Bad company ruins good morals

Baroness Morgan in St Davids Cathedral Library for #BibleSunday                              Source: Twitter @StDavCathLib 

The quote from Corinthians "Do not be deceived: 'Bad company ruins good morals' " sits uneasily under the hashtag link #BibleSunday in the photograph associated with this St Davids Cathedral Library tweet.

Baroness Eluned Morgan must have been keeping bad company according to a BBC News item.

She told the BBC that she will give up her peerage and title if she becomes first minister adding, "A difficult decision because I'm very proud of the work that I have done in the House of Lords: to help promote gay marriage...". [My emphasis - Ed.]

A curious message after viewing a display of ancient bibles in the Cathedral library. Perhaps she was searching for a reference in support of gay marriage in holy scripture after listening to errant bishops promote same sex marriage rather than the sanctity of Holy Matrimony:

"The introduction to the Church in Wales Marriage Service describes marriage as a gift from God.  The Bible teaches that marriage is a life-long, faithful union between a man and a woman, and compares married love with the love Jesus has for his people – a love expressed in his willing sacrifice of himself on the cross."

St Davids has become a hotbed of feminist intrigue under the first female bishop to be appointed in the Church in Wales whose driving force is most noticeable when advancing her LGBT agenda along with the bishop of Llandaff.

More recently +Joanna has been condemned for her misandry after being caught out ridding her diocese of elderly male clergy after years of faithful service to the Church.

Such clergy have devoted their lives to preaching the Gospel according to scripture and tradition, unlike many of the new breed of clergy who have 'come to faith' later in life with the notion that the Church has been in error for 2,000 years.

Sadly the baroness has been caught up in the whole sorry mess, another example of "Ministry and Equality in the Church in Wales" advocated by MAE Cymru voicing the values of a "fair and just society" as they see them. (Scroll down in the link to MAECYMRU NETWORKING LUNCH JULY 2018).

Bishops' legacy

"Brilliant MAECymru net-working lunch hosted by +Joanna & St David’s Diocese group on Saturday."
Source: Twitter @StaryMallard

This Tweet well illustrates the driving ambition of bishops in the Church in Wales today.

The fruits of a drive by theologically inept bishops to follow fashionable trends in society, putting their own spin in scripture and tradition. .

High on their list of priorities is their campaign for same sex marriage.

Do not be deceived.

They do not represent the remaining devout women and men in the pews.

Over the centuries faithful women have kept their heads down, praying to the Father as His Son taught us to pray.

They are appalled by the 'babies by baster' culture supported by  feminist organisations which regard children as an entitlement, denying them a normal family life, nurtured by a father and a mother as God intended.

When feminists demand that God be referred to as 'she', they mean a woman in their own image.

God help us!

Pilgrimage

Source: Fr Michael Fisher, New Directions

In the October issue of Forward in Faith's magazine, New Directions Fr Michael Fisher pays homage at the windswept chapel of St Non in Pembrokeshire - 'In the steps of pilgrims'.

Pilgrimage is a hot topic in the Church in Wales, particularly in Llandaff where Bishop June has decided that the Llandaff Clergy School in 2019 will take the form of a no expenses spared pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain.

Perhaps +June was unaware that much closer to home St Davids Cathedral has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. In the twelfth century Pope Calixtus II declared that the shrine was so important that two pilgrimages to St Davids were equivalent to one to Rome and three were equivalent to one to Jerusalem.

The extract from Michael Fisher's article illustrates the harsh reality for traditionalist pilgrims in Wales. Given the increasing number of women clergy the chances are that pilgrims who are unable on grounds of conscience to receive the sacramental ministry of women will be denied the opportunity of receiving Holy Communion when visiting St Davids Cathedral.

Elevating secular issues above theology, Joanna Penberthy has said she finds it hard to take that a group of people see women as "that different". Either she has no grasp of the issues involved or she simply lacks any sense of charity by ignoring them.

If, as a bishop, she thinks it is hard for her she  should spare a thought for those in her care who are suffering the results of feminist ambitions in the Church in Wales. Faithful women and men, often cradle Anglicans, have been left with absolutely nothing after years of Anglican devotion.

As bishop-elect of St Davids, Joanna Penberthy commented:
 "As someone who in the early years was at the receiving end of prejudice and discrimination, I have absolutely no intention of dishing that out so I think it's important that everybody feels free to be honest about their opinions and about their misgivings."

When challenged +Joanna was forced to admit that the alleged discrimination amounted to nothing more than a difference of opinion. Whether she has a short memory or has had a change of heart, the evident misandry in her attack on faithful, elderly male clergy under her care illustrates the 'couldn't care less unless you are one of us' attitude of the bench of bishops and many of the newly ordained clergy, echoing the infamous claim “There is no place for you in this church”.

If Joanna Penberthy is, as archbishop Barry Morgan claimed, "the best person to be a bishop" that doesn't say much of the rest of the bench. By their fruits you will know them!

The bench of bishops appear to be completely ignorant of the fact that within a generation there will be no Church in Wales for anyone to find a place in according to expert opinion here which confirms a conclusion reached back in 2015 here.

Doubters among the few remaining Anglicans who still regularly attend diminishing services should look around at the aging faces with no young families to provide future congregations for the new brand of clergy who committed to change, usually for their own benefit.

Whether they see it or not, former bishops have been heard to say that the Church in Wales is finished.

A sad end for faithful pilgrims.

Dear John letter

"Mr Jones' licence is due to be revoked at the end of the year"                                       Source: BBC

LMAs are not a brilliant idea according to the bishop of St Davids. Well, she has her sponsor Barry Morgan to thank for that.

In her address to the St Davids diocesan conference she said, "Unfortunately we do not have the money to keep our normal, proper, well-tried, well-loved and best way of being local church which is having paid stipendiaries as near as possible to a few churches where they can get to know and love everybody. If we could do that. If God would supply us with the money then that is what I would do."

I don't know what the good people of in Cilcennin, Ystrad Aeron, Trefilan and Cribyn will make of that statement.

Their beloved priest, an 82-year-old retired vicar has been told that he can no longer carry out church services because he is "too old to be covered by insurance".

He has been voluntarily conducting services in the Aeron Valley because of a shortage of vicars. He believes the ruling will affect rural churches. "Two churches every Sunday will be short of a Minister to take a service" he said. "There are two of us that help out every Sunday. They will have to rely on lay people to take the service. I'm convinced it will close certain churches if they don't have a regular Minister."

The Rev'd John Emrys Jones who has already held 36 services this year said he was "disappointed" there was not a meeting between the Diocese and retired clergy affected by the decision.

One parishioner said churchgoers were "shocked" and "horrified" by the news. "We don't understand it. We feel they are one of us she said".

The Church in Wales has issued a statement saying: "There has now been further advice giving us hope a solution can be found, thereby allowing these people to continue their ministry within the Diocese."

St Davids is one of six dioceses in the Church in Wales with no sign of reduction as recommended in the Church in Wales (Harries) Review. All make use of retired clergy which makes the decision by bishop Joanna look personal. It has been suggested that it was her way of getting rid of traditionalist clergy.

Busily backpedaling after adverse publicity Joanna should have sought advice from her feminist friend in Llandaff. Bishop June is taking all her clergy on a jolly to Santiago de Compostela with all the insurance implications that involves.

Update

In an abrupt about turn the Church in Wales now says it is "confident" clergy are sufficiently insured "regardless of age".

BBC News reports that after receiving legal advice the church issued a new statement stating it was confident all clergy were sufficiently insured and would be able "to continue their valuable service, for which we are extremely grateful".

"We are writing to all those affected and we apologise for the upset and confusion caused," it said.

The Rev'd John Emrys Jones responded graciously. "I don't blame anybody... but there should have been a consultation by the diocese before sending out the letters," he said.

Quite right. A public relations disaster although it must be remembered that when the bishops consult they ignore the results if they don't like what they hear.

Without adverse publicity no doubt there would have been no change.

Caption corner 23 October 2018

♫... pilgrim through this barren land... ♫                                                                                                                                                      Source: Church in Wales

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Eucharist homily

Source: archbishopcranmer.com

True Anglicans in Great Britain must sometimes wonder why they have bishops given the example of the bishop of Buckingham.

In his blog 'Archbishop Cranmer' gives a reasoned explanation of why an Imam should not be preaching the sermon at a Eucharist service. The reaction of the bishop of Buckingham was simply to say that objections to the Imam's sermon were “ridiculous”. In Islamic terms the bishop, along with other non-Muslims, is of course a mere infidel.

Imam Monawar Hussain MBE is Muslim tutor at Eton College and the founder of the Oxford Foundation which promotes religious and racial harmony. His response was that there are many different voices in all our traditions. Some Muslims might not be happy at my presence at the church so I’m not surprised at the objections but there are so many more Christian friends who are pleased I’ll be there. We need to be building trust and working together.

Building trust and working together amounts to little more than making Islam acceptable to the population of Britain. The authorities have become paralysed as race relations and political correctness have been deemed more important than safeguarding children. Any references to problems with religious ideological differences are met with accusations of Islamophobia.

The twenty men who have recently been found guilty of being part of a grooming gang that raped and abused girls as young as 11 in Huddersfield are described as "British Asians mainly of Pakistani heritage".

Seven of the gang are named Mohammed which may have led "Anti-Muslim activist" Tommy Robinson, founder of the English Defence League, to assume that they were Muslim. It has been claimed that "far-right figures have used the crimes to argue that 'Muslim grooming gangs' pose a particular threat to Britain".

Not all British Asians of mainly Pakistani heritage are Muslim. Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali is probably the best Archbishop of Canterbury we never had. In this lecture bishop Michael explains how Islam became dominant in the Arab world and how Christianity became almost extinct in the Middle East:

In his blog Archbishop Cranmer explains that Imam Monawar Hussain, "being a Muslim of orthodox belief, does not believe in the divinity of Jesus: Isa, as the Lord is called in the Qur’an, is not the Son of God, nor was he crucified at Calvary. But Isa is not the Lord, for the Jesus of the Qur’an did not die on a cross, and neither was he resurrected. Yes, he was born to the virgin Mary; yes, he worked miracles; yes, he preached in Judæa and had disciples. But the Jesus in whom Imam Monawar Hussain believes is not the Jesus of the Bible, for he believes the al-Injīl (the Gospel) to have been corrupted. In Islam, Jesus is a nabī (prophet) and rasūl (messenger) of God. He is abd-Allāh (a servant of God), wadjih (worthy of esteem), and mubārak (blessed). But for Imam Monawar Hussain, Jesus did not die on a cross, he did not lie in a grave, and was not resurrected on the third day. Imam Monawar Hussain believes in another Jesus (2Cor 11:4). Preaching the University Sermon on Sunday, Imam Monawar Hussain will deny by his presence in the pulpit the very body and blood of Christ commemorated by the Eucharist; he will refute by his mere being: 'God from God, Light from Light, of one very substance with the Father…'. "

Bishop of Buckingham take note.

Caption corner 19 October 2018

Only Feminist Sympathizers Aloud?                                                                                                                                                                             Source: Twitter

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