Things haven't gone entirely to plan, as usual. This blogsite is now a week old and I have only posted one brief introductory post and two letters to the ABoC.
I started a post a few days ago that would have told you a bit more about us as a family, and was then going to look at some CofE headlines over the years.
Sadly there are so many daft and unfounded CofE headlines in the past decade, so many empty promises not followed up, so many press releases which went without journalists or researches following up and disproving them that a project like that may take some time.
I would like to think that the tide is turning, and possibly because of how utterly daft the CofE have become in their headlines.
Over the years there have been so many press and media articles given to the pronouncements of the Church and the poor unfortunate Archbishop, but recently there has been an influx of articles concerned with the increasingly bizarre actions and pronouncements of Archbishop Welby, and I think that is a good thing. Things won't change until people speak up and stand up, like the little boy in 'The Emperor's New Clothes' - 'Your deceit and duplicity is naked, Mr Archbishop'.
One of the recent articles was from the Telegraph, who used to gleefully advertise Mr Welby's astounding boasts, but this one speaks against him, because he has obviously gone too far. Several thousand comments on the article also speak out about the state of the Church and the Archbishop:
Then there was ConWom's Article:
Vennells.
And then a someone left a comment on the blog about this matter that I had been unaware of. Thank you anonymous. It is chilling to read of wrongful convictions:
Now, believe it or not, I have seen such a scenario as the final lines from the C of E in this before. The Bishop said 'If conclusive proof can be provided, I will investigate.
I am sure you can see the fault in that. What is an investigation normally for? Why should proof be provided before an investigation if a complaint has been made?
It's a major cop-out, because the Bishop 'decides' what is conclusive proof, and if provided, he then does a) a whitewash or b) a fake apology to glorify the Diocese in the media.
Unfortunately the C of E have distorted the terms 'investigation' and 'apology' beyond imagining, 'safeguarding' as well, and done so publicly, and not voice is heard in dissent.
It's not that voices are not being raised, it's that they aren't being heard.
Imagine there's no heaven.
A thought came to me. What would heaven be like with all the Senior Anglicans there as they expect to be? of even some not so senior Anglicans? How would Jesus put up with all these people who have nothing inside and so much on the outside, craving for attention and glory and the spotlight to the point of having to be habitually dishonest, when in heaven there is no press and media or sin? Realistically they can't go to heaven because they have no integrity nor genuine sorrow for their own sins. I don't want to be in heaven with the Anglicans, that would be hell.
The Archbishop tends to suck up to the Jewish community and Rabbis, and before the general election there was a bit of very blatant collusion there to swing the election, with the Archbishop and Rabbi attacking Jeremy Corbyn. The Archbishop, in that manic phase, went on to attack one side of Brexit as well, and lost his ridiculous ludicrous undeserved 'mediator' title. It is the first time he has been almost made responsible for his lunacy.
Today the Rabbi is making a very Welby-like pronouncement on attacks on religion in the media. Hm. Religion attacks and doesn't like it when people bite back? If 'Religion' doesn't like criticism, maybe 'it' shouldn't behave in ways to provoke criticism, such as taking huge amounts of media time and space for ridiculous pronouncements. Maybe 'religion' shouldn't be so sensitive, it has always been controversial and always will be. All it has to do is act with dignity and focus on its own business rather than try to tell the world how to live, and wrongly too. I am not anti-religious, I am a churchgoing believer, but I see belief as a humble and private thing, not a source of shouting and showing off, Jesus didn't advocate showing off, he condemned the Pharisees for it.
Daily Life.
As I wrote this and tended to my other house and garden husbandry tasks, picking fruit and veg in between rain showers, the dishes, the ironing, etc. Another Telegraph article, dominated by letters about the Archbishop's actions, was posted, and the same numerous comments condemned the Archbishop:
You also have a letter in that page from the Anglican St. Cross estate, who would have had a much more comfortable lockdown than most, and who were grumbling that the government didn't fund their Coronavirus Testing, despite the estate being worth millions and in the million pound a year Diocese of Winchester. St. Cross can fund their own testing, as they make money upon money from everything on their estate, but they were using the Telegraph to pretty much beg for donations.
Things are very wrong in the current scenario with the Anglican Church.
The big row at Oxford over the Dean indicates that all is not well, and the fact that the Charity Comission can be used by the Church when complaints against the Church to the Charity Commission are 'overlooked' by a Charity Commission who are very wary of treading on the toes of the Big Guys and prefer to wipe out smaller groups and charities for mistakes. Very sad.
Another ConWom article about the Church was printed yesterday, but is more general, not just about the C of E but how the Church is declining and the recent crisis has highlighted the failure of the church.
I won't link to it in the blog as blogger apparently gets wiggy about too many links in posts, but I noticed on there that Gavin Ashenden was mentioned as an antidote to the apathy and OTT Political Correctness of the churches, sadly he isn't a wonderful answer, he goes too far the in the other direction. This article won't make me popular with some people.
Ashenden:
He gave an interesting response to the silly silly rantings of the ABoC recently, but it doesn't make him the solution.
Ashenden is like a spoilt child who wants his own way, and he has done his share of wrong, notably when he was in the C of E and took part in some of their cover-up work, and although some conservatives may see him as the solution to the current situation of woke PC and weakness. Ashenden's behavior isn't Christian, it is mainly narcissistic and exhibitionist as well as being about him acting out his phobias of minority and racist groups, there is also an element there of some sort of sexual problem that troubles him.
My understanding of his story comes from someone who knew him and sent me some details. He was a popular liberal and inclusive chaplain at a Sussex university. His wife was mentally ill and nearly died, he prayed, she recovered, and left him.
His extreme behaviors and change from inclusive to anti, appeared to start there. He was an Anglican at the time and for some years after the changes, and he drifted to Jersey where the chilling undertone in the churches has scared the life of out of several visiting and prospective priests and some grim stories whisper on the wind, for a while being part of the grim underworld there seemed to suit him. The Jersey Anglican Church is used as a shield and refuge for wrongdoers in power much as the English Anglican Church is, but on that small island, the effect is concentrated.
He became a volunteer space-filler in the grim Jersey Evening Post, feeding his needs and making whacky and terrible pronouncements which were not edited by the newspaper despite breaching IPSO guidelines. He intervened in the cover-up of an abuse case with open lies in the BBC and other outlets, and at the same time 'retired' to France to write, keeping part time guardianship of a church in Jersey. Which he abandoned suddenly later, with rumours about safeguarding drifting around.
He made a big thing about his mission to Yemen while at the same time still spouting Islamophobia and other Xenophobic and prejudiced remarks. There is a big difference between not liking or not understanding or condoning a group and attacking that group, and a good Christian keeps their feelings private and between them and God and doesn't use media space to advertise themselves as condemning that group without genuine reason.
In France he continued his erratic behaviour, turning up uninvited to preach at a Church at Coutances in Normandy that he had inserted himself into the leadership of, causing confusion to the incumbents. And all of a sudden he was jetting off to the USA for 'The Proudest Moment of his Life' becoming a Bishop - to a tiny breakaway sect of the Anglican Church, leaving him with a smaller congregation than a C of E vicar in England.
Gavin Ashenden constantly used his 'Queen's Chaplain' role to title his media releases; another voluntary role relating to him doing duties in the chapel on the Queen's estate, but his 'Chaplain' role was so often used in headlines where his rants were too bizarre and prejudice-filled, and he was called to a meeting and asked to resign from the voluntary role as it was an embarrassment to the Royal Family and they didn't want his 'sacking' publicized. He resigned but constantly still advertises as 'Former Queen's Chaplain' much to the annoyance of the Royals, and the general public are in main not aware that the role is a voluntary one which rarely involves contact with the royal family and is purely duties at the chapel. It's a great advertising tactic, but it reminds me of when 'former Prime Minister' or 'Former Archbishop' makes a comment in the headlines.
More recently Ashenden bounced from the sect to Catholicism and raged about married men not being allowed to hold certain positions, he wanted the Catholic Church to bow to what he wanted, and a divorced man on his second marriage, it didn't look too good publicly. The Pope said no.
Sure he can draw people in with great eloquence, he's a former lawyer, he's had a lot of training in public speaking, he's abused his position to aid the Anglican Church in a tremendous cover-up, but all the eloquence, all the speech, does not make him an antidote to the terrible decline of the Anglican Church or their actions, he was part of it, and 'By their fruits you shall know them', His history of jumping from church to church, country to country, wife to wife, etc, indicates that his preaching is more about his needs and his mental health than Christ. Gavin Ashenden is not the way forward for those of us dissatisfied with the Anglican Church, because while they are wrong, he is too.
Ashenden is a very well trained speaker and self-publicist, he knows how to get a following, he speaks beautiful words, a bit like some depictions of Satan. But he isn't a Christian alternative to the undermined, rotten and dying Anglican Church. He may have the words and the showmanship but he simply leads people away from one evil to another.
Lady Bishops.
Female Bishops were brought in for the same reason as female clergy, to create the illusion of equality, to gain press acclaim, and to meet government demands. Not a lot of genuine equality or inclusion. And the move left more people deserting to the Catholic Church.
The female Bishop of London appears to think that she is a celebrity and not a priest, guarded 24 hours a day by Press Relations/Disaster Management Firm Luther Pendragon who help to 'ease the burden' for the whole of the Church at times when their deeper wrongs are exposed, the Bishop of London keeps up a constant display in the press, she leaps enthusiastically for any bandwagon available. She indicates the Church's influence over police, law and more when she makes a big show of holding services for them -basically the message is 'complainants beware, the Church of England has powerful friends in every camp'.
The Bishop of Dover, both black and female, is a great triumph for the PR illusion and pretence of compliance with the government in order to avoid regulation. She frequently pronounces about the Church being racist, setting the ABoC off into gibbering echoes of her words. It is an insult to call the national congregation, black and white, Asian and European, racist.
She is also a 'former Queen's Chaplain'.
There are a few other females, they chatter a bit but the main actresses are Dover and London. It is a pity that these female Bishops had to take actress roles instead of helping the congregation to start returning to the Word.
If I was a female Bishop, I would be embarrassed to be in a position purely as a PR pawn for a very lost Church.
Finally.
I am unsure about post lengths but I will stop now as there is so much to do here and we are out tomorrow. Time and subject are the main problems for me as a new blogger. I don't know where to start or what to include, but I will learn.
I see that the pubs opened before the Churches, should be the other way round, we can 'Thirst after righteousness'.
I gather that many people have been contacting Lambeth Palace, but the Archbishop will be pretty immune to their words as the letters are sorted and filed in the bin by office workers and phone calls do not go anywhere.
I did ask if people wanted to aid me in making a difference, but as with other situations I have seen like this, many will complain but few will be willing to engage in a serious challenge to change things.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.