Category Archives: Justin Welby

At last Justin Welby finds a clear way forward

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For the last ten years the Archbishop of Canterbury has been trying to reconcile the differences disrupting the Anglican Communion. As is often the case in the Anglican church, it is mostly about sex.

The more he tries, the worse it gets, to the point now where both liberals and conservatives are urging him to resign. In his quest to answer one of the most difficult and profound questions ever to face mankind – who is allowed to grope whom – his own groping in darkness has ended; he has seen the light.

It’s no wonder he has made such a mess of things; he’s been barking up the wrong tree ever since he attended Alpha. Jesus isn’t the light of the world after all! Hindus are.

In his own words: “Hindus are so often being the light that we need”.

Justin Welby bombs his own twitter (X) feed

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Yesterday Justin Welby quoted the BBC saying: Hundreds feared dead or injured in Israeli air strike on hospital in Gaza:

He is correct, of course, it is an appalling loss of innocent lives. The problem with his tweet, though, is that the hospital was bombed by Hamas, not Israel.

Welby later, in a face-saving backpedal, said “We must exercise restraint in apportioning blame until the facts are clear.” He should have said “I”:

What he failed to note was that the rocket was intentionally aimed at civilians, it just hit the wrong ones.

“Justice for George Floyd was essential” says Justin Welby

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Derek Chauvin has been convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and is likely to spend much of what is left of his life in prison. That may not be very long in his new surroundings: his incarceration is probably a de facto death sentence.

Did he receive a fair trial? I really don’t know, but I think earthly justice is an elusive commodity. As Blaise Pascal noted:

Love or hate alters the aspect of justice. How much greater confidence has an advocate, retained with a large fee, in the justice of his cause! How much better does his bold manner make his case appear to the judges, deceived as they are by appearances! How ludicrous is reason, blown with a breath in every direction!….. Our magistrates have known well this mystery. Their red robes, the ermine in which they wrap themselves like furry cats, the courts in which they administer justice, the fleurs-de-lis, and all such august apparel were necessary; if the physicians had not their cassocks and their mules, if the doctors had not their square caps and their robes four times too wide, they would never have duped the world, which cannot resist so original an appearance. If magistrates had true justice, and if physicians had the true art of healing, they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of these sciences would of itself be venerable enough. But having only imaginary knowledge, they must employ those silly tools that strike the imagination with which they have to deal; and thereby, in fact, they inspire respect. Soldiers alone are not disguised in this manner, because indeed their part is the most essential; they establish themselves by force, the others by show.

This doesn’t bother Justin Welby, who has always seemed more interested in illusory temporal justice than the genuine eternal variety. Would Welby have been tweeting his satisfaction if justice had been served by the jury finding Chauvin innocent? Almost certainly not.

Will Welby also be praying for Chauvin? Let’s hope so: Welby believes Chauvin is a guilty sinner; didn’t Jesus come to save sinners?

I fear the truth is that Welby, like most others, wanted retribution not justice.

Contrasting Justin Welby’s reaction to two presidents

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Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but when Trump was elected in 2016, Justin Welby couldn’t resist mentioning the bitter campaign and I can’t help suspecting that his prayers for the American people were for protection from the policies of their new president.

A year later, Welby confessed that he could not understand why so many Christians supported Trump.

From here:

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, my continuing prayers are that the United States of America may find reconciliation after a bitter campaign, and that Mr Trump may be given wisdom, insight and grace as he faces the tasks before him. Together we pray for all the people of the United States.

In contrast, now Biden seems likely to become president, Welby has somehow failed to notice that the 2020 campaign was even more bitter and reconciliation in even shorter supply. Instead, we have a probable future of hope and a fresh vision of the common good.

Not that Welby is biased in any way but when Biden pronounced himself president-elect, I could here Welby’s sigh of relief all the way from Canada.

From here:

As @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris prepare to take office, may God grant them wisdom and courage to face the great challenges of leadership ahead. For all the American people, I pray for hope and a fresh vision of the common good.

Meet the new racism: Environmental Racism

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If apologising on behalf of your ancestors for being slavers and racists, if self-flagellation over your inherited white-supremacist theft of Indigenous land, if the fear of being an unwitting participant in Systemic Racism hasn’t driven you into a nervous breakdown yet, never fear, this will aid you in your journey into gibbering incoherence.

You can now admit to being an Environmental Racist. Justin Welby has set a good example by doing so. Along with dozens of other lesser, if equally barmy, bishops.

Hurry! Before it’s too late! Don’t miss your chance to admit to Environmental Racism by signing this document today. Every signatory will receive a free plank with which to castigate himself. .

ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM – WHEN  #BLACKLIVES DON’T MATTER

(Dear Bishop , if you would like to sign please send your Name and Title to Canon Rachel Mash at rmash@mweb.co.za)

Black lives are disproportionately affected by police brutality; COVID-19 sweeps through crowded vulnerable communities unable to  socially distance; toxic dump sites are placed next to poor communities of Black people; indigenous people are forced off their land.

The world is slow to respond to climate change, hanging on to an increasingly precarious and unjust economic system. It is predominantly  Black lives that are being impacted by drought, flooding, storms and sea level rise. The delayed global response to climate injustice gives the impression that #blacklivesdontmatter. Without urgent action Black lives will continue to be the most impacted, being dispossessed from their lands and becoming climate refugees.

We stand at a Kairos moment – in order to fight environmental injustice , we must also fight racial injustice.

In the words of Archbishop Tutu  “If you are neutral in times of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

The Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN)  calls attention to environmental racism. We issue this urgent statement today, June 19 2020, a day known as Juneteenth in the United States, marking and remembering the official end of slavery in that country in 1865.

Warlord of Chaz to be new Archbishop of Canterbury

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After a great deal of soul searching, Justin Welby has decided that black lives matter so much that a pasty white-supremacist ex oil executive should not be the first among equals in the Anglican Communion.

He is resigning.

Raz Simone, rapper, self-appointed warlord of the independent nation of Chaz (in desperate need of vegan food, incidentally), is a natural for the job because Raz doesn’t care about white-supremacist equality tripe: he is first among equals because he has a large supply of every variety of automatic weapon at his disposal. That’s diversity, baby.

As Justin says:

“I come back to the fact that, in the New Testament, Jesus says be angry about injustice”

Raz is angry all the time. A true follower of Jesus.

Anyhow, you only have to do is look at these two photo-ops of Raz and Justin to see who is really in charge, cool and relevant.

Archbishop Raz:

Archbishop Justin:

Need I say more.

When questioned about the Church of England’s financial situation and the difficulty of collecting, diocesan assessments, Raz said, “No problem, man. Like, it’s the same as the stores in Free Chaz: they pay us and we don’t smash their windows. And you know, like, stained glass windows are so expensive.”

Justin Welby worries about post pestilence inequality

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He’s right to, of course. Once Corona virus infections have subsided, some people will be dead and others alive. It doesn’t get much more inequitable than that.

Even worse, some who are dead will find themselves in paradise and some in a place where global warming has reached a diabolical crescendo.

Neither of these are important enough to concern Justin Welby, though. He is concentrating on what matters most: money, who has it and who doesn’t. And no wonder! The archbishop of Canterbury lives at Lambeth Palace: the clue to what that looks like can be found in the second word. Here it is, a modest little place for the main Anglican representative of the religion started by the fellow reputed to have said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Which goes to show that in a post-pestilence Welbyian utopia, some archbishops would be more equal than others.

From here:

The archbishop of Canterbury has said inequalities must be addressed or even eliminated once the current “pestilence” is over.

Speaking on Easter Sunday on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Justin Welby said there was a “huge, huge danger” of the coronavirus pandemic exacerbating inequality, but “that is our choice as a nation and as a world”.

He added: “The next wave coming is the economic one … We have a choice there as a nation and as a society and as a world. Do we take hold of our destiny and make sure the differences are mitigated, abolished where possible – or do we just let things happen, do we let the market rule, in which case there will be enormous suffering.”

The art of conspicuous repentance

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To become a practitioner, look no further than to emulate the high bar set by Justin Welby, a master of eye-catching diversionary irrelevance.

All the right ingredients are in his recent India performance:

Lay on your face in a public venue where all can see. Cameras should be present. And the press.

Apologise for something that happened 100 years ago and had nothing to do with the organisation you are affiliated with but is a part of your country’s colonial past. The contrition will echo with righteous resonance in the empty skulls of the Woken everywhere.

If done with sufficient flair, this will divert attention away from the practitioner’s own failings which, although they may be as numerous as the stars in the Eye of Sauron Nebula, will be forgotten in the spectacle of Ecclesiastical Theatre.

Make sure you imply a connection with Christianity, especially if there isn’t one. You can’t go wrong: everyone hates Christianity. Especially clergy.

From here:

The archbishop of Canterbury has apologised “in the name of Christ” for the 1919 massacre at Amritsar in India, when hundreds of people were shot dead by British forces.

Prostrating himself at the memorial to the Jallianwala Bagh killings, Justin Welby said: “The souls of those who were killed or wounded, of the bereaved, cry out to us from these stones and warn us about power and the misuse of power.

“I cannot speak for the British government … but I can speak in the name of Christ and say this is a place of both sin and redemption, because you have remembered what they have done and their names will live, their memory will live before God. And I am so ashamed and sorry for the impact of this crime committed here.”

Hindus, Christians, Muslims and Sikhs were killed in April 1919 when they gathered in Amritsar, in Punjab, then part of British India. They were protesting peacefully after earlier riots over the arrest of pro-independence leaders.

Justin Welby apologises on behalf of Anglican Jihadists

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Not that there are any, but you never know: Welby’s irritating elevation of reconciliation to the status of demigod could end up driving the most mild-mannered curate to the brink of frenzied barbarism.

From here:

The Archbishop of Canterbury said all religions and their leaders must own up to extremist activities within their faith and examine which of their traditional teachings enable extremists to commit evil.

Rev. Justin Welby, the figurehead of the worldwide Anglican Church, told interfaith leaders in Sri Lanka that accepting responsibility is key rather than disavowing an evildoer as not a good enough follower of a religion.

Welby arrived in Sri Lanka on Thursday and first visited St. Sebastian’s Church near the town of Negombo and paid homage to those killed in the Easter suicide bomb attacks blamed on Muslim extremists.

Later Thursday, he met with Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim leaders.

Discussion among faiths has become more difficult in the last 30 or 40 years and in every faith, including in Christianity, extremist attitudes have grown, he told the religious leaders.

“And it is the duty of every religious tradition, for its leaders to resist extremism and to teach peaceful dialogue. So the first challenge to all of us is take responsibility,” he said.

“If a Christian does something evil, it is not for me to say ‘well they are not a real Christian’; I have to ask myself ‘what is within my faith tradition, our historic teaching that makes it easy for them to do that?’”

Lambeth 2020: Feelings, nothing more than feelings

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When Justin Welby sent out the Lambeth 2020 invitations and disinvited the spouses of bishops who are in same-sex marriages, he was attempting a compromise which was typically Anglican: it had nothing to do with right, wrong, truth or lies; what mattered was whose feelings were going to be hurt.

That is because the Anglican church is taking its cues from the society in which it finds itself and the West, having sunk into a slough of aimless post-Christianity, has nothing to rely on but relativism and subjectivity. Equality has emerged from the slime as one of the new gods and, just as socialism’s aim is to make everyone equally impoverished, so the aim of Anglicanism is to make everyone equally aggravated.

Whether same-sex marriage is good, bad, Biblical or unbiblical is not the point; just like the treacly song, what matters is Feelings and not hurting them or, at least, hurting them all equally

From here:

The Archbishop of Canterbury (centre) with the secretary-general of the Anglican Communion, the Rt Revd Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, and the chairman of the ACC, the Archbishop of Hong Kong, the Most Revd Paul Kwong

SAME-SEX relationships, the topic that has riven the Anglican Communion for the past two decades, is not officially on the agenda of this week’s meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in Hong Kong.

It is not a topic that can be ignored, however, not least because three provinces — Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda — have declined to be represented here because of the involvement of provinces with which they profoundly disagree.

At the opening press conference, on Saturday, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke again about his dilemma when issuing invitations to the Lambeth Conference next year. He has been under fire for not inviting the partners of bishops in same-sex marriages to join the rest of the spouses at next year’s gathering (News, 22 February).

There are currently two bishops in this position: the Rt Revd Mary Glasspool, Assistant Bishop of New York, and the Rt Revd Kevin Robertson, Suffragan Bishop of Toronto. Next month, they are due to be joined by a third, when the Revd Thomas Brown is consecrated Bishop of Maine.

“It is worth noting that the controversy is not only one way,” Archbishop Welby said. He had received “a considerable number of letters as well” about the fact that he had extended an invitation to bishops who were in same-sex partnerships: a change from 2008, when the Rt Revd Gene Robinson was barred from attending by the Archbishop’s predecessor.

“How we deal with people of different views, from views that are passionately, deeply against any same-sex relations through to people who believe it is a matter of justice . . . and [that] it is injustice not to accept same-sex marriage . . . whichever you’re dealing with, the first rule is: these are people.

“The most painful part, to me, of the decisions that have to be made, is that I know that, at every moment that I write a letter or make a decision, I am making a decision about people — and that there is no decision that will result in nobody getting hurt.

“If I’d decided differently on the decision about same-sex spouses — and it hurt a lot of people, by the way — I would have hurt a huge number of people elsewhere in the Communion. And there wasn’t a nice solution which I looked and thought, ‘Nah, I don’t want to do that, I’ll take the nasty solution.’ It’s not as simple as that.”