Retired Dean of Llandaff Cathedral, former Headteacher, Dir of Education. Poetry, contemplation, gardens. Hon Canon of St Asaph, living in rural France.
In the last 24 hours two priests of the CofE have expressed surprise that I can’t accept invitations to preach, because I’m married to someone of the same sex.
It is so important that we all recognise the immoral legal protections that the CofE has, and that we challenge them.
It’s 30 years but every time I see a woman ordained as priest, every time I celebrate Mass and pray for ‘our bishop’ who is a woman, I feel the thrill of justice done.
There’s so much work to be done but I am so glad to be an Anglican.
On this Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, I prayed the Rosary with the intention that all Anglican priests may be made welcome to celebrate Mass in that holy place.
Never in the history of the church has growth and evangelism been achieved by spending money.
All the money being spent on projects should be spent on parish priests in parishes. Then we would see the church at its best.
Whatever one thinks of Robert’s post this is a power play by Bishop Rachel. As such it is deeply unpleasant and inappropriate.
Until the bishops hear the anger that so many feel, and act on it there is no hope.
‘No further comment’ is the ultimate passive aggression. Stop it now.
Post-trauma it’s important to remember who you are.
I have these two photos of myself c 1970 and c1990 on my prayer desk at the moment.
Kicking leaves and orange trousers. I’ll take that.
Having worked as a priest in a disestablished church and an established church I now believe that disestablishment is not only inevitable but also good for the church. We have reached the end of this road.
At the end of this week I shall be speaking about the Sacrament of Reconciliation / Confession.
I realise that I have come
to the view that we should not hear the confessions of under 18 year olds. The safeguarding and power issues are just too complex.
A great joy to be with the Sodality today at Munster Square and to speak about the Sacrament of Reconciliation - my first event speaking publicly for quite a long time.
Very blessed by this community of sisters and brothers.
Saddened to see from yesterday’s tweet that some people are so angered by joy. For those that are not, please do join us
@cadeirlan
online or in person this morning, as I preside at the Eucharist for the first time -
The cost of truth telling can be very high. My life has been for ever changed by following proper process. But I continue to be grateful that I know this remarkable and impressive woman.
Doing the right thing is all we can do.
1/3 I've considered carefully whether to say anything publicly on the 2nd anniversary of waiving my anonymity in
@Telegraph
& decided it's maybe the right time to say a little about this strange time and all that it has brought.
As an Anglo-Catholic I fully support the removal of the bishops from the Lords.
This is in accordance with Catholic practice and Canon Law.
It would be better if they graciously and generously withdrew and supported the amendment.
The trouble is what evidence is there that CofE bishops who oppose same sex marriage, allow discrimination against women clergy and run a broken safeguarding system are the right people to provide moral guidance?
I went to an 8am Communion today, the priest, Fr Rob Gilbert, preached a superb, erudite but utterly straightforward sermon. No gimmicks.
There were three of us there.
That’s the Church of England at its very best.
Sorting through memorabilia it turns out that laughter was my greatest contribution to this child’s education (he or she is presumably nearly 40 now!).
In my opinion those who oppose managerialism and
professionalism in the CofE are deeply misled. We need good managers and good professional leaders.
That way we might avoid the car crashes like Blackburn.
Amateurs fail us.
@BishopJohnInge
The trouble is John, vast swathes of us no longer consider the bishops to have moral authority. For all the reasons you know.
Better ways for a second chamber to be constituted, and better ways for the bishops to be bishops.
Praying for the gift of holiness for all those being ordained at this time. So many good people offering themselves for this intense and wonderful ministry.
To be clear, the main reason
@churchofengland
is an abusive culture is because bishops (although they complain that they don’t have actually any power) actually function as monarchs & are completely unaccountable to anyone outside of the closed episcopal coterie.
This was
Holy Trinity, Headington for the early HC on a glorious day.
The last time I was in this church was to preach at Evensong as an ordinand, some time in 1990.
There are many things to be said about the selling off of the church’s assets. But the last sentence here seems to me very problematic. Powerless love is an important aspect of the crucifixion.
Victorian rectory. By selling them off the church signalled ‘we no longer matter much’. No one read it as some sort of kenotic gesture: ‘we are now more humble’, as liberals fantasised. It has to stop making this sort of mistake. Powerless love is not love at all.
Given papal comments I am in awe of Fr Mervyn at Corpus Christi, Headington. He preaches at every Mass, which is right, he mentions all the Scriptures that have been proclaimed, and he does it all in what sounds like about eight sentences. Amazing.
Mass of the Virgin Mary, Queen, offered for all receiving GCSE results and for all Headteachers and teachers. I will never forget the emotional energy of results day.
The Blackburn debacle is devastating for the Church of England.
The bishops should resign from the House of Lords en masse.
“He emptied himself.”
This is the gospel imperative.
Sold it.
The camper van has gone.
Soon our belongings will fit (they have to) into two suitcases.
(Ah, there is the issue of the books I’ve bought in the last few weeks …)
Given my own experience and the reports from Blackburn it is clear that the Church of England is not a safe space to report safeguarding concerns.
Disestablishment is the only way forward to end a culture of entitlement.
« The affinity between priest and poet thus shines forth in the mysterious and indissoluble sacramental union between the divine Word and our human words, giving rise to a ministry that becomes a service born of listening and compassion »
Pope Francis
Mass of St Bartholomew offered for all who studied or worked at Chichester Theological College and worshipped in the church of St Bartholomew.
Happy memories and good friends.
@ScholarPriest
And, again anecdotally, I am surprised at some of the bishops asking these intrusive questions.
“Weird” doesn’t even get close, as our American friends would say.
Concern for ‘diversity’ should not be seen as a priority by the Church. Rather, building up a coherently unified ecclesial society and culture should be seen as a priority.
I spent the morning with people in their late nineties and realised that I could have as long to live as the 38 years I have already spent with my beautiful husband.
One of the people has been ordained for 70 years in a couple of weeks.
I welcome the proposal for a further reform of the Lords. It does not go far enough.
I would also seek the removal of the bishops and some mechanism for the appointment of lay life peers from many faiths.
We know this will happen, do it sooner rather than later.
@RobinWardSSH
@ScholarPriest
@Robin_C_Douglas
One ordinand tells me that he was asked (by his Vocations Adviser) why he’d had only one girlfriend, to which his answer was “Because we want to get married.”
This is a really important point. I was given funding for 7 sessions after the complaints against me
as a whistleblower concluded, which was great, but a far more professional approach is needed throughout the process.
Retired bishops are simply not equipped to deal with this.
Sadly true in my experience. One person I helped was offered enough for 5 sessions of therapy. Their initial therapy lasted 3 years…..& they periodically need to return.
Much SDF money would be better spent on shepherding the flock properly, on decent pastoral care, that we
Having missed one train a great relief to have
#officeonthego
on the way to Cluny.
Helen Vendler and Harold Bloom as companions.
Tomorrow Morning Prayer at Taizé …