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Monday, 7 September 2020

Chickens coming home to roost in Diocese of Monmouth


Hen's eye view of  + Cherry Vann?   Source: Twitter


"Good news! - at last, just heard that 8 hens are ready to be picked up and brought to ... a new and happy home at Bishopstow @MonmouthDCO. Looking forward to watching their delightful antics, not to mention eating their tasty eggs."

Perhaps the first of many chickens coming home to roost in Monmouth diocese and beyond!

With the Bishop of Monmouth looking to appoint a new Dean of Newport and the Bishop of Llandaff's rumoured desire to replace the Dean of Llandaff, more egg layers are likely to be in the offing.

Saturday, 5 September 2020

Wokes target ex-Australian PM Tony Abbott


Tony Abbott at the 'wedding' of his gay sister.  She has defended her brother.     Source: Mail Online


We have left the European Union (EU) so we need trade deals.

Tony Abbott who was prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015 when they negotiated free-trade deals with Japan, China and South Korea has been appointed as an unpaid trade adviser to the UK government.

Mr Abbott happens to believe that 'marriage' is "the relationship of one man with one woman, ideally for life and usually dedicated to children". He is opposed to same-sex marriage which, he believes, 'would fundamentally change society'.

Regardless of his personal views he attended his gay sister's 'wedding' but because his values are unacceptable to LGBT activists he is stereotyped as a homophobe.

Never mind the facts. If you are not in agreement with woke culture you become the target of their  ordure.

Kay Burley of Sky News accused Mr Abbott of being a "homophobic misogynist", representing slurs as facts when she interviewed Health Secretary, Matt Hancock.

That was something Scotland's First Minister was happy to agree with, unlike former Australian PM Julia Gillard who declined to be led by Burley's wokery and spoke for herself.

Celebrity LGBT campaigner Sir Ian McKellen, among others, demeaned himself by urging the government to 'row back' its plans, ignoring the fact that Abbott is entitled to hold views contrary to those of the gay minority. 

Sadly for them Abbott's gay sister defended him against claims of misogyny and homophobia. She said: "As a woman who has always been part of his life and who came out to him as gay in my early 40s, I know incontrovertibly that Tony is neither of those things," she wrote on Twitter.

"In reality he is a man of great conviction and intellect; an unabashed conservative but with great compassion, respect for others, and an indelible sense of doing what is right."

Australia's longest serving female politician, Bronwyn Bishop, also leapt to Mr Abbott's defence stating he was a victim of 'disgraceful character assassination'. 

Good on you Bronwyn!

Tuesday, 1 September 2020

Fulani Militants Destroy Church, Kidnap Seven from Southern Kaduna


In Three Years Fulani Militias Killed 2,539 People in 654 Attacks in Nigeria. Source: News Express


"08/31/2020 Nigeria  – On August 24, Fulani militants conducted another attack on a Christian village in Southern Kaduna State, Nigeria. According to a report by Morningstar News, more than 20 herdsmen rode motorcycles into Damba Kasaya village, Kaduna state at about 8 a.m. that morning. During the attack, they killed a 35-year-old man named Benjamin Auta. They also kidnapped four students and one teacher from the Prince Academy, a small school. The final two were local farmers who have been missing since the attack. The four students who were taken, were all under the age of 18 and three of them were girls.

"Southern Kaduna has seen a lot of increased violence this year. According to the Southern Kaduna People’s Union, more than 50,000 Christians have been displaced from over 100 Christian villages in Southern Kaduna. These villages are mainly located in the counties of Kachia, Kajuru, Kaura and Chikun. The ongoing attacks have greatly affected the population of Southern Kaduna, which is where the vast majority of Christians live in this Sharia state. This is also the only area of that state that is so greatly affected by Fulani militant attacks. Please continue praying for the safety and security of our brothers and sisters in Kaduna State, Nigeria. They are often attacked, and their state federal government have greatly failed to protect them."

Earlier in August Nigeria's News Express reported that within three years more than 2,539 people had been killed, 393 wounded, 253 kidnapped, 16 raped, more than 7, 582 houses burnt and 24 churches destroyed in 654 attacks carried out by Fulani Militias, Nigeria’s most lethal group.

Villagers stand at a mass grave in Dogon Na Hauwa, Nigeria, in 2010.        Source: Christian Today

In response to a report co-authored by The International Organisation for Peace Building and Social Justice (PSJ UK), the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) and the International Freedom of Religion or Belief All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), UK's Express described the situation as ‘Intolerable’ after it was claimed that 100,000 Christians had been murdered for their faith in Nigeria in the first two decades of this century.

"According to the report  43,242 of the Christian deaths as a result of the terrorism inflicted by Boko Haram, Islamic State, ISWAP and Al-Queda; 18,834 as a result of the terrorism inflicted by Fulani Militant Extremists; and 34,233 as a result of the terrorism inflicted by all other actors."

Lord Alton of Liverpool a vice chair of the APPG said: “Some local observers have gone so far as to describe the rising attacks as a campaign of ethno-religious cleansing.

Compared with the outpouring of grief over the 51 lives lost in the Christchurch mosque shootings the media's response has been extremely muted.  

African lives matter too.

Tuesday, 25 August 2020

Nuts & Bolts


The victims of the Manchester Arena bomber just before the lethal weapon was detonated                                                                                     Source: The Sun 


As the  "Warped Manchester bomber's" brother awaited sentencing for his part in the murder of 22 people in the 2017 Manchester Arena terror attack in which hundreds were injured, in New Zealand an "evil mass murderer's day of reckoning" loomed.

Described as an 'Australian white supremacist' fears were expressed that Brenton Tarrant would 'spout his twisted views' when he represented himself in court.

Tarrant's rampage was indefensible. He planned to burn down the mosques and wanted to 'inflict as many fatalities as possible'.

He was condemned as a "supremacist". Islam is a supremacist ideology which seeks to convert all infidels to Islam.

A survivor of the Al Noor mosque shooting addressed Tarrant directly at the hearing. He said, "When you get a free minute, which you will have plenty of, ... maybe you should try to read the Koran. It's beautiful."

In Islam dominant countries dhimmi people are expected to pay the jizya or face death if they refuse to convert to Islam. A death sentence is also the fate of Muslims who convert from Islam. Even in some of Britain's jails 'Islamist extremists' have been extorting 'infidel tax' from fellow prisoners'.

'Convert, pay tax, or die' the Islamic State warned Christians in Iraq back in 2014.

Commenting on the BBC documentary series Once Upon a Time in Iraq, the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil accused the BBC of overlooking the plight of persecuted Christians in Iraq and Yazidi people. He said it was "wounding and damaging" for religious minorities to have been "airbrushed" out obrother of thef the documentary.

In a letter to the BBC, the Archbishop questioned why the series had omitted to include the experiences of religious minorities who suffered rape, kidnapping and murder at the hands of ISIS.

"How can this be? Had we not suffered the war and its aftermath just like our Muslim brothers and sisters?" he wrote.

"Do you understand the persecution we have suffered in our homeland? And that Christians have existed in this land for 2,000 years, the Mandaeans and Yazidis for even longer?"

In Mozambique multiple churches have been burnt, people beheaded, young girls kidnapped, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced.

In June after reports that insurgents had beheaded 15 people in a week Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of Mozambique’s Pemba diocese said that the crisis in Mozambique has largely been met with “indifference” from the rest of the world.

Elsewhere in Africa thousands of Christians have been killed by Muslims, most of the killings unreported by mainstream media. Genocidewatch reports 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."

Nigerians in London have demonstrated outside the Nigerian High Commission handing in a letter protesting against the relentless attacks on communities in southern Kaduna by armed men of the mainly Muslim Fulani tribes.

According to Amnesty International more than 1,100 people have been killed in rural areas across several states of northern Nigeria amid "an alarming escalation in attacks and abductions during the first half of the year."

 The Director of Amnesty International Nigeria said, "Terrifying attacks on rural communities in the north of Nigeria have been going on for years."

While most people have heard on news bulletins about the 22 deaths in New Zealand there is no similar reporting of the fate of thousands of Christians at the hands of Islamists.

Instead, aided by Pope Francis, churches are converted into mosques and, bizarrely, Irish schoolchildren studying for their Junior Cert Religion are required to attend a Mosque, shoes off, learning how to pray to Allah.

Around the world, and particularly in France, churches are torched and vandalised. The Catholic News Agency reports the French Interior Ministry recording 996 anti-Christian acts in 2019 - an average of 2.7 per day.

Since 2010, the Paris-based L’Observatoire de la Christianophobie (Observatory of Christianophobia) has chronicled these anti-Christian incidents and produced a map showing "Christianophobic acts".

In the UK the BBC commits £100m of its content spend on 'diverse productions and talent' which, on current trends, will include further promotion of the supremacist ideology of Islam while pushing Christianity further into the background.

Some encouraging news is the resignation of the board of Britain's largest Muslim charity  after anti-semitic posts by one of its directors were uncovered, although given the circumstances they had little choice.

"It was revealed that in posts in arabic on his own Facebook account, Dr Tayara called leaders of militant Palestinian group Hamas as 'great men' who responded to the 'divine and holy call of the Muslim Brotherhood'.

"In another, he posted an image of former President Barack Obama wearing a tie branded with the Star of David, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Assad of Syria on his lap with quote marks saying 'Death to America!' and 'Death... death'.

The BBC should be aware that it is not uncommon for Muslims to practice taqiyya which presents a peaceful face of Islam for general consumption while the authentic face of Muslim is hidden in arabic.

There is no beauty in that.

Saturday, 22 August 2020

Llandaff Cathedral Today


#WHERELOVEMATTERS              Llandaff Cathedral and The Deanery from the Cathedral Green


The Cathedral and Parish Church of Llandaff is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul with Saints Dyfrig, Teilo, and Euddogwy.

Today the dedication might just as well be to Pan and Faunus with Nymphs and Satyrs.

In Llandaff Matters, love is primarily synonymous with sex:

"Join us on Sunday 30 August at 1400 for a special Pride Cymru Faith Tent event
featuring a video from Bishop June, a panel discussion, live music and reflection.

In collaboration with The Gathering LGBT+ Church, this free event will be streamed on
the Pride Cymru Facebook page."

Llandaff Cathedral today, #WHERELOVEMATTERS!

Llandaff's Director of Ministry and Discipleship Canon Richard Lowndes CinW

If the Church in Wales had spent as much time and effort in retaining faithful disciples as they have promoting same sex attraction they would not be in the mess they are.

Postscript [31.08.2020]

This from a 'bishop' of the Church in Wales:

"I'm a great believer in the importance of Pride." - Bishop June Osborne.
Full message here. June graduated in sociology,

Monday, 17 August 2020

Barry Morgan rides again


Barry Morgan's retirement villa on the outskirts of Cardiff

Iran News Update reports that "The Rt Revd Dr. Barry Morgan, a former Archbishop of Wales, has praised the Iranian Resistance, specifically the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), for their commitment to the religious freedoms of Iranian Christians so persecuted by the Iranian regime.

"In an open letter, he cited evidence that Iran is one of the least hospitable countries in the world for Christians under the mullahs’ regime, even though it is supposedly tolerated by the regime. In fact, conversion from Islam to Christianity carries the death penalty."

While supporting Christians in Iran is laudable, such support is a bit rich coming from the person who probably more than anyone is responsible for wrecking the Church in Wales.

It is a pity that Morgan's new commitment to religious freedoms did not extend to Orthodox Anglicans in Wales who were quickly shown the door for not supporting his programme of secularising the Church in Wales.

Succeeding Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Wales in 2003 Barry Morgan committed himself to the ordination of women to the priesthood and the admission of women to the episcopate. He said practising homosexuals should not be barred from becoming bishops and declared: “I would ordain Britain’s first gay Bishop.”

Archbishop Morgan retired, aged 70, in 2017 having consecrated Wales' first female bishop. All three bishops in South Wales are now female. One is a cohabiting lesbian, the others being fervent LGBT supporters.

He continued to press his radical, secular agenda up to his retirement. He used his final address to the Church in Wales’ governing body to argue that Christians can change their stance on homosexuality without abandoning their commitment to the Bible, offending many while pandering to the few.

His views were widely condemned by biblical scholars.

Morgan's policy of refusing to provide episcopal oversight for orthodox Anglicans who refused to accept the 'going along to get on' approach to their faith has been continued by the bench of bishops.

Society bishops are banned from celebrating in Wales. Consequently regular church attendance has plummeted faster than it may otherwise have done.

When Barry Morgan retired he pledged that he would not interfere. He said, "I take the view that once you're gone, you're gone... you've had your period in office," he added.

Such a divisive figure should have stuck to his word.