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WALES Elects Former Evangelical as next Archbishop to Lead Province

WALES Elects Former Evangelical as next Archbishop to Lead Province

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
December 7, 2021

The newly elected Archbishop of Wales is the Bishop of Bangor, the Rt. Rev. Andy John, a once-upon-a-time evangelical, who now says the church needs "to move with the times" on homosexuality. He succeeds John Davies, who retired in May after four years as Archbishop.

The Church Times noted that although from an Evangelical background, Bishop John has moved with the times. (In past decades, his marital status -- he is in his second marriage after a divorce -- would have been a bar to preferment.) He supported the latest move to allow same-sex couples to have their marriages blessed in church (News, 6 September), telling The National, a Welsh newspaper, in July: "I think this will make us . . . a Church that provides space for people who demonstrate by their lives that they can be wonderful disciples of Jesus Christ when they want to live in love with a person of the same sex."

One can only imagine our Lord commissioning the first 72 disciples with these words, "when you go into a village and they reject you and your message, don't shake the dust off your feet, move with the times."

Undeterred, the bishop goes on to write, "This is not the teaching of the Church at this moment but I believe it is fully in keeping with our faith and orthodoxy. I believe it will strengthen our witness to a world which longs to see justice and fairness for all, regardless of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation, and cannot understand how the Church is still wrestling with an issue that most people have accepted long ago."

One wonders if the bishop has redefined 'progressive revelation' and has not been reading his Bible lately or has failed to see what has been going on in The Episcopal Church for the last 40 years, a church decimated by the acceptance of this aberrant behavior.

Does he know what the consecration of V. Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual bishop has wrought in lost souls, literally and spiritually, and that his consecration resulted in the formation of the Anglican Church in North America?

Do the Welsh and Scottish churches live in such ecclesiastical bubbles (you can add the Church of England) that they don't see the enormous damage the normalization of homosexuality has wrought by their actions!

Is Archbishop John not aware of Lambeth Resolution 1:10 on human sexuality and how it divided the Anglican Communion back in 1998, resulting in the formation of GAFCON?

What delusional world is he living in?

Does he really think that that blessing of two homosexual clerics in Wales recently by the Bishop of Asaph, Gregory Cameron is a starting point for revival and not a capitulation to the 'spirit of the age?'

It's another disaster for the Church in the British Isles, a senior CofE official told VOL.

It is clear they don't want to hear, see or know any other perspective. They are moved by the culture, not Christ.

In September, the Church in Wales passed a vote to allow homosexual couples to have their marriages blessed. "This is a landmark and a really big step - a time to rejoice," said Fr Lee Taylor, a partner of the first same-sex couple to be officially blessed by the Church in Wales.

Not surprisingly the Bishop of St Asaph, a close friend of Archbishop Rowan Williams, said it was an "honour" to lead the blessing.

The newly anointed archbishop noted that not everyone will take the position he outlined, but "there are good arguments for developing the Church's teaching in other ways, for example by introducing a service of life vows or revisiting the question of blessing same sex unions. This debate cannot be ignored but neither can it take place without wisdom, generosity and grace. I pray that it will engage you in a new way this year and that you will pray and reflect on how we can be faithful to God and strengthen out witness to Christ's redeeming love."

Archbishop John then noted challenges facing the church which was at a "low ebb" following several resignations in the Diocese of Bangor in 2015.

What exactly did he think would happen? Homosexuality is a salvation issue, and people who embrace it are relegating themselves to a place outside the kingdom. Is it any wonder that faithful Anglicans leave and form new Anglican jurisdictions!

One irate blogger had this to say, "The bench of bishops are slaves. Slaves to the Zeitgeist, seeking loopholes to justify their perverse desires. They should return to orthodoxy and stop exploiting people who are supposedly in their care."

Archbishop John will probably be the last archbishop of Wales, as the congregations age, and no new generations are coming forward to fill pulpits or pews.

The Church's epitaph will be written with the archbishop's own words, "we moved with the times."

For more click here: https://eng.efcw.org.uk/2021/12/03/statement-following-meeting-with-the-bench-of-bishops/

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