Archbishop Jonathan Blake

The Most Reverend Jonathan Blake, Presiding Archbishop of the Open Episcopal Church B.A. (Hons), Dip. Pastoral Studies. Mobile: 07767 687711 www.bishopjonathanblake.com archbishopjonathanblake@gmail.com www.openepiscopalchurch.org The Church is a member of The International Council of Community churches and the World Council of Churches. Married and a proud Dad.

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Location: London, Kent, United Kingdom

Gassed Tehran, seized Kabul, helped Mother Teresa, funded TB hospital, priest 1981, went Auschwitz, wrote on Parliament, convicted, began 1st inter-faith NHS chapel, 12 yrs Anglican cleric/vicar - left, baptised 1000's in homes/Mt Snowdon/at circus, wedding underwater, wrote ‘For God’s Sake Don’t Go To Church’, nailed 95 Theses 2 Canterbury cathedral, arrested, co-founded the Society for Independent Ministry, consecrated a bishop, co-founded the Open Episcopal Church, did 1st gay wedding on morning TV, sued Associated Newspapers, co-consecrated 1st women bishops 4 England,Wales,Scotland, accommodated the homeless, posted Mass/took it 2 sex workers, elected Archbishop, arrested 4 climbing with sons,founded ‘When No One’s Watching',made ICV, did Jade Goody's wedding,invited 2 Downing St, wrote 'That Old Devil Called God Again', conviction 4 campaigning against child abuse quashed on appeal, convicted 4 successful blogging 2 stop paedophile. His Christmas Lights raising £79,000 4 Water in 4 Gambian villages. Published "The Tales of Henry the Lovable Hedgehog", the SAFE New Testament + Psalms + radical Book of Common Prayer, ordained priests for UK,US,Thailand,Spain,Ireland

Sunday, August 31, 2014

THE MOST INSPIRATIONAL WORK I HAVE EVER READ ....

"Just finished reading this- amazing, challenging, hard hitting.....occasionally I wanted to scream, BUT I persevered, and have found it the most inspirational piece of work I have ever read."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/That-Old-Devil-Called-Again-ebook/dp/B00LWFKV4M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409515105&sr=8-1&keywords=that+old+devil+called+god+again

Thursday, August 21, 2014

THE POLICE SHOWN TO BE MURDERERS

 Police shown to be callous murderers. No requirement for this death. No justification permitted. Wanton, brazen, sectarian murder. Those responsible must be punished by the law.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article4182838.ece

DAWKINS MAKES US FACE UP TO DOWNS

 Dawkins illustrates our hypocrisy. So many are happy to make such a decision in secret,  but don't want to admit it or talk about it. The Times, instead of responding to the challenge that Dawkins raises, that bringing a Downs child into the world is 'immoral' when there is a choice otherwise, chooses to sensationalise and personalise the issue in tabloid style. Sentimentality and emotive arguments to his statement create a poor defence. Highlighting what we can learn both from a Downs child and in caring for them provides weak justification for entrapping a human being into a Downs condition. Dawkins makes us face up to the truths we find uncomfortable. 

One cherishes the life of a person that has been born and delights in all she/he has to give, Downs or otherwise. However, on a small overpopulated planet, where medical advances have enabled us to achieve, protect and enhance life, the best choice is to bring able children into the world.

I suggest the able must want to make the best choices for their offspring. Putting it another way. If a parent had the choice before them to press a button by which an able child was born or a disabled child was born, it would be perverse for them to select deliberately a disabled child. What moral right would they have to destine a person to enter this world in a disabled condition?

Life's evolution requires our intelligent choices to ensure the best for others as ourselves. We choose full health and functioning for ourselves as we must for others, particularly those we are privileged to  help create.

I agree wholeheartedly that great love and kindness is often displayed by Downs people in contrast to the able and recognise the challenge that poses. However I do not believe it provides a moral premise upon which we can choose Downs for a child nor a justification to be selective in our application of medical advances to ensure there are Downs births for our edification.

I don't think there are the statistics to demonstrate that Downs are inclined always to display greater loving virtue than others, only anecdotal individual cases. The suggestion that the world would be better populated by a Downs version of the human race is down more to sentiment I suggest than hard analysis.

The difficulty lies in what may be deemed a patronising approach towards those who are Downs. For instance, if someone could press a button to make you a Downs today would you accept this, in search of this Utopian world of compassion and embracing of Downs as an advantage. I suspect that few, if any able bodied people would opt to be Downs. If so, how dare we deliver that to the unborn.

I  do not see a Downs person as a blight, rather most often as an oasis of love and innocence, different as we all are, and of equal value to all others. However, this again does not justify deciding that the unborn should be Downs. We must choose, where we can, for all to be born with equal health. Together we have to face the challenges of life. I find no purchase in the argument that because we can learn much from a Downs person, we must destine them to be so, nor that because we can learn much from a paraplegic, we should enforce them into such a life.

A person born with Downs is as equal to everyone else. I think that unequivocally. However at the unborn level, when choice is available, I do not believe a parent has the right to choose a disability for their child.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4182334.ece

A BEHEADING IS INHUMAN - SO IS BOMBING A CHILD.

Do we really think that we can solve this militarily, that Cameron returning from holiday will turn the tide and that MI5, MI6 and the SAS will provide a solution. There is a surfeit of blood and might talk. A bomb for a bomb and a knife for a knife dooms us all. Beheading an innocent and defenceless man in cold blood is inhuman, however an allied bomb eviscerating a child is too. Politicians and religious leaders are operating reactively and superficially. Original thinking and long term strategic planning are needed. The world is in desperate need of a new approach to the equitable distribution of resources. We are paying a terrible price for our greed.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article4182624.ece

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

A MAN FROM LONDON BEHEADS

A man from London beheads a man from the United States and we continue to identify the evil of violence as within Islam. The challenge for humanity is to cease such dissembling and join in common cause to understand our propensity for aggression. We need to stop the 'Christian' lie that we can bring salvation to the world, egged on by our super hero fantasies and act with humility to understand that the enemy to peace lies within us all. Only by learning the infinitely fragile approach of understanding others, walking in their shoes and aspiring to build an equitable world will we overcome the looming catastrophe.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

OUR HANDS ARE FAR FROM CLEAN AS JAMES FOLEY IS BEHEADED

 The last State beheading in France was in 1977. The last inhuman execution in the U.S. was July 2014. The last hanging in the U.K. was in 1964.  Saddam Hussein was jeered as he was hung. His half brother executed two weeks later, was decapitated during a botched hanging. Our hands are far from clean.

It is damaging for us to continue to demonise the Islamic community with these grotesque images without realising our own culpability and similar practices. The demons are in all of us. 

We know that many innocents have been wrongly executed and considering beheading, the French Revolution is but one gross example.

It is the similar bloodlust that has driven our atrocities over history from the crusades, to burning at the stake, to hanging drawing and quartering, to the French Revolution among others, to colonial excesses, to the two world wars, to capital punishment et al...

Our neat and tidy systems get it wrong, so we execute innocents.....and our halls of fine thought are mistaken and we invade on poor intelligence and thousands of civilians are slaughtered.....and our precision bombing is not quite so perfect and children's bodies are eviscerated...

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article4181635.ece

REVIEW - THAT OLD DEVIL CALLED GOD AGAIN

Professor Neal Robinson has been the professor of Islamic Studies in Wales, Belgium, South Korea, Australia, Kazakhstan and Russia. He writes: 

The crude self-hating proselytising faith that you so rightly reject is alive and well and I often hear it pedalled by street preachers in city centres.

Evolutionary biologists disagree as to why religion exists. However, I am convinced by the arguments (well put by Wilson in Darwin’s Cathedral) for thinking that it produces group cohesion and thereby increases a society’s chances of survival. The problem is that it does this by demonising outsiders.

This is something that we must now work to overcome. It will be very difficult.

All religious traditions revere a supernatural being or ancestor who ‘knows’ people’s thoughts. Statements such as ‘to whom all hearts are open, all desires known…’ merely reinforce the child’s sense of being watched.

Most young adults feel the unconscious need to identify with a heroic figure, in order to cope with their own sense of mortality.

I think the best we can do is to combat exclusivism.

Of course the Bible is toxic in the hands of fundamentalists.

I have no time for clerics who disguise their muddled thoughts by appealing to mystery.

I share your concern to reach out to those who cannot identify with tradition.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/That-Old-Devil-Called-Again-ebook/dp/B00LWFKV4M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408485767&sr=8-1&keywords=that+old+devil+called+god+again

KATE BUSH AND PRINCE - LIVE WITH iPHONES OR STAY AT HOME.

 Hey come on Kate, Prince, Coldplay, etc - are people so gullible? You who wallow in wealth and use every piece of modern technology to further your bank accounts, don't feign a desire for intimacy to hide protectionism and a return to a screen less world of unique encounters when you court all the screens you can. You just can't stand the power being shared, your images and your 'lucky' break talent becoming common fare. Live with it or stay at home.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/music/article4180879.ece

Monday, August 18, 2014

LOVE FINDS A WAY

 Love bursts the artificial boundaries constructed by humanity that are generated by its fabricated gods and faiths.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article4179982.ece

LEGAL AND BANKING ENDORSED THIEVERY

 What law school no doubt tells them - how to fleece the public with exorbitant fees and unjustifiable costs that makes access to justice the privilege of the rich, denied to the rest. The legal profession, in the main, consists of endorsed thievery similar to the financial industry, that laugh at the rest of us, in our impotence, before their self interested monopolies.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/article4178779.ece

FINALLY CENSORSHIP FOR MILEY CYRUS'S PORN

 About time. 'Wrecking Ball' is so highly sexual and yet has been watched freely by children of all ages. With such videos and the regrettable and misplaced media and popular interest in the distortion of sexuality presented in the '50 Shades of Grey' filth, our society is becoming ever more sexualised in an unhealthy and relationship threatening manner.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4179809.ece

ASSANGE'S MOUSE HOLE

 Assange has damaged his credibility by hiding in a mouse hole. Truth and legitimate protest dislike the shadows.

He does the oppressed no service by hiding from the rage of the system and the wiles of the wicked. Better to face, expose and ultimately overcome.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4179629.ece

5000 A WEEK NOW READING MY BLOG AND NUMBERS RISING

Challenging, different, lateral thinking to help change views, inspire creative thinking, spur visionary planning and all with the intention of urging everyone to play a part in building a better, more loving, inclusive and just social order for the world.

Friday, August 15, 2014

1 IN 50 CATHOLIC PRIESTS IS A PAEDOPHILE SAYS POPE

Priests, bishops and cardinals are all included.

That's 8000 priests!

Keep away from churches.

http://www.kansascity.com/living/religion/article756822.html


Thursday, August 14, 2014

THE WHITE OPPRESSORS

In St Louis, according to Al Sharpton, veteran black civil rights activist, 67% of the city are black yet only 6% of the city council are black and only 3 police officers.

He said people were calling for PEACE when what they meant was QUIET.

There can never be PEACE without JUSTICE. 

PLEASE GOD - HANDS UP - DON'T SHOOT ME

Please God.

Hands up.

Don't shoot me.

Don't behead me.

Don't crucify me.

Don't bomb me.

Don't drone strike me or air strike me.

Don't land mine me.

Don't dismember me.

Don't mutilate me.

Don't knife me.

Don't kill me.





BARY'S BEHEADING AND STILL WE TOLERATE RELIGION

“It’s beautiful when you see Allah’s law’s implemented”.

So says Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, having beheaded an opponent and holding the severed head up for a photo on Twitter.

His family, having fled Egypt, were given asylum in a one million council house in Maida Vale. Bary now tells us that :

“The lions are coming for you filthy kuffs [infidels] . . . beheadings in your own backyard soon.”

And still we tolerate religion in our land.

We have an established Church, we broadcast  religious 'Thoughts for the Day' and Church services.

We even legislate for more faith schools.

We expose children to the corrupting influence of the Bible and the other faith's religious books.

We take them to church, send them to Sunday School and allow them to attend school assemblies.

We allow the building of new centres of worship for all the faiths.

And by so doing we threaten the destruction of all that we have so far achieved.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4175744.ece


Wednesday, August 13, 2014

CHRISTIANITY INVALIDATES ITSELF

A critic states that a bad Christian does not invalidate Christianity.

I suggest it is not bad Christians that are the issue...

Christianity invalidates itself.

Jesus would be weeping....

WILLIAMS - A GIFT OF A MAN PART DESTROYED BY HIS EX WIVES

 Tragic that women who once loved him, his ex wives, helped strip him bare financially and played their part in destroying this gift of a man. 

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/film/article4174963.ece

POLICE GUN DOWN UNARMED BLACK TEENAGER IN COLD BLOOD

The ugly truth about  power, racial oppression,  police, men, anger, violence and guns.

Be warned. Unaccountable police operations threaten everyone of us.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article4174696.ece

THE POPE HOLDS A SEVERED HEAD IN HIS HAND

Shocking news. The Vatican approves air strikes.

Insanity prevails.

When a military strike decapitates a child, dismembers a civilian and sews further hatred for tomorrow's reaping

...and all now condoned by the Christian God in battle with the Muslim God....

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article4174908.ece

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

14 YEAR OLD CHILD AFRAID IN BEXLEY CELL

Banged up. Four concrete walls pressing in. Artificial light. Steel door. Claustrophobic.
Frightened.
Disorientated.
Without a parent.
Without a responsible adult.
Alone.
Banged up.
Head in hands.
He'd been at school that morning.
Playground fight.
Punches had been thrown.
A parent complained. Police were called.
He was arrested.
Banged up.
In an adult cell.
In breach of the PACE regulations.
There were so many playground fights during my childhood.
No one was carted off to prison.
But this is Bexley.
Bexley Custody Suite abuses children.

THE CHRIST WHO SLAUGHTERS

Jesus may have persecuted no one. However the 'Christ' of the Christians has slaughtered many.

The 'Christ' is the human invention of the power hungry wanting to claim preferential access to the Divine and justification for their blood letting.

SEVEN YEAR OLD HOLDS SEVERED HEAD

In one hand the Bible, the Quran, the Guru Granth Sahib, the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tripitaka, etc and in the other a severed head.......

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/australia-newzealand/article4173807.ece

ISRAEL'S SHAME

 No excuse, no justification and no immunity from prosecution for this horrific carnage.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article4172829.ece

BROTHER AND SISTER MARRIED WITH CHILD

To confound the tidy moralisers, the interfering state and the judgmental -

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article4173341.ece

THERE IS NOTHING HOLY ABOUT RELIGION OR MOUNTAINS

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/iraq/article4173616.ece

RELIGION MUST GO

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4172435.ece

Sunday, August 10, 2014

DAD OUT AT CHIP SHOP WITH KIDS ENDS UP STRIP SEARCHED BY BEXLEY POLICE

Dad out with his family at a chip shop among other customers.

Police arrive acting on the report of a man in possession of a knife.

Dad arrested.

Dad upset, protesting his innocence.

5 officers force him into cell.

Dad upset, protesting his innocence.

5 officers burst into his cell, pin him down, strip search him.

Dad upset, protesting his innocence.

His wife and his children anxiously wait for news.

Dad bruised, marked, traumatised, humiliated, abused having suffered violence.

Dad that could so easily have died of excited delirium or heart failure.

Just another day at the Bexley Custody suite....

Archbishop to police: 'But this man may be entirely innocent. He could have just been out with his wife and children at the local chip shop. You might have unnecessarily devastated the whole family. Why did you choose to use such violence? Did you try other ways to gain the cooperation of the man?

Police: 'In a situation like that, we just use force.....'

ARCHBISHOP BLAKE'S NEW BOOK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/That-Old-Devil-Called-Again-ebook/dp/B00LWFKV4M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407764149&sr=8-1&keywords=that+old+devil+called+god+again

Saturday, August 09, 2014

ARCHBISHOP BLAKE ASKED TO QUELL FEARS OVER SUPER MOON ARMAGEDDON


http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/497171/Supermoon-triggers-end-of-world-Sunday

Sunday, August 03, 2014

GAMMY AND PATTARAMON CHANBUA AND THE GREAT EVIL OF THEIR HONESTY

 I detect a rich world hypocrisy raising its ugly head in much of the 'moral' commentary being heard on this issue. It seems so many have so much to say. Shock, disgust and censure are in plentiful supply. How could they abandon a Down's baby? 
However, that is not the actual issue. Down's babies and many others are abandoned routinely within the rich world, terminated 'efficiently', discreetly and without even an eyebrow raised.
What the rich find so uncomfortable is having their tidy deceits exposed and paraded for all to see. How dare the 'disposal' of a Down's child be made so explicit?
The same dishonesty allows us to enjoy violent movies while ensuring we never permit anyone to actually see the carnage underway in Gaza or elsewhere.
Rich world culture is racing headlong towards greater pretence. I'm sure the law makers will legislate rapidly, not to protect the Down's child of course, or the children of Gaza, rather to ensure we don't ever have to catch a reflection of the truth in any mirror.

BLACK MAN IN CUSTODY IN BEXLEY - NO 2

Black Man: I haven't drunk anything since I was arrested.

Archbishop Blake: But that was yesterday?

Black Man: I won't drink what they give me. They may have spat in it.

Archbishop Blake to Custody Police Officer: The detainee says he hasn't drunk anything since yesterday?

Custody Police Officer: ( With a sarcastic smile ) Oh dear. Trouble is, he won't drink what we offer him.

Archbishop Blake: Well. It is his entitlement to have access to a wash basin and then he can drink for himself directly from the tap.

Custody Police Officer: But why would we allow that.......

Friday, August 01, 2014

BLACK MAN IN CUSTODY IN BEXLEY

Black man: 'The police won't tell me where my children are. They took them away when I was arrested and they won't tell me what has happened to the, I have asked them repeatedly but they won't tell me.'

Archbishop to police: 'This man in custody says you will not tell him who is looking after his children.'

Custody Police Officer: (With a sarcastic grin on his face) 'Oh, hasn't he been told yet....'

WHISTLE BLOWERS NEED PROTECTION

 After consistent breaches of the PACE regulations and numerous disturbing incidents, that I witnessed while carrying out my duties as an Independent Custody Visitor (ICV) for the Bexley ICV panel,  I blew the whistle finally when I found  an eleven year old locked up in an adult cell in Bexley Custody Suite. Imprisoning an eleven year old in such a manner is a breach, although the police and The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) 'get round' the relevant regulation by citing shortage of appropriate facilities and staffing levels. MOPAC's response to my blowing the whistle, instead of acting to protect children in custody, was to axe me from the panel. 

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4163731.ece