‘Gay Masses’ Abolished, Church Where They Were Held to Go to the Ordinariate

Damian Thompson:

A big story has just broken on the Catholic Herald website:

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster has announced that Masses in Soho organised for people with same-sex attraction are to end.

He also revealed that the church where the Masses took place will be given to the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

The fortnightly “Soho Masses” at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Warwick Street were established by the diocese almost six years ago. They were intended to be “particularly welcoming to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Catholics, their parents, friends and families”.

Archbishop Nichols said today that, while the Masses will stop, pastoral care of the community will continue at the Jesuit Farm Street church in Mayfair on Sunday evenings.

He also announced that Our Lady of the Assumption church will be given to the ordinariate in Lent. The archbishop said: “I hope that the use of this beautiful church, in which the young John Henry Newman first attended Mass, will enable Catholics in the ordinariate to prosper and to offer to others the particular gifts of the ordinariate.”

Read more here. Both these moves should be welcomed. The “gay Masses” were an embarrassment, a relic of old-style gay rights campaigning that scandalised large numbers of Catholics. To give this lovely 18th-century church to the Ordinariate is a huge boost for ex-Anglicans who are setting up their own structure, worshipping as Catholics in a style informed by Anglican spirituality. Archbishop Vincent Nichols should be congratulated. So should the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, whom I’m sure strongly approves of these developments.

PS: My sources suggest that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has had a hand in this. Read this article by William Oddie for background.

It’s a lovely looking Church (if the above pic is anything to go by).

 

Gay Protestors Surround Praying Priest

And it’s nasty…

 

Homosexual Dean Threatens to Sue Church because he was Not Made a Bishop

In the Daily Mail:

A controversial gay dean has threatened to take the Church of  England to court after he was blocked from becoming a bishop.

The Very Rev Jeffrey John, Dean of St Albans, has instructed an eminent employment lawyer to complain to Church officials after being rejected for the role of Bishop of Southwark.

Sources say the dean, one of the most contentious figures in the Church, believes he could sue officials under the Equality Act 2010, which bans discrimination on the grounds of sexuality. Such a case could create a damaging new rift within the CoE…

Dr John has instructed Alison Downie, partner and head of employment at London lawyers Goodman Derrick, to write to the Commission to suggest it risks breaching gay equality laws if it is blocking the dean over his homosexuality…

Dr John suggested he would drop his legal threat if he felt he would not be ruled out for future posts…

A Church spokesman also refused to comment…

I’ll comment: The Bible condemns homosexual behaviour. The Church runs on Biblical principles. Are they now to be forced to directly ignore or contradict God’s holy laws by appointing ‘gay’ shepherds? And here is a man who wants to be a Bishop, but will not submit to God’s law and instead turns to secular man-made laws to make his case. That in itself shows his character and effectively should disqualify him from any position within the Church.

 

Robert Mugabe Wants to Quiz Archbishop Rowan Williams on Homosexuality

AFP reports:

Harare — Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe wants the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to explain the Anglican church’s stance on homosexuality and the western sanctions on him and his allies, a spokesman said on Sunday.

Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans, is due to lead a communion service in a Harare stadium on Sunday, as part of his three-nation African tour.

Williams may not be allowed into any Anglican facilities in Zimbabwe, after a breakaway bishop aligned with Mugabe seized all of the church’s property.

For weeks Williams has sought a meeting with Mugabe to discuss the split, which has degenerated into violence as supporters of excommunicated bishop Nolbert Kunonga chased Anglican faithful out of churches, schools and orphanages.

Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba did not say if the two men would meet, but told the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper that if they did speak, the 87-year-old president would challenge Williams about gays and sanctions.

“Fundamentally, he would want to know why the church of the British state, the Anglican Church, has remained so loudly silent while the people of Zimbabwe, and these people include Anglicans, are suffering from the illegal sanctions,” Charamba said.

“The second issue that the president wants this man of God to clarify is why his Anglican Church thinks homosexuality is good for us and why it should be prescribed for us.

“He thinks the Archbishop will be polite enough to point to him that portion of the Great Book (that) sanctions homosexuality and sanctions sanctions”…

More here.

I for one would love to hear how Archbishop Rowan Williams would respond. And he may as well get his answer straight now, for I fear that one day, One far greater than the Zimbabwean President, will demand an answer from the Church leader too…

 

Presbyterian Church Ordains First Openly Gay Minister

Sodomites in the pulpit. And not even Calvinism could withstand:

Sun Prairie, Wis. – More than two decades after Scott Anderson told his California congregation that he was gay and therefore must resign as its pastor, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) is preparing to welcome him back with mostly open arms.

Anderson will be ordained Saturday in his new home of Madison, Wis., as the denomination’s first openly gay minister, marking the latest mainline Protestant church to move toward accepting homosexual relationships.

During a recent interview, Anderson, 56, recalled being in the closet from 1983 to 1990 while serving as a minister in Sacramento. He told the congregation the truth and resigned as pastor after a couple learned he was gay and tried to use the information against him.

“That was really the best and worst moment of my life,” Anderson said. “It was the best because I was able to claim for the first time who I was as a gay man. That was incredibly empowering. But there was also the sadness, the grief of leaving the ministry and what I loved.”

Saturday’s ordination at Covenant Presbyterian Church was made possible by decades of debate over whether openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the church. The church constitution used to include language requiring that clergy live “in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.”

The Presbyterian national assembly last year endorsed removing that rule…

“The Episcopalians, the Lutherans, the United Church of Christ have all made this step…

All fallen Churches where the worship of the One True God has been abandoned for a morally relativist, politically correct, bankrupt system.

 

Gay ‘Marriage’ Passed in New York

It will go into effect in 30 days:

Same-sex marriage is now legal in New York after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that was narrowly passed by state lawmakers Friday, handing activists a breakthrough victory in the state where the gay rights movement was born.

New York becomes the sixth state where gay couples can wed and the biggest by far.

Gay rights advocates are hoping the vote will galvanize the movement around the country and help it regain momentum after an almost identical bill was defeated in New York in 2009 and similar measures failed in 2010 in New Jersey and this year in Maryland and Rhode Island.

Though New York is a relative latecomer in allowing same-sex marriage, it is considered an important prize for advocates, given the state’s size and New York City’s international stature and its role as the birthplace of the gay rights movement, which is considered to have started with the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village in 1969.

The New York bill cleared the Republican-controlled state Senate on a 33-29 vote. The Democrat-led Assembly, which passed a different version last week, on Friday adopted the amendments added by the Senate that created stronger religious exemptions.

Passage of the measure was made possible by two Republican senators who had been undecided…

Do read more here. 

Whatever it is, it is not marriage! 

I’m afraid the moral decline into a Sodom and Gomorrah like state is now sure to be accelerated…

UPDATE:  Here is the reaction of the Bishops of New York to the above news:

The following is a statement from Archbishop Timothy Dolan and the bishops of New York State:

The passage by the Legislature of a bill to alter radically and forever humanity’s historic understanding of marriage leaves us deeply disappointed and troubled.

We strongly uphold the Catholic Church’s clear teaching that we always treat our homosexual brothers and sisters with respect, dignity and love. But we just as strongly affirm that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman in a lifelong, loving union that is open to children, ordered for the good of those children and the spouses themselves. This definition cannot change, though we realize that our beliefs about the nature of marriage will continue to be ridiculed, and that some will even now attempt to enact government sanctions against churches and religious organizations that preach these timeless truths.

We worry that both marriage and the family will be undermined by this tragic presumption of government in passing this legislation that attempts to redefine these cornerstones of civilization.

Our society must regain what it appears to have lost – a true understanding of the meaning and the place of marriage, as revealed by God, grounded in nature, and respected by America’s foundational principles.”

+Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York

+Howard J. Hubbard
Bishop of Albany

+Nicholas DiMarzio
Bishop of Brooklyn

+Edward U. Kmiec
Bishop of Buffalo

+Terry R. LaValley
Bishop of Ogdensburg

+Matthew H. Clark
Bishop of Rochester

+William F. Murphy
Bishop of Rockville Centre

+Robert J. Cunningham
Bishop of Syracuse

San Francisco Catholic Church Hosted Transvestite Event

Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church hosted a fundraiser on Saturday, June 11, for the San Francisco Gay Softball League called the “Switch Hitters Ball.”

The Switch Hitters Ball has been hosted by Most Holy Redeemer each year since at least 2007. The “Switch Hitter” in the event title does not refer to a batter who is able to hit from both sides of the plate — it refers instead to the transvestite nature of the “entertainment” that takes place at the ball.

Performers are required to fill out a sign-up sheet provided by the Gay Softball League, which offers individual performers one choice: “Switchhitter: Male to Female or Female to Male.” The sign-up sheet and event publication specify “Rehearsal time will be provided at Most Holy Redeemer’s Ellard Hall on the afternoon of competition” and that each “Switch Hitter will be interviewed before transformation is to take place.”

While the parish calendar did not list the event, it is well publicized each year in San Francisco media aimed at a homosexual audience. Of course the San Francisco Gay Softball League publicized it. This year’s entry on the League’s website reads, “Switch-hitters Ball, June 11, 2011, 6:00pm – 10:00pm, Most Holy Redeemer’s Ellard Hall, 100 Diamond Street, SF.”

The number of transvestites exiting cars in front of the church and entering the church hall on June 11 was notable even for a Saturday night in the Castro, and left no doubt as to the nature of the event. By 6:45 p.m., a boisterous crowd, almost exclusively male, had already filled the church hall. The packed room (capacity 325) included a number of male transvestites, as well as at least one apparent member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

Past event held at Most Holy Redeemer have included the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Revival Bingo (cancelled by the archdiocese under outside pressure); annual fundraisers by two sado-masochistic organizations — the InterClub Fund and the Golden Gate Guards (cancelled by the archdiocese under outside pressure); the 2007 Desperate Dive Drag Show, followed a week later by Archbishop George Niederauer’s Mass at the church during which he was ambushed by two Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in the communion line and for which the archbishop later publicly apologized; annual parish participation at the “Gay Pride” parade (cancelled by the archdiocese under outside pressure); the scheduled May 2010 performance by students of Sacred Heart High School of Atherton of the pro-homosexual propaganda play “Be Still and Know” (cancelled by the archdiocese under outside pressure, but performed instead at the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco), and this year’s planning session for Catholic participation in the “Gay Pride” parade, reported in CalCatholic on May 31.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence seem once again to be regular visitors to Most Holy Redeemer. In addition to their ongoing ridicule of Catholic women religious, their annual “Hunky Jesus” contest, held on Easter Sunday, is an obscene mockery of Jesus Christ.

Next Saturday, June 18, members of the Gay Softball League and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will be back at Most Holy Redeemer. The church hall will host a spaghetti dinner benefiting the San Francisco Hotshots softball team. From the San Francisco Chronicle listing: “Saturday, June 18 6:00pm at Most Holy Redeemer Church, San Francisco, CA… Sister Pat and Eve and their bevy of Sisters will be serving up the spaghetti homestyle.” That event will also include a “drag show.”

Behold the dangers of a Church existing in the middle of Sodom, their not standing against the tide, instead allowing for compromise to creep in…

If anything, it makes for an absolutely pathetic witness.

Christian Counsellor’s Attempt to Cure Gay man was ‘Malpractice’

So much for trying to help someone.

A Christian psychotherapist who tried to convert a gay man to become heterosexual has been found guilty of professional misconduct.

The Telegraph reports:

Lesley Pilkington was criticised by the professional body for counsellors after an undercover journalist posing as a patient secretly recorded her during a therapy session at her home.

Despite finding that Mrs Pilkington’s client, Patrick Strudwick, “deliberately misled her”, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) ruled that she had breached the profession’s ethical code.

She now faces being struck off the association’s widely recognised professional register and is considering an appeal.

Mrs Pilkington, 60, practises “reparative therapy”, a controversial method which holds that homosexual orientation can be “theraputically changed” in clients who are motivated.

Mr Strudwick met Mrs Pilkington in 2009 at a largely Christian conference on therapy of homosexuality. He told her he said he was unhappy with his gay lifestyle and that he wanted treatment for his same-sex attraction.

Mr Strudwick then attended Mrs Pilkington’s private practice, based at her home in Chorleywood, Herts, and recorded a session on a tape machine strapped to his stomach.

He gathered material which he later used in a complaint against Mrs Pilkington to the BACP. A decision by the BACP panel was made earlier this week but both sides were told to treat the matter as confidential while Mrs Pilkington considered whether to use her right to an appeal.

However, Mr Strudwick wrote about the BACP’s decision for the Guardian newspaper. Mrs Pilkington then issued her own press statement through the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting her case. The BACP has declined to comment, stating that the process has not yet concluded.

The disciplinary panel described Mrs Pilkington as “reckless”, “disrespectful”, “dogmatic” and “unprofessional” and ruled that her treatment of him constituted “professional malpractice”.

The ruling stated that her accreditation to the organisation will be suspended and she will be ordered to complete training. If she fails to comply she will be struck off the register.

In his newspaper article, Mr Strudwick said: “I am an out, happily gay man. I was undercover, investigating therapists who practise this so-called conversion therapy (also known as reparative therapy) – who try to ‘pray away the gay’…

There’s more  here.

What a deceptive act. To think that people go around wasting the time of others (who want to help). I’m glad that I stay nowhere near depraved England with all their spineless politically correct laws!

Heaven forbid you are to call homosexuality a sin!

 

Homosexuals More Likely to Get Cancer

CNN:

Gay men in California are nearly twice as likely to report a cancer diagnosis as straight men in the state, according to new research published online Monday in the medical journal Cancer.

Few cancer studies investigate how sexual orientation might affect cancer risk and survivorship, often because study participants are not asked about their sexual orientation. In Monday’s study, researchers used a large health survey conducted by the state of California – in which respondents were asked about their orientation – to examine the impact cancer may be having on gays and lesbians in the state.

The results show about 8% of gay men had experienced a cancer diagnosis, compared with only about 5% of straight men. Among straight women and lesbians, the cancer prevalence trends were more closely matched.

Researchers speculate the increased cancer prevalence among gay men is associated with HIV status.

“There’s a higher prevalence of HIV positive men in the gay population, and we know that being HIV positive is related to cancers, so this might drive the differences we found,” said study author Ulrike Boehmer, an associate professor at Boston University School of Public Health.

Anal cancer, lung cancer, testicular cancer and Hodgkin’s lymphoma are more prevalent among men who are HIV positive, Boehmer said.

The study found gay men were also more likely to get cancer at a younger age than straight men – almost 10 years sooner – at the age of 41, on average…

More on the study here.

Shocking: Gays Mock Christians with Easter Service

This is despicable. Here’s the video [Warning: nudity and vulgar language]:

The whole report apparently including blurred out pics of a “gay Jesus” showing his private parts to the crowd is here [I could not bring myself to go there, the above was bad enough].

(HT)

Sick!

I however find refuge in verses such as this one:

Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood (Rev 22:15).

Or as the CJB has it:

Outside are the homosexuals, those involved with the occult and with drugs, the sexually immoral, murderers, idol-worshippers, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood (Rev 22:15).