First things first!

Darkness in Llandaff Cathedral                                                                                           Picture: BBC

Being in Wales over Christmas I picked up 'the news where you are' as the BBC's gesticulating George likes to put it after his six o'clock news show. Included in the Welsh News bulletin was an interview with the Archbishop of Wales. (Clip here.) He was asked what the highlights for the church were in 2013. Revealing the obsession that has consumed him the archbishop said: For the Church in Wales obviously it's the bill to make it possible for women to be ordained as bishops but many had "missed the point" adding "The fact is that what the bill made possible was that at least women could be considered as candidates for the episcopate, and that's the really important thing. The rest will come later - who knows when?"

The 'many' will have missed the real point because they have been led astray by Dr Morgan and others like him who busy themselves trying to make the Church 'intelligible to our wider society'. The episcopate is not a political club in which local rules may be applied. Scripture and tradition have sustained the Church for two thousand years. Christians around the world, including most Anglicans, continue to practice their faith as it has been received but for others practicing their faith has become a challenge because politicians in clerical garb have substituted politics for religion to the detriment of the Church.

When I started this blog I had no idea where it would lead but four years later of the 677 entries the most hits have, with a couple of exceptions*, centred on the tribulations of the Church of Wales and the Diocese of Llandaff in particular. The 'All time' top 10 posts in descending order are:

The twilight of the cross 21 Oct 2011*
Morgan's organ 5 Nov 2013, 66 comments
The ruin of Landaft 23 Nov 2013, 56 comments
Swan song? If only... 14 Nov 2013, 19 comments
Dean of Llandaff resigns 9 May 2013, 10 comments
Starbucks service 15 Sep 2013, 40 comments
'Archbishop invalidates Cath... 19 Nov 2011,  2 comments
Llandaff Cathedral bucking a trend 21 Dec 2013, 21 comments
"The thing that you will do - do it quickly." 20 Nov 2013, 23 comments*
The Dean of Llandaff resignation saga 21 May 2013, 14 comments

Nine months after my first post the very popular Llandaffchester Chronicles blog disappeared after irritating the Welsh church establishment. Although satirical it must have been too close to the bone. It is obvious now that trouble was brewing. If only the warnings had been heeded Llandaff may not have found itself in the mess that it is. To put this in proportion, the whole Province of Wales is about the size of the Diocese of Oxford in the Church of England yet has six diocesan bishops and an Ass Bishop to serve just 1% of the 3 million population of Wales in 2011 and declining. So what is the problem?

The common factor is the Archbishop of Wales whose own Cathedral is, as one commentator put it, "becoming a laughing stock". Compare the obvious professionalism of the Diocese of St Davids here and here with Llandaff here and here which is riven by conflicting interests, something which Dr Morgan comments on but exacerbates rather than heals. The Anglican Church is beset by conflicting views about the ordination of women but the process of reception was supposed to have have been one of mutual respect. That is visible in St Davids, why not in Llandaff?

For the Church in Wales it is not the bill to make it possible for women to be ordained as bishops which should be highlighted in the Church of Wales in 2013 but the apparent disintegration of Llandaff Cathedral under the supposed care of the Church in Wales' chief pastor, Dr Barry Morgan, the Bishop of Llandaff. That is why his Cathedral and its congregation are of the utmost interest to readers of this blog. They deserve our prayers.

LIGHTEN our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord;

 and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night;

 for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thomasina the Tank Engine

Two years ago I blogged on Political correctness gone mad following a report in the Telegraph that the television company which was recording new adventures of Thomas the Tank Engine was re-branding Christmas as "the holidays" to comply with “politically correct” thinking.

In this holiday season of Christmas there has been another poke at poor little Thomas, this time by Labour minister Mary Creagh who attacks Thomas the Tank Engine over the lack of female characters. There is little I can add to some excellent comments which follow the report here.

For unto us a Child is born...the Prince of Peace

The Adoration of the Shepherds c.1505  Giorgione

Wishing all readers a very

Happy Christmas

and a peaceful

New Year

Royal pardon for codebreaker Alan Turing

Computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing has been given a posthumous royal pardon.

This is a wonderful Christmas present for campaigners here and here. Our thanks to Justice Minister Chris Grayling for his initiative. Happy Christmas!

M&S, the CofE and anti-Christian persecution

What an utter mess the Church of England is in. Seeing how M&S shot itself in the foot over its policy, since denied, of allowing Muslims to treat customers as they pleased, the dear old CofE, according to Cranmer, decided to tweet its commendation to M&S for "making reasonable accommodation for the religious beliefs of their workers". That is, Muslim workers of course, a minority who demand and receive special privileges for their faith regardless of the effect on others having chosen to live in what is for now, still a Christian country despite the best efforts of liberal Anglicans.

Being a Christian entitles you to have your face slapped on both cheeks as the Christian B&B owners Peter and Hazelmary Bull found to their considerable cost after a same sex couple challenged their right to refuse them a double room because they were not a heterosexual married couple. Bad news too for Registrars who believe in traditional marriage. They will be forced to conduct gay weddings against their will or lose their jobs. Given decisions such as these one would have thought that the CofE would have viewed the M&S "accommodation" in a different light but no.

It is clear from the Pilling Report that the CofE is digging itself into a bigger hole day by day but they don't stop digging. As the Rev Peter Owen Jones illustrates, things are not what they were in the Church of England. In the nineteenth century another priest, Fr Arthur Tooth, was sent to prison for defending the right to use Eucharistic vestments in the Church of England (here). Now, according to the Mail here: "Rules requiring the clergy to don traditional vestments are set to be swept aside as part of a ‘makeover’ designed to make services more relevant to modern congregations. It just doesn't seem to occur to trendies that relevance to the High Street is not what drew people to church. It was the other worldliness.

For many Christians it is not a case of the stupidity revealed above but of life or death, for too many, the latter. The shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander has added his plea to the voice of the Prince of Wales (here) warning that the mounting persecution of Christians is a “story that goes largely untold”. He says that public figures have allowed “political correctness” to prevent them talking about faith and the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

On its lunch time TV news bulletin today the BBC has a report from Orla Guerin in Cairo about Lives of fear for Egypt's Christians. The burnt churches, kidnappings and killings in Egypt were the "work of a minority" said a Coptic priest. But that is all it takes!

Perhaps the M&S Christmas shopping episode and the reaction of the Church of England will finally result in a reality check for Christians in Britain before all is lost.

Llandaff Cathedral bucking a trend

Llandaff Cathedral with the Archbishop of Wales (also Bishop of Llandaff), Archdeacon of Llandaff and the still vacant Deanery

Among the dismal, declining attendance figures in the Church of England (CofE) there has been a ray of hope where cathedrals have bucked the trend with an increase in attendance over the last decade although the CofE report cautions that "almost all the increase in attendance in the past decade is due to increased midweek attendance rising from 8,900 in 2002 to 16,800 in 2012". Nevertheless there is a glimmer of hope amidst the gloom; analysis here.

Not so in Wales where Llandaff Cathedral has bucked the trend but in the opposite direction. As predicted, seven professional members of Llandaff Cathedral choir have lost their jobs in a bid to save £45,000 as part of the cost-cutting measures to reduce the £81,000 deficit. Having a mathematician in the Deanery and a chartered accountant in the Archdeaconry may have aided the cathedral's acquisition of a magnificent £1.5 million organ but has resulted in a severely depleted choir which it accompanies. Story here with comments from 'Let nothing you dismay' here.

Much has been made in news items about the timing of the sackings but should anyone be surprised? After all the Archbishop believes that the church should reflect society where sackings in time for Christmas are not uncommon. But why the choir? Take a look at the diocesan information page which lists personnel including an Archbishop, an Ass Bishop, three Archdeacons and 28 others in support excluding a Dean. - Apparently nobody wants the job and who could blame them.

According to published figures the minimum figure for stipends for three Archdeacons is over £101,000, while the Archbishop receives (minimum figures) of £44,254 and the Ass Bishop £37,616. When the Church in Wales Archiepiscopal See Working Group looked at stipends in 2006 an Ass Bishop's stipend was £31,079 but the total cost including employers NI and pension contributions and secretarial support was £58,246. If this figure is uprated by the same movement in the Ass Bishop's stipend that is around £65,000 today plus significant housing costs. The absence of a Dean, covered first by the Archbishop and then by the Archdeacon, shows that there is spare capacity at the Cathedral where savings could be made among senior staff and most probably in the supporting structure so why sacrifice the choir in what Dr Morgan described as "the diocesan church par excellence"?

Last Sunday the Archbishop preached, somewhat nervously I thought, at a service in Swansea which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4' Sunday Worship. His subject, The Coming of Christ as Judge which may explain his delivery. As usual he managed to insert 'gender' into his Address: "And Jesus’ whole life was spent ministering to those on the margins of His society because of their gender, occupation, race or illness." If only Jesus had completed His work by appointing women Apostles and handing the keys of heaven to one of them the Archbishop would not have such an onerous task convincing people that the Church has been wrong for 2,000 years.

Instead Dr Morgan and others like him have been able to carve out careers for themselves doing what Christ did not do. The consequences are plain for all to see.

The other cheek

Al Mahdi Centre, Wessex

 A few days ago a story from the Ahlulbayt News Agency crossed my desk. It referred to an event back in September when the Bishop of Portsmouth along with numerous other clerics visited the Al Mahdi Center in Wessex where verses from "the Noble Qur’an" were recited before Bishop Christopher blessed the community and the centre. Sheikh Fazle Abbas Datoo said: “This was a unique opportunity for Wessex Jamaat to build on our past achievements of having such cordial relations with the Portsmouth Cathedral and the Diocese of Portsmouth.  We have an obligation as members of the ummah to share the gift of Islam and the teachings of the Ahlulbayt A.S and this is done through the injunction in the Quran by way of wisdom, fair exhortation and reason."

Sadad, Syria

The news from Syria has not been so cordial and the 'gift of Islam' less welcome with the headline, "Devastating Images & Report from the Christian Town of Sadad in Syria":
These events which happened in Sadad are considered "the greatest massacre of Christians in Syria, and is second in the whole Middle East region after the bombing of Our Lady of the Salvation Church in Iraq, in the same month, and almost the same day in 2010". -Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan of Homs and Hama, story here.



In Syria, Egypt and indeed around the world, approximately 100 million Christians are being persecuted for being Christians. While Christians are expected to turn the other cheek Muslims simply turn the page to show that under "the Noble Qur’an", Islam is a religion of peace while omitting to mention that 'peaceful' verses are abrogated by more sinister verses, examples here. Turning the other  cheek does not mean that we should submit or die. It means that we should set our faces against tyranny rather than encourage its growth by allowing it to spread as some sort of benign ideology when all the evidence is to the contrary.

For too long the West has been in denial. The Prince of Wales has added his voice to those calling for an end to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East after a group of Syrians living in London begged him  to intervene in the conflict in their homeland.

Today the guilty verdict was delivered following the Lee Rigby murder trial in which the perpetrators claimed to be "soldiers of Allah" and the killing "an act of war". For their barbarism they expected to be martyrs claiming their rewards in paradise. That is their 'religion'! Many Muslims will distance themselves from this obscene act of faith but that is what Islam is capable of inspiring however much apologists protest. Not all do the smiting but the effect is the same. The West cannot afford to ignore the problem any longer.