Canterbury calling?

Archbishop of York (Source: Diocese of York)                                         Bishop of London  (Source: Crediton Courier)

Rumours abound that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will resign after the coronation of King Charles III.

He has said that he hoped to remain the Archbishop of Canterbury until he reaches retirement age in 2026, if he is in "good health" and "people are happy" with him in the post. 

Very many people are unhappy with Welby's performance as Archbishop of Canterbury, including the majority of Anglicans. Schism looms. Will he go?

Welby's role in turning a Christian coronation service into a multi-faith event has not gone down well. 

His 'off-piste' oath plan has backfired. "Buckingham Palace officials fear the Coronation oath could cloud the ceremony due to the criticism surrounding the 'Homage of the People'."

Those of us old enough to recall the solemnity of Queen Elizabeth's coronation will witness a different ceremony, one built around wokery to include people with entirely different beliefs, some of which reject the Christian message.

The Coronation Liturgy shows that the Epistle (Colossians 1: 9-17) is to be read by a Hindu Prime Minister. Hindus worship many gods so which god will the Prime Minister have in mind? 

Nothing seems to matter in the Church of England other than being conformed to the world.

On that score, if Welby were to retire, the Archbishop of York and the bishop of London have both shown themselves to be unsuitable.

Bishop Sarah Mullally ended  her Living in Love and Faith Presentation  with the words:

"I hope that we will not just ‘look to your own interests, but to the interests of others.’
...May God hold us in the redeeming love of Christ and bless us with the guiding
presence of the Holy Spirit.
Amen."

The guiding  presence of the Holy Spirit is evident not in the Church of England  but in GAFCON:

"Despite 25 years of persistent warnings by most Anglican Primates, repeated departures from the authority of God's Word have torn the fabric of the Communion. These warnings were blatantly and deliberately disregarded and now without repentance this tear cannot be mended."

The Archbishop of York has not heeded the message. In his presidential address at the April 2023 York synod he claimed that "We are not judged by 'doctrinal orthodoxy' but 'love', reminiscent of TEC presiding bishop Michael Curry's Love is the way!

What the Church of England needs is an Archbishop of Canterbury can bring the Church back to faith as neatly explained here by Calvin Robinson in his Common Sense Crusade.

The writing on the wall

Writing on the wall - with apologies to Rembrandt

                             

                                    MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.

                                    TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

                                    PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

Interviewed on the TV programme The Hour in April 2018 the first woman to be made bishop in Wales, Joanna Penberthy, branded anyone who disagrees with her as prejudiced. No debate. No theology. Just unsubstantiated accusations of prejudice.

There is much to question. For a start, on the validity of her orders Joanna Penberthy simply dismisses the question. She remarked, such 'prejudice' is 'water off a duck's back to her', probably because the Church in Wales has no defence for going their own way in defiance of the overwhelming majority of Christians in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. 

The ordination of women is a political tool used by feminists to further their own selfish interests. They are not interested in the welfare of the church. They care even less for the many cradle Anglicans who have found themselves excluded. Pleas not to go their separate ways were water off a ducks back to them.

They base their case on false notions of equality, distorting the meaning of Christ's redeeming love while appealing for secular support to undermine the faith of the Church. So successful has this strategy been in the Anglican Communion that feminists are now using similar tactics to attack the Roman Catholic Church.

Feminists used to claim that the Anglican Church should set an example to the secular world by breaking the stained glass ceiling as if there was no difference between the sacred and the secular. That argument is now being reversed in the Roman Catholic Church: There are female presidents and CEOs. Why are we still asking if women can lead in the church? 

Our children and grandchildren are having to cope with the fallout of the new order. There are fewer male role models for boys to identify with. Women dominate primary education. Three quarters of secondary school teachers are women. The GP and the dentist are likely to be female along with the parish priest. 

Girls and boys are forced to ignore their birth assigned sexual identity and cope with unnecessary problems of self identifying genders coupled with imposing the use of preferred pronouns. Then there is distress that can be caused following the imposition of unisex toilets and the presence of intending but not yet transgendered pupils in girls changing rooms, all of which defies logic and panders to wokery .

Anglican experience has shown that feminists are not to be trusted. They have inched their way forward with false promises to achieve their objective before undermining any agreements as they seek to get rid of any opposition.

The Church in Wales is a typical example. It prides itself as being a leader in diversity. Not in spreading the Gospel but falsely using the Gospel to achieve its ends by interpreting scripture to suit themselves. 

The bishop of Monmouth uses her patronage, enthusiastically supported by the rest of the bench, in promoting LGBT minorities, while the 'first transgender priest' wasted no time in using the Church in Wales to spread transgender propaganda, an utter distortion of the Great Commission.

The bishop of St Davids has been busy spreading party political propaganda with her motto, “Never, never, never trust a Tory”. As Dominic Lawson commented in the Mail Online "With Tory-hating political bishops like this, the church hasn't got a prayer".

This is not the first time the bishop of St Davids has brought her office into disrepute. Her Dear John letter caused great offence to elderly clergy, raising suspicions that it was her way of getting rid of faithful traditionalist clergy. She busily backpedalled after adverse publicity

According to commentators responding to a previous entry That was the Church that was, it's over, let it go?, undeterred, Joanna has been meeting clergy and lay people to explain her position. 

There is nothing more to explain. Joanna's extended absence looks increasingly like a cooling off device, hoping that her flock would forget so that she could return to duty as if nothing had happened. 

Others viewed her behaviour differently.

Angela Tilby wrote in the Church Times, Bishops have to sacrifice privacy: "The public nature of episcopal office has been understood from antiquity. Bishops are meant to be visible, to be seen and known, to be a focus of unity in the Church, and a point of mediation between Christian communities and civic authority. “He must be well-thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace. . .” (1 Timothy 3.7).

 

The writing was on the wall from the start. Penberthy's was a political appointment engineered by archbishop Barry Morgan. Others have followed. 

The rot deepens but the writing was on the wall from the start.

Some welcome words

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (left) with His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, head of Egypt's Coptic Church, at the
papal residence in Cairo. Photo: Lambeth Palace Source: Anglican Journal

Some welcome words for a change from Justin Welby, not something that can often be said of the current Archbishop of Canterbury who is noted more for his wokery than for his Christian leadership.

Calling for social care reform he said the government needed to start with the person, not financial costs. I would go along with that but what of people's spiritual health. Anglicanism is becoming increasingly secular.

How refreshing, then, to read the words of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, head of Egypt's Coptic Church:

"In an interview broadcast by an Egyptian television station on Friday, January 7th, on the occasion of Coptic Christmas, the patriarch of the largest Christian community in the Arab countries repeated in a few sentences the reasons why the Catholic Church and all the churches of the East do not have the faculty of conferring priestly ordination to women.

"The priesthood in the Church is reserved for men only, according to the will of Christ himself, who, during his public life, as highlighted in the Gospels, chose his apostles from among men, while not even the Virgin Mary 'wanted to be a priestess'. This was emphasized by the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II, pointing to the source of the teaching on the priesthood that the Catholic Church shares with all Orthodox churches and the ancient churches of the East."

A timely intervention when the Catholic Church seems hell bent on following Anglicanism on a path to destruction. 

The movement for the ordination of women is part of a job lot which starts with ordaining women deacons then 'progresses', step by step, to women priests and bishops accompanied by all the gender baggage that goes with it.

The Church ends up with lesbian bishops who claim justification for their position by interpreting scripture in a way that enhances their role based on secular views of social justice.