The trend for the future will be much the same as the past as there are no green shoots of renewal extant in the province, a source told VOL. Wales is the former ecclesiastical home of the not so revered Dr. Rowan Williams.

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) has over 100,000 members with an average weekly attendance of 81,311 which makes it not only bigger than Wales but bigger than the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC), a province whose archbishop, Fred Hiltz famously raced across the Atlantic to ask that the newly installed Archbishop of Canterbury not recognize ACNA. So far, Archbishop Justin Welby is obliging him.

But the facts don't lie, any more than the medical facts about HIV/AIDS put forth by the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control for homosexuals who indulge their passions. The Church in Wales is on the way out; it is only a matter of time, perhaps 10 years at the most, when it will cease to exist. It is smaller now than the Nipon Sei Ko Kai -- The Anglican Church in Japan (a country that is only two percent Christian).

Provinces that are bigger than Wales include The Episcopal Church in the Philippines (118, 187), The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean (120,000), The Church of the Province of Melanesia (163,884), The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea -- 166,046, the Church of the Province of Southeast Asia (168,079) and The Church of Ireland which claimed 410,000 members in 2005.

One local Welsh Anglican blogger commented, "Dr. Morgan's obsession with the ordination of women rather than maintaining traditional ministry and worship has been matched by rapid decline. The latest figures for 2013 make grim reading. Attendances, baptisms and confirmations are all down. The loss of young people is most worrying as there is a limit to how long increasingly elderly congregations can carry on raising their weekly giving, one of the few encouraging figures in the report, to keep a sinking ship afloat.

"There is an attempt to put a brave face on the decline by highlighting areas of 'growth': Over the past three years we have been gathering statistics for non-traditional forms of worship, and in 2013 it is estimated that just under 12,000 people were involved in such activities. These 'non-traditional' forms of 'worship' include: River Walk; Teddy Bears' Tea Party; Rushbearing Service; Jigsaw Service; Snowdrops Service; Frogs Sole Sisters Tadpoles; Mustard Seeds; Duck Pond Worship; Noah's Ark; Barn Nativity; Pram Services".

Note, there is not one suggestion of the implementation of The Great Commission, a pressing of the Gospel to unbelievers, unless of course "pram services" provides an opportunity for those who can't speak back a golden moment of one way communication with the newly born about the need for greater inclusivity and the possibility of Wales ordaining its very first gay or lesbian bishop.

The suggestion that the ordination of women would reinvigorate the church can now be seen for what it was: a blatant attempt to sway people towards secularist ideals. Even with the upsurge in coffee services and toddler activities, the innovation has been an obvious failure for the Church despite attempts to celebrate the move as a success for women, wrote a blogger.

Recently, the Diocese of St. Asaph and its bishop Gregory Cameron hosted Bishop Suffragan Gayle Harris of Massachusetts in a show of ecumenical female inclusiveness. The incident made Church of Wales history by hosting the first female Anglican bishop to preside and preach in a Welsh cathedral. The event took place at St. Asaph Cathedral in Denbighshire, North Wales. Although the Church in Wales voted on Sept. 12, 2013, to allow women as bishops, it decided that church law would not be changed for one year to allow the Welsh bishops time to prepare a Code of Practice.

There is no way in a Welsh coalmine that this will suddenly see an influx of Millennials into the church. Bear in mind that Bishop Harris comes from one of the worst revisionist dioceses in The Episcopal Church -- Massachusetts - under its gay bishop Tom Shaw who is dying of brain cancer.

In the secular world so much admired by Archbishop Morgan, any self-respecting chief executive would have done the honorable thing and resigned or he/she would have been forced out after a membership fall of 25% under his/her leadership. Not so in the Church in Wales. Even if the Archbishop becomes incapacitated from performing his duties as Archbishop, it will no longer be an impediment. Chap V 7 (2) which provides the Bench of Bishops with a remedy is to be repealed! (See here (Appendix 2)). Presumably the next stage will be to remove the retirement age.

This is a clear manipulation of the Constitution to keep Archbishop Barry in office without facing retirement, another source told VOL. The man's duplicity knows no end.

As another blogger wrote, "The Governing Body must decide. Are they for the Church or for ++Barry?"

What is apparent, regardless of the cost, spiritually and financially, is his continual need to align his province with the American Episcopal Church using their heretical Presiding Bishop as an example.

The above photograph shows the Archbishop delivering his Presidential address to a submissive Governing Body (GB) audience who now represent just 1% of the souls in Wales who still regularly attend an Anglican church in his Province.

"To what extent GB members represent the whole Church in Wales is doubtful given their rapturous applause to the latest innovation, the admission of women to the episcopacy. Perhaps they thought that an honorable compromise had been reached. It was implicit in the bishops' motion but they dropped that in favor of the Jackson/Wigley amendment which required only a voluntary code of practice, the contents of which are being kept a closely guarded secret by the bench of bishops who were charged with creating it," wrote the blogger.

"All will become clear after Dr. Morgan's next Presidential Address when he announces what sacramental and pastoral provision he has decided will be made for those loyal church members who are unable to accept that women can be validly ordained in the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of which the Church in Wales claims membership. If he again reneges on the promise of acceptable provision will the Governing Body remain compliant or demand that the Church honors its promises?"

By any reading the latest figures for 2013 make grim reading. Attendances, baptisms and confirmations are all down. The loss of young people should be viewed as a loss of confidence in the message the church is supposed to be proclaiming. Elderly congregations can only carry on raising their weekly giving to a limited extent, but death will carry them off and they will be unable to keep a sinking ship afloat.

In the end, the Church of Wales future will not grow without a clear embrace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its pristine glory and with the ramifications of those who reject the Good News. Archbishop Morgan might be able to manipulate his power base to keep him in power, but that could mean he could end up presiding over his own and his church's demise.

END