Possibly not, because the CofE, apparently unaware of the good advice enshrined in the aphorism those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, are following the lead of North American Anglicans by abandoning Christianity in favour of something less demanding.
A letter to be published tomorrow, signed by Gavin Ashendon and Michael Nazir-Ali among others:
For more:
Toronto’s children’s libraries have been hosting Drag Queen Story Hour whose stated aim is:
just what it sounds like—drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores. DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.
As the young lady in this video points out, drag queens live by their own rules, the only virtue left to a civilisation that has abandoned its Christian foundation, so if you’d like to take junior to a local children’s library Lil Miss Hot Mess will be only too happy to mess with his rules.
If a person with unwanted same-sex attraction approaches a Church of England vicar for help, he will be wasting his time because the CofE has made the definitive pronouncement – and it doesn’t make many these days – that once a person experiences same-sex attraction, he is not allowed to be rid of it.
As usual, the Church is behind the times which it is so desperate to be a part of: gender is now fluid. I can be a man, a woman, attracted to either, neither or both at will, therapy be damned. Get with it Justin Welby.
Ironically, in the same synod, a motion was passed by an overwhelming majority to affirm transgender people. People who have changed, among other things, the object of their sexual desire.
It all goes to show that a church obsessed with keeping up with the prevailing culture is, instead, going to make itself look tawdry and silly. Profoundly silly.
From here:
The Church of England has called on the government to ban conversion therapy and has condemned the practice, which aims to change sexual orientation, as unethical and potentially harmful.
At the end of an emotional debate in which two members of the C of E synod described their experiences as spiritual abuse, the church’s governing body overwhelmingly backed a motion saying the practice had “no place in the modern world”.
Conversion therapy is usually described as an attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Some churches in the C of E and other denominations have encouraged LGBT members to take part in prayer sessions and other activities to rid them of their “sin”.
The Church of England has delayed making any formal pronouncement about whether the Bible has been wrong all along about homosexuality until 2020 at the earliest. This is to allow for some more profound thought on the subject apparently, leading some to accuse CofE leaders of waffling.
What the accusers are finally starting to catch on to is that, in Western Anglicanism, profound thought and waffling are one and the same.
From here:
Synod members say creating new working groups fails to address issue as leaders accused of ‘waffle’.
Church of England bishops have been accused of kicking the issue of same-sex equality into the long grass by offloading the topic to a series of working groups that will not report until 2020 at the earliest.
The archbishops of Canterbury and York, the two most senior figures in the church, have established two main groups and four subgroups to advise on pastoral issues and produce a new teaching document on human sexuality.
Reporting to the C of E’s synod, meeting in York, Justin Welby said the processes “aim to take a reasonable time for profound thought by a large number of people across a wide range of views, and during that time provide pastoral guidance”.
The intention, he added, was to “map, to set out clearly where we agree and where we disagree, to help us understand better the issues and the points of conflict”.
The Anglican Church of Canada seems to be on the way to making decisions by consensus rather than voting. To this end, delegates are holding up fingers – from five to zero – to register their level of agreement with a motion.
Extreme disagreement would be indicated by a single middle finger.
Since “consensus” means a “judgment arrived at by most of those concerned”, and is something generally determined by voting, I can’t help suspecting that this new piece of Anglican fudge is an attempt to sow just the right amount of diverse and inclusive confusion to keep the remaining conservatives studiously fiddling with their fingers while the latest piece of nonsensical sexual legislation slithers passed them into the church canons.
From here:
Discussed and practiced, for some votes, decision-making by consensus. Instead of simply voting for or against a motion, members showed their level of support for it using their fingers, with five fingers meaning strong support, for example, and no fingers indicating a need to discuss the matter in more detail. In a discussion on consensus decision-making, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said he hoped CoGS in this triennium would move beyond a “yearning” for alternatives (such as consensus) to the more traditional parliamentary form of decision-making.
According to this:
The 34th annual British Social Attitudes Survey has shown that non-religious people represent a clear majority of British people in 2017, accounting for 53% of the population. This is a new high for the non-religious population, which was previously estimated at 51% in 2014.
That isn’t particularly surprising since a similar poll in 2002 found that 50% of Anglican clergy are also non-religious insofar as they don’t believe in the Virgin Birth or that Jesus is the only way to be saved. If Church of England clergy work really hard, I imagine they will be able to talk the remaining 47% of Britons out of their faith, too.
A third of Church of England clergy doubt or disbelieve in the physical Resurrection and only half are convinced of the truth of the Virgin birth, according to a new survey.
The poll of nearly 2,000 of the Church’s 10,000 clergy also found that only half believe that faith in Christ is the only route to salvation.
On June the 30th, Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa was host to an interfaith service to celebrate – using that word very loosely – Canada’s 150th anniversary of confederation.
To lend legitimacy to the presence of assorted Anglican and Catholic settler bishops and a rabbi, Inuit spiritual leaders and a drum keeper were on hand.
Islamic prayers recited by a local imam punctuated the Anglican cries of self-flagellation over disrupting what passed for Indigenous culture 400 or so years ago.
It doesn’t get any more Anglican than that.
From here:
Algonquin spiritual leader Oshki Nodin (Albert Dumont) gave the opening prayer, asking the Creator to “touch the Canadians of the future with your sacredness and blessings so that Canada will become a beacon of light and an example to the other countries of the world.”
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, in his comments to the gathering, acknowledged that Ottawa is built on unceded Algonquin territory. The Algonquin “culture and presence continue to nurture this land,” he said.
Watson also thanked “all First Nations, Inuit and Métis people, their elders, and their ancestors for their valuable past and present contributions to the land and society.”
Drum keeper and Algonquin Elder Barbara Dumont-Hill led the “calls to prayer” with a “life-giving” song. “All our songs were prayers,” she said. “We sing prayers for everything on the land, and this song talks about the one who gives us life, and walks with us always.”
Next was Imam Samy Metwally of the Ottawa Mosque who recited a prayer in Islam and translated it into English, ending with, “There is no deity worthy of worship except God.”
Three bishops from Toronto have travelled to Richmond Virginia to learn how to be better bishops from TEC. It all looks quite tedious. One thing did catch my eye, though: the TEC counsel for property litigation held a session on clergy discipline. Presumably the Canadian bishops will return with a renewed zest for suing people.
Another lesson was on “Building Community”. Don’t laugh.
From here:
Bishops listen June 14 as Mary Kostel, special counsel to the presiding bishop for property litigation and discipline, explains the Episcopal Church’s clergy discipline canon, known as Title IV. The session was part of Living our Vows, the College for Bishops’ three-year formation program for new bishops.
I expect you have been looking forward to seeing whether your favourite bishop made an appearance – you’ll have to guess who mine is and he didn’t – so here are a few photos (not mine).
Maybe it’s just me but when looking at the lady priests, I can’t shake the uneasy feeling that they would really like to be cavorting in fishnet stockings, spiked heels, black bra, lace panties, spiked dog collars and little else but haven’t quite screwed up the courage yet. Maybe next year. The stuff of nightmares, I know.
Justin Welby has awarded a lesbian Christian singer, Vicky Beeching, an award for outstanding service to the church. Evangelicals are shocked. Why in heavens name would they be?
It has been transparently obvious for years that Justin Welby is working to normalise homosexual behaviour in the church. The Church of England is awash with active homosexual clergy and those sympathetic to them. There have been no effective “consequences” for TEC and the ACoC after they approved same-sex marriage in their synods. Western Anglicanism has capitulated to the zeitgeist. Evangelicals in the CofE: you have lost the battle – possibly the entire war. Stop being shocked.
From here:
An evangelical Christian group in the U.K. says it’s in “shock” that Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s “outstanding service to the church” award has been given to Christian lesbian singer Vicky Beeching.
“Vicky Beeching rejects Christian teaching on sexual ethics by advocating for same-sex marriage,” Colin Hart, director of The Christian Institute, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I’m shocked that the archbishop should choose to honor someone so out-of-step with the biblical understanding of marriage and sexual morality,” he added.
