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The Archbishop of Wales has denounced the pace of the devolution of law-making authority from Westminster to the Welsh Assembly as “tortuous and convoluted,” telling the BBC it would be “immoral” for the Assembly not to be granted further legal powers soon.

Archbishop Barry Morgan’s comments to the Good Evening Wales programme followed a ceremony at Windsor Castle where the Queen approved the transfer of new powers to the Welsh Assembly. The authority to enact laws assisting those with special learning needs was approved on April 9 and is the first of 10 orders ranging from mental health services to fire safety slated for devolution under the 2006 Government of Wales Act.

Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan said the ceremony marked “a little bit of Welsh history” as for “the first time in 500 years the people of Wales are now able to create laws to help improve their day-to-day lives.”

However, Dr. Morgan-who is chairman of the Tomorrow’s Wales task force examining devolution—chided the government for the slow pace of devolution. The “present settlement is demeaning to Wales,” he argued, adding that as Archbishop he had a duty to respond as “people like myself can’t divorce themselves from the life of politics”.

“Because politics is about the way we organise ourselves in society and, therefore every single aspect of life ought to have relevance to the Gospel, and that’s why I’m speaking out.”

“More and more people were on board with devolution,” he argued, saying it would likely pass by a strong margin if placed before the public for a referendum in 2011—a referendum on devolution was one of the agreements made by Labour and Plaid Cymru when it formed the coalition government last May that controls the Assembly.

However, David Davies, a Conservative MP for Monmouth and member of the Welsh Assembly criticized Dr. Morgan, saying it was unseemly for the Archbishop to use his office to advance Labour’s political agenda.

“He’s doing so wearing his crown and mitre, as it were, and frankly I think that’s very disappointing, especially when there are so many issues that you would expect the Anglican church to be speaking out at the moment about,” he told BBC Radio Wales.

The Most Rev Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Llandaff

The Governing Body of the Church in Wales has declined to authorize women bishops.

Support for the women bishops fell short of the constitutionally required two thirds majority at the meeting of the Church’s synod in Lampeter on April 2. Although all six bishops voted in favour of the bill and the measure passed in the lay order 52-19, it fell short of the two thirds margin in the clergy order, 27-18.

A bill providing for “pastoral care and support” for opponents of women bishops through the “ministry of an assistant bishop” or flying bishop was also defeated, 48-71.

The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said he was “deeply disappointed” by the rejection of the women bishops bill, but noted he had the consolation of seeing the flying bishops bill go down to defeat. Had the flying bishops’ amendment passed, it was likely the women bishops bill would have “sailed through.”

However, that “would have meant us, as supporters, compromising our principles, which we were not prepared to do,” he said.

The Bishop of Monmouth, the Rt. Rev. Dominic Walker said that enshrining flying bishops in the church’s canons would undermine the ministry of any future woman bishop. An assistant bishop for recusants who did not recognize the episcopal orders of a woman bishop was an ecclesiological impossibility as it fractured the collegiality of the house of bishops.

The Provincial Assistant Bishop of Wales, the Rt. Rev. David Thomas questioned the House of Bishops inaction in appointing his successor. While he was scheduled to retire in July, the House of Bishops had so far been silent on providing a new flying bishop for traditionalists.

The chairman of Credo Cymru/Forward in Faith Wales, the Rev. Alan Rabjohns said the Governing Body’s failure to pass the bill lay in “trying prematurely to foreclose the period of reception and refusing to clarify the nature of the provision for opponents contained in the original bill, when the constitutional provision contained in the amended bill had been ruled out.”

“This led to some of those who would not have voted against the Bill in the ordinary way of things to say that without even a modicum of fairness and justice they could not support it,” he said.

“Like this Bill, the Bill to ordain women to the priesthood was initially defeated, but it came back to the Governing Body and was passed 11 years ago,” Dr. Morgan said. But this was not “the end”. “It will not go away and it will not be ignored, it is something the Church in Wales will have to grapple with,” he said.

Fr. Rabjohn said opponents of women bishops were under no “illusion that the issue has gone away; it will inevitably return.”

However he hoped that when it does so wiser counsels will prevail and the ‘experiment in internal ecumenism’ which began with the appointment of the first Provincial Assistant Bishop in 1996, and which has helped many of us to continue to play as full a part as possible in the Church of our land, will continue.”

The Welsh experience would “no doubt inform the minds” of the Church of England’s General Synod as “they gather in July to consider the recommendations” of the Legislative Drafting Group, Forward in Faith secretary the Rev. Geoffrey Kirk said.

“Many enthusiasts of the innovation in England had looked to Wales to give a lead - and many in Wales had hoped to pre-empt the English. Both parties need now to take stock. It is clear that the price of women bishops is clear and adequate provision for those whose obedience to scripture and to the Church’s two thousand year tradition prevents them from accepting the orders of ordained and consecrated women,” he said.

The Bishop of St David’s, the Rt. Rev. Carl Cooper will take a leave of absence pending an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his separation from his wife of 25 years.

Writing to the clergy of his diocese on March 11, Bishop Cooper said that with the permission of the Archbishop of Wales, Dr. Morgan, “I have decided to take some leave of absence. I shall use Holy Week and Easter as a personal opportunity to draw closer to our crucified and risen saviour.”

Bishop Cooper noted the “recent hurtful, scurrilous and unwarranted intrusions into our family life have taken their toll. Joy, the children and I feel emotionally and spiritually battered and drained.”

Speculation about the cause of the separation, and the simultaneous decision of Bishop Cooper’s chaplain, the Rev. Mandy Williams-Potter to separate from her husband, led to 23 clergy of the diocese petitioning Dr. Morgan to review the situation to see if the bishop’s actions violated the church’s disciplinary canons.

A spokesman for Dr. Morgan told The Church of England Newspaper, the Archbishop’s office was in the process of contacting all those concerned, and would not comment on the specific findings of the investigation at this time.

Last week a letter of support for Bishop Cooper was circulated among the St. Davids clergy by Canon Michael Butler and clergy of the Narberth Deanery. Canon Butler wrote that he believed “the wider view of the diocese has not yet been expressed” and asked his fellow clergy to join “in redressing the balance, by expressing what we know to be the view of the vast majority of both clergy and laity in our diocese” and offer an “overt” statement of support and compassion for Bishop Cooper.

The Bishop of Monmouth has criticized the Welsh Assembly for placing politics above good medicine. Bishop Dominic Walker told the Welsh Affairs committee in Parliament last week that the Assembly’s policy of providing all services to Welsh patients in Wales ran “counter to its policy of putting patients first”.

The problems arise with border issues when the ideologies seem to get in the way of the practicalities,” he said.

Joined by the Bishop of Hereford, the Rt. Rev. Anthony Priddis, on March 4 Bishop Walker urged the government to rethink the planned rationalization of health services.

In a statement to the committee Bishop Priddis said, “While reconfiguration of hospital services has been mooted in North Wales, it is hard to see how that could ever be achieved given the rural geography and population distribution served by Wrexham District General Hospital along with the other hospitals along the border.”

Under plans currently under review by the NHS neurosurgery patients in Liverpool would now have to travel to Swansea for care, while Welsh patients in England would find problems with their prescriptions.

“There is currently no prescription charge in Wales,” Bishop Priddis said, “but if someone living in Wales receives a prescription written by a doctor or dentist working in England, then they do have to pay at a Welsh or English pharmacy.

“The situation can result in Welsh patients who are seen in the emergency department of an English hospital decline a prescription that is then written for them because they want it written by their own Welsh GP, so as to avoid a prescription charge. This adds to everyone’s time and other costs,” he noted.

Both bishops urged the government to review the disparities in health care coverage on either side of the border, arguing it was unnecessary and ill-advised to foster incompatible health care systems between the regions.

The Bishop of Hereford, the Rt. Rev. Anthony Priddis

The Church in Wales has initiated an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the breakdown of the marriage of the Bishop of St. Davids following the call for a formal inquiry endorsed by 23 of his clergy.

A spokesman for the Church in Wales told The Church of England Newspaper “any allegations” of clergy misconduct are “investigated as a matter of course.” In the case of Bishop Carl Cooper, “discussions are being taken with those concerned,” the Archbishop of Wales, Dr. Barry Morgan’s press officer said.

On March 7 a petition prepared by Dr. William Strange, vicar of St Peter’s Carmarthen and Mr. Peter Jones, vicar of Llangennech Llanelli was delivered to Dr. Morgan asking for an investigation of Bishop Cooper.

“The aim of this process would be to establish the facts surrounding the Bishop’s current situation and to take whatever action, if any, proves necessary. This is not a welcome responsibility for any of us but we are convinced that if the Church has established a procedure for such situations it should apply equally to all clergy of whatever rank,” the letter seeking the endorsement of other members of the diocese said.

“Signing this letter is not in any sense to prejudge what the process may determine and decide,” the letter said. “But it is an opportunity to say that where there is a perception of ‘conduct giving just cause for scandal and offence’ the circumstances should be subject to the Church’s investigative and disciplinary procedure.”

Last month the bishop announced that he and his wife of 25 years were separating. The bishop and his wife stated “there is no one else involved on either side.”

However, rumours linking the bishop and his chaplain, the Rev. Mandy Williams-Potter, have circulated in the diocese and were fueled by Mrs. Williams-Potter’s announcement that she was also leaving her husband.

The bishop’s wife told the Daily Telegraph last week the simultaneous separations were a “coincidence. People jump to the wrong conclusions, they always do,” Mrs. Cooper said.

The clergy petition does not assert any wrong doing on the bishop’s part, however, Dr. Strange noted “It is a very difficult situation and we are trying to find the right way to deal with it.”

Under Chapter 11 article 43 of the Church in Wales’ constitution, a charge of misconduct made against a bishop “shall be referred to the Special Provincial Court, consisting of the Archbishop, the remaining Diocesan Bishops and the Judges of the Provincial Court.”

The Special Provincial Court has the power to remove a bishop, but “a bishop shall not be found guilty of any offence unless the Archbishop and the majority of the Diocesan Bishops of the Church in Wales, assembled in Synod, shall be of opinion that the bishop is guilty of such offence, in which event the Archbishop shall pronounce sentence.”

The Bishop of St. Davids has written to the clergy of his diocese, informing them that he and his wife will separate after 25 years of marriage.

The Rt. Rev. Carl Cooper stated that he and his wife Joy had been experiencing “difficulties in our relationship with each other.  Sadly and tragically we have decided to separate. There is no-one else involved on either side,” he wrote on Feb 21.

“We are committed to an ongoing, amicable relationship of mutual care and support,” he said.  The Bishop and his wife have three children, aged 22, 20 and 17-years of age.

The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan said he was “enormously sad” to hear the news, adding that his “thoughts and prayers are with Bishop Carl and Joy as they go through this difficult time.”

The Bishops of the Church in Wales have asked the Border and Immigration Agency to reconsider its deportation of a Ghanaian woman being treated for cancer in Cardiff.

Last week the government put Ama Sumani, a 39 year old women being treated for malignant myeloma at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, on a plane for Accra after she overstayed her visa.

Dr Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales, said: “You cannot follow the letter of the law when it comes to immigration because we are dealing with individual human beings, not commodities.

“There has to be room for flexibility of rules, a consideration of a person’s dignity, self-respect and basic human rights. We need to exercise compassion and understanding and act appropriately for each case,” he said on Jan 17.

Ms Sumani entered the UK on a student visa in 2004. However upon arrival in Britain she took up employment and neglected to inform the authorities of her changed status, breaking the terms of her visa.

Immigration chief Lin Homer (pictured) told the all-party Home Affairs Select Committee on Jan 15 that hundreds of cases like Ms Sumani’s were dealt with each year. “I think it is very difficult to see the circumstances in which this case stands out from the very many difficult cases we consider,” Ms Homer said. “These are incredibly difficult cases. There are many hundreds each year.”

However the medical journal The Lancet denounced the government decision, saying the forceable return to Ghana of the cancer patient, who could not receive the same degree of care in her home country, was an “”atrocious barbarism”.

Dr. Morgan argued that it is “never appropriate for a civilised, wealthy society to turn, literally, a sick woman out of her bed and put her on a plane to a very worrying future. What sort of moral example does that send to the rest of the world?”

However British and EU courts have held that deportation can only be stopped in “very rare and extreme cases” under the article of the human rights convention which bars inhuman or degrading treatment, Ms. Homer said.

“The standard of medical care in this country and the access to it is sufficiently higher than in so many countries, not just Third World or developing countries,” she told Parliament. “If we vary from that point there are many, many tens of thousands who would” seek to come to Britain.

The Church in Wales has provisionally backed the “One Wales” manifesto drawn up by the Labour/Plaid Cymru coalition government, but has pressed for a greater voice for the Church in Wales’ future.

The devolution of power from Westminster to the Welsh Assembly has upset the region’s traditional political order, with the Church in Wales anxious not to be left out in the creation of new structures and policies.

One Wales calls for a referendum before 2011 on devolving authority over health, education and transport to the Welsh Assembly from Westminster, giving it powers akin to the Scottish Parliament.

On Dec 14 the bishops applauded the government’s hopes of transforming Wales into a “self-confident, prosperous, healthy nation and society which is fair to all.” They also expressed their “willingness to engage with the Assembly Government’s plans,” and to offer its support “for that challenging but vitally important task.”

However, the bishops pointed out the Assembly’s plan for revitalizing Welsh society paid scant attention to religion. “We note that the contribution of faith communities is only referred to once” in the Assembly’s plans. “We feel this takes insufficient account of the contribution of different faith communities and particularly the Church in Wales.”

The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, stated “As a Wales wide organisation embedded in local communities across Wales we share the strategic commitment of One Wales and the desire to engage with local communities in ways that bring greater health, wellbeing, prosperity and social cohesion.”

“We have a parish in every community in Wales with literally thousands of people of all ages involved in different kinds of community activity,” he said, adding that the Church in Wales was involved in almost all aspects of community life.

It was important that the church’s voice be heard, and he looked forward to its “developing common ideas and joint initiatives in the course of this new government’s term of office and to contributing to the debates on legislation and policy in the Assembly.”

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Bishop of St. David’s has attacked the government’s plans to extend beyond 28 days the time that terror suspects can be held without charge.

Bishop Carl Cooper argued the government was manipulating public fears about terrorism to restrict civil liberties.He told Radio Cymru on Nov 21 that “it is easy to use the politics of fear to justify repressive and regressive policies that, under different circumstances, would not be acceptable. Fear makes populations tolerant of extreme remedies, providing opportunities for the unscrupulous to create ‘emergencies’ and, consequently, put in place ‘emergency powers’.”

Last week the former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf, the former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith and the Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald announced their opposition to the planned extension of government powers.

Lord Goldsmith told the parliamentary Home Affairs Committee on Nov 21 that although “the reasons for making the proposals are based on a genuine belief that it is the right thing to do in protecting the country,” extending the limit to 56 days was not warranted.

Suspected terrorists risked being browbeaten, he said, and there arose the possibility of “continually questioning them when there isn’t any new material at all.”

Bishop Cooper told Radio Cymru the “21st Century is already producing, under the guise of war on terror, a series of reductions in civil liberties. The language of ‘protecting rights of law-abiding citizens’ and ‘rebalancing criminal justice system in favour of victim’ has wide appeal.”

“However, as we consider the ousting of courts from reviewing asylum appeals, the imprisoning without trial of foreign citizens suspected of terrorist connections and the extension of detention without charge to more than the existing 28 days, we must be vigilant in protecting the civil liberty of every citizen,” Bishop Cooper said.

Fear, he said, “can lead to all kinds of inappropriate and dangerous measures and policies.”

Front row … left to right.

The Most Rev Idris Jones, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church
The Most Rev Alan Harper, Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh
The Rt Rev Ragnar Persenius, Bishop of Uppsala
The Most Rev John Neill, Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin
The Rt Rev Martin Wharton, Bishop of Newcastle
The Most Rev Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales
The Most Rev Jukka Paarma, Archbishop of Turku (Finland)

Second row:

The Most Rev Anders Wejryd, Archbishop of Uppsala
The Most Rev Janis Vanags, Archbishop of Riga
The Most Rev Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
The Rt Rev Mindaugas Sabutis, Bishop of Lithuania
The Most Rev Olav Skjevesland, Bishop of Agder and Telemark, (Norway)
The Most Rev Karl Sigurbjornsson, Bishop of Iceland
The Rt Rev Erik Norman Svendsen, Bishop of Copenhagen
The Most Revd Andres Poder, Archbishop of Estonia
The Rt Revd Carlos Lopez Lozano, Bishop of Spain

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams met in Dublin last week with the leaders of the Porvoo Communion of Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches for private talks.  However Dr. Williams’ Irish excursion did not bring him a change of scene as the vexing issue of gay clergy followed him to Dublin.

While a spokesman for the Church of Ireland told The Church of England Newspaper there would be no formal statement of the gathering of Anglican and Lutheran bishops, sources familiar with the deliberations, held every two years, tell CEN that issues of common national and ecclesial concern were raised at the gathering.

The Lutheran Churches of the Porvoo Group: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are sharply divided over the Swedish church’s decision to authorize rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.  The Swedish move has opened a split within the Lutheran World Federation akin the divide in Anglicanism, with the Lutheran Churches of the Global South threatening to break with their Northern counterparts over the issue of gay blessings and clergy.

The controversy intensified last week when on Oct 2 by a vote of six to five, the Church of Norway’s Bishops’ Conference voted to recommend to the church’s general synod that non-celibate homosexuals be permitted to serve as bishops, priests and deacons.

The moderator of the Norwegian Bishop’s Conference, Bishop Olav Skjevesland of Agder and Telemark, who attended the Dublin meeting, voted to reject the licensing of gay clergy. 

The Church of Norway has three openly gay ministers serving in parochial ministry under the license of their bishops.  The issue will now go before the Church’s Nov 12-17 meeting of General Synod for resolution.

In 1995 and 1997 the Norwegian Synod stated that people in registered same-sex partnerships could hold lay positions in the Church, but could not be ordained as clergy.

On Sept 13 the Church’s National Council stated that it believed the consensus within the church over gay clergy had shifted in the past ten years.  It recommended that Synod revise the church’s canons, allowing bishops the local option of whether or not to ordain and license gay clergy.

The National Council encouraged dialogue saying that “many members of the church are touched directly by this issue and that there are many who feel that their place in the church is at stake.”

“Church leaders should work continuously on attitudes and forms of communication, so that fellowship in the church is felt to be open, clear and inclusive,” it said

The Church in Wales Governing Body has shelved plans to shutter St. Michael’s College, Llandaff, voting instead on Sept 19 to invest £650,000 over the next five years to upgrade the clergy training college’s student accommodations, dining hall and meeting rooms.

In 2004, the Church in Wales put the 2.8 acre site located in a Cardiff suburb up for sale, due to rising maintenance costs of the college building, constructed in the 1880’s. However, the school’s trustees soon took the buildings off the market and last month the Governing Body voted to expend the funds to maintain the property as well as build a business conference center on site.

The college Principal, Canon Peter Sedgwick thanked the Governing Body for its decision telling the church’s synod the school had an “excellent staff team that will in a few years make this place both a national leader in chaplaincy studies and create a first class conference centre. We already train clergy and readers to a very high standard for the Methodist Church and the Church in Wales. Now we can build on our success and make St Michael’s College a place that Wales can be really proud of. The future is very bright, and I am full of confidence.”

Founded in 1892, St. Michael’s is the Church in Wales sole residential clergy training college. The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said the college faces “a challenging but an exciting future.”

“As a college it has achieved consistently high standards in terms of academic provision and ministry formation. It is vital to the Church’s future mission in Wales, and indeed to the future of the Church itself, that additional investment is made in providing training for ministry in its widest sense,” Dr. Morgan said.

The Governing Body of the Church in Wales has voted to reject the draft version of the Anglican Covenant following a speech denouncing the document by Archbishop Barry Morgan.

Addressing the General Assembly on Sept 18, Dr. Morgan said that while he endorsed in principle the concept of a unifying document for the Anglican Communion, he could not accept the one on offer from the committee chaired by the Primate of the West Indies, Archbishop Drexel Gomez due to its traditional stance on homosexuality.

“The original intention of a Covenant to affirm the bonds of affection was good,” he argued.  “The indications now are that many see it as a contract, a means of ensuring a uniform view on human sexuality enforceable by the threat of exclusion from the Communion if one does not conform. I certainly do not want to sign up to that kind of Covenant,” he said.

Dr. Morgan argued that the Lambeth Quadralateral, a Nineteenth century document designed to foster the reunion of Anglican and non-Anglican Churches, was a better vehicle for uniting Anglican churches.

“The Lambeth Quadrilateral of scripture, creeds, sacraments and historic episcopate are no longer sufficient credentials for being an Anglican,” he said.  “A particular view of human sexuality is also required. That devalues scripture by restricting its moral values simply to what it might be saying about sexual relationships and turns the Bible into a kind of rule book where texts can be wrestled out of context.”

He also warned that the draft Covenant might interfere with the polity of the Church in Wales and restrict its autonomy.  “There will be obvious constitutional implications for us as a Church because we may be asked to subject decisions to primates and this will alter the nature of the Church in Wales and its provincial autonomy,” he said.

“Our Constitution allows the Governing Body the authority to change our doctrine. If we pass a doctrine, which the primates think breaches the Covenant, we may face censure.”

Dr Morgan also criticised Anglican primates threatening to boycott the Lambeth Conference next year saying “They are not willing to come to talk and deliberate with those who differ from them. That seems to me to deny the very nature of Anglicanism. The way some of the primates have behaved does not give me great hope of entrusting the interpretation and the implementation of the terms of the Covenant to them.”

However, Global South leaders told The Church of England Newspaper Dr. Morgan’s critique of absent bishops would have more bite if he had not absented himself from the Tanzania primates meeting and had not threatened to boycott the emergency meeting of Primates proposed by the Nigerian bishops.

Dr. Morgan asked the Governing Body to note the existence of the Covenant process and to invite the Welsh bishops to finalise a response for the Covenant Design Group by the end of the year.  The Governing Body did as it was asked and adopted Dr. Morgan’s recommendations.

Wales’ “flying bishop” has criticized that Church’s Bill to Enable Women to Be Ordained as Bishops, saying the proposed legislation is driven by a “post-1960s feminism” rather than sound doctrine.

The Provincial Assistant Bishop of Wales, the Rt. Rev. David Thomas said the legislation “rules out any possibility of a special episcopal jurisdiction being created for the sake of those who in conscience cannot agree to the ordination of women as bishops,” and was “completely unsatisfactory.”

The proposed bill, which will be open to amendment until Oct 27, when a Select Committee will then consider any changes put forward by Governing Body members. The Select Committee will give its recommendations to the Standing Committee of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales in February and the final bill will come up for vote at the April 2-3, 2008 meeting of the Church’s Governing Body at Lampeter.

The legislation states that “men and women may be ordained as Bishops,” and that the “Bench of Bishops will provide pastoral care and support for those who in conscience object to the ordination of women as Bishops.”

Those who refuse the ministrations of women bishops are offered the protection of the third clause which states, “No Bishop shall be obliged to bring proceedings before the Disciplinary Tribunal in respect of a cleric or other member of the Church in Wales who dissents in conscience” to women bishops.

If passed by the Governing Body, the legislation would come into force “on such day as the Bench of Bishops shall appoint.” The Church in Wales’ six diocesan bishops have already expressed their support for the measure.

“Those who framed the Bill do not really understand the position of those who dissent from the proposed change to the ordained ministry,” Bishop Thomas said, as “there would be huge difficulties associated with these distinctive aspects of a bishop’s ministry if women were to be ordained to the episcopate.”

There was a difference between the ministry of a priest and the ministry of a bishop, he noted. “Bishops ordain others and receive declarations of canonical obedience from clergy and other office holders,” he noted.

The safeguards for those opposed to women priests were unclear. “While we could no doubt expect sincere expressions of goodwill, sympathy, etc. at the time of the Bill being passed, nothing would be spelt out about provision for us until a woman was actually on the point of being consecrated,” he said.

Supporters of the consecration of women priests had been led astray by the “Christian feminist slogan, ‘If you won’t ordain us, don’t baptize us’.”

“There is no necessary progression from baptism to priestly/episcopal ordination,” Bishop Thomas said. “If such a progression did of necessity exist, the Christian life would presumably be a sort of religious ‘career path’. Such a concept can hardly be said to sit comfortably besides the Lord’s warning that those who follow him must deny themselves and take up their cross daily,” he argued.

The Church in Wales has announced that the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon will retire with effect on Jan 16, 2008.

The Rt. Rev. Anthony Pierce has served his entire 42 years of ordained ministry in the diocese first as curate at St Peter’s, Cockett, and St Mary’s, Swansea then as vicar at Llwynderw, St Barnabas Uplands and St Mary’s, Swansea. Appointed archdeacon of Gower in 1995, he was elected bishop in 1999.

Born in 1941, Bishop Pierce was educated at Dynevor County Secondary School, Swansea and read history at the University of Wales, Swansea, and theology at Linacre College, Oxford.

A successor will be elected by the diocesan synod following his retirement.

THE ARCHBISHOP of Wales has criticised the Government of Wales Act 2006 saying it was a “tortuous and convoluted” legislative system that had left the Assembly at the mercy of Westminster. Dr Barry Morgan (pictured) called for the Assembly to have primary legislative powers in all its devolved fields. In a statement issued the day before the opening of the third Welsh Assembly government on June 5, Dr Morgan welcomed the devolution of authority to the Assembly, but argued the Act did not go far enough nor had the government adequately explained its provisions.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper