Lowlights September 2018

This tweet sums up the Highlights of latest meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales

There has been an increase in mid-week attendance with an extra 0.03% of the population who do not attend church on Sundays.

By contrast the average Sunday attendance by people over 18 continues to plummet. Down another 3% on 2016 figures to 27,359 representing 0.8% of the population of Wales. Attendance by those under 18 was down by 7%.

Baptisms were down by 10%, Confirmations down by a massive 36% and Weddings down by 8%.

Not regarded as sufficiently important to warrant an agenda item of its own despite concerns previously expressed the Membership and Finances Report 2017 was hidden away in presented as part of Bishop Andy’s presentation on the Evangelism, Pioneering Ministry and Growth report.

He said he was "encouraged by two of its statistics: the increase in attendance at midweek services, which suggested that new kinds of Christian gathering were bearing fruit; and the gentle increase in young people aged under 17 – 'That mustn’t be a fitful figure, but a normal investment in young people to hear the good news,' he said."

If it doesn't bear fruit and quickly the future for the Church in Wales is grim.

In good faith and bad

A row has broken out in the diocese of Oxford because, horror of horrors, an advert for a new vicar at St Barnabas and St Paul with St Thomas the Martyr Parish specifies that it is seeking a male priest.

This is entirely within the rules adopted when the Church of England agreed to ordain women but of course rules are there to be broken now that feminists in the Church have what they always wanted - control.

According to an Oxford Mail report the advert provoked outrage in the community with one councillor 'slamming the church' for being 'too cowardly' to confront misogyny, presumably unaware that many women are more opposed to the ordination of women than are men and are suffering the consequences of effectively being excommunicated, a matter of complete indifference to the type of women who are calling the shots in the Church.

Showing her apparent ignorance of the workings of the Church, Labour city councillor for West Oxford Susanna Pressel said she was 'shocked and appalled' and asked: "What century are they living in?" She went on: “They have several excellent women church wardens who do most of the work. It’s profoundly insulting to regard them as not good enough to be paid for what they do. It’s such a pity that the government has exempted churches from the legislation that enforces equal opportunities in every other organisation of any size.

“The Church of England has the power to prescribe equal opportunities within their churches, but they are too cowardly to confront these dinosaurs and to challenge their misogyny."

It is not clear whether Cllr Pressel ever darkens the door step of a church other than perhaps in connection with her civic duties but in any event her understanding of the roles of vicar and churchwardens appear to be strictly limited.

Her support on the other hand for the 20th anniversary of the Oxford International Women’s Festival may explain her outrage. The theme was 'Pioneering and Inspirational' women.

Following on from the outrageous protests at the appointment of the Bishop of Burnley, the Rt Rev Philip North, to become Bishop of Sheffield, this is yet another case of feminists bashing the church regardless of the facts and agreed procedures.

It was no surprise to read, therefore, that Emma Percy, chair of  the feminist pressure group Women and the Church (WATCH) said that she would like the church to be in a place where ‘people don’t worry about or have to specify the gender of their priest’ although she was kind enough to stress that she ‘respected’ the parish’s decision.

In England and in Wales women cried, begged and cajoled, promising to abide by agreements made but the ink was hardly dry before the wrecking began.

It is interesting to read in hindsight a WATCH paper written by the then canon F A Jackson, now archdeacon of Llandaff having been imported by the former archbishop of Wales to drive forward his secularisation of the Church in Wales.

The intention is clear. Despite claims to the contrary, there is no room for traditional Anglicanism in today's church. This from a woman who was welcomed by the Anglican church at a difficult time in her life only to do her damndest to punish men and women who do not share her self-centred approach to Anglicanism. In doing so the spiritual lives of many who were faithful Anglicans long before Jackson took to religion have been ruined.

One of the brightest stars in the Church in Wales, a traditionalist Anglican who towered above the bench, was told “There is no place for you in this church”. By contrast one of the many men he inspired to become ordained has risen to the top having bowed to Barry Morgan's secularist agenda.

Traditional Anglicans in the Church of England have, for the time being, access to alternative  episcopal oversight, something denied Anglicans in Wales where a 'brood of vipers' pretended to care but clearly did not.

The Code of Practice claimed "The Church in Wales therefore remains committed to enabling all its members to flourish within its life and structures as accepted and valued".  They reneged on the agreement to provide acceptable pastoral and sacramental oversight for traditionalists by refusing to re-appoint a Provincial Assistant Bishop and have forbidden other bishops to cross the border to support them.

Consequently Anglo Catholicism in Wales has been virtually eliminated. If by some miracle there were a change of heart there is hardly anything left of the Anglican church itself as it crumbles into obscurity leaving the architects of its demise to sit out their retirement on their un-earned pensions.

The media along with ill-informed outsiders continue to use secular values to attack Christianity from a position of ignorance while protecting political ideologies which would bridle free speech. For Christians and Anglicans in particular the outlook is grim.

Many were surprised at the choice of words used by the former Archbishop of Canterbury in reaction to the lost vote in 2012. In a speech to the General Synod he said, "The failure of the vote in the house of laity...had made the church's governing body appear "wilfully blind" to the priorities of secular society before adding that "the ultimate credibility of the Church does not depend on the goodwill of the wider public. We would not be Christian believers in divine revelation if we held that."

The Church of England, as represented by those in authority, is no longer blind to the priorities of secular society. Hence the mess we are in which is clear for all to see except the wilfully, spiritually blind.

Caption corner 27 September 2018

Peace Mala. The Archbishop of Wales with supporters @StDavidsNeath.                                                              Source: Twitter @WelshMuslims

As usual publishable captions will appear under 'Comments'.

A breath of fresh air

PIC FROM CATERS NEWS – A lesbian couple have had a DIY baby after
 using a syringe full of their gay best friends sperm to get pregnant. 

At last, some sense from bishops. Not from the Church of England and certainly not from the completely secularised bishops of the Church in Wales but from bishops in France.

From a report in Crux:  The French bishops said "proposals to extend fertility treatments to lesbian couples and single women would harm society by removing fatherhood from the lives of children.

"In an eight-page statement published Sept. 20, the bishops predicted that liberalization of the law also would lead to the social acceptance of surrogacy, the rise of eugenics and the notion that children were commodities to please adults.

"Could we collectively accept that man is considered a mere supplier of genetic materials and that human procreation is thus akin to manufacturing? it asked."

Male influence is on the wane. Primary education is dominated by female teachers. Your GP is increasingly likely to be female. Since the ordination of women the parish priest is likely to be female with an increasing number of female bishops, many of whom enthusiastically wave the rainbow flag.

The victims are fatherless children who are purposefully denied the wholeness of human creation.

Anglican bishops take note. Do not be conformed to this self-centred view of the world.

The hypocrisy of it

The Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd John Davies, makes the case for changing the Church in
Wales’s position on same-sex relationships at the recent meeting of its Governing Body, in Lampeter
Source: Church Times/Picture credit Church in Wales

From Church Times

Addressing their Governing Body the Archbishop of Wales claimed that the status quo on same-sex relationships was unsustainable.

"For him and the bench, it was simply a question of 'justice', he said. 'We have people in our congregations in committed same-sex relationships who can be baptised, confirmed, admitted to holy communion, and even be ordained in the case of civil partnerships. To say to them that, when it comes to formally affirming [and] recognising your relationship in some form, we can’t do that, and you must retreat into the shadows at the moment. . . I don’t think it’s any longer fair or sustainable'."

The bench have traditionalists in their congregations who have been baptised, confirmed and admitted to holy communion but they are also committed to the teaching of Christ through scripture and tradition.

They have been rejected so are unlikely to be ordained despite pledges in the Code of Practice.

That is unsustainable by normal standards but acceptable in the Church in Wales.

The stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming.

Viewed from the outside: The Church in Wales is dead.

At position 3.30 in the above video, the decision of the Church in Wales to find a way to introduce gay marriage is discussed.

Described along with the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Brazilian Church as "the least healthy Anglican churches in the world in terms of growth, membership and viability", the Church in Wales was said to be "drowning fast". Coincidental  or not, all three along with the US Episcopal Church were said to have led the charge on gay marriage.

The treatment of conservative elements by the hierarchy in Wales, particularly under former archbishop Barry Morgan, comes in for particular criticism: Traditionalists have been demonised as 'evil' or 'mentally deluded' for not thinking the same way as the bench.

It is a "dreadful environment" for traditionalists in the province of Wales says the Rev George Conger. They no longer want to raise their heads above the ridge because they are going to get their head chopped off.

Described in the video as a fertile mission field because "the faith is still there", the possibility of revival in Wales has been stymied  by the refusal of Church in Wales bishops to allow AMIE and other conservative elements to cross the border.

That was no barrier to the woman bishop invited to celebrate the Eucharist at Llandaff Cathedral even before women bishops were legal in the Church in Wales.

In the 'inclusive' Church in Wales you are welcome only if you are allied to the prevailing culture. Within a generation, says Conger, the Church in Wales will be gone. It is even less healthy than the Church of England which has twenty years to pull out of the nosedive. The Church in Wales has even less time. 

"The faith is still there but the leadership and institutions have failed. The Church in Wales is a dead church."

Murder but no revolution.

I dislike the phrase 'loved ones' but their fate sums up an impending catastrophe.

All those Parish and daughter churches so lovingly cared for by worshippers who lie buried in churchyards, perhaps to be joined by those for whom the penny has still to drop. Their graves will become overgrown with no-one to care for them as the churches close and are sold or left to decay.

Nobody in the liberal Church in Wales seems to care beyond short term gain. Ambition, gratification and relativism are all that matter.

A sad end to Anglicanism in Wales. Nobody will be tried for their crime, not in this life, but you have to wonder if the bishops believe in another life anyway. 

Yesterday's man

It doesn't say much for the new Archbishop of Wales when the old is invited to share his destructive views with Bangor clergy school.

Barry Morgan of all people! Wrecker in chief of the Church in Wales with his radical policies spouting a load of old cobblers.

He persists in perpetuating the myth that the clergy have to do everything - apart from working together.

There are some clergy who pull above their weight but there are others who are bone idle. I could give him a few names.

In reality hard working, conscientious clergy have simply had enough of politics. Many of the more able have jumped ship leaving Ministry Areas in Wales in a sorry state. Who better to blame than long suffering laity for supposedly leaving it all to the clergy.

Morgan should realise that many of the problems have been caused by forcing out hard working laity leaving the Church of Wales on the verge of collapse.

He doesn't give a damn for them, nor do the increasing numbers of senior staff left in charge while area cooperatives struggle to survive with inadequate pastoral support.

When he retired he pledged that he would not interfere. Another broken promise.

Sad, deluded and failure are three words that spring to mind.