Tag: Church of England

Respect for God!

North Devon: St Peter’s Church – Bratton Fleming! (26.8.2025)

This must be the most spectacular integration of religion and secularism. I never thought I would live to see the Church of England finally give-up their last line of sanctity and allow all and sundry to stay as many nights as they can afford – and do whatever they like during their stay – providing the interior of the Church is not damaged. As an academic who uses the average Church as an early form of a search-engine – I find this a fascinating opportunity – albeit slightly disturbing and a little bizarre. Theravada Buddhist Temples, of course, allow practitioners to stay within their interiors – being fed and cared for free – providing there is space. Absolutely NO money is asked for or required (a Buddhist monastic must not touch money of any type). Not all Buddhist Temples follow this idea outside of Thailand, Sri Lanka, or Laos, etc, but they should do.

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Priest House - Easton-on-the-Hill - Family

Easton-on-the-Hill: Priest House [Chantry] 15th Century! (28.7.2025)

Although we have visited the general area a number of time – we had never seen this exhibit or been told about it. As we are currently staying in the locale – this place came-up in an internet search about something else. Like many such attractions, even at the height of Summer, there is only ever a trickle of visitors – which is a good thing for all concerned. We were handed the key, instructed to be careful on the old spiralling stone staircase, and turn-off all the lights when we are finished. There is even a toilet on site that is accessed with a key. Everything was perfectly clean, tidy, and in good order. Our two-daughters watched a short video film about the area, its history and industry! The photographs will tell the story of what we saw. A truly magnificent historical site that emerged out of the single most important and Revolutionary event (the “Dissolution of the Monasteries”) that forged modern Britain and the world!

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The now-retired Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, is among those facing action

UK: Ongoing Church of England Child Sexual Abuse Scandel – Seven Clergy to Face Disciplinary Action! (9.6.2025)

Retired former Bishop of Durham the Right Reverend Paul Butler is among those who could be banned from ministry following a review of evidence in the report into the prolific abuser John Smyth QC.

Smyth, a barrister who died in South Africa in 2018 at the age of 77, attacked more than 100 boys and young men at his Winchester home in the 1970s and 1980s, the Makin Review found.

That report, published last year, concluded the abuse was covered up within the Church for decades.

While the review led to the eventual resignation of Mr Welby, the Church’s national safeguarding team (NST) undertook to look at all clergy criticised within the report.

In an update on Thursday, the Church said Bishop Butler and six others would face disciplinary proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM).

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Reaction & Religion Go Hand in Hand!

UK: The Kind Idiocy of Mary Augusta Ward [1851-1920]! (24.3.2025)

It is incredible that someone such as Bishop Smith thinks that Mary Ward – the co-founder of the “National Women’s Anti-Suffrage League” – is a person worthy of remembering when she dedicated her life to preventing society from developing – a process which required the lifting of the religious ignorance that had dominated the West for over a thousand years. Furthermore, the White, middle-class and thoroughly “male” interpretation of Christianity Bishop Smith and Ward seem to be peddling has virtually nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ – and has more in common with the ramblings of St Paul – a fantasist who never met Jesus. The situation is probably more confusing than even this – as many of the letters ascribed to Paul – particularly the misogynistic editions – are thought to be forgeries.

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Heretics & Believers!

The Other “Richard Hunne” [d. 1514]! (14.4.2024)

The Secular Court case against the murderers of Hunne was continuously adjourned so that NO decision was ever reached (with the accused being quietly pardoned and released) – whilst Parliament’s order for the Church to return the Hunne land and property was never obeyed by the Church. Such a situation represented a totalitarian Canon’s Law controlled by a foreign power (which exempted all clerics from Secular Law) – locked in a deadly competition with the local power of an absolute monarchy – which would eventually end with the destruction of the Catholic Church in England just twenty-years later (through the Dissolution of the Monasteries) and the abolition of the resultant Church of England around one-hundred years after that (During the English Civil Wars)! Such was the dialectic times that Richard Hunne existed!

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Buckfast Abbey - Rule of St Benedict!

Buckfast Abbey: The Magnificent Waterwheel! (4.4.2024)

The time of the day and season of the year was defined by the cycles associated with monastic life – with monastic life guided by the various Rules which guided the daily activities of the monks and nuns. Lay-people – or “Oblates” – also followed these rules – which permitted Roman Catholic spirituality to permeate English society. After its abolition – the Church of England was formed – which would eventually represent the capitalistic ideas of the new post-Catholic elites. As a consequence, it was only during the early 20th century that Buckfast Abbey was permitted to be re-built and for a population of monks to once again inhabit its interior.

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