ABC is being naughty yet again

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It was reported in the most recent Church Times that a new Archbishop’s secretary for appointments has been found. For the uninitiated, the secretary of appointments is the one who manages the process for the appointment of bishops, deans, and other senior posts in the Church of England.

Some people within the Church of England are a little surprised by the appointment as the post which has been vacant for only about 2 months doesn’t seem to have been advertised. Furthermore they are irked by the revelation that it is an internal appointment!

Personally, I find it strange that in the Church of England, clergy have to apply for new positions; something which I am not familiar with because in Scotland the clergy receive what is known as a “call”. Meanwhile administrative positions appear to require no such applications.

I dread that what happens inside the Church mirrors the secular government!

The Archbishop and the Chief Whip

In yesterday’s Telegraph, There was a large obituary of Lord Denham: Chief Whip in the Lords throughout Margaret Thatcher’s premiership.

In his obituary, I read about a rather amusing incident that happened in Eton between him (Bertie) and John Habgood, who later went on to become the Archbishop of York.

At Eton, he sat next to John Habgood, the future Archbishop of York. When Bertie sought help in a French test, Habgood replied: “if you can’t do your own homework, you shouldn’t ask other people to do it for you.” Denham considered this a shade un-Christian.

The Daily Telegraph, Thursday 9 December 2021

Misquote

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At the recent General Synod, the Archbishop of York (ABY) was quoted as saying:

“We have a lot of labourers in the Church of England. The trouble is that the labourers are in the barn arguing what colour to paint the combine harvester. Like two bald men fighting over a comb“

In the Gospel of St Matthew, the Lord Jesus says that the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. I know who I believe because if the ABY is correct, there will be no need for multi parish benefices where a single parish priest is usually in charge of 3 or more parish churches!!!!

Younger & Diverse

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There was an article in last week’s Church Times about a £4.8 million Innovation Fund that has been launched by the Archbishops’ Council.

As I read the article, I quickly realised that rural churches will never be able to qualify for one because the projects must support the official Vision and Strategy for the 2020s; the priority of becoming a Church which is younger and more diverse.

In rural parishes like ours, We do not have young families moving into our villages. The problem is so acute that one of our village primary schools has already closed down.

As for diversity, rural areas tend to be quite traditional which is why the parish churches tend to be more middle of the road CofE than very high or very low.

What rural churches really need is priests of good calibre but sadly the Church of England is unwilling to fund that and prefers to waste her money away.

Who is that woman???

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The Church of England’s General Synod 2021 began on Monday with an inauguration service in Westminster Abbey yesterday. Today is the final day of the Synod. For those interested, you can follow the proceedings here.

I watched a catch up of yesterday’s proceedings before bed last night. I found it to be very interesting but I was constantly distracted by a woman who was knitting!!!! Every time she was in focus which was very often because she was seated facing the camera, she was knitting; if she wasn’t knitting she was fiddling with her mobile phone!!!! By the way, She is there again today still busy knitting!!!!

Personally, I am quite shocked by the audacity of this individual. Will she be doing that if it was Her Majesty the Queen addressing the conference??? Is the person addressing the conference unworthy of this individual’s undivided attention?? It is very sad that in this present day and age, we no longer know right from wrong. There is no longer a place for rules and regulations. We only want to do what suits us! In other words, we have become very selfish.

Sudden Influx

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For the last fortnight or so, we have have been inundated with people informing us that they are putting their names forward to be elected to represent their respective dioceses in the upcoming General Synod of the CofE to be held in November 2021. It has been really strange because there have been many emails and telephone calls on this matter! The Mhinisteir has of course had people persuading him to vote for them!

I was a little unsure as to why the sudden interest until I realised that last Friday was the closing date for the votes and more importantly there are two very important subjects that will be discussed: Save the Parish and LLF(Living in love and faith). LLF is actually the big elephant in the room; I don’t wish to comment on it because it is an extremely sensitive matter. It is best left to the experts to thrash it out. As for myself, I believe that God is much much bigger than the elephant in the room; I am going to put my trust in Him.

What about the Christians?

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I think I am right in saying that for the past fortnight both our print and broadcast media have been saturated with news on Afghanistan. I have started turning off the radio when the news comes on and skip certain pages of the newspaper! There is only so much one can take.

I think I have heard enough but one thing I have not heard about is the plight of the Christians in Afghanistan. What has happened to them? Everyone including the CofE is going on about women and girls right to education etc but no one is talking about the Christians there. They will probably be the most persecuted people even compared to the girls and women!

Surely the CofE must know this and furthermore not all countries will accept Christians as refugees.

Disappointed!

Mouth like a Highland bog, mind like a mitten!

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Sadly, this is what I think of the ABY after his latest gaffe! For the uninitiated, this is what he had said.

It is unfortunate when a senior cleric feels the need to utter such things.

By the way, The NHS was founded by Aneurin Bevan, a Welshman while the BBC World Service was founded by John Reith, a Scotsman!

ABY, please get your facts right the next time!

Rebuked

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The Church of England was rebuked at a recent inquest held into the death of a former priest. It mishandled inquiry into false child abuse allegations. The priest took his own life as he could not cope with the investigation. How is one supposed to cope when they are not even told of the nature of the investigation! How cruel! He is not the first priest to have died because of the CofE’s negligence and sadly he won’t be the last!

I think I have said enough on this matter in my previous posts so I won’t say anymore.

However, I would urge all CofE clergy to join the Church of England Clergy Advocates (CECA) who are members of the Faith Workers Branch of Unite the Union. There is a monthly membership fee but I am reliably informed that it will be money worth spent.

The Mhinisteir is a member. If you are a clergy or know of a clergy, please encourage them to join. They will provide clergy with all the necessary support including legal support should (God forbid!) the clergy require it.

By joining, you will also in a small way (through the membership fee) be able to support falsely accused clergy like the Chancellor of Lincoln.

Banns of Marriage

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Now that summer is upon us, almost every other Sunday we hear at least one Banns of Marriage being read out in church.

In the Church of England, it is a legal requirement for Banns of Marriage to be read out in Church. Banns of Marriage are announcements that are made in the church that the wedding couple are due to be married in. They are read so that it will give anyone the opportunity to give a reason why the couple cannot be lawfully married.

The Banns of Marriage of a couple are read for three Sundays, three months before the actual wedding. After the Banns have been read, the congregation prays for the couple.

When I moved to England and started worshipping in the Church of England, I very quickly realised that these couples whose Banns of Marriage were announced were rarely present in Church. I mentioned earlier that the main aim of the announcement is to give anyone the opportunity to give a reason why the couple cannot be lawfully married. If you don’t even know who is getting married, how can you in good conscience say that you don’t know of any impediment?????????

After all these years, I still find the rules of the Church a bit strange but then it is not the rules is it?? The Church and her Vicars need to be more diligent in imposing them. The couple must be present when their Banns of Marriage is being read. If it is too much of an imposition, they should seriously consider why they wanted to get married in a Church in the first place!. Contrary to what senior clerics promote, the Church is NOT a wedding venue! You can’t pick and choose which bits of the church you like and which bits you don’t.