Archbishop of Wales’s St David’s Day message – Take pride in Wales but be open to the world; Woman chaplain to Archbishop of Canterbury; BBC announces its religious schedule for Easter; Media review
Archbishop of Wales’s St David’s Day message – Take pride in Wales but be open to the world
We can be proud of being Welsh without cutting ourselves off from people of other races and nations, the Archbishop of Wales said at a St David’s Day service.
Dr Barry Morgan said Wales is an emerging nation which could learn from its neighbours rather than attempt to do everything its own way.
He also urged national and civic leaders not to be afraid to change their minds and let go of Party ideology or long held views.
The Archbishop was speaking at the All Wales National St David’s Day service, hosted by the Lord Mayor of Cardiff at St John the Baptist Church, Cardiff city centre to celebrate the nation’s culture and heritage. The service was also attended by HRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, members of the Welsh Government and National Assembly and representatives from organisations across Wales.
In his address, the Archbishop said, “It is possible to be both proud of being Welsh nationally, culturally, linguistically without being xenophobic and cutting ourselves off from the insights of other peoples, races and nations. In fact, we have to understand that Wales, as an emerging nation, may have much to learn from others who have trodden this path before us, especially our near neighbours. Sometimes, partly because our devolved Government is of recent origin, there is a temptation to think that we must plough our own unique furrow. Well, it is possible to be both distinctively Welsh and open to the insights of others – for all of us, in the end, belong to a global village and we impact and affect one another.”
He added that leaders should follow the example of Jesus and be open to change and have the grace to change their minds when they lose an argument.
He said, “It is sometimes difficult when you are the Party of Government or have control of a council, to let go of Party ideology or views that you have always held dear and be prepared to change your mind. Yet that is what true leadership may sometimes require.
“The late Lord William Rees Mogg, editor of The Times for nearly 15 years, put it another way. He said ‘that to change positions is merely to say that one is wiser today than yesterday’.
“All of that takes courage and faith and we pray God that all of us might be open to what His spirit might be trying to say to us as we all fulfil our different tasks here in Wales.”
Woman chaplain to Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury has appointed the Rev. Dr. Jo Bailey Wells, currently director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina, as chaplain of Lambeth Palace.
Her primary focus will be for the spiritual life at Lambeth Palace and for supporting the Archbishop’s pastoral and liturgical ministry.
Speaking about her new position, Dr Jo Bailey Wells said: “I am honoured and delighted to be joining Archbishop Justin’s team at Lambeth as he takes on a heavy but exciting mantle. I look forward to supporting him personally and pastorally – above all by praying for his flourishing in that role – and so to facilitating the wider flourishing of God’s people in God’s church.”
The Reverend Dr Jo Bailey Wells was ordained in 1995. Her ministry thus far has focused on nurturing faith, mentoring vocations teaching Old Testament and training leadership – in Cambridge, in the United States and in South Sudan. Previous positions include Dean of Clare College Cambridge and most recently Director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina. She holds degrees from Cambridge, Minnesota and Durham and has written two books, God’s Holy People (Sheffield: 2000) and Isaiah: A Devotional Commentary for Study and Preaching (BRF: 2006).
Speaking about her appointment, the Archbishop said: “Jo is an outstanding speaker, scholar and pastor, with a very wide experience of the Anglican world. I am delighted that she has been agreed to come and work with me at Lambeth.”
BBC announces its religious schedule for Easter
It will feature the Most Reverend Justin Welby’s first Thought for the Day as the Archbishop of Canterbury on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Radio 4 will also broadcast the last Easter address from The Right Reverend James Jones as The Bishop of Liverpool.
Melvyn Bragg will present a documentary on Mary Magdalene and Ann Widdecombe will look at how Christianity is portrayed in comedy.
“Easter is the cornerstone of Christianity” said Aaqil Ahmed, Commissioning Editor and Head of Religion and Ethics who said the programmes reflect “the beauty and mystery of the season”.
On Good Friday evening, BBC Radio 2 broadcasts Handel’s Messiah, with the Bach Choir and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
In addition, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast Choral Evensong live from Manchester Cathedral on Easter Sunday.
MEDIA REVIEW
Ministers ‘misrepresenting’ the poor
The government is deliberately misusing evidence and statistics to misrepresent the plight of the poor, a report says.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21625446
Controversial Archbishop takes over Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s role
John Bingham, Telegraph – A senior cleric who was forced to apologise after suggesting homosexuality can kill has stepped into the post held by Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s until his resignation.
In one of the final acts of his pontificate, Pope Benedict appointed the Archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia, to run the archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh temporarily.
The Vatican announced that Archbishop Tartaglia, the second most senior Catholic cleric in Scotland, would be the Apostolic Administrator until a permanent successor is found for Cardinal O’Brien.
Cardinal O’Brien stepped down with immediate effect and announced he would not be joining the Conclave to elect the next Pope after allegations of “inappropriate” behaviour with male priests emerged.
He denies the allegations and it in understood he has not been told even who his accusers are.
Archbishop Tartaglia faced a furore last year when comments he made about the death of the Labour MP David Cairns in a speech at Oxford were published.
He suggested that the MP’s death from acute pancreatitis could be linked to his homosexuality.
He said: “If what I have heard is true about the relationship between the physical and mental health of gay men, if it is true then society is being very quiet about it.
The manner in which Cardinal O’Brien has been deposed is more despicable than anything he’s alleged to have done
Brendan O’Neill, Telegraph – What did Cardinal Keith O’Brien do that was so bad?
He is alleged to have made inappropriate advances to young men when he was a teacher of priests in the 1980s. But is not a crime to make sexual advances to men over the age of 18. It is not child abuse (despite the best efforts of the press to lump O’Brien together with paedophile priests). Nor is what he is alleged to have done perverted in any way. It can at best be described as stupid – and if everyone in Britain who has ever done something stupid was thrown out of their jobs, the nation would grind to a halt.
Ah, but O’Brien’s alleged behaviour makes him a hypocrite, say his exposers in the liberal press as they desperately scrabble about for a PC justification for why they are depicting adult gay interaction as something sinister and sordid. Perhaps it does make him a hypocrite, given his current stance on homosexuality. But perhaps not. We know nothing of Cardinal O’Brien’s inner spiritual life. For all we know he may have spent the past 30-plus years repenting for that “inappropriate” behaviour in the Eighties, before deciding that, on balance, he thinks that homosexuality is wrong and wicked. People change. People regret. Would we say St Paul was a hypocrite for criticising those who attacked Christians even though he spent his early life doing the same thing?
Gay marriage will not give equality
By Ann Widdecombe, Daily Express – The Government’s gay marriage Bill is being brought in supposedly to promote equality.
Unfortunately a close reading of its provisions suggests the very opposite.
Under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 a marriage is voidable if it has not been consummated.
The Bill now before Parliament states that will not apply to same-sex couples. Even more significant, the proposed law discriminates between heterosexual and homosexual unions when it comes to adultery.
The Bill says only conduct with a person of the opposite sex can constitute adultery in divorce proceedings.
In other words adultery, unlike marriage, is to remain an exclusively heterosexual concept. And so it goes on.
Nor is there any proposal to scrap civil partnerships so homosexual couples will have a choice between two types of legally recognised union while heterosexuals have but one.
Equality? No. This Bill was conceived for purely political reasons and marriage has become David Cameron’s plaything.
Those who, while privately opposing the measure, voted for it out of loyalty or ambition should now explain to constituents the profoundly unequal nonsense that is being created by this ill thought out Bill and should attach that explanation to their election addresses when they begin the scramble for votes.