Welsh Church Plummets, Where's Barry?

The stats are in and they're not looking good for the Anglican Church of Wales. Figures show that the already small church has gotten even smaller, with worshiping attendance dropping by a whopping 50% since 1990, leaving a mere 29,019 people attending church on any given Sunday. 

Archbishop Barry Morgan 

To put the decline into perspective, the shrinking Anglican Church of Wales has an average Sunday attendance smaller than the population of greater Aberystwyth.

Another Sunny Day in Aber

This discouraging trend prompted the Rev. Stephen Bunting to warn the church’s governing body that unless something changes, the church’s centenary celebrations in 2020 will be “just a few cucumber sandwiches at a wake.” 

The Welsh Church's leader, Archbishop Barry Morgan, believes that gay marriage is biblical. Barry was last seen over the Bristol Channel, at an altitude of 1000'. 

Unconfirmed Report of Barry Morgan Drifting Above Borth

Reports that the high-flying Archbishop was seen drifting over Borth golf club are unconfirmed.

Gorau Moes Gwasanaeth,

LSP

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Do you remember that Cardinal Schonboern had the sheer, wrongheaded, Islamophobic temerity to suggest that Europe was facing a new Muslim invasion? Read on, from Ignatius His Conclave:

The Pummerin (‘Boomer’) in the steeple of the Stephansdom in Vienna is the third largest swinging bell in Europe. It was cast in 1705 from cannon captured from the Turks at the Second Siege of Vienna , and refounded in 1951, using the metal of the old bell with the addition of bronze from Turkish cannon in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum.

On Easter Day, shaking the steeple, the great bell rings out announcing the Lord’s Resurrection and recalling again the defeat of the city’s most formidable enemy. No sound could more delight the Christian people.

Except…the words of their own Archbishop, in his Cathedral Church, on the 333rd anniversary of Sobieski’s great victory. He was bold enough to say what every inhabitant of the continent knows: that a concerted Islamic invasion of Europe is once again underway. ‘Will there now be a third attempt at an Islamic conquest of Europe? Many Muslims think so and long for it and say: This Europe is at an end.’

Except… having spoken the truth (boldly going where no politician dares to tread) the Archbishop unaccountably lost his nerve and issued a retraction. This ‘has absolutely nothing to do with Islam… It is clear that many Islamists would like to take advantage of our weakness, but they are not responsible for it. We are.’ Apparently what he was really intending to say was that the violence being experienced in almost every country in Europe is not to be attributed to Muslim malice, but to Christian infidelity. We have brought this upon ourselves.

Tell that to Fr Jacques Hamel.

Cardinal Schoenborn is a charming and cultured man, and a theologian of considerable distinction. So it is a tragedy that he has succumbed to the pressures of the zeitgeist in this demeaning way.

And the more tragic still that he should have done so in the former capital of the Habsburg lands, where the pressure of Islamic invasion was most acutely felt and most heroically resisted.

Sobieski routes the Jihad at Vienna

Tell that to Fr. Jacques Hamel, well said.

Wake up.

LSP 

Spillway Action

I had two objectives, apart from seeing Hillary behind bars, the first being to show my Wittgensteinian pal, GWB, the sheer value and power of the weightless worm rig (WWR). The second, obviously, was to make up for Sunday's washout and catch a lot of fish.

Things got off to a slow start. AT&T came over and gave the Compound a new internet called "Uverse." The tech who installed the Internet was alright, friendly, competent, and good with dogs. I was taken aback by all these things. Well done, AT&T guy. Then we noticed that GWB's rig had a flat tire, as flat as Hillary's bogus "woman who cares for the people" act. So that had to be fixed.

In the end, a couple of hours late and in the heat of the day, we got to the dam. Sure enough, there were lots of fish, especially great hunter-killer packs of Gar, suspended in search of prey. And plenty of other fish too, just like in Seaworld. So we cast off with the worms and I have to say the action was sluggish. 

I hauled in a Black Drum and a couple of Hybrids but that was it, GWB wasn't getting anything either. "The fish hate your useless worm rig, so-called LSP," he chided, and swapped out to lures and plastics. I liked that, work out what artificials the fish like and report back. Then things changed.

Ho, Ho! A Bass. Boom.

Casting downstream off the end of the pier, I noticed a lot of Bass in the water, flashing in their quest to get upstream, into the pool and into the jaws of the waiting Gar. Twitch, tap, Boom. A Bass was on and fighting ferociously, and in he came. Good work, WWR. I alerted GWB to the spot and before long he was reeling in a Bass with every cast, all on a Texas rigged green ribbontail. Nice action.

Oh, Well Done, LSP, You Caught a Fish

I joined in with live worms and got the same result, big fun, then moved off in search of Catfish. And they were biting; I reeled in a decent sized fighter and a couple of juniors, then returned to the Bass. They were still on; then, just as though a switch had been flicked, the feeding frenzy was over. Time to go.

And that, readers, was that. I find great satisfaction in fishing, in case you wondered. Anticipation and the excitement of the strike, the fight itself, and just being outside in the country. To say nothing of reeling in the fierce predators. 

Next stop? Get back on the horse and shoot some guns.

Your Friend,

LSP

Civilisational Fail and St. Francis

A Typical View From The Compound

Via ZeroHedge: "Civilizations fail when their elites change from an admired dynamic creative class to a despised Establishment of corrupt rentiers, an entrenched governing class unfit to govern."

Are we there yet? As you ponder that, here's the Collect for the Feast of St. Francis:

St. Francis of Assisi

MOST high, almighty, and good Lord: Grant thy people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world, that, after the example of blessed Francis, we may for love of thee delight in all thy creatures, with perfectness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Of course Francis turned his back on the elite status he'd inherited and chose a different path. Not for him the life of rentier 1% luxury. As I understand it, the first Franciscan friars to arrive in England were arrested for vagrancy.

Carry on,

LSP

The Horror!

If you're not already following Godfrey Elfwick on Twitter, you might want to. In the meanwhile, have a blessed Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

LSP

Guilty As Sin

That's our Hillary! I hope the author has 24x7 protection, he just might need it.

Assange is apparently out of range, for now. But what will Wednesday bring?

LSP

Rod & Gun

It was tranquil on the big pond and large Bass were surging just out of casting range, which got the adrenaline up. Would they come in to the bank, or stay where they were, voraciously feeding off swarms of fry? 

They stayed where they were, wisely, and I didn't catch anything, despite the enticing promise of a 10" Texas rigged red ribbon tail worm. A bird was keeping an eye on the fish too, from the vantage point of a pipe. 

After casting about, I drove off to some hay bales with GWB and we set up in hope of shooting some dove. Like the fish, they wisely stayed away.

Later, back at the Compound, I cooked up some Toad in the Hole and onion gravy and I tell you, it was right tasty.

In other news, Kim Kardashian, who is not a hobbit, has been robbed in Paris. Good work, Team.

Gun rights,

LSP

Crossing The T -- For LL

USN Trans Team

In a bold new war-at-sea-winning initiative, the US Navy has issued directives requiring all of its sailors to be "trans trained" by July 2017.

Though details of the Navy's transgender behavioral training have yet to be released, images of the USN training team, or "Trans Team," are now public.

A USN Trans Team Member

When shown pictures of the Trans Team bunked up together in their racks, a member of the US intelligence community (IC), who wishes to remain anonymous,  commented, "Impeccable."

Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, stated at a Pentagon briefing that the Navy's transsexual sailors will help the "force" to "accomplish the mission."

Accomplish The Mission, "Gentlemen."

“This is the right thing to do for our people and for the force,” said Carter, “We can’t allow barriers unrelated to a person’s qualifications prevent us from recruiting and retaining those who can best accomplish the mission.”

The mission to do what?

Cross the T?

LSP

Fish on Friday #2

Farsighted readers of this mind blog will know that it's customary at the compound to eat fish on Fridays, which means go out and catch some fish, then cook them. And that's what happened.

At first the spillway side of the dam was empty and I had that tranquil moment of casting off into the depths of the pool in search of fish. Then a kid turned up with an assortment of rods and started fishing for Gar in earnest. I admired his enthusiasm and wished him luck. He was using baby Shad as bait.

Downriver

Then two gentlemen tipped up and began working the pool. They seemed pretty serious, big nets, battle rods and the grizzled look of experience, which tokens fishing respect. They were using lures and cut bait, going after Striper.

So there it was, a skirmish line of fishermen  competing for the catch of the day. And here's the thing, the lures didn't work, the cut bait didn't work and neither did the Shad. But the Weightless Worm Rig (WWR) did, the fish liked it. Lots of them, to everyone else's washout.

Get The Kid on The Fish

After a while, the grizzled veterans upped stakes and headed off, leaving me and the Gar fisher; I turned him on to the WWR. Excited, he ran off and bought some worms and it wasn't long before he was pulling fish out of the water like a good 'un. I thought that was great and so did he, running around the pier with tremendous gusto. Go for it, kid. A happy moment.

Fillet That Fish, LSP

A crew of fishing technocrats from Vietnam (?) were next to arrive. Massive hyper-rods, long range casting floats, the whole array of fishing technology went into action against the submerged opposition. And... nothing. Meanwhile, the weightless worm riggers were reeling in the fun. There's a moral in that, somewhere.

Eat Your Scoff Like a Warrior

I gave our SE Asian friends the worm tip on the way out, they were grateful, and cooked up a fat Bluegill when I got back to the Compound. The rest of the fish are on ice.

Keep it simple,

LSP

Way To Go Ohio

You're probably waiting for Fish on Friday #2 and don't worry, it's coming up, but first I have to clean some fish and cook it. In the meanwhile, listen to The Pretenders and wonder why the Buckeye State is trending Trump. 

Maybe they want their city back. I hope they get it.

Way to go, Ohio.

LSP

Fish on Friday #1

It's Friday, and that means fish, the idea being to take a break from reading the Ante-Nicene Fathers on the nature of the episcopate and go out and catch some dinner. But as you await that exciting installment in the varied life of LSPland, here's an excerpt from St. Ignatius of Antioch:

See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is[administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude[of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. (Letter to Smyrna)

Note that, for Ignatius, bishops are seen as the successors of Christ and the presbyters or priests, as successors of the apostles. The bishop, surrounded by his priests, is the image of Christ in the midst of the apostles. 

We can only wonder what the martyr bishop, who was a disciple of the Apostle John, would say about his, ahem, successors in the episcopal college today. 

Fish on,

LSP

The Final Frontier of Gayness

Via Anglican Samizdat: Apparently, there is a need “for the gay community to have a safe space in every corner of the universe.” To that end, a gay pride flag has been launched 31km. above the surface of the earth where the rising sun shone through it, illuminating the rainbow.

Archbishop Barry Morgan

The Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, who is popularly known as Bazbot 5000, was last seen floating 1000ft above the Bristol Channel. 

A Typical Scene in the Welsh Church

Here at the Compound we have to ask, has the Welsh Primate reached the final frontier?

To the stars,

LSP