Another change at Llandaff's deanery?

Another Llandaff vacancy?

In 2013 the Church in Wales lost probably the best woman priest appointed to serve in its tiny province. Janet Henderson resigned her position as Dean of Llandaff after only two months in the post.

The episode opened a can of worms. There were rumours, charges and counter-charges. To her credit Janet Henderson did not allow any of the mud to stick on the accused.

The real reason for her departure remains a mystery so, undeterred, archbishop Morgan carried on as before regarding the Church in Wales as his personal fiefdom.

Former commercial property developer and the archbishop's Chaplain Gerwyn Capon was appointed Dean of Llandaff in 2017. The appointment did nothing to resolve the problem. It exacerbated it.

Two camps formed. The 'antiques' group being largely in favour of the appointment and those who thought the elevation of a relatively inexperienced priest to a senior position was asking for trouble.

Commentators have made their views clear on this blog since Barry Morgan made the appointment. Comments made under the preceding entry suggest that the matter may soon be resolved by the departure of Dean Capon. Currently on sick leave it is thought in clergy circles that the dean is unlikely to return other than to allow access for the removal men.

I had already received uncorroborated information that a complaint of bullying had been lodged by the dean after he was confronted by the bishop about 'a web of deception'.

The Church in Wales is becoming a woman's world.

The dean's departure would provide June with the opportunity to make another feminist senior appointment.

The bishop of Llandaff has already proved to be provocative as a LGBT+ campaigner and in her appointment of the first transgender vicar, now Canon Sarah Jones.

After news that most deacons ordained in the Church of England in 2019 were women it has been reported that the Church of Sweden which encourages its clergy to use gender-neutral language now has more female than male priests for the first time, described as "a sign of huge strides for gender equality since women were first allowed to be ordained in 1960."

The priesthood is not about gender equality but secular criteria have been used to sway public opinion resulting in a secularised church making politically correct appointments.

Archbishop Morgan has much to answer for. He was in the forefront of the drive for the ordination of women and same sex marriage. The Church in Wales now has the first lesbian bishop living openly in a same sex relationship. With her two LGBT campaigning sister bishops they now have gender parity on the bench. No doubt they will be insisting that the next archbishop of Wales will be a woman.

The Church in Wales is heading for extinction by 2040, largely as a result of archbishop Morgan following the example of his heretical mentor, Katharine Jefferts Schori the former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States (TEC).

Katharine Jefferts Schori                   Barry Morgan

Along with the Church of England TEC is on a downward spiral 

Some legacy!

Another 'BLM' bishop

Rt Revd Mark Tanner has been confirmed as the new Bishop of Chester.         Source: CheshireLive

The new Bishop of Chester has announced that he is a supporter of Black Lives Matter.

That should go down well with Stephen Cottrell the new Archbishop of York who also came out as a Black Lives Matter supporter while declaring that Jesus was a black man.

From the Telegraph (£):
"BLM happily self-identifies as a neo-Marxist movement with various far left objectives, including defunding the police (an evolution of the Panther position of public open-carry to control the police), to dismantling capitalism and the patriarchal system, disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure, seeking reparations from slavery to redistribute wealth and via various offshoot appeals, to raise money to bail black prisoners awaiting trial. The notion of seizing control of the apportionment of capital, dismantling the frameworks of society and neutralising and undermining law enforcement are not just Marxist, but anarchic."

There are more worrying facts from Alexander Boot about the BLM affiliate, Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) in his blog.

Assuming that 'going along to get on' aspirants in the Church of England understand what they are supporting this is another worrying development for orthodoxy.

Postscript [26.07.2020]

From Twitter: "The leader of Oxford Black Lives Matter Sasha calls for a black militia, compares the police to the KKK and calls for a revolution."

Previously on Twitter: "Oxford Black Lives Matter leader Sasha uses racial slurs and threats of violence to abuse a black man."

Will the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Chester reconsider their support for the BLM movement? I doubt it.

Auntie has lost her marbles

BBC Increasing diversity.  Michaela Coel stars in, wrote and co-directed I May Destroy You

The BBC has committed £100m to increasing diversity on TV. Producing "diverse and inclusive content" amounts to little more than giving air time for minorities who represent their lifestyle/activities as mainstream.

That is a phenomenal amount of money given that in 2016 the 'Auntie' BBC announced that she needed to save £800m with around £80m of that figure coming from News.

Among the casualties is the Andrew Neil Show as part of cuts to the corporation's news operation.

This tweet sums up some of the feelings expressed after the announcement:

""Andrew Neil Show cut"; the Beeb is crackers!
@afneil is one of the best journalistic interrogators they have & shows no mercy to ANY interviewee; Left or Right. He is an expert at dismantling spin and obfuscation.
We are nearing 'journalism by Twitter"!

One might have hoped that Tim Davie, Lord Hall's replacement as the £450,000 p.a. Director-General would have heralded an opportunity to return to higher standards but he has already said "We will need to accelerate change so that we serve all our audiences in this fast-moving world. Much great work has been done, but we will continue to reform, make clear choices and stay relevant."

Relevance to society and 'more of the same - but faster' was announced by the new archbishop as the plan for the Church in Wales, now heading for obscurity.

There is no future for a public funded BBC if it continues to ape its competitors.

BBC diversity 'advertising' squeezes in as many colours, races, creeds and sexual preferences as can be mustered, highlighting minorities as if they were mainstream. The results are usually the same: murder, misery and mayhem.

Having a good laugh is a no-go area for the woke generation which continually finds offence where none was intended.

'Auntie' BBC was founded on Christian principles. Its first Director-General, Lord Reith, thought of broadcasting as a way of educating the masses. Diversity is not. Diversity is a tool for pushing specific agendas.

The commissioning editor for ethics and religion is responsible for all the BBC’s religious content, including Songs of Praise. Following the appointment of a Muslim commissioner Songs of Praise has gradually faded into the background with mixed content in shorter programmes in obscure slots.

While Christianity is often lampooned the greatest respect is demanded for Islam, a minority faith in the UK raising accusations of Islamophobia if there is any whiff of criticism of Islamic excesses.

There in little evidence of diversity in sports coverage which continues to be dominated by soccer, even screening repeats when live matches were not available due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Listing their highest paid 'stars', in 2018-19, seventy five received £150,000 with many considerably more. Why the BBC paid Gary Lineker between £1,750,000 and £1,754,999 for presenting Match of the Day, Sports Personality of the Year and World Cup is a mystery when there must be many competent soccer fanatics who would welcome the chance to magnify their passion at a fraction of the cost but diversity does not extend to elite presenters.

The BBC has plenty of money to throw around when it comes to soccer having payed £204m in 2015 to keep Match of the Day hosted by the absurdly paid Garry Lineker, negotiations are under way for the BBC to show their first ever Premier League matches live. By comparison the popular Six Nations rugby tournament is likely to go behind a Sky paywall from 2022.

Far from raising standards the BBC appears determined to drive them down developing personality cults which have allowed presenters such as Naga Munchetty and Emily Maitlis to get away with expressing their personal opinions, which are not what the licence payers are paying for, while the over-exposed Fiona Bruce has turned Question Time into the Fiona Bruce show.

'Defund the BBC' is gaining ground. As Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson wrote, "We don't want to pay for leftist propaganda, the time has come to defund the BBC!

"People don't object to great work that is truly colour-blind. What drives us mad is a 'tokenistic' agenda diversity and a leftist, anti-British groupthink imposed on viewers and listeners by a privately-educated liberal elite. The BBC boss class is as far from diverse as Mayfair is from Mablethorpe." 

Exactly!

Jubilee Debt Campaign: Covid-19

From Jubilee Debt Campaign

Supporters are asked campaign organisers to watch and share this short video:

UK readers can add their names to the petition to Chancellor Rishi Sunak to cancel the debts of countries in the global south HERE.

Caption corner 13 July 2020

Petertide ordinations 2020, St Asaph                                                                                                                                                                         Source: Twitter

Publishable captions will appear under comments.

Islamisation continues

Former Christian Cathedral Hagia Sophia declared a mosque by Turkish court                                                                                                    Source: Wikipedia

Turkish President Erdogan has declared Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia becomes a mosque open to Muslim worship after a top Turkish court ruled that the building’s conversion to a museum by modern Turkey’s founding statesman was illegal, effectively raising their fingers to Christian feelings and concerns expressed by the United States, Greece and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Originally a Christian Cathedral Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) was converted into a mosque when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453 after besieging the city for 55 days.

Hundreds of people who awaited the court's ruling outside the building chanted 'Allah is great!', the same chant used when murdering Christians in Islamist attacks.

The Times of Israel reports "the decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia - a former cathedral that was turned into a mosque after Istanbul’s conquest by the Ottoman Empire and had served as a museum for 86 years - sparked deep dismay among Orthodox Christians."

Abp Welby                Source: ENA

So far as I know archbishop Justin Welby, leader of the Anglican Communion has not expressed any concern but then he is busy fraternising with Muslim elders in their ‘Emerging Peacemakers Forum’ while his clergy invite Muslims into Christian churches for islamic prayers, effectively changing Christian churches into mosques in the eyes of Muslims.

In May 2019 when Jeremy Hunt was Foreign Secretary, according to a report ordered by him the persecution of Christians in parts of the world was at near "genocide" levels. The review which was led by the Bishop of Truro estimated that one in three people suffered from religious persecution and that Christians were the most persecuted religious group.

Genocide Watch warned in April that "350 Nigerian Christians were massacred in the first two months of 2020. Over 11,500 Christians have been murdered since June 2015. Four to five million Christians are displaced. 2000 churches were destroyed."

"Nigeria has become a killing field of defenseless Christians. Reliable sources show that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christians have been massacred since June 2015 when the Buhari Government of Nigeria came to power.  These statistics are based on careful records kept by church groups that include the names of victims and dates of their murders.

"Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen accounted for 7,400 murders of Christians. Boko Haram committed 4000 killings of Christians. ‘Highway Bandits’ who separated Christians from Muslims on buses and then killed the Christians committed over 200 murders.

Francis   Source: Church Militant

"Fulani Jihadists are now the world’s deadliest terrorist group. Five Nigerian Christians are massacred every day by Fulani and Boko Haram Jihadists. One hundred percent of the 7,400 murders by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen since June 2015 were Christians. Fulani militias wipe out whole Christian villages, but they leave Muslim villages unharmed."

Despite all the evidence of  jihad over 1400 years, Pope Francis declared "It isn't right to say that Islam is a terrorist faith."

I doubt that the Christians being killed and persecuted in Africa and around rest of the world would agree with him.

With all the resources at the disposal of the papacy one would have thought that His Holiness might have been better advised about the aims of Islam as laid out in the Quran.

He would find all the evidence needed to expose a supremacist ideology that falsely claims to be a religion of peace when that peace arises only after all are Muslims subject to the will of Allah.

The bitter fruits of Islamic appeasement are everywhere but to no avail.

Hagia Sophia interior.                                                   Source: Church Militant

How long will it be before Christian images in Hagia Sophia are covered over to avoid the sensitivities of devout Muslims now that the Christian Cathedral has been declared a mosque?


Postscript [12.07.20]

World Council of Churches appeals to Turkey on mosque decision

A Greek Islamic leader has requested that Hagia Sophia remains a museum and not be converted into a mosque as "the name suggests Hagia Sophia is a Christian church".

Pope 'very pained' by decision to turn Istanbul's Hagia Sophia museum into mosque.


Postscript [13.07.20]

Extremist Islam Threatens Christians Across the Middle East

"It’s time that the purging of Christians and erasing of Christian history that predates Islam needs to be stopped."


Postscript [14.07.20]

Historian warns Islam will target St. Peter's after Hagia Sophia


 "'The goal of Islam is clear — after Saint Sophia, Saint Peter', Professor Roberto de Mattei told Church Militant, following Pope Francis' six word non-condemnation of Turkey's inflammatory decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque."




Postscript [24.07.20]

Hagia Sophia’s Muslim Prayers Evoke Ottoman Treatment of Armenians

Declared a mosque in principle, Hagia Sophia is now a mosque in practice.

As Turkish president Erdoğan joins hundreds in celebration, Christians in the diaspora mourn their lost homeland and cultural heritage.

Catch up Drakeford

Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford                                           Source: BBC/Wales News Service

The slogan 'Taking Wales Forward' reminds me of a Latin teacher telling  his class about advertising ploys. He used the example of Craven A which, he alleged, gave smokers a sore throat so promoters used the slogan, "Will Not Affect Your Throat".

Far from taking Wales forward, Latin scholar Mark Drakeford, Wales' First Minister  is set on taking Wales backwards in his decision to block the long awaited M4 bypass around Newport in South Wales often seen as the gateway to Wales.

The long suffering people living along side the M4 around the Brynglas tunnels and motorists have to endure mounting pollution from traffic blockages while the First minister pats himself on the back for saving bugs and beetles on the Gwent levels.

Frustrated by the decision, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would "do the things the Welsh Government has failed to do" and "unblock the Brynglas tunnels".

A spokesperson for the Welsh Assembly responded "It's an entirely devolved matter and the first minister has made his decision."

Forever playing catch up in Wales Drakeford has prided himself on taking a different route to the UK government particularly on pandemic restrictions claiming to be guided by expert advice.

Another expert, the planning inspector who spent more than a year considering the case for a new M4 route south of Newport gave it his overwhelming backing but Drakeford ignored that expert opinion.

Having spent £114m of taxpayers' money before the scheme was axed including £44m on a public inquiry, First Minister Drakeford axed the scheme because of its cost and impact on the environment.

Boris Johnson's intervention suggests that the cost of the relief road to remove the Bryn Glas bottleneck is firmly guaranteed but Drakeford and his environmentalist friends are more content to leave local residents and motorists fuming as long as creepy crawlies remain content in the salt marshes of the Gwent levels, unseen and unheard of until progress is mentioned.

It would have been better for the long suffering people of Wales if Mark Drakeford had stuck to Latin.

Postscript [16.07.20]

The panel of experts set up to consider alternatives to the M4 relief road has concluded that "some sort of charging mechanism is necessary" to encourage people to use public transport, cycle or walk.

Having scrapped the Severn bridge levy on people entering Wales a new M4 charge is proposed to "provide revenue funding for transport services", including more rail stations between Cardiff and Severn Tunnel Junction, thus increasing the risk of spreading the Coronavirus, Covid-19, on crowded train services.

The alternative to these proposals is to build the relief road as recommended by planning experts but the First Minister of Wales continues to insist on protecting 'rare' birds which would fly to other habitats and largely unseen insects.

With the next Senedd election due to be held in May 2021 there will be an opportunity for realists to dump Drakeford for a politician who puts people before bugs.

Postscript [21.08.20]

Comrade Drakeford has spoken: " 'That decision is over': Mark Drakeford says £1.3bn M4 relief road will not be happening. 'There is no point in people hankering back to it'." The arrogance of the man.