Bibles Burned in Welsh Church

The fallen world we live in…

None of the church’s valuable items were taken during the break-in, but a stained glass window was smashed using a vase from the graveyard and Bibles and hymn books were burned.

Rev Goronwy Evans, minister at the church for 46 years, believes that they burned the holy books in an “abysmal” attempt to set the church on fire.

“In this day and age break-ins are a part of life, but it was shocking to see what they had done,” he said.

The scene was discovered by a woman who was bringing flowers to her mother’s grave in the churchyard at Brondeifi Unitarian Chapel, in Lampeter, Ceredigion, south west Wales.

It has been estimated that the intruders caused £1,000 worth of damage.

The fire at the Gothic chapel, which has only had three ministers since it was built in 1876, did not threaten the structure of the building and only spread several feet.

Lampeter county councillor Hag Harris said: “It’s extremely worrying for everybody. In different circumstances the chapel could have been lost. It is an important centre and an historic building in this community.”

The vandals got into the building on St David’s Day by smashing a leaded stained glass window with a vase taken from one of the graves in the churchyard. They then gained access to the rest of the Chapel through the boiler room.

Once inside, the vandals made their way to the minister’s vestry where they set fire to a table, bookshelves and cupboards containing personal items, hymn books and bibles.

An organ, currently in the process of being renovated with funds from the church’s congregation, escaped from the incident unscathed.

Police have been gathering evidence from the scene, including footprints. Investigations are continuing.

Rev Evans said: “It was such a shock. When I got there on Saturday afternoon I just looked around and thought ‘What have they been doing?’ They didn’t take anything, so it could have been worse, but it doesn’t make it any better.

“Trying to set the place on fire was abysmal,” Rev Evans added. “It was more through luck than judgment that we still have a church and not a shell. We all just hope it won’t happen again.”

 

 

Church in Wales Review – Managed Decline?

Ancient Briton:

There is something about the Church in Wales Review that reminds me of the days of absent priests and nonconformity in Wales but this is no revival. It is about managed decline. The report reads like a management solution to a secular problem with the phrase ‘fit for purpose’ being singularly inappropriate in a religious context. This is the nub of the problem. While traditional sacramental devotion can be found in isolated areas, the main thrust of mission in the Church in Wales is to appeal to the uninterested using secular criteria which loses any sense of the mystery which gives people a break from the rigours of modern life. Declining numbers, fewer ordinands, redundant churches all indicate the imminent collapse of a top-heavy system that for too long has had to be supported by hard-pressed congregations whether or not they agree with the direction in which their church has taken them. The supposed panacea of embracing feminist theology is likely to see its conclusion in the creation of a privileged, priestly few paid for by dwindling congregations singing popular hymns with a few prayers thrown in and an occasional Eucharist, a small step to lay presidency using the feminist argument that a priest has only to say a few more words than a deacon. For those who will not have already departed to join an Ordinariate there must be a point at which congregations realise that without regular sacramental worship they will be better off in a self-supporting chapel. A sort of revival but not for the Church in Wales…

Read on here.

 

More on Fr Brian Gill’s Ordination

In the Ordinariate:

At two ordinations over the past weekend, three new deacons and a new priest were ordained for service in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Fr Brian Gill was ordained to the sacred priesthood by the Bishop of Menevia on Saturday, in the presence of Mgr Keith Newton. Fr Gill was Vicar General of the Traditional Anglican Church (TTAC), a part of the Traditional Anglican Communion in the United Kingdom, from 2003 to 2009. As such, together with Anglican bishops from around the world he signed the Portsmouth Declaration in 2007, the hopes of which are fulfiled in the establishment of Personal Ordinariates.

Fr Gill was born in the West Indies, and trained under the Mirfield fathers at Codrington College, Barbados. He travelled to Jerusalem with the Lambeth Bishops before moving to Britain in 1974 to serve in the Anglican diocese of Hereford. He left the Church of England for the TTAC following the ordination of women in the Church of England in the 1990s.

Saturday also saw the ordination of the Revd Kenneth Berry, the Revd Paul Gibbons, and the Revd Donald Minchew, by the Right Reverend Paul Hendricks (Auxiliary of Southwark). Celebrated at the church of the Precious Blood, Borough, the ordination was attended by friends and family of the candidates, as well as priests of the Personal Ordinariate and the local diocese.

We look forward to the ordination of the three men as priests in September. 

 

Remember Former-TAC VG UK (Fr) Brian Gill

In your prayers today.

Once Ordained, he will work at establishing the Ordinariate in Wales.

 

The First Ordinariate in Wales

Father Brian Gill, former Vicar General of the Traditional Anglican Church will be ordained by the Bishop of Menevia, Thomas Burns, on Saturday 21st July in the cluster parish of Presteigne, Rhayader and Knighton.

A small number of community members forming what is believed to be the first Welsh Ordinariate will join with Fr Gill on the day.

Remember Fr Gill and the Welsh Ordinariate in your prayers please, especially on this feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel – the following prayer may be said as a novena on behalf of the Ordinariate:

O most beautiful Flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein that you are my Mother.O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart, to succour me in this my necessity. There are none that can withstand your power. O show me herein that you are my Mother.O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us that have recourse to thee. (3 times)Sweet Mother, I place this cause in your hands. (3 times)

Source:  Linen on the Hedgerow

Blessings to (soon-to-be-again) Fr Brian Gill.

 

Rector Burns Bible Pages

 

What a wicked man!

The Church in Wales says it is investigating after a Gwynedd rector burnt some pages from the Bible.

The Reverend Geraint ap Iorwerth of St Peter ad Vincula Church, Pennal, also cut up pages from the King James Bible to create an artwork.

Unveiling it at a church event, he said it revealed a “cruel and vile God”.

The Bishop of Bangor said: “Destroying parts of the Bible we don’t like is disrespectful and will offend many people.”

Mr ap Iorwerth told BBC Wales he had burnt scraps of cut up the passages at the public event because he had been making a statement as part of an art experiment.

He said he had had nothing but support from people at the church near Machynlleth, close to the Gwynedd-Powys border…

The BBC has the rest here. And from the conclusion:

… The rector claimed “incredible” support from parishioners.

The Bishop of Bangor, Andy John, said destroying the Bible, or passages from it, would cause offence to many.

He said: “I have therefore written to the Reverend Geraint ap Iorwerth and will be investigating the matter further.

“There are parts of the Bible that we struggle to understand today because culturally our life is so far removed from that period in which the Bible was written.

“However, it is not given to us to pick and choose – sometimes the most challenging parts are those which we need to wrestle with most of all.”