February 10, 2009

Clergy banned from BNP membership

"Dammit, now I'll never be the Bishop of Welshpool..."
The Church of England voted today in favour of banning clergy and some lay staff from joining the far-right British National Party

Members of the General Synod voted to back a motion brought by Metropolitan Police civilian worker Vasantha Gnanadoss calling on bishops to formulate a comparable policy to the Association of Chief Police Officers' ban on police membership of the BNP.

Miss Gnanadoss, who received support at the General Synod from former Met Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair, said passing the motion would make it "much more difficult" for the BNP or other similar organisations to exploit the claim that they had support within the Church of England.

She said: "If supporting organisations like the BNP is inconsistent with Christian discipleship, it seems obvious that clergy and others who speak for the Church should not be members."

Acpo policy states that that no member of the police service may be a member of an organisation whose constitution, aims, objectives or pronouncements contradict the "general duty" to promote race equality. This specifically includes the BNP, the policy states.

The motion backed today by the General Synod called for the Church of England bishops to draw up a similar policy to apply to all clergy, ordinands and employed lay persons who speak on behalf of the Church of England. The motion received support from the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu and the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.

Dr Sentamu told the Synod he was a member of the Baganda tribe. But he said: "As a Christian, I joined another tribe, it is the tribe of Jesus Christ, and in that tribe all are welcome."

The vote from the General Synod comes in spite of a warning in a background paper prepared by William Fittall, secretary general of the General Synod, warning of possible legal difficulties. He said clergy could not currently be disciplined for lawful political activity and the BNP was not a proscribed political party. He also warned that the Church could be open to discrimination claims under such a policy.

Those backing the motion included the Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, Bishop of Blackburn. He said it was "timely" in view of the recession.

He said: "In these difficult economic times there are those who could be tempted to look for solutions among extreme political parties and we need to underline that the politics of hatred can never come up with a solution to our problems."

He added: "The religion of the incarnation cannot support in any shape or form racist policies and those who exercise the representative ministry cannot be members of racist parties or organisations for it is just not possible to be racist and speak in the name of Jesus Christ."

Independent

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. I never thought they'd do it. Good for them.

Anonymous said...

I bet Nick Griffins spitting feathers watching the news tonight. LOL

Anonymous said...

Bravo to the C of E

Anonymous said...

LOL Love the caption on the picture.

Anonymous said...

"I bet Nick Griffins spitting feathers watching the news tonight."

Shouldn't muff chickens while watching TV then, should he, the pervert.

Anonymous said...

The vote was decisive. It was carried by 322 votes to 13, with 20 abstentions. Astounding.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant, Bell, book and candle next.

tulip

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the BNP will close down its completely pointless and meaningless Christian Council of Britain website now. After all, we all know the so-called Reverend West is a fraud.

Anonymous said...

"It was carried by 322 votes to 13, with 20 abstentions."

That is stunning. It couldn't be a more resounding vote against the BNP if it tried.

Anonymous said...

Applause for the church. Great news!

Anonymous said...

This is fantastic news indeed!!!

Love the caption btw :-)

Anonymous said...

So how are you going to try and spin this defeat then Griffin? lol!

Anonymous said...

the church is great,i hope the bnp go to hell!!!!



akmed ali

Anonymous said...

The synod must now move on to the next step, which is to excommunicate ALL BNP members and supporters so they can no longer be married or have funerals in CofE churches, or have their children christened.

Anonymous said...

The clergy have been fairly consistent in their disdain for the BNP.

This is a fantastic result,one that other organisations such as the military need to take a lead from.

Anonymous said...

The synod must now move on to the next step, which is to excommunicate ALL BNP members and supporters so they can no longer be married or have funerals in CofE churches, or have their children christened.

7:55 AM, February 11, 2009

I think this is going to far. There remains a thin line between opposing the BNP and destroying freedom. It’s up to people to challenge them openly with discussion; this is what has led to this latest decision by the Church which is a good thing.

Not being allowed to be married in Church for being the member of a political party, however corrupt and dysfunctional it may be, is simply on another planet. Do we really want Griffin’s sad little cult to become fashionable with himself transformed into a self-styled ‘freedom fighter’? The only way to beat him is to stave him of the publicity he loves so much. As an organisation they are next to useless, and would soon implode as it very nearly did last year. We must put pressure on the media and stop them from propping him up at every opportunity so he can wither on the vine. Of course if the BNP are in fact a state operated ‘pressure valve’ which is very possible, then that changes the whole situation. When pressed down on, the BNP as if a bubble, would simply pop-up somewhere else, only under a different name with a few other minor alterations to it.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the BNP will close down its completely pointless and meaningless Christian Council of Britain website now. After all, we all know the so-called Reverend West is a fraud.

The BNP's Christian Council of Britain is now virtually shut-down.

You never hear about it and its website hasn't been updated since June 2008.

Like the "Reverend" Robert West the CCB is a fraud and a complete sham - as you'd expect from a BNP operation.

Robert West is a failed Tory councillor who jumped on board the BNP so that he could promote his own unsufferable ego and bigotted anti-Catholic ideas. The man is a serious and deluded creep.

Perhaps the CCB will now be resurrected as a 'Church' so that all BNP mebers can join and worship.

No doubt they will have worship the image of Nick Griffin.

Which means that the collection plate will be the only thing going round.

Anonymous said...

may be they will set there own church up,with burning crosses and worship hitler.

Anonymous said...

"which means the collection plate will be the only thing going round"

LOL

Order of Service
St Nicholas's Church, Welshpool

Opening Prayer [for God's sake I hope somebody turns up]
Collection
Hymn
Collection
Reading [if we can find a member who CAN read]
Collection
Sermon [Rev. Griffin - the future is ours; unstoppable growth; marching forward etc etc etc]
Collection

Echelon_g26 said...

Errrrrr.. have I missed something? We are all going ape-shit because a bunch of clerics have banned a few people from being members of the heirarchy of a religion.....what was that comment about "opiate of the masses" ??

Now let me get this right....suddenly one of the biggest landowners in the UK and a pretty shitty land lord as well, former slave trader, thief of Catholic churhes, persecuter of Catholics, non-conformists and witches alibi provider to royal adulterers etc etc is OK?

B******s

Anonymous said...

which means the collection plate will be the only thing going round"

LOL

Order of Service
St Nicholas's Church, Welshpool

Opening Prayer [for God's sake I hope somebody turns up]
Collection
Hymn
Collection
Reading [if we can find a member who CAN read]
Collection
Sermon [Rev. Griffin - the future is ours; unstoppable growth; marching forward etc etc etc]
Collection

Brilliant Iliacus, brilliant :-)

Anonymous said...

So what's new?

Nick Griffin is ALWAYS bashing the bishop :-)