Led by the Spirit: the Historic Faith of the Church in Wales was launched at the beginning of November 2008 at a one-day conference at St Mary's Priory Church when more than 200 clergy, laymen and women packed the church and sought to explore the future of the Church in Wales.
.jpg "Led by the Spirit poster")
Led by the Spirit poster
It was not, as has been suggested in some quarters of the Church, a ‘rally against women’ but rather a day designed to encourage and uplift very many people in the Church in Wales, loyal worshipping members, for whom the decisions of recent years have proved so difficult. The latest of those decisions is that by the Bench of Bishops will not make Episcopal provision for those who hold traditional views.
The speakers included Sister Anne Williams, of the Church Army, and a member of the Bishop of Manchester’s working group on the General Synod of the Church of England, which produced The Manchester Report on the ordination of women as bishops. Sister Anne spoke about the process which produced that Report, what the Group was trying to achieve – which was to hold the Church of England together in the face of this contentious issue – and her reaction to the vote by Synod to ordain women bishops.
Canon Peter Russell Jones, Vicar of Conwy, and for very many years a member of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales, spoke about Christianity as a revealed religion, central to which is the Atonement. He also spoke about the apostolic succession and authority; about the liberalism dominating the Church today and the present crisis.
The Rt Rev’d Andrew Burnham SSC, Bishop of Ebbsfleet, and one of the Church of England’s Provincial Episcopal Visitors, came to give his spiritual support, exhorting conference members to “stay faithful, stay together in our prayers and look for the coming of the kingdom”.
The Rev’d Bernard Sixtus, Associate Vicar of Abergavenny, introduced a range of study material, setting out what lies behind the traditionalists’ case, why we believe what we believe. “It’s about wider issues than the ordination of women,” he said. “We are not a single issue group. We are about faithfulness to Christ and his Gospel and the Apostolic Church.” The five booklets look at:
Women in the Church of God:
Their Calling and Ordination
►The Apostolic Church
►The Apostolic Ministry
►Women in the Church of God
►A Study Guide
►Biblical Foundations, giving the foundational role of scripture on which the traditional stance on the ordination of women was based.
In February 2009, a series of roadshows was held in West and South Wales - the North Wales events being postponed because of snow.
Introducing each Roadshow, the Rev’d Canon Jeremy Winston said: “The Presentations have arisen out of a concern and enthusiasm shared amongst some of the elected members of the Governing Body. We represent a part of that Body, and by implication, a part of the Church in Wales, to which we remain hugely loyal.
Fr Jeremy Winston at the
Swansea roadshow
“One of the things which arose from last year’s [2008] debate on Women Bishops, held at Lampeter, was the charge made by Dr Peter Sedgwick, the Warden of St Michael’s College, Llandaff, that those traditionalists speaking in that debate had provided little by way of hope for the Church in Wales. This struck some of us as being a very astute observation, and we realised that there was a sense in which he was absolutely correct. For such a long time so many in the Church in Wales had appeared to be travelling along a single issue track, albeit for entirely laudable reasons.
“Following on from that several of us therefore have come together and organised the current series of presentations, as much to assure the Church in Wales that we remain passionate in our concern for the Historic Faith which has been handed down to us, and that we believe that we still have a radical part to play in the life of the dioceses and parishes. To that end we have prepared some study material which we are making freely available for everyone.”
Free copies of the study guides are available for individual or group use—please contact priory.church@virgin.net or telephone Fr Jeremy Winston on 01873 853168