Caption corner 29 January 2019

"Will you lead or shall I? "                                                                                                                                           Source: Church in Wales

A usual publishable captions will appear under Comments.

Costa Compostela

As the above letter indicates, there are 'a few' surplus seats left on the plane the Church in Wales' DBF has chartered to fly the bishop of Llandaff and her clergy team on a 'pilgrimage' to the Roman Catholic shrine of Santiago de Compostela. No doubt most of the walking involved will be to the bar and back.

Anyone wishing to avail themselves of this magnanimous offer should note their pariah status. This is not an invitation to join the clergy school. In fact those wishing to benefit from the 'mini pilgrimage' are cautioned against booking accommodation at Hospederia de San Martin de Pinario.

One can see the sense of this from jolly June's perspective. She will not welcome outsiders injecting a sense of reason into the proceedings, neither will she want any witnesses to the après school activities, particularly from retired clergy who may have a somewhat jaundiced view from her perspective of the direction the modern Church in Wales is taking.

What does this caper cost? If 45 surplus seats @ £350 per seat are taken up, that nets £15,750 to offset the cost which has not been revealed but a guesstimate of the total cost is possible.

The Hospederia has 81 rooms. Taking two to a room that equals a maximum of 162 places plus around 45 surplus plane places

Llandaff diocese lists over 200 clergy, some of whom are retired. Wikipedia shows 105 paid clergy. With non-stipendiary clergy  let us assume a 200 seat plane at £350 per seat. That amounts to £70,000 just for the flight. Adding estimates for food and accommodation the total cost is likely to be in excess of £100,000.

From the Llandaff site: "This regular clergy school, in May 2019, will be used to train and equip priests to teach and lead pilgrimage in their own communities."

But there are already regular parish pilgrimages in the diocese, particularly to Walsingham. A youth pilgrimage from Llandaff to Walsingham in 2017 cost a mere £140 in comparison.

A project is underway to revive the historic Llandaff to Penrhys pilgrimage route running from Cardiff to the the top of the Rhondda without an expensive jolly to encourage it.

There is a cruel irony in jolly June's jolly to Santiago de Compostela. From James 1:27, "Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: ... to keep oneself unstained by the world", something the bench of bishops signally fails to do, thus lurching the Church into one crisis after another. Better the six bishops went and stayed there.

Wrong direction

Pub talk in Llandaff . The bishop of Llandaff with the bishop of Monmouth before his absence from duty        Source:  Church in Wales

Following in the footsteps of her sister bishop Joanna in St Davids who has made appointing women a priority while seeking to rid her diocese of  elderly male priests by sending them 'Dear John' letters in thanksgiving for many years of devoted service to Christ, the bishop of Llandaff has appointed the Revd Dr Jan van der Lely to be Canon Chancellor according to Church Times 'appointments'.

Llandaff Cathedral previously announced the appointment as a new Residentiary Canon.

There are other similarities. Both bishops have an appetite for getting passionately involved in liberalising the Church. June with her megaphone and Joanna with her microphone using the Church to push their sex and gender agendas.

Following the import of the Church of England's first transgender priest, jolly June has imported the Chair of Modern Church to be Canon Chancellor of Llandaff Cathedral.

Among the Vice Presidents of Modern Church are the Most Revd Barry Morgan, former Archbishop of Wales and the Very Revd Prof Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. Say no more!

Modern Church promotes liberal theology with resources on marriage, sexuality & gender identity. Right up June's street!

The whole armour of God has become redundant for anyone who wants to succeed in the Church in Wales. All that is needed is a rainbow scarf and knickers.

Church in Wales in denial

Church in Wales bishops

The duplicity of Church in Wales bishops knows no bounds.

Responding to concerns expressed by Anglican Essentials Wales in the Church Times in advance of their inaugural conference in March, a spokesperson for the Church in Wales said that it was “committed to proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God, and this includes both a call to personal faith and commitment, and bearing witness to God’s call to justice and peace in society.

“All major policy decisions are, and have been, taken either by its Governing Body, which is made up of elected representatives from across the Province, or in consultation with it. This is a fair and democratic process, representative of the whole church, and we believe it is the best place for people to express their views and seek to bring in change.

“We do not recognise the criticism expressed by Anglican Essentials Wales as a fair description of our common life.”

'Proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God' in the Church in Wales has become how the bishops presume to interpret the message.

In the interests of 'democracy' they have embraced “a thoroughly this-worldly message” instead of upholding orthodox faith and practice.

Far from representing 'the whole church' as claimed, traditional Anglicanism is not officially represented. In an appalling breach of faith, commitments given to secure the ordination of women were abandoned when Bishop David Thomas retired.

Faithful worshippers have been left with nothing while overtures continue to be made to high profile minority groups who claim to be persecuted while enjoying their privileged status with access to special chaplaincies.

Movements such as Mae Cymru claim to be "a group of people with a vision of the Church in Wales as a community of God’s people where, regardless of gender, justice and equality prevail". That is exclusively on their terms.

'Gender, justice and equality' have become twisted. Love is everything so everything is permissible. But it is not agape, it is Eros, blatant sexual licence that has little if anything to do with the Gospel message.

Sad to say the ordination of women has proved to be nothing to do with equality. It is about power. Feminist power. Feminists demand equality. Equality demands equality 'regardless of gender'.

In the Church in Wales that means parity regardless of suitability, embracing everything LGBT+, advocating transgenderism and working towards same sex marriage even though the innovation failed to win the necessary votes at the Governing Body of the Church in Wales.

The bench did not accept the 'democratic' decision against same sex marriage in church after a heavily weighted discussion in favour. Instead they decided that more work was needed to implement their decision, using their Governing Body as a tool, drawing participants into heresy. 

In my entry Another farcical Church in Wales 'consultation'? I outlined how the bench of bishops use consultations to cherry pick comments they find favourable while binning those which fail to accord with their predetermined agenda. Their idea of democracy.

Small wonder that the Church in Wales is in terminal decline. The latest press release shows that Wales' struggling rural churches look to tourism for survival. The churches will be fitted out with sleeping stalls and 'services built for cycling'. Services for the faithful are no longer required.

The Church in Wales has entered into dialogue with followers of Witchcraft, Atheism, Peace Mala, Hare Krishna, Sufi, Islam, Yungdrung Bön, Judaism and Druids. Only orthodox Anglicans are regarded as beyond the pale. Unworthy of consideration because they remain true to the historic Apostolic faith in common with Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

That is the 'fair and democratic process' of the Church in Wales.

Caption corner 18 January, 2019

  Sign adopted for St Davids 'Parsonage Emergencies'  Source: Church in Wales

Other suggestions for the use of this sign are invited. Publishable contributions will appear under comments.

Absent bishop

Bishop Richard Pain                                                                           Source: Twitter @ChurchTimes

Over the weekend a Church Times tweet reappeared with curious regularity suggesting a possible early end to the saga of the long absent bishop of Monmouth, Richard Pain.

Glowing tributes from the bishop's supporters after the story broke along with current publicity suggest a concerted effort to reinstate the bishop as the victim of unfounded allegations.

No details of his absence were made known until an article appeared in the Western Mail forcing the story into the open and ending a curious silence which gave rise to much speculation and damaging rumours.

Given the almost saintly qualities poured on him by his supporters it is difficult to imagine  how any possible grievance could have been raised against such a bishop, a procedure which is not used lightly.

According to the Church Times the bishop is "spoken well of by his flock", presumably following a statement by 'six area deans and eight ministry area leaders in the diocese' who described their bishop as "a deeply kind and caring pastor to his clergy" and "much loved and respected not only among the clergy of the diocese but also amongst the lay members of the church from across the diocese in the parishes and communities amongst which he has served."

Appointed assessors 'exonerated' the bishop of unspecified wrongdoing but he remains absent at the archbishop's request while mediation is in process.

The bishop of Monmouth along with the bishop of St Asaph and bishop of Swansea and Brecon (now archbishop) were together at St Michael's College, Llandaff 1982-83.

The bishops of Swansea and Brecon, Monmouth and St Asaph                Photo: South Wales Argus

To avoid any suspicion of an old boy's network in operation, clarification of the grievances made against the bishop of Monmouth is needed to eliminate any doubt and restore confidence if he returns to episcopal ministry.

Anglican Essentials Wales

Source: Anglican Essential Wales

From their web site: "Anglican Essentials Wales is a national movement of lay and ordained Welsh Anglicans united in their common commitment to upholding orthodox faith and practice. Drawn from across the various traditions of the Anglican Church we are dedicated to the propagation of the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ in a post-Christian Wales.

Our purpose is to:

• provide a forum, a rallying point, and an identity for all "orthodox Anglicans" in the Church in Wales
• provide a voice for this constituency to the leadership of the Church in Wales, to other Anglican constituencies, and to the world

In the rapidly changing culture of Wales, where the Christian Church has moved from central to sidelined in half a lifetime, Christians need to present the unchanging gospel of a Saviour who is the same yesterday, today and forever. How should the Church in Wales attempt this task?  What should change and what shouldn’t?  This will be focus of our 2019 conference on Missional Anglicanism."

Details of the inaugural conference may be found here.

Thanks to regular commentator Whamab for this link.