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Wednesday 30 May 2018

Holy smoke


Celebrating Llandaff style                                         Source: Naked Truth/BBC


Apparently there is smoke without fire. That is the conclusion of the eagerly anticipated Llandaff Cathedral report. It reminds me of the Church in Wales Standing Doctrinal Commission telling the former bishop of Llandaff what he wanted to hear but it is as it is.

The hand-picked review team describe Llandaff Cathedral as "a wonderful place with committed clergy and staff. It has a healthy attendance at services with many young people and a wealth of skills and experience in the congregation. The reviewers recognise that the Cathedral is now in better shape having stabilised its finances and controlled its operating costs, as well as having fully recovered its rich tradition of music. It also has one of the best organs in the country."

Nevertheless, the challenges ahead "require a better business model that is more sustainable to help finance the repairs and the redevelopment of key areas of the building whilst also helping to fund the mission and ministry of the Cathedral. The reviewers recommend major changes to the way the Cathedral is governed for it to shape and deliver a bold and extensive strategy. Key to that restructuring will be the involvement of more lay people with specialist skills."

No doubt many commentators who have used this blog to air their grievances will not be satisfied with the findings but perhaps it is time to draw a line and move on.

If commenting on this blog, may I implore commentators to refrain from using derogatory pseudonyms which serve only to detract from what is intended to be a legitimate commentary on the direction of Anglicanism today.

A word about comments. These are sent from the anonymised address "noreply-comment@blogger.com". There is no information which identifies the sender. Consequently I am unable to reply to commentators directly when asked, neither am I able to amend comments to remove what some readers may find offensive. 

Over the last few days I have been experiencing a problem with the receipt of comments. I apologise in advance if you try to comment within the rules (see leading Blog notes) but without success.

Thursday 24 May 2018

Jolly June's jollies


Source: Twitter @BishopJuno


The bishop of Llandaff is right keen on jollies. The latest announced is a diocesan clergy school in 2019. The venue, Santiago de Copostela to help equip clergy for "ministerial priesthood and leadership within the Diocese".

From a note accompanying Jolly June's June Ad Clerum: " We are delighted to announce that the first Clergy School will be held in Santiago de Compostela from May 13th – 17th 2019. You will know that Santiago in Northern Spain is the location of the shrine of St James the Apostle and for many centuries has been the destination of pilgrimage routes known as ‘The Camino’. We see this Clergy School as equipping us as a Diocese for a Year of Pilgrimage, an expression of our Centenary celebrations in 2020."

June thought some may find it bizarre to go to Spain when we have so many magnificent pilgrim routes here in Wales. Spot on.

Jetting off to Rome, a luxury retreat in Devon. Now she is taking her clergy to Santiago de Compostela.

As clergy become thinner on the ground with lay leaders taking up the reins, how kind of Jolly June to treat those remaining to a jolly in Spain. Paid for by savings on stipends?

Wednesday 23 May 2018

April Fool


Bishop Michael Curry preached at the Royal wedding                     Source: Reuters/Christian Today


Presiding bishop Michael Curry thought his invitation to preach at the Royal wedding was an April Fool joke according to a report in Christian Today.

That is not surprising. Anglican leaders have barred the US Episcopal Church (TEC) from decision-making for allowing same-sex marriage.

No wonder Curry thought the invitation a joke. He was being offered a platform to preach his confused message of 'luuuuv' to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, came up with the idea despite TEC having been sanctioned. "It was fantastic", he said, "This was raw God". Raw it might have been but it wasn't God. It was Michael Curry, liberal activist.

Welby claimed that people were caught up in it and excited by it. Those senior members of the Royal family he had spoken to were really excited by it and the people spoken to at the reception were gripped by it.

That is hardly surprising given the record of some of the senior members of the Royal family and many of the celebrities present. The Holy sacrament of marriage was combined with a message that legitimises just about anything in the name of love, interpreting selfish eros as selfless agape.

Wrapping all forms of love into one parcel is very convenient but it it is not biblical. So successful was Curry in getting across his liberal message that Labour peer Peter Mandelson said he was considering popping the question to his same-sex partner of 20 years. People across the UK will be 'inspired' by the moving display of love they witnessed between Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, he said.  

It wasn't April but there was a fool. Welby hammering yet another nail in the Anglican coffin.

Saturday 19 May 2018

Pentecost - Welsh revival!


Bishop Andy John, the lead bishop on evangelism                                         Source: Church in Wales


From a Church in Wales Provincial press release: Church launches £10m fund to inspire new Welsh revival.

+Andy has drawn the short straw as the lead bishop on evangelism. Perhaps it is not surprising since his Easter messages have made the rest of the bench look like amateurs but is it good news?

There is more to evangelism than saying the right things, a problem exemplified when bishop Michael Curry preached about love at the marriage of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle earlier today.

Many thought he preached a powerful sermon, drawing attention to the need to love God and one's neighbour. But the US Episcopal Church and Anglican bishops in Great Britain have distorted scripture, using 'love' as a password to permit virtually any permutation for sexual freedom.

A passionate supporter of same sex marriage, Curry's beliefs are curiously at odds with the beauty of the marriage service, clearly intended to apply to the union of one man and one woman for the procreation of children.

Easter messages reached rock bottom in 2014 when Archbishop Barry Morgan spoke of solidarity and forgiveness. He said: "Solidarity and forgiveness sum up the meaning of Easter and when one sees these values exemplified, one begins to realise the significance of what it means to believe in the God of Jesus."

He expanded his message in a newspaper article at the time. Lecturing politicians on ethics Morgan suggested that "people of all parties could work to bring something of the generous spirit of the governing body to wider politics and work to build a society in which are neighbours are not just tolerated but loved."

That 'generous spirit' led the Governing Body to show a complete absence of love for traditional Anglicans when it voted for a code of practice that abandoned the faithful. Instead it ushered in a feminist cult hell-bent on feminising the church and allowing same sex marriages.

So what of the Evangelism Fund? The chair of the committee overseeing the Fund said, “We are keen to give grants to effective, well-constructed projects and to ensure the Church’s money is well spent. We will be looking for ideas, for example, that create growth among people in age groups under-represented in our churches, create new forms of ‘church’ to appeal to people not currently going, and projects which lead to changes in culture or provide teaching and learning in faith all over Wales.”

Over represented in terms of numbers are elderly women. Traditional Anglicans have been made unwelcome while every effort is being made to accommodate more LGBT people by pretending they have been unwelcome in church despite their disproportionate presence in many congregations and especially among the clergy.

'More of the same - but faster', as the new archbishop put it, can only quicken the eventual demise of the  Church in Wales which in 2015 was given a potential extinction date of about 2040.

What most congregations now lack are traditional Christian families with children in the choir, Sunday school, youth club, Scout and Guide organisations, etc, looking forward at Pentecost for their annual Whitsun treat.

That women were more in evidence was not a problem as there were sufficient men in the choir and serving at the Altar to carry out essential tasks. If not, willing husbands and non-church people would often help-out.

To correct the imbalance today is a near impossible task. The Anglican church is no longer about 'otherness', just more of the same in vestments. A failed strategy that has resulted in empty pews because mystery has been replaced by what is commonplace in society.

As for new forms of ‘church’ to appeal to people not currently attending, there are toddler groups,  'messy' church, cafe style worship, animal blessings, LGBTQI+ eucharists. Everything in fact but repentance.

How much better it would have been at no extra cost to appoint Welsh speaking bishops in the  Church of Wales to make Welsh speakers feel welcome as outlined in the Welsh Language Guidelines published by the Church in Wales: "In general, what is expected is a positive and imaginative approach to extend the use of the Welsh language in the life of the Province".

The Welsh bishops like to lecture others but rarely practice what they preach beyond enforcing their secular agenda. They have ignored consultations and used positive discrimination to achieve their objectives, alienating many to gain a few.

As for a Welsh revival, dream on. Thanks to liberal minded bishops Anglicanism hangs by a thread. They are stretching it to breaking point.

From the press release: "The Evangelism Fund is being launched on Pentecost Sunday – May 20 – the day traditionally regarded as the Church’s birthday when Christians focus sharing their faith and growth."

Received faith has been abandoned resulting in constant decline. Tradition has been thrown out of the window while appealing to the faithless.

"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place"  (Acts 2). Those were the days.

Thursday 17 May 2018

A right royal soap


 Michael Curry presiding bishop of TEC                      Source: Mike Theiler/Reuters/Christian Today


Blanket coverage of the royal wedding is to be expected. Royal watchers have already secured their positions in Windsor, bedding down in the most advantageous positions well in advance of the big day. TV cameras will beam pictures around the world to millions of people.

The big question is, who will give away the bride now that Ms Markle has announced from Kensington palace that her father will not attend the wedding.

But why bother with tradition? The Anglican Church has been dropping tradition and scripture like hot potatos. The couple have reportedly been living together for some time so why not walk down the aisle together in the spirit of the age?

The Anglican Church has become a rubber-stamp used to endorse the spirit of the age, divorced from the true Spirit which was sent to guide the Church from age to age.

Preaching at the royal wedding will be Michael Curry, the first African-American head of the US Episcopal Church (TEC), despite his 'never having met the couple'.

 A spokesman for Kensington Palace said of the Prince and Ms Markle's choice: 'The couple and the archbishop discussed a number of possibilities for a preacher.

'Whilst Bishop Curry is not personally known to the couple, it was felt that given the fact that he is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church as well as a wonderful speaker and preacher, it would be highly appropriate for him to be invited to speak.'

Archbishop Welby reportedly has a close relationship with his American counterpart, "despite backing the decision to impose sanctions on the Episcopal Church for allowing same-sex marriage. The 'consequences' came after the Episcopal Church first consecrated an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in 2003, and officially authorised gay marriage in 2015."

"Curry, who is descended from slaves and sharecroppers in North Carolina and Alabama, has spoken of how his background influences his own passionate defence of same-sex marriage in church."

Clearly a natural choice for today's Church of England. A secret baptism followed by a swift confirmation culminating in the presence of a 'charismatic preacher' who is a passionate advocate of same sex marriage in church.

As Christian Today put it: "The wedding will be watched by millions around the world and presents the largest audience any preacher has had since Richard Chartres, then bishop of London, preached to around two billion people at the wedding Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.

"It is possible, likely even, that Curry's energetic personality, his charismatic preaching, and his sonorous voice will mean he is the unexpected star to emerge from the wedding."

We must wish the couple every happiness but this is not Anglicanism. It has been allowed to become a right royal soap opera.

Justin Welby appears to be doing his best to divide the church. The blatantly feminist appointments of Sarah Mullally as bishop of London and Vivienne Faull as bishop of Bristol are merely the latest in a string of appointments of bishops openly promoting same sex marriage.

Now presiding bishop Michael Curry has been given a platform to address millions of people at the royal wedding. Welby should be ashamed of himself for placing the Queen, the supreme governor of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith in this position.

Michael Curry: Brits will fall in love with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Royal wedding preacher here.

Michael Curry: Who is the Royal wedding preacher who backs gay marriage and opposes Trump? here.


Tuesday 15 May 2018

Faull of Bristol


Source: Twitter @ChristianToday/Diocese of Bristol


We have to expect women to be appointed to the episcopate after General Synod voted in favour of the innovation but the Church of England has not voted in favour of same sex blessings - yet.

That is no impediment to Vivienne Faull, the current Dean of York, who is to be the new bishop of Bristol.

Christian Today reports Faull had said she would have no problem theologically with blessing a gay relationship and condemned the Church for 'driving people away' with its stance on sexuality. She  had 'found ways' of celebrating civil partnerships without flouting the Church of England's legislation.

In the typically duplicitous manner used by feminists she said, "I look forward to leading a church that shows the love of Christ to everyone, whoever they are" as though the church lacks love if same sex marriage is not accepted.

There is little love shown to traditionalists but that doesn't bother them at all. The feminist lobby and their liberal supporters chip away  at the agreement which made it possible for women to be appointed bishops. In Wales of course devout Anglican women and men have been left with nothing with no concern whatsoever for the unchurched.

Also reported in Christian Today: "LGBT people should be encouraged into church leadership, clergy told". In a letter praising 'the great contribution that LGBT+ Christians are making', four bishops in Lichfield are urging clergy to take a different approach to welcoming gay people.

There is no shortage of gay people in the church and plenty of gay clergy. There is no problem welcoming gay people. It is all part of the strategy to move towards the acceptance of same sex marriage in church.

As if to make a plug for same sex blessings, a strong supporter of gay marriage, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the US Episcopal Church has been invited to preach at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding on Saturday.

As with the ordination of women, same sex marriage will be pursued at all levels in the Church of England until it is accepted. Supporters will again claim that victory is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Pull the other one.

Monday 14 May 2018

Homily on John 17


Where the Gospel and the World Collide. Feminism v the Kingdom of Heaven.
Gavin Ashenden.



Reproduced from the blog: Gavin Ashenden - Restoring Orthodox Christianity as an Anglican.

Thursday 10 May 2018

Schools and Same-Sex Marriage


From: Coalition for Marriage (C4M)




SCHOOLS TO BE ASSESSED ON
 SUPPORT FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Dear marriage supporter,

Ofsted could fail a school if a teacher says they back the repeal of same-sex marriage.

That’s the effect of new guidance the Government is consulting on right now. Initially it just applies to independent schools, but it’s only a matter of time before it is applied to all schools in England through Ofsted’s common inspection framework.

The proposed guidance says it will be a breach of the school standards if a school curriculum “suggests that same-sex marriages or civil partnerships should not be recognised as being lawful unions under civil law” (see the draft guidance, para. 20).

Teachers will be gagged. Children will be indoctrinated. Even teachers who give views for and against could fall foul of this approach. This will dramatically escalate the high-profile clashes between Ofsted and schools with a Christian or Jewish ethos.

This is an outrageous proposal. Politically-correct Whitehall bureaucrats are testing our defences. This is the most audacious attack on supporters of traditional marriage since same-sex marriage was legalised in 2013. If ever there was a case of LGBT overreach this is it.

By standing together we can defeat this proposal. And we will defeat it. Next week we’ll let you know what you can do. But in the meantime, please consider making a donation to our work.

With your help we can take a stand for marriage and back people like us who believe marriage is between a man and a woman.

You can donate securely by clicking the button below:

Donate

Yours sincerely,

(Sign'd) Colin Hart

Colin Hart
Chairman
Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

Monday 7 May 2018

Feminisation of the Church in Wales continues


Bishop of St Davids                                                                                      Source: Church in Wales


New Dean of St Davids                                   Source Twitter @CarysNon




The enthronement of Joanna



















The consequences













First woman bishop welcomes first woman dean                                   Source: Twitter@BishopJuno




The adulation from bishop June:

"Llandaff journeyed to St David’s [sic] for the celebration of the Installation of their new Dean. All blessings on you Sarah as you enjoy the delights and learn the craft of deanship."







Former Abp of  Wales Barry Morgan        Source CinW








The architect of the demise of the Church in Wales claimed that Canon Penberthy was "the best person to be a bishop".
See previous entry Festive Charades: Welsh bishops










Saturday 5 May 2018

In Vogue!


Source: Twitter/Vogue

One of the tweets I received this morning led with the above photograph. The article was headed 'Collared Clergywear Wants to Give Women Ministers Something to Feel Stylish In'. It had a link to Collared Clergywear which was "founded by Reverend Sandra Sykes and her daughter several years ago in an attempt to, in Sykes’s own words, 'free women clergy to feel more like themselves at work'."

They are in vogue with the 'pride top' and the more relaxed 'butterfly top'.

 Pride top                      Source: Collared Clergywear
Butterfly top               Source: Collared Clergywear



















For the more traditional minded when it comes to dress this creation has collar and cuffs in white lace with sizes from XS to XXL.

Abi Dress, Black/White lace     Collared Clergywear

I am sure they would feel more like themselves at work.

Tuesday 1 May 2018

May Day!


Source: Twitter @stpetercarms
It is fitting that the Eucharist service advertised on the left is to be held on 1st May given the intention and pagan origins of May Day.

Victimisation is implicit in praying for equality while celebrating diversity. There are others far less equal who are never mentioned apart from being told to find somewhere else to worship.

The bishop of St Davids again identifies her ministry most closely with advancing homosexuality in the church while pursuing her policy of gender parity.

The bishops of Llandaff and St Asaph have similar agendas so at least half the bench is closely allied with the aspirations of Changing Attitudes. 

The former Archbishop Barry Morgan liked to remind anyone who had to listen to him that the bench spoke with one voice so the Church in Wales is off course travelling in the wrong direction.

May Day!