society Unit at Goldsmiths, which sponsored the event, said he had wanted the evening to celebrate and think about the contribution of women as faith leaders in the Anglican community as well as other religions and traditions".

Represented among these religions and traditions were a "leading witch and herbalist" who shared the Church of England platform with the Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church, the Most Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori and Helene Mobius, who heads the prison chaplain ministry of the Pagan Federation who challenged stereotypes of women. She said, Paganism had a "deep reverence" for both the feminine and masculine, not in a partnered but in a "conjoined" sense. This was not to diminish the role of God because without His "fertile seed" the cycle of life could not continue. However, she criticised the debasement of women in society which had seen words such as "crone", which once meant "elder", used as a term to mean something quite different.

She explained: "The word crone does not mean wizened old cackling pagan". Instead it referred to a woman who had passed beyond menstruation. It was the "passage of the mother becoming grandmother, no longer able, thankfully, to reproduce." This led to some discussion about whether there should be an authorised liturgy in the Church to mark the menopause.

Given the number of menopausal women clergy that idea must have been received with some impact. Perhaps the honorific, the Rev Crone could be introduced to make the Church of England more relevant to paganism? And why not? There are calls for a service to meet just about every occasion, the most recent being for a service to "celebrate transgender identity like a Baptism" (here). In fact, there seems to be more of an appetite for celebrating the extraordinary than for the straight forward worship of Almighty God, particularly on a Sunday by "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith".

Which brings me back to the Googlebox tv vicar. She is "all for a mid-week church service" so that she can have a "Sunday lie-in" (here). A joke perhaps but many a true word spoken in jest. She added, "I don't think declining church numbers are down to a loss of faith rather increasing pressure on people's time. Perhaps the Church could recognise this." Or, as the Archdeacon of Norwich, Ven Jan McFarlane put it in response to the revelation that Norwich is the most godless city in England: the citizens of Norwich are "doing their churchgoing differently", ie, staying away.

In new Anglicanism the daily Eucharists have been eroded and Sunday Masses cut so busy people are less able to make their Communion compared with the Roman Catholic Church yet these women want to spread their brand of Christianity to do for the Catholic Church what they have done for Anglicanism.

For millennia the Word of God has been received through the Bible. It is being replaced by the opinions of feminists, LGBT pressure groups and any other so-called 'equality' groups obsessed with 'sameness', interpreting Holy Scripture to suit the latest 'equality' cause. Do they not know, or do they conveniently forget, that "for just as each of us has one body with many members, these members do not all have the same function"?

The Rev Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James', said that it mattered not so much that women were bishops and priests, as "how" they were bishops and priests. The authority held by a woman will be held "differently" from that held by a man. How true, but probably not what she meant. If she had been interested in biblical authority, she need only have referred to 1Timothy 3:2. The revisionists long argued that we were all the same but having achieved their aims, women now have to be seen as different.

A fuller report in the Church Times quotes Presiding Bishop Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori as saying that women could offer a "witness to the otherness of God" as could gay bishops, or those who were young, or old, or from BME backgrounds. "White, male, English-speaking bishops with degrees from Oxford or Cambridge are only one sort," she said. "They cannot image the fullness of God."

And there was me thinking that the 'otherness of God' was represented by mystery and holiness.

Perhaps the flavour of the event was best captured by another guest speaker, Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner. She was "applauded for her moving acapella solo of The Lord's My Shepherd, sung with female instead of male pronouns"! That certainly is different.

Here is the panel:

The panel: (back row left to right) Adam Dinham, director of Faith and Civil Society Unit,
Goldsmiths, University of London;  Helene Mobius, Pagan Federation prison ministry manager;
 Saleha Islam, director of the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre; Ms Winkett; Dr Schori; Hilary Cotton,
chair of WATCH; Professor Linda Woodhead, director of the Westminster Faith Debates;
 (front row left to right) the Dean of the Diocese of Kootenay, British Colombia, Nissa Basbaum;
 Mrs Bottley; Bharti Tailor, executive director of the Hindu Forum of Europe; Laura Janner-Klausner,
senior rabbi to the Movement for Reform Judaism.                           Source: Church Times