Caption corner 30 March 2019

The Dean of St Davids with Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical
Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity     Source: Twitter 

Faith and faithless

  @MuslimWales annual dinner @StFagans_Museum                              Source: Twitter @CytunNew

From a Church in Wales tweet: "Thanks to @MuslimWales for hosting an outstanding event last night to celebrate Wales' interfaith relationship - great to welcome Bishop Rowan Williams back as a guest speaker too."

No doubt the Muslim Council of Wales will have been thrilled to welcome Archbishop Rowan Williams as a guest speaker at their annual dinner but well known for his left-wing, inclusive views one has to wonder why was he invited.

For the majority of Muslims homosexuality is incompatible with their faith so the Anglican Church's views on homosexuality will be abhorrent to many Muslims.

In Birmingham, Muslim mothers succeeded in stopping LGBT lessons which they claimed were promoting gay and transgender lifestyles among primary school children.

In Wales parents' right to remove children from sex and relationships education (RSE) could be scrapped under reform plans. The Muslim Council of Wales, Christian Institute and the Catholic Education Service are opposed to the right of withdrawal being removed.

The Church in Wales, along with the National Secular Society, have backed the idea.

They said RSE helped young people "develop an understanding of tolerance and diversity" making it "fundamental to the core purposes of the new curriculum".

The Church in Wales is well known for its tolerance and diversity in its acceptance of the gay culture the bench is signed up to. Otherwise people have to make their own arrangements as the Ven Peggy Jackson succinctly put it.


The merciless killing of 50 Muslims in New Zealand has rightly been condemned but there was no similar outpouring of grief for the 140 Christians killed by Muslims in Nigeria.

According to the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) more than 300 Christians have been killed by extremists in February and March of this year alone.

 Persecution of Christians is rampant but it goes largely unreported while the alleged persecution of Muslims is monitored by the government backed charity Tell Mama which claimed 593% rise in anti-Muslim hate crime across Britain in the week after the Christchurch shooting.

Claims that Muslims are a peaceful, persecuted minority have clearly resonated with many people. The majority of Muslims live peacefully but any attempts to present a more balanced view of Islam's ideology are met with claims of Islamophobia.

The Church in Wales should know better but they continue to show more respect for a faith that denies the divinity of Christ than for orthodox Anglicans. They are simply ignored.

Despite being well known for her LGBT advocacy I understand that jolly June Osborne was also present at the Muslim Council dinner.

A prime mover of the ordination of women with alternative episcopal oversight for those who could not in conscience accept the innovation,  I wonder if Rowan Williams had a word in jolly June's ear about persecuted Anglicans in the Church of Wales? I doubt it.

A sense of proportion!

A "packed Margam Abbey" welcomed @BishopJuno as she outlined the Diocesan Vision – Where Faith Matters.                                               Source: Twitter 

The result of 18 months of work with bishop June Osborne visiting all areas of her diocese and listening to parishes, schools and chaplaincies.

These figures are from Where Faith Matters which the bishop of Llandaff, June Osborne, delivered to the elderly in what was claimed to be a "packed Margam Abbey":

Population of Wales with Easter and Christmas Communicants in 2017 

Her figures show that only 1% of the population were Church in Wales Communicants at Easter and Christmas in 2017.

Faith mattered to many more people in Wales before Barry Morgan set about secularising the Church in Wales. Under him nobody was allowed to progress unless they followed his line.

One has only to look at those who style themselves bishops in the Church in Wales and many of their senior staff  to see where that has led. Jolly June's statistics illustrate the result.

CORRECTION

The bar chart should have referred to the diocese of Llandaff which covers around a third of the population of Wales.  The total population of Wales in 2011 was 3,063,456. The average Church in Wales Sunday adult attendance in 2017 was 27,359 representing less than 1% of the population. My apologies for the error.

Bishop of Llandaff sacrifices parishioners in latest initiative

Church in Wales parish church of SS Andrew and Teilo, Woodville Road, Cathays, Cardiff.                                                                              Source: Wikipedia

The parish church of SS Andrew and Teilo has followed the revisionist path of the Church in Wales to the letter but that has not saved parishioners from being sacrificed by bishop June Osborne.  Her latest strategy, presumably for growth, is to give away their church. Parishioners are far from pleased.

From their petition Save St Teilo's - Save Our Community:
"In March 2019 the members of St Teilo’s church have been informed that a decision has been made by the Bishop of Llandaff, June Osborne, to give their church away to an evangelical church called Holy Trinity Brompton. The decision was made with no consultation with the clergy or members of the congregation and wider community and she says the decision is final."

Popularly  known as St. Teilo's, the parish church became St. Andrew and St. Teilo after the nearby St. Andrew's church was rededicated as Eglwys Dewi Sant.

Before its rededication St Andrew's was a chapel of ease to St John the Baptist Church, the civic church in the heart of Cardiff now dedicated to the advancement of transgenderism following the bishop's appointment of a transgender activist vicar.

Led by a female priest the parish  of SS Andrew and Teilo has an "inclusive ethos" and is "formally associated with the Inclusive Church movement". They responded to the Church in Wales initiative taking up the Seven Sacred Spaces model to shape their mission life, something the former bishop of Llandaff, Archbishop Barry Morgan referred to as "places of pilgrimage", an unfortunate link in June Osborne's year of pilgrimage initiative as she prepares to fly her diocesan clergy much farther afield in her widely ridiculed Costa Compostela initiative.

 Famed for its Alpha course, Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) describes itself as "a vibrant Anglican church in the heart of London, passionate about seeing lives changed in the name of Jesus." In 2017, the Church Revitalisation Trust (CRT) was established to help build on this momentum of church planting in strategic cities across the UK:

While the success of HTB is to be admired, it is no reason for the bishop's high handed action, destroying one congregation in the hope of starting another. That is not church planting.

"Church planting is a process that results in a new (local) Christian church being established. It should be distinguished from church development, where a new service, new worship center or fresh expression is created that is integrated into an already established congregation. For a local church to be planted, it must eventually have a separate life of its own and be able to function without its parent body, even if it continues to stay in relationship denominationally or through being part of a network." Wikipedia

 Church of England Bishops set out principles for church planting.

 Among their guiding principles [20 ii]:
"We expect those responsible for church plants to commit themselves to work
to the best of their ability in cooperation with the other churches in the local
area, including the church in whose parish the new church plant is located, as
an integrated part of deanery and diocesan structures. They should aim to use
some of their resources to support the mission of their neighbours and expect
to make regular financial contributions to the diocese, as an expression of the
mutual responsibilities that are a normal part of church life."

What the bishop of Llandaff appears to be doing is adapting Church of England practice for use in the Church in Wales without its structure. In a similar way they cherry picked to write a Code of Practice which specifically excluded separate structures leaving orthodox Anglicans in Wales with nothing but their memories.

Church in Wales bishops have been resolute in refusing permission for orthodox bishops to cross the border. HTB plants have their own bishop for church plants, the Bishop of Islington. There is no indication how this would work in Wales.

We have been here before.

Revisionist bishops have destroyed orthodox Anglicanism in Wales, sacrificing  faithful worshippers in pursuit of their secularist agenda. If attempting to address the resulting decline with another experiment is June Osborne's answer parishioners is not taking it lying down.

You can sign their petition here.

Postscripts [22.03.2019]

Church Times: Church in Wales launches its first resource church

[25.03.2019] Anglican Unscripted coverage:

Modern Britain

In Birmingham Primary schools boys are asked to dress as girls and taught a story of a prince marrying another prince as part of the “No Outsiders” LGBT curriculum. The Church of England refuses to support the Muslim community in its stand against the sexualisation of primary school children.  Rebel Priest.

A devout Catholic and mother of five has been asked to attend a police interview after being accused of using the wrong pronoun to describe a transgender girl. She is being investigated for a possible hate crime under the malicious communication act, an offence that carries a maximum two-year prison sentence. While the 44-year-old has been invited to attend the interview on a voluntary basis, she claims she has been warned that she could face arrest if she fails to attend. The Telegraph.

News bulletins have been dominated by the outpouring of grief over the killing of 50 Muslims in New Zealand. By contrast there has been no coverage of the 140 lives lost with 160 houses destroyed in the past five weeks in Nigeria. Christian Headlines.

Are African Christians worth less because they have not signed up to Western revisionist, do as you please, the Church is backing you, 'Christianity'?

Press to read about Persecution

Today is International Day of Happiness with the theme Happier Together.

Postscript [20.03.2019]

CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION:  Home Office refuses asylum to Iranian Christian convert – quoting violence in the Bible as evidence of bogus claim

Government defends right of street preachers

Christian preacher arrested in London and Bible confiscated                                    Source: Premier.

In February I wrote about a Christian street preacher who was arrested at Southgate station London N14 for preaching about Jesus, saving people from hell.

The police told him he was breaching the peace because he was being "islamophobic".

Protests have been heard. From Premier:

"The government is defending the right of street preachers after a man was arrested in London last month and had his Bible confiscated.

"Responding to a question from MP Theresa Villiers, Home Office Minister Nick Hurd said people are free to follow their religious beliefs provided they do so within the law.

"It's currently legal to preach on the streets in the UK.

"In a written question, Theresa Villiers asked: 'With reference to the arrest and release of Oluwole Ilesanmi in Enfield, what steps he is taking to ensure that church groups can preach on the street.'

"In the response, Nick Hurd said: "The Government does not prevent individuals from following their religious beliefs or cultural traditions provided they do so within the law.

" 'The diversity of modern Britain is one of our strengths and many British people of different faiths follow religious codes and practices. The right to freedom of expression is a vital part of a democratic society. It is a long-standing tradition in this country that people are free to share their views with others'."

Something loudly demonstrated here.

Anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray used an oversized loudhailer to make his
views clear. Credit: Yui Mok/PA/ITV

Caption corner 17 March 2019

Grand Slam. Jonathan Davies (right) grins as John Inverdale, Clive Woodward and Jeremy Guscott look glum                                     Source: WalesOnline

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