on Friday, 19 May 2023 at 10.37 am by Peter Owen
categorised as Church in Wales, News
The Bishop of St Davids in the Church in Wales, the Rt Revd Joanna Penberthy, will retire on 31 July 2023.
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James
11 months ago
Best known for tweeting ‘Never, never trust a Tory’, this former Labour candidate (polled 5% of the vote in 2015) went on ‘sick leave’ in July 2021 and basically never returned to work. Good to know the Welsh church has loadsamoney. Perhaps she, Tim Dakin and Anne Dyer can become Bishops in Retirement advising Anglicans on Public Relations. Maybe Steven Croft and John Sentamu can join as well.
Although I regard the Tory party with all the affection a mongoose reserves for a snake, it was a rather tricky stance for her to have taken, given that 50% of voters in Pembrokeshire voted Tory in 2019, 32% in Carmarthenshire (the largest block for any party), and 22% in Ceredigion (where they were a distant second to PC); also, that CiW adherents are more likely to be Tory than to belong to other denominations. As Gerald Ratner discovered in 1991 it is best not to gratuitously insult your own customer base: doing so does not usually end well.
Well said Froghole, Bishop Penberthy fell into an oubliette when she made the rookie mistake (for a priest, and certainly for a bishop) of failing to see that individuals are complex and unique. Many people voted Conservative last time around not least because they couldn’t stomach the thought of Jeremy Corbyn as PM. Some of those will have been upset by the antisemitism he fostered, others his economic views for example. My parishioners were mainly true blue but they were also lovely people who worried about the future for their children and grandchildren and the environment they would live in.… Read more »
Presumably being respectful of hopes and aspirations doesn’t extend to not repeating lies about the politicians whose party they support, otherwise you might have chosen not to further propagate the lie about Corbyn fostering anti-semitism.
I voted labour as an 18 year old in 1970, and consistently until 2019, where I could not bring myself to vote labour under Corbyn. There is no doubt in my mind that he allowed anti semitism to fester in the party, and did nothing to stop it. Fester,foster. I’m not sure there is much difference.
I too voted as an eighteen year old in the 1970 election. That was in Rossendale, and Conservative Ronald Bray was the successful candidate. Interestingly, the Labour candidate was Betty Boothroyd.
“Bishop Penberthy fell into an oubliette when she made the rookie mistake (for a priest, and certainly for a bishop) of failing to see that individuals are complex and unique.” Your comment is the clearest short assessment of the situation I’ve read. There are good people in politics (in every party) who understand the job as service to the community, and there are some (in every party) who are in it only for themselves. There are good people in the clergy, and some who shouldn’t be there.
An ideal opportunity maybe to reduce from six bishops to five and to cut costs considering there are less than thirty thousand members of the C in W. That is approx 5,000 members per bishop. In the C of E there are 42 bishops serving approx 880,000 members, a rounded average of 20,000 per bishop. I’m not sure what that says but it seems to me a very inefficient way of using the gifts of the people given that our new incumbent has seven churches to serve. What a difference one more affordable priest would make!
Yes of course, that makes about another 72 or so, and in a way enforces my point that there are too many clerics at high level and insufficient numbers working in the parishes where their mission is most needed.
Sue Thomas
6 months ago
Sad to hear that Jo Pemberthy retired on ill health grounds. I hope that it wasn’t a forced retirement. She married my husband and I in Caio church in 2005,and officiated at the funerals of my in-laws. Excellent, warm,and perceptive lady.
Best known for tweeting ‘Never, never trust a Tory’, this former Labour candidate (polled 5% of the vote in 2015) went on ‘sick leave’ in July 2021 and basically never returned to work. Good to know the Welsh church has loadsamoney. Perhaps she, Tim Dakin and Anne Dyer can become Bishops in Retirement advising Anglicans on Public Relations. Maybe Steven Croft and John Sentamu can join as well.
Although I regard the Tory party with all the affection a mongoose reserves for a snake, it was a rather tricky stance for her to have taken, given that 50% of voters in Pembrokeshire voted Tory in 2019, 32% in Carmarthenshire (the largest block for any party), and 22% in Ceredigion (where they were a distant second to PC); also, that CiW adherents are more likely to be Tory than to belong to other denominations. As Gerald Ratner discovered in 1991 it is best not to gratuitously insult your own customer base: doing so does not usually end well.
Well said Froghole, Bishop Penberthy fell into an oubliette when she made the rookie mistake (for a priest, and certainly for a bishop) of failing to see that individuals are complex and unique. Many people voted Conservative last time around not least because they couldn’t stomach the thought of Jeremy Corbyn as PM. Some of those will have been upset by the antisemitism he fostered, others his economic views for example. My parishioners were mainly true blue but they were also lovely people who worried about the future for their children and grandchildren and the environment they would live in.… Read more »
Presumably being respectful of hopes and aspirations doesn’t extend to not repeating lies about the politicians whose party they support, otherwise you might have chosen not to further propagate the lie about Corbyn fostering anti-semitism.
I voted labour as an 18 year old in 1970, and consistently until 2019, where I could not bring myself to vote labour under Corbyn. There is no doubt in my mind that he allowed anti semitism to fester in the party, and did nothing to stop it. Fester,foster. I’m not sure there is much difference.
I too voted as an eighteen year old in the 1970 election. That was in Rossendale, and Conservative Ronald Bray was the successful candidate. Interestingly, the Labour candidate was Betty Boothroyd.
“Bishop Penberthy fell into an oubliette when she made the rookie mistake (for a priest, and certainly for a bishop) of failing to see that individuals are complex and unique.” Your comment is the clearest short assessment of the situation I’ve read. There are good people in politics (in every party) who understand the job as service to the community, and there are some (in every party) who are in it only for themselves. There are good people in the clergy, and some who shouldn’t be there.
An ideal opportunity maybe to reduce from six bishops to five and to cut costs considering there are less than thirty thousand members of the C in W. That is approx 5,000 members per bishop. In the C of E there are 42 bishops serving approx 880,000 members, a rounded average of 20,000 per bishop. I’m not sure what that says but it seems to me a very inefficient way of using the gifts of the people given that our new incumbent has seven churches to serve. What a difference one more affordable priest would make!
But the CofE has many suffragan bishops in addition to the diocesans.
Yes of course, that makes about another 72 or so, and in a way enforces my point that there are too many clerics at high level and insufficient numbers working in the parishes where their mission is most needed.
Sad to hear that Jo Pemberthy retired on ill health grounds. I hope that it wasn’t a forced retirement. She married my husband and I in Caio church in 2005,and officiated at the funerals of my in-laws. Excellent, warm,and perceptive lady.