The fate of the Church of England?

In all conscience, how can feminism supersede Christ's example and the tradition of the Holy Catholic Church? 

Synod has lost its way in making rules contrary to the Apostolic faith.

The ordination of women separates Anglicans from the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The Episcopal Church in the United States has been devastated by the innovation.

Is this to be the vision for the Church of England?

Steps

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

After man first set foot on the moon, mankind was left with the historic statement, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". Everyone understood that the statement was not intended to exclude women but to encompass all humanity in the technological advancement of mankind which has seen men and women astronauts venture into space, part of a sequence of small steps that led to Kennedy's vision of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth".

Around the same time people in the Anglican church were taking what were represented as small steps, not towards a giant leap for mankind, Christ did that, but in what now can be seen clearly as a secular policy in furtherance of gender politics in the church, a process which is about to destroy the faith of many Christians in the name of feminism, one which already has done for many. In my previous Blog entry I referred to a Guardian article by Andrew Brown. One paragraph continues to rankle:

   "... there will be female bishops, as there are already female priests, and these will be treated exactly the same as male ones – except by the men who don't want to treat them equally and who believe that God has called them to undermine women's authority wherever it appears." [My emphasis.]

What was initially regarded as an honourable position in the Anglican Church, a church which assured traditionalists that they would continue to have a place, has been turned into one of having to suffer accusations of misogyny, prejudice, discrimination and, now, a "a belief that God has called them to undermine women's authority wherever it appears". How crass. God made man and woman in his own image, not hermaphrodites but both male and female, equal, neither superior nor inferior but with different roles in creation. Perhaps Mr Brown doesn't realise that both men and women, male and female, are equally opposed to the ordination of women priests and bishops, woman more vehemently in my experience but more prone to suffer in silence as they do not possess the strident streak exhibited by those who presume to speak for them as implied by the incorrectly named WATCH - Women and the Church. Women's authority does not depend on being a priest or a bishop. In Britain women are rightly employed at all levels in society, but 'authority' in the Anglican Church has become a banner used by people who have sold their souls to secularism in direct contradiction to Christ's example in choosing male Apostles, a tradition handed down in His Apostolic Church from a time when pagan priestesses were common.

The 'small' steps that turned deaconesses into deacons thus permitting their ordination as priests have now become that giant leap for the Church of England with the proposals before Synod to ordain women as successors to the Apostles in defiance of the wider Catholic and Orthodox Churches with whom we share our creed. To brand men and women  who oppose this innovation and whose only desire is to keep the Apostolic faith as 'undermining women's authority' is as absurd as it is offensive.

We will all be changed

A further drop in Church of England attendance has been reported. Average Sunday attendance fell from 944,400 in 2009 to 923,700 the following year, continuing the long-term downward trend. Hardly the result one might have expected after the church decided to make itself more relevant to society by becoming ever more secular.

In an unhelpful Blog article for the Guardian on the prospect of women bishops in the CofE, Andrew Brown writes: "The Church of England's fudge on female bishops is breathtaking". He  concludes with the comment: "It may be possible to fudge questions about the nature of a communion wafer in this way. But I don't think it will do for a matter of employment law." So the Body of Christ can be fudged but Its administration by the sacred ministry is something that should be determined by employment law! No wonder so many churches are for sale with plenty more to come as attendance dwindles.

The theme of this year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is 'We will be changed'. From the Churches Together site:

"Change is at the heart of our Christian faith. Saint Paul said that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, and we are called to live as children in the light. 

The theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2012 comes to us from the churches in Poland, who have reflected upon their own experience as a nation, and in particular how, as a nation, they have been changed and transformed by the many upheavals of their history, and sustained by their faith.

Change is also at the heart of the ecumenical movement. When we pray for the unity of the church we are praying that the churches that we know and which are so familiar to us will change as they conform more closely to Christ. This is an exciting vision, but also a challenging one. Furthermore, when we pray for this transforming unity we are also praying for change in the world."

The upheavals in the Anglican church may have brought joy to some but for the church it has been a disaster with litigation and arguments about the nature of the priesthood, gay and lesbian ordination and same sex marriage which no doubt is now regarded as acceptable on the grounds that there is 'no theological objection', the Anglican justification for female ordination. These changes have had a wholly negative impact on the church when our aim should be unity with the Roman Catholic church from which we have become separated and the Orthodox Church.


If women in England and Wales are to be ordained bishops because of secular employment laws, then 'we will all be changed'. We will be changed but in the wrong direction, choosing Protestantism rather than the ancient churches of Rome and Orthodoxy, the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of our baptism, driving us further than ever from church unity. As Synod members prepare to vote, they should not be influenced by secular employment laws but follow Christ's example and listen to His prayer that we all may be one.

“There is no place for you in this church.”

The Very Rev Jeremy Winston
 Dean Of Monmouth Sept to Nov 2011

Not as they would have intended but nevertheless they have had their way. The purple-obsessed, mean-spirited women who, not content with being ordained into the sacred ministry, complained bitterly about the appointment of a traditionalist, Canon Jeremy Winston, to the post of Dean of Monmouth. Another has been appointed in his place, one who, according to reports, shares the view that traditionalists can take what is offered or leave the church. Fr Jeremy was regarded as unacceptable despite his manifest talents because he did not accept the fashionable view that the priesthood can be re-defined by committee. So here was a priest who stood head and shoulders above many, including the Bench of Bishops, who had been told: “There is no place for you in this church” as if it were their church, a church that has become dominated by those who delude themselves into thinking that after 2,000 years, they know the mind of God better than Jesus Christ.


Dean Jeremy was held in such high esteem outside the church hierarchy that the Service of Thanksgiving held on Saturday (January 21) in St Mary's Priory Church, Abergavenny, witnessed a congregation in excess of 800 led by the Lord Lieutenant of Gwent representing HRH The Prince of Wales. (Prince Charles had twice visited St Mary's to open projects initiated by Fr Jeremy when Vicar.) Attendance was limited only by space with every nook and cranny of the Priory Church occupied, as was Fr Jeremy's funeral service in St Woolos Cathedral where the congregation overflowed into chapels and outside, with a broadcast link to St Mary's in Abergavenny.

How often have we heard that the talents of women should not be overlooked as justification for them standing at the altar in persona Christi yet Fr Jeremy's obvious talents had been ignored until it became clear to all but the blinkered and prejudiced that he was without doubt the best candidate to be appointed Dean of Monmouth following the departure to St Helena of the now Bishop Richard Fenwick. In addition to his many pastoral and personal gifts which were frequently referred to at the Service of Thanksgiving for his life [in the link go to January 21, 2012], Fr Jeremy held many Appointments, some of which appeared in the Order of Service:

• Regional Chaplain to the Order of St John
• Chairman of the Standing Liturgical Advisory Commission
• Past Chairman of the Gwent Medical Ethics Board
• Past Chairman of the Additional Curates Society
• Governor of several schools, often acting as Chairman
• Chairman of Father Ignatius Memorial trust
• Member of the Executive Committee of the Friends of Friendless Churches,
• Long-standing member and chairman of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales

 Listening to the many moving tributes to Fr Jeremy, those on the Bench of Bishops present must have sat rather uncomfortably since they are 'of one mind' on the ordination of women, ie, their Archbishop's. Bishop David Thomas was the last and only bishop appointed to care for traditionalists. The position was dropped following his retirement with unforeseen consequences for the planned ordination of women to the episcopate. Bishop David and Lord Rowe-Beddoe referred directly to the issue. In his tribute Bishop David said, "I for one shall never forget his courage in proposing and championing the so-called ‘Kirk-Winston amendment’ to the draft legislation on women in the episcopate in 2008." Lord Rowe-Beddoe went further. He said, "As a staunch traditionalist, Jeremy was appointed to a small panel of the Governing Body which drafted a Bill for the appointment of women bishops in 2009. His amendment, which called for the reappointment of a provincial assistant bishop, was defeated. It has been widely acknowledged that the defeat of this amendment contributed greatly to the defeat of the Bill itself at that time. He was always unfailingly courteous to those who did not share his views, even when some told him that “there is no place for you in this church”.

It would be a fitting tribute to Fr Jeremy if those who think that traditionalists have no place in the church reap their reward and see Synod and the Governing Body now bury the move that will separate us from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The "Religion of Peace" (2)

Photo: Reuters

The latest estimate of deaths resulting from bombings by Islamists in Nigeria has risen to 162. Where is the condemnation from Muslims who keep telling us that Islam is a religion of peace. Where are the voices which are quick to cry "Islamophobia!" at every opportunity in furtherance of their Islamist ideology? For those who have taken the trouble to check Islamist claims rather than accept them at face value it is clear that the 'religion of peace' means that there will be "peace" when Islam prevails, that is, on their terms only. Check it out on video here, or here for a more comprehensive explanation, and read about peace, the 'Christmas spirit and Islam' here.

The Promised Land - for some.

Sayida Khaliif, wife of Saeed Khaliif,
at the £2m house she shares with members of her Somalian family

This morning I awoke to the news that benefits are being claimed by 371,000 migrants. The Mail Online filled in some details including the case of the Khaliif family. According to the article, Somali asylum seeker Saeed  Khaliif was given a £2million home in one of the country’s most exclusive neighbourhoods at the taxpayer’s expense. No wonder Sayida Khaliif has a smile on her face. A few days ago we received the news that radical cleric Abu Qatada won his appeal at the European Court of Human Rights against deportation from the UK. According to another Mail Online article, this preacher of hate is reported to be living  in West London "off state benefits said to total £1,000 a month – including £70 a week for a bad back".

Only yesterday I listened to a number of accounts of hardship and the difficulties of obtaining assistance. The first, a young man who is incapacitated to the extent that his mother has been completing the forms demanded by the state, not once but three times in a procedure that appears designed to avoid payment. His mother said that had she not intervened her son would have starved. Towards the end of her life a frail but independent lady in her 90's was struggling to survive with the aid of local authority assistance limited to 10 mins a visit yet migrants who have paid no contributions appear able to receive benefits without difficulty. How can "people from Romania and Bulgaria [be] claiming benefits by claiming to be self-employed because they sold the Big Issue newspaper"? During the trial in 2010 of a migrant gang who defrauded the country of £450,000 the barrister for one of the defendants said: 'It is not a sophisticated fraud in any way, shape or form. The reality is this country is known as "Benefits Britain". This defendant cannot be held responsible for that.'

After Christmas I heard of a dodge which sounded a little far fetched. A farmer friend had taken pity on an East European and given him work. He left for home in Europe for the holiday period perfectly healthy but instead of returning for work he sent a note asking for confirmation that he had broken his leg, apparently enabling him to claim sick pay from this country while living back home in Europe.  Perhaps not so far fetched after all!

All this comes on top of unemployment figures at a 17 year high of 2.69 million which makes it all the more outrageous that "official figures show that up to 90 percent of new jobs created in Britain over the past decade have gone to foreign-born workers while levels of unemployment have risen". 'Great Britain' has become 'Benefits Britain', the Promised Land for immigrants where human rights can be enjoyed by all but innocent victims and a better life can be enjoyed provided no contribution has been towards it. 

What a mess!

Unemployment: Conman and Dobin to the rescue?

Conman and his faithful companion Dobin who is often taken for a ride

Devoid of any policies to create growth and employment for a lost generation, the government media machine is rumoured to be looking to heroes of yesteryear such as the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Batman and Robin, Etc., to re-produce some up-to-date fantasy features such as the old comedy, The Trickle Down Effect, in which the rich were handsomely rewarded on the premise that wealth would trickle down to the masses, well some of them. For the results of that policy look around. 


The last major feature, Squeeze the Public Sector, was based on the notion that by adding massive numbers of public sector employees to the dole queue, thus reducing the tax intake and paying more in benefits, the private sector would have far greater numbers to recruit from the enlarged pool of the unemployed. Alas this scenario was also one of make-believe because the private sector has done its own thing with less money around to stimulate the economy.


With the Prime Minister again declaring the latest unemployment figures 'disappointing',  it will be the task of Conman and Dobin to inject another feel-good factor, building on the make-believe world inhabited by the Employment Minister, Chris Grayling, who, not being unemployed himself, manages to sound extremely positive about the situation explaining that the figures are 'much more complex than the headlines suggest', a great comfort to the long term unemployed.