The descent of the church

Ride and stride church open day was a "huge success"                                  Photo: Church in Wales

From the Church in Wales web site: Two vicars abseiled down a church tower as hundreds turned out to walk, cycle, jog and horse ride between 13 churches which threw open their doors to the public...“The whole day went brilliantly, everybody got involved and hundreds turned out with all the various events in the churches from the bell ringing to the choir performance and the teddy bear drop being really well supported.”...Father Edwin said, “It was a fabulous day. Lots of people were saying how they had never been inside some of the churches before so it really brought out another layer of people in the parishes – which was exactly what we were aiming to do.”

Why it was thought necessary to wear a chasuble which is associated with the celebration of the Eucharist for this stunt is not clear. Indeed, on health and safety grounds alone, a loose garment capable of being caught in the ropes is singularly inappropriate even going back to its origins as a travelling garment.  

In the ninteenth century another priest, Fr Arthur Tooth, was sent to prison for defending the right to use Eucharistic vestments in the Church of England. 

From A Brief History of the early years of the Society of the Holy Cross: 

"Fr Tooth was born at Swifts Park, Cranbrook, in Kent, on June 17, 1839, and was educated at Tonbridge School, and Trinity College, Cambridge. After several short ministries he accepted the derelict living of St. James's, Hatcham. He repaired and furnished the church and began to draw a congregation. He founded a Community of Sisters and an orphanage, which served as the choir school of the church. His teaching was simple, lucid and definite, and he introduced, within a few years, most of the customs and usages that are normal in moderate churches to-day, but were then considered to be of the essence of Popery. He founded, also, the Guild of All Souls, which lives to this day. Late in 1875, the Church Association moved against Tooth, now a thirty six year old priest and an S.S.C. member for illegal ceremonial. Lord Penzance heard the case and monished Tooth to cease the illegal practices. Tooth ignored the monition as he had ignored the court and declined to obey the three-month inhibition that Penzance announced in December. On 22 January 1877 Tooth was arrested and imprisoned in Horsemonger Gaol for contempt of court l practices." ...

"On the next Sunday there were 700 people present at High Mass" -  There's the real challenge.

Odd one out

Mgr Keith Newton                Abp Barry Morgan              Abp Vincent Nichols

Two belong to the catholic church, the other just says that he does after securing agreement that women priests can be admitted to the episcopate in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church in his Province.

Wikipedia: "Catholicism (from Greek καθολικισμός, catholikismos, "according to the whole") is a broad term for describing specific traditions in the Christian churches in theology and doctrine, liturgy, ethics and spirituality. For many the term usually refers to Christians and churches, western and eastern, in full communion with the Holy See, usually known as the Catholic Church or the Roman Catholic Church. However, many others use the term to refer to other churches with historical continuity from the first millennium.

In the sense of indicating historical continuity of faith and practice, the term "Catholicism" is at times employed to mark a contrast to Protestantism, which tends to look solely to the Bible as interpreted on the principles of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation as its ultimate standard. It was thus used by the Oxford Movement."

Some Anglican Provinces have moved away from Catholicism towards Protestantism while still claiming a catholic identity, perhaps because to look solely to the Bible causes them insoluble problems. Affirming Catholicism is a classic case of serving their own interests. Using the tag "Inspiration and hope in the Anglican Communion" another source explains: "The movement represents a liberal strand of Anglo-Catholicism and is particularly noted for holding that Anglo-Catholic belief and practice is compatible with the ordination of women. It also generally supports ordination into the threefold ministry (bishops, priests, deacons) regardless of gender or sexual orientation". [My emphasis-Ed.]

Similarly, the Society of Catholic Priests draws its membership from Anglican priests who pretend to be part of the Anglo-Catholic tradition while departing from it having seen which way the wind was blowing. They make excuses about their orders not being recognised as though two wrongs make a right and claim to have reconsidered their positions after seeing the pain women suffered by not being accepted for ordination but are incapable of seeing the pain being caused to other women and men who believe that their actions are contrary to the teaching and tradition of the catholic church.

They also conveniently forget what Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher said: “We have no doctrine of our own.  We only possess the Catholic doctrine of the Catholic Church enshrined in the Catholic Creeds, and these creeds we hold without addition or diminution.  We stand firm on that rock.”

Others do not. Abp Barry Morgan is the odd one out.

You looking at me?

Photo: Global Research

The 'wise' can make compelling cases for just about everything. There is a reasoned defence by a distinguished professor who teaches law, philosophy, and divinity here of women choosing to wear the veil. There are many other opinions with highlights from the New York Times archives here. In Great Britain the general attitude is 'live and let live'.

Whether it is freedom of choice or freedom of religious expression, save for specific security or health care reasons, people in the UK are allowed to wear what they like provided they wear something. Whilst not a religious requirement, claims that wearing the veil is a religious requirement have become commonplace because Muslim scholars disagree on the subject, but claiming religious rather than cultural reasons has the effect of putting the subject off limits as Islamophobia.

In Egypt where Christians have been under constant attack there is a TV channel featuring only fully face-veiled women. But it is not all women. To quote: "There is also a big role for men at the channel. Maria TV’s owner, Ahmed Abdallah, is a prominent Salafist preacher, well known in Egypt for his anti-Christian rhetoric. Abdallah and his son Islam, the channel’s chief executive, were arrested last month for burning a Bible during a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Sept. 11."

Logic suggests that the modesty of these veiled women would be better protected using a radio show instead but then the visual effect of making the veil commonplace would be lost. In areas of Britain where Islamic influence dominates the sight of the niqab no longer raises an eyebrow - see 'Londonistan' here. Meanwhile in areas where Islamisation is in its infancy the veil actually draws attention. There is an element of cultural jihad here. In some instances the veil has become a means of Muslims thumbing their noses to the very people who have welcomed them choosing segregation in preference to integration. The gullible will see no problem with this until they become victims of exclusion in the land of their birth. In many of British cities in Britain, traditional tolerance has resulted in large areas being converted into ethnic ghettos.

'Live and let live' is not an idiom that appeals to Muslims, rather, it is do it our way, or else! While Muslims insist on their rights in this country, Christians abroad are not so fortunate, see here and here. They are not even allowed to practice their religion openly in some countries. Where it is permitted persecution prevails. In Pakistan on Sunday men, women and children not only had their clothes ripped from them but their bodies were ripped apart. This appalling act of barbarism, perhaps because it is only one of many in Muslin countries, has been almost neglected by the media. - Read Cranmer here for a full account - but beware if you are at all squeamish - and VOL here.

There are occasional protests from the Muslim community in response to acts of terror, usually when they feel vulnerable after another Muslim outrage but otherwise attacks by Muslims on non-Muslims around the world are simply brushed aside as the actions of Islamists who do not represent Muslims in general. They may not represent all Muslims but they all subscribe to the same faith which Islamists claim permits atrocities against fellow human beings, indeed, even against fellow Muslims for holding a contrary view to theirs. 

As a gesture of solidarity against Muslim terrorism women tempted to wear the veil could, if only temporarily, demonstrate their solidarity by rejecting it until Muslims eradicate the violence that shames them. Only then they will stop wondering: You looking at me?

Postscript: Veils, segregated schools and why we risk sowing the seeds of Islamic terror in Britain

From an article by Manzoor Moghal  in the Mail Online:

The aim of true multi-racialism should be to promote tolerance, understanding and integration. These are vital qualities if our increasingly diverse society is to function successfully. But while the vast majority of Muslims are tolerant people, the extremists are pushing in precisely the opposite direction. Their eagerness to impose their fundamentalist, alien values is undermining harmony, with suspicion and division rising in their place...

It’s claimed that, in defiance of all British traditions of tolerance, girls and boys are segregated at the school; that even non-Muslim staff are required to wear the hijab, the Muslim headscarf; and that stringed instruments, singing, the telling of fairy tales and even the use of the word ‘pig’ have all been banned. I am a proud Muslim — but I find this appalling. Such superstitious, divisive nonsense should have no place in a British school. We are not living in rural Pakistan or a Taliban-run region in Afghanistan. Apart from anything else, the pupils are being deprived of a proper, rounded education and therefore will not have the same life chances in adulthood.

Under the great English tradition of justice, we are all meant to be equal before the law, regardless of status, wealth or religion. Indeed, it is exactly that genuine equality under the law that has long attracted many migrants to Britain. ... Nothing imposes that sense of alienation more powerfully than the full veil, which is at the centre of a furore over whether it should be tolerated at educational colleges, or worn by hospital staff and defendants in court.

Read full article: here

Unity or division? You decide

Vatican City, Sep 19, 2013 

Quoting the Vatican II document “Lumen Gentium”, Pope Francis reminded new bishops participating in a private audience that “the Bishop is a man of communion and unity, the ‘visible principle and foundation of unity.’”

The pontiff pressed the bishops to ask themselves during their daily work, “how to live the spirit of collegiality and collaboration in the Episcopate” and how “to be builders of communion and unity in the Church the Lord has entrusted” to them.

“They call you and establish you as Pastors not from yourselves, but from the Lord; and not to serve yourselves, but to serve the flock entrusted to you, to serve it even to the point of giving your life, like Christ, the Good Shepherd.”

If they “welcome with magnanimity” and with an open door, those who are in their care, said the Pope, “will experience the paternity of God and understand how the Church is a good mother that always loves and welcomes them.” The Holy Father also imparted to the new bishop’s the necessity to journey with one’s flock, a journey which cannot be completed without affection for his priests and his presence among his people.

Lampeter, Sep 12, 2013

THE Bench of Bishops of the Church in Wales will "not please everybody" with a code of practice containing provisions for those who dissent from women bishops, the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, has said.

Dr Morgan said that he did not know why the issue of women bishops caused so much more anguish than other contentious issues facing the Church. "Some people feel that it is unbiblical, that it is against the tradition, and that we are at variance with the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church.

"Well, we are at variance with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. If that was the only issue that divided us, I would say: 'Well, let's hang on a minute.' But, of course, the Roman Catholic Church doesn't actually recognise our orders.

Jerusalem, AD 33

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

First woman bishop in the British Isles imposed by House of Bishops

Bishop elect, the Rev Pat Storey                                                             Photo: PA

From a report in the Telegraph, the Rev Pat Storey, rector of St Augustine's in Derry, has been 'elected' by the Church of Ireland as the new Bishop of Meath and Kildare. The appointment was 'passed by the House of Bishops after the Episcopal Electoral College failed to elect a successor in May'.

Picking up the story, Hayley Dixon the Telegraph reporter emphasises the pressure on the Church of England: The Church of England is now increasingly isolated the only Anglican church in the British Isles to remain opposed to the idea, and Mrs Storey's appointment is likely to intensify pressure for the church to resolve its crisis over the issue. 

I am not sufficiently familiar with the politics of the Church of Ireland, or in Scotland for that matter, but in England and Wales, despite assurances to the contrary, very rarely is anyone appointed to the episcopate unless they subscribe to the current fad for advancing the cause of women's ordination. I have lost count of the number of clergy who changed sides when it became a bread and butter issue rather than Bread and Wine.

A report in the Church Times today puts the recent vote in the Church in Wales in a different light from the claims printed in the official journal Highlights making it look ever more likely as a fix: "The debate on the amendment lasted longer than the debate on the Bill itself. It was passed by 72 votes in favour to 46 against. There were six abstentions...The House of Bishops declined their constitutional right to consult privately before voting, and supported the Bill unanimously." 

A two-stage approach had been endorsed by the Governing Body last September but an amendment tabled by the Archdeacon of Llandaff, the Ven. Peggy Jackson, replaced those clauses with new ones instructing the Bench of Bishops to agree a code of practice without delay. The fact that the bishops went ahead and voted unanimously for the amended Bill without consultation suggested to some that there had been an element of collusion in the process. I am not surprised.

Just a game for some!              Photo: Church Times

After the vote the Archbishop said "we will produce the Code of Practice. That's what the Bill says, that's what we've been entrusted to do, and that is what we will do." From the Church Times report: "In the debate on the amended Bill, the Bishop of St Asaph went through some of the theological arguments against women bishops. "I'm not sure if I find these arguments shocking, or laughable, but it is not a tradition that I can defend....Arguments about complementarity and the representation of the persona Christi  were "essentially modern, and only came to the fore when the older arguments had lost their force", he said. "All this is beginning to look to me like a prejudice looking for a theology rather than a theology governing tradition." Hardly encouraging for those now forced to look to a code of practice. In response Canon Tudor Hughes (St Asaph) argued that the amended Bill took away the opportunity for "members of the Governing Body to explore together effectively the provision that traditionalists need to secure a lasting place in the Church in Wales.

"We were given an assistant provincial bishop: that was removed. We were given a Bill with a second Bill: that was removed. How can we be assured that the code of practice won't be removed? We have been assured that we have an honoured place. It doesn't feel like that."

Next stop the Church of England where the Holy Spirit is being similarly manipulated. Press and public will continue to voice their faithless anger aiding the revisionists to produce their required result. One has to wonder what these people actually believe.

What should a Code of Practice do?

The Ven. F A Jackson's church received a grant of £500,000 to save the Seven Deadly Sins 
  Credit Clerical Whispers

It is instructive to compare what the Bishop of St Asaph had to say about a code of practice when he proposed the legislation to allow women bishops in the Church in Wales with the long term aim of the amendment mover, Canon Peggy Jackson, as she then was, in her GRAS paper for WATCH in 2009. Bishop Gregory said: "The problems are formidable—there are questions of conscience, of not creating second class bishops, of not creating second class fellowships, of providing fruitful avenues of sacramental and pastoral care for all". Almost encouraging had it not been for the reference to creating second class bishops.

WATCH women constantly make the claim that separate sacramental and pastoral provision would make female bishops second class bishops. Presumably this is a gender fixation because I have not heard any complaints from diocesan bishops about being second class bishops in areas where PEVs have been administering sacramental and pastoral care. The 'second class' bishop claim is a simple ruse which deceives the gullible into believing that a great injustice is being perpetrated because everything has to be 'equal' in today's world, ie, the same. A fuller explanation of mono-episcopacy can be read here. This is a comparatively recent concept which becomes clearer if the earlier meaning of epískopos, 'overseer' is substituted.

The code of practice strategy is a pretence designed to appear fair-minded by implying provision when what is offered is known to be unacceptable putting dissenters in a situation of accept it or leave . Elsewhere in society that would be regarded as pure deception. Nevertheless, the former Treasurer of  the Society for the Ministry of Women in the Church, now defunct,  the Ven. Peggy Jackson advocated this strategy in her 2009 WATCH paper summarised thus:

Therefore the Code should:

• be simple

• be mutual (applying equally to both sides, e.g. in the

  Diocese of Chichester)

• introduce no change in the understanding or definition of

  episcopacy

• define no special categories of bishops, or differential

  ways of exercising the role of bishop, arising out of issues

  of gender

• be operated and upheld by trust, in preference to law.

Her message is clear but what is galling is that this duplicity comes from a woman who admits that she had no religion until she was welcomed into the church in her hour of need after her husband left her. Such is her gratitude that she is prepared to see cradle Anglicans who welcomed her forced out of their church because they cannot agree with her interpretation of her acquired faith.

Also back in the frame is the Archbishop's last disaster in illjudged senior appointments, the Very (short term) Rev. Janet Henderson. She has emerged from ecclesiastical hibernation to bang the feminist drum again (bang, bang, bang here) demanding no surrender in the Church of England. It says much for Dr Morgan that he couldn't achieve his ambition, even with the connivance of his bench sitters, without feminist assistance from outside the Province. On the evidence available it appears that spirituality is not the Archbishop's first consideration which may explain his distaste for orthodoxy and his lack of consideration for worshippers not sympathetic to his revisionist policies.

There is no pretence of care for dissenters from the briefly Dean of Llandaff, just faithless propaganda designed to appeal to the ignorant who are urged to exert pressure on the church even though they ridicule religion and religious practice. From her new blog:
"The Anglican churches of England and Wales need to wake up and realise it is ten to midnight. It is not possible for the church to offer a moral lead when we are so fundamentally caught up in supporting and perpetuating attitudes that devalue and dehumanise women, gay people and victims of abuse. Such collusion with oppression is completely unacceptable to almost everyone in society in the same way that human trafficking and exploiting children as soldiers and for sexual purposes are beyond the pail (but have not always been so). To continue to justify these attitudes seems to most people outside the church contrary to the gospel and makes fools of Christians." And if her view does not prevail, go back to Synod again and again until the sisterhood get their own way. Anyone who doesn't accept their terms can leave. So much for the fruit of the Spirit!

The absurdity of this 'moral' lead is that by implication, it condemns Christ for criminal negligence in failing to see that by appointing only male apostles He condemned women to a lifetime of oppression and sexual abuse. If WATCH women really want to aid the oppressed they should get off their backsides and do something about it instead of attacking the faith of people who have maintained the Anglican church long enough for entrists to abuse them with their absurd claims of discrimination.

So what should a code of practice do?  In GRAS/WATCH terms, first and foremost it must give the impression of generosity. It must ensure that - you have to laugh at this one - introduce no change in the understanding or definition of episcopacy (ie, after they have changed it). It must define no special categories of bishops, or differential ways of exercising the role of bishop - thus effectively nullifying any semblance of sacramental and pastoral care. Don't make it legal in case there is something they haven't thought of to exclude anyone who disagrees with them.

A former Archbishop of Wales said that the devil had been at work when a previous vote on the ordination of women was lost. He was right but not on that occasion. If the promises of the present Archbishop prove to be a sham then the Governing Body vote will be seen as a fraud. In those circumstances a new measure should be put to the Governing Body under a new Archbishop using honesty rather than deception .

Dr Morgan wins, the church loses.Picture: Highlights

Starbucks service

Out of the same mould? Abp Morgan and Canon Wigley enjoying the moment in Lampeter. Photos: BBC

A former Dean of Llandaff was fond of saying that he liked women with balls, ie, loud.  Womanly virtues were secondary.

The vote engineered by the softly-spoken but utterly ruthless Dr Morgan and the vocal Canon Wigley effectively emasculates the Church in Wales. In the words of the Ven. Peggy Jackson who co-sponsored the fatal cut, the Church in Wales has changed for ever. Not just Wales. These women and their sycophantic supporters will stop at nothing to achieve dominance. Calls for equality will evaporate.

Members of  WATCH are eagerly licking their lips in preparation to deliver the fatal blow to the Church of England with the collusion of their weak-kneed bishops. Canon Wigley said she hoped women in the Church of England would be encouraged by the result: "Sisters across Offa's Dyke, look to us," she said.

One of the 'sisters' in England, the Archbishop of Canterbury's new Acting Press Officer intrigued me after the news that according to the 2011 census the City of Norwich was rated the most godless city in England. She claimed that the good people of Norwich are "doing their church-going differently". The answer to that puzzle may be found in the Church in Wales Membership and Finances 2012 (here).

The report indicates that while Easter communicants, average Sunday attendance and Electoral Roll membership have fallen by close to 50% in the last twenty years, statistics gathered over the last two years suggest that there is growth in the Church’s work in non-traditional forms of activity with people of all ages. Termed “Other Acts of Worship” these include:

• Cafe style worship, and pub Bible study;

• Healing services;

• Pet and other animal blessing services;

• Messy church;

• Discipleship groups;

• Taize-inspired services;

• Quiet times and meditations;

• Singing groups and music projects for children;

• Celtic services and Benedictine compline.

Perhaps the ever popular 'coffee' services can be expanded and sponsored by Starbucks to provide people with what they want without commitment together with an element of financial security.

For now the girls will need lots of patience. Barry has his tail up. He is the oldest bishop but will be in no hurry to retire and then there is the inevitable question of downsizing. When a vacancy does arise there will be calls from those who constantly claim discrimination to appoint a women regardless of the abilities of male candidates. By then the scales will have fallen from the eyes of male clerical supporters and they will see that they have no future, the end of Anglicanism many of us have known and loved since childhood.

For the present Barry's next aim will be same-sex marriage in church. He has already expressed his firm approval of gay bishops so his dream retirement present will be two lesbian bishops coming to plight their troth under Jacob Epstein's Majestas as the new £1.5m organ in his bankrupt cathedral blasts out: "Here come the brides".

Lining up at Governing Body                                                        Picture: BBC