Tag Archives: Justin Welby

Our Nory in heaven

Posted on by
6

The Church of England is thinking – yes, I know, an oxymoron, but bear with me – of using gender neutral words when referring to God. Thus “Nory” is a “name which is derived from the “no” and “ry” in “non-binary”. It may work for ze, but does it work for God?

Justin Welby thinks (there I go again, another oxymoron) it might:

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the religious head of the church, previously said that “God is not male or female” or “definable.”

“All human language about God is inadequate and to some degree metaphorical,” he said in 2018.

Justin Welby criticizes Canada for over-ordering COVID vaccine

Posted on by
15

From here:

The Archbishop of Canterbury has criticised Canada for massively over-ordering supplies of coronavirus vaccine, hindering the rollout of jabs to the world’s poorest nations.

The Most Rev Justin Welby told Parliament the North American country had in the pipeline more than five times what it needed for its 38million citizens.

The government of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has reportedly secured 76million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and up to 56million of the recently-approved jab developed by US firm Moderna.

Meanwhile, here he is being injected with a COVID vaccine dose that he could have donated to someone in one of the world’s poorest nations:

A Church of England Green Lent

Posted on by
11

The Nicene Creed has it wrong. Rather than:

For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven

It should say:

For us men and to rebuild our relationship with the planet
he came down from heaven

Because, you see, being reconciled with the planet is more important than being reconciled with God the Father. If you worship Gaia, that is.

From here:

Church of England’s first ever green Lent campaign launches
Launching the resources, Archbishop Justin Welby said: “We urgently need to rebuild our relationship with our planet. To do this, we need to change our habits – in how we pray and how we act.

“Lent is not just about discipline. It’s about allowing Christ to show us what’s keeping us from loving and serving Him – and joyfully letting it go.

“Whatever age you are, this Lent I hope you’ll engage with God’s plea for us to care for His creation, and that these campaign resources will help you on that journey.”

Just some of the questions posed during the series are:

‘How much water goes into making a pair of jeans?’

‘Could you twin your toilet?’

‘When was the last time you gazed at the night sky?’

‘What was the carbon footprint of the meal I just ate?’

If you don’t have a relationship with the planet – I must admit, I don’t – then pull yourself together, twin your toilet,  feel guilty about the carbon footprint of your dinner and google how much water was used in making your trousers. That should do it.

And bishops wonder why people are leaving the church of England.

Sorry, I see I used “men” above. I meant “members of the non-binary, gender fluid, LGBT+, androgynous community; (aka a CofE vicar).”

Anglican global warming hypocrisy

Posted on by
2

Justin Welby was in Jordan recently at a Primates’ meeting. One of his more ambitious items on the agenda was a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from Anglican division over the nature of human sexuality to the far more important topic of climate change (née global warming). After all, the weather is far more interesting than sex to most Anglicans.

From here:

Speaking to reporters at the end of a three-day Primates’ meeting in Jordan, the Most Rev Justin Welby said he wanted to see the Anglican Communion begin to focus instead “on those things that affect the world, be that climate change, conflict, the need for the Church to be confident in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, carrying it out into the world … [and] safeguarding”.

And here:

We heard about and commend the work of the Anglican Environmental Network, noting that climate change is not a future threat but, for many in the world today, a present, lived reality;

Where does the hypocrisy come in, you might ask? First of all, the Primates didn’t hold a Skype meeting, they all flew to Jordan on carbon spewing jets.

Second, rather more importantly since plastic pollution does seem to be a genuine problem, the attendees had plastic water bottles on their tables when they could have used filtered tap water:

Still, hypocrisy is as old as humanity and an inevitable byproduct of something in which the church has ceased to believe: original sin. So to find it in the church isn’t particularly surprising. Nor is it surprising that no one is at all interested in what Welby and his Primates have to say for themselves.

Church of England has a course on how to disagree

Posted on by
4

Creating a course on how to disagree makes as much sense as a course on how to engage in sexual intercourse. If you can’t do it without instructions, you probably should find something else to occupy your time.

The meandering path Justin Welby trundled down to take him from the Alpha Course to the Disagreement Course is shrouded in mystery, a fantasy that would be beyond even the fertile imagination of Bunyan and his Byways to places like the Hill of Difficulty or the Slough of Despond.

For those who would like to descend into the Ditch of Disagreement to explore Disagreeing Agreeably, here you are.

Justin Welby comes down from the mountain with 10 digital commandments

Posted on by
5

The Church of England has written 10 commandments for the digital age; that should really be “0000 1010 commandments for the digital age” but we’ll let that slide.

The Church is encouraging people to sign their agreement to this digital charter here.

Violators will have their rudeness summarily expunged:

The Church’s and Archbishops’ Communications teams may take action if they receive complaints or spot inappropriate, unsuitable or offensive material posted to the national social media accounts. This may include deleting comments, blocking users or reporting comments as appropriate.

Justin Welby has conveniently summed up the 10 digital commandments in this way:

“Social media has transformed the way we live our lives. As Christians we are called to engage in a way which is shaped by the example of Jesus.”

I found this very inspiring so I though I would try it out. Here goes:

But woe to you, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

Woe to you, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

Woe to you, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

I’m looking at you, Anglican Church of Canada bishops.

I think I’m getting the hang of it.

More tea vicar?

Posted on by
1

The Church of England is putting on a sterling display of self-parody by holding tea parties to heal divisions in Britain, supposedly caused by the UK’s departure from the European Union.

At last we see good disagreement in action.

From here:

The Church of England is to host thousands of post-Brexit tea parties to heal divisions between Brexiteers and Remainers, complete with a set of “conversation starters” designed to break the ice.

New prayers have been written for priests to use at the gatherings, designed to bring together those who “lament” Britain’s exit from the European Union with those who will be celebrating.

Remainers and Brexiteers will be asked to “get together and chat over a cup of tea and pray for our country and our future”.

Bishop Kevin Robertson’s spouse will not be invited to Lambeth 2020

Posted on by
6

The spouses of homosexual bishops will not be invited to attend Lambeth 2020 which means Toronto Bishop Kevin Robertson’s wife/husband, Mohan Sharma, will not receive an invitation.

I wonder whether Justin Welby has really thought this through. It’s only a matter of time before a male Anglican bishop marries another male Anglican bishop. I suspect the Anglican Church of Canada already has a matchmaking Task Force working strenuously to produce such a paradigm of proud diverse inclusion. What will Welby do when they succeed?

From here:

I need to clarify a misunderstanding that has arisen. Invitations have been sent to every active bishop. That is how it should be – we are recognising that all those consecrated into the office of bishop should be able to attend. But the invitation process has also needed to take account of the Anglican Communion’s position on marriage which is that it is the lifelong union of a man and a woman. That is the position as set out in Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference. Given this, it would be inappropriate for same-sex spouses to be invited to the conference. The Archbishop of Canterbury has had a series of private conversations by phone or by exchanges of letter with the few individuals to whom this applies.

The Church of England’s Lego Indaba

Posted on by
6

Rowan Williams used Indaba groups to try and cure the divisions in the Church of England. That didn’t work so Justin Welby is trying something new by using Lego “to build 3D metaphors for the state of the church….”

If that doesn’t solve the problems in the Anglican Communion, nothing will.

From here:

The Church of England wants to build a new future… using Lego.

Vicars yesterday used the toy bricks at a bizarre problem-solving session where they were asked to build 3D metaphors for the state of the church and also to describe themselves.

The process apparently ‘liberates the creative imagination’ and helps explore how participants’ ‘ideas, identities, values and expectations might combine to solve problems or discover vision’.

But Anthony Kilmister, chairman of the Anglican Association, said: ‘This beggars belief when the Church is facing so many serious issues.

‘A little more proper conversation and action and a little less playing with Lego might achieve something more constructive.’

The session was held in the diocese of Canterbury, overseen by Archbishop Justin Welby, whose spokesman said: ‘He is always positive about anything that encourages creative thinking.’