"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."
(Galatians 1:8-9)
http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-new-age-in-church-in-wales-case.html
So serious were the concerns highlighted in this article about the openly "New Age" spirituality of Rev'd. Don MacGregor, the Priest-in-Charge of the five parishes that form the North Dewisland Benefice in Pembrokeshire, that after careful consideration I thought it right and proper to bring them to the personal attention of his ecclesiastical overseer. An email was accordingly sent to the Right Rev'd. Wyn Evans, the Bishop of St. David's, on 14 January 2016, as follows:
FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE RT. REV. WYN EVANS
Dear Sir,
I write to you as a Bible-believing Christian having grave concerns about the extremely unorthodox beliefs held and openly expressed by Rev. Don MacGregor, the Priest-in-Charge of the North Dewisland Benefice. It is evident, by reference to his own writings, that he holds to a theological position which is very far removed from Biblical Christianity and in blatant contradiction of the Nicene Creed which is mandatory for him as a priest to adhere to. I regret to observe that his beliefs clearly violate his Declaration of Assent as an Anglican priest to uphold the historical Faith revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
I respectfully bring these concerns to your attention as his overseeing Bishop. I quite appreciate that you are a busy man, and I would not take this step and intrude upon your time if it was not for the fact that these are very serious issues indeed. May I ask if you would please read the following carefully researched article, in which the issues should become all too apparent to you?
http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-new-age-in-church-in-wales-case.html
I would be most grateful, sir, if you would advise me if you consider Rev. Don MacGregor's views to be acceptable within your Diocese, the Anglican communion at large, or indeed the wider professing Church of Jesus Christ who uphold the whole of Scripture as being the authoritative and utterly unalterable Word of God?
I look forward to hearing from you, at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely, in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour,
Rob Thomas
Quite remarkably, only five days after sending this email to the Bishop, he was to be found officiating at a special service in St. Peter's Church in Goodwick, Pembrokeshire, to inaugurate a new Diocesan partnership and swear in its ministry team. And who is the leader of this team? None other than Rev'd. Don MacGregor! In one fell swoop, with the Bishop's blessing, the "New Age" priest's sphere of influence in Pembrokeshire's Anglican communities increased by a whopping 300% - from five to FIFTEEN parishes!
Pencaer Partnership inauguration service, 19 January 2016.
The event was reported in the local newspaper as follows:
"FIFTEEN parishes in north Pembrokeshire have pledged their mutual allegiance in the new Pencaer Mission and Ministry partnership.
This ninth local ministry area to be created in the St Davids Diocese was inaugurated in a special service in St. Peter's Church, Goodwick, on 19 January before the Bishop, Rt Rev Wyn Evans.
The new ministry team, led by Rev Don MacGregor, priest-in-charge of the Llanrhian group of parishes, was also sworn in."
(Source: County Echo and St Davids City Chronicle)
A fortnight on from dispatching my email, and with confirmation from the Bishop's Secretary of its receipt but nothing forthcoming from the Bishop himself, a second email was sent on 28 January 2016, expressing an increased sense of urgency and disquiet due to the events of 19 January as recorded above, whereby Don MacGregor's profile and influence in Pembrokeshire's Anglican communities had been greatly increased. That email concluded with this plea:
May I respectfully ask if you would give your most careful consideration to the concerns about Rev. Don MacGregor, for the sake of the integrity of the Christian witness in Pembrokeshire?
This missive did prompt the following brief response from Wyn Evans the next day:
Dear Mr Thomas
Thank you both for your email and your reminder. I am looking into the matter and am consulting colleagues. I take it that you are a parishioner of his?
Bendith
+Wyn St Davids
Having clarified to the Bishop that I am not one of Don MacGregor's parishioners, but a Bible-believing Christian whose concern is for the upholding of the Faith as revealed in the immutable Word of God, another month passed silently by. On 6 April 2016, I emailed the Bishop again, to politely ask whether he could update me on progress, receiving this reply the following day not from Wyn Evans but from the Archdeacon of St. David's, the Venerable Canon Dennis Wight:
Dear Mr. Thomas
The Bishop has replied to you regarding Mr Macgregor by stating that we were looking into the matter. You gave us information about him for which we thank you. However, this is now a matter between us and him. It is being addressed and it would not be right for us to enter into discussion about it. We treat these matters as confidential.
Again, thank you for your original note and we are sorry that we have been unable to get back to you sooner.
With all good wishes
Dennis
I wrote back to the Archdeacon on April 11, with the following observation:
When you say that this is now a matter between the Diocesan leadership and Rev. MacGregor, may I respectfully observe that as he is a practicing priest with not a private but a very public ministry and profile, then his personal radical reinterpretation of the historic Faith - resulting in undeniable failure to adhere to both the Creed and his Declaration of Assent - cannot realistically be seen as a confidential matter? Rev. MacGregor certainly does not keep his position private, so why exactly is it deemed by yourselves to be wrong to enter into a discussion about that position? There are certainly matters in which I would be in full agreement that confidentiality is correct and proper, but this is not such a matter. When a practicing priest responsible for properly shepherding the flock believes in and teaches "another Jesus... another spirit... another gospel" (2 Corinthians 11:4) this is an issue of very public concern indeed!
This, my final missive to the Diocesan leadership, concluded as follows:
Are Pembrokeshire people to be kept in the dark about all this? With all due respect, I believe they, and indeed the Body at large, have the right to know what - if anything - is to be specifically done to address these very real and very grave concerns.
A few hours later, I received the Archdeacon's (dare I say curt) response:
Mr. Thomas
I acknowledge receipt of your note.
Yours in Christ
Dennis
So there we have it. Stonewalled, I think, is the operative word... and all the while Rev'd. Don MacGregor continues to preach "another gospel," unchecked and indifferent to Paul's dire declaration about such a thing in his Epistle to the Galatians which headed this article.
THIS WOULD SEEM TO BE THE BISHOPRIC'S FINAL WORD ON THE MATTER. I'M SORRY, GENTLEMEN, BUT IT'S REALLY NOT GOOD ENOUGH! YOU CAN SWAT ME LIKE A NUISANCE FLY IF YOU WANT, BUT ONE DAY WE WILL ALL HAVE TO ANSWER TO GOD FOR WHAT WE HAVE DONE - AND ALSO WHAT WE HAVE NOT. THE BALL REMAINS FIRMLY IN YOUR COURT. PLEASE PLAY IT WISELY!
EPILOGUE
While we might well note that Rev'd. Don MacGregor remains, among other things, Area Dean for Dewisland and Fishguard in the Archdeaconry of St. David's under Dennis Wight, there is unfortunately more to this whole sad saga of compromise and complicity with an utterly false spirit in the St. David's Diocese that needs to be recorded.
On 15 March 2016, the Cathedral hosted the 'Sri Chinmoy Oneness - Home Peace Run' during its tour of the UK and Ireland. These runners are the disciples of the Indian Hindu guru who initiated this Peace Run. "What's the problem?" many might say. "Anything that promotes peace in the world has to be good, right?" Absolutely wrong! While any truly Bible-believing Christian should know full well that there is no peace outside of the Prince of Peace, these purveyors of pantheism were warmly welcomed by the Dean, the Very Rev'd. Jonathan Lean, and the Rev'd. Canon Dorrien Davies, in blithe and blatant disregard of the Scriptural warnings about such a travesty. (See 2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
The Sri Chinmoy runners carry a flaming torch as a symbol of harmony, passing it from hand to hand. Both the Dean and the Canon took and ran with the torch. Is this such a big deal? Yes, it most certainly is, for in so doing they expressed their "oneness" with the pagan runners.
Photos of this most regrettable event can be found at:
www.peacerun.org/gb/news/2016/0315/1549/
Video footage (St. David's segment from 4:53):
https://youtu.be/FrGIEUMlt0k
Disturbing photos of the runners teaching Eastern meditation to impressionable young children in Carmarthen the previous day can be found at:
www.peacerun.org/gb/news/2016/0314/1552/
Christianity and pantheism in accord? They are diametrically opposed to each other! The "peace" promoted by the Sri Chinmoy devotees is quite simply the false peace of Antichrist...
Dear Mr. Thomas
The Bishop has replied to you regarding Mr Macgregor by stating that we were looking into the matter. You gave us information about him for which we thank you. However, this is now a matter between us and him. It is being addressed and it would not be right for us to enter into discussion about it. We treat these matters as confidential.
Again, thank you for your original note and we are sorry that we have been unable to get back to you sooner.
With all good wishes
Dennis
I wrote back to the Archdeacon on April 11, with the following observation:
When you say that this is now a matter between the Diocesan leadership and Rev. MacGregor, may I respectfully observe that as he is a practicing priest with not a private but a very public ministry and profile, then his personal radical reinterpretation of the historic Faith - resulting in undeniable failure to adhere to both the Creed and his Declaration of Assent - cannot realistically be seen as a confidential matter? Rev. MacGregor certainly does not keep his position private, so why exactly is it deemed by yourselves to be wrong to enter into a discussion about that position? There are certainly matters in which I would be in full agreement that confidentiality is correct and proper, but this is not such a matter. When a practicing priest responsible for properly shepherding the flock believes in and teaches "another Jesus... another spirit... another gospel" (2 Corinthians 11:4) this is an issue of very public concern indeed!
This, my final missive to the Diocesan leadership, concluded as follows:
Are Pembrokeshire people to be kept in the dark about all this? With all due respect, I believe they, and indeed the Body at large, have the right to know what - if anything - is to be specifically done to address these very real and very grave concerns.
A few hours later, I received the Archdeacon's (dare I say curt) response:
Mr. Thomas
I acknowledge receipt of your note.
Yours in Christ
Dennis
So there we have it. Stonewalled, I think, is the operative word... and all the while Rev'd. Don MacGregor continues to preach "another gospel," unchecked and indifferent to Paul's dire declaration about such a thing in his Epistle to the Galatians which headed this article.
THIS WOULD SEEM TO BE THE BISHOPRIC'S FINAL WORD ON THE MATTER. I'M SORRY, GENTLEMEN, BUT IT'S REALLY NOT GOOD ENOUGH! YOU CAN SWAT ME LIKE A NUISANCE FLY IF YOU WANT, BUT ONE DAY WE WILL ALL HAVE TO ANSWER TO GOD FOR WHAT WE HAVE DONE - AND ALSO WHAT WE HAVE NOT. THE BALL REMAINS FIRMLY IN YOUR COURT. PLEASE PLAY IT WISELY!
EPILOGUE
While we might well note that Rev'd. Don MacGregor remains, among other things, Area Dean for Dewisland and Fishguard in the Archdeaconry of St. David's under Dennis Wight, there is unfortunately more to this whole sad saga of compromise and complicity with an utterly false spirit in the St. David's Diocese that needs to be recorded.
On 15 March 2016, the Cathedral hosted the 'Sri Chinmoy Oneness - Home Peace Run' during its tour of the UK and Ireland. These runners are the disciples of the Indian Hindu guru who initiated this Peace Run. "What's the problem?" many might say. "Anything that promotes peace in the world has to be good, right?" Absolutely wrong! While any truly Bible-believing Christian should know full well that there is no peace outside of the Prince of Peace, these purveyors of pantheism were warmly welcomed by the Dean, the Very Rev'd. Jonathan Lean, and the Rev'd. Canon Dorrien Davies, in blithe and blatant disregard of the Scriptural warnings about such a travesty. (See 2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
The Sri Chinmoy runners carry a flaming torch as a symbol of harmony, passing it from hand to hand. Both the Dean and the Canon took and ran with the torch. Is this such a big deal? Yes, it most certainly is, for in so doing they expressed their "oneness" with the pagan runners.
Photos of this most regrettable event can be found at:
www.peacerun.org/gb/news/2016/0315/1549/
Video footage (St. David's segment from 4:53):
https://youtu.be/FrGIEUMlt0k
Disturbing photos of the runners teaching Eastern meditation to impressionable young children in Carmarthen the previous day can be found at:
www.peacerun.org/gb/news/2016/0314/1552/
Christianity and pantheism in accord? They are diametrically opposed to each other! The "peace" promoted by the Sri Chinmoy devotees is quite simply the false peace of Antichrist...
"And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand;
and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by PEACE shall destroy many."
(Daniel 8:25 - my emphasis)
"THERE IS NO PEACE, SAITH MY GOD, TO THE WICKED."
(Isaiah 57:21 - my capitalization)
* * * * * * *
FOOTNOTE: The 15 parishes forming the Pencaer Mission and Ministry Partnership, under Rev'd. Don MacGregor's leadership are:
Fishguard (St. Mary's)
Goodwick (St. Peter's)
Granston (St. Catherine's)
Jordanston (St. Cawrda's)
Letterston (St. Giles')
Little Newcastle (St. Peter's)
Llanfair Nant-y-Gof (St. Mary's)
Llanrhian (St. Rhian's)
Llanwnda (St. Gwyndaf's)
Llanychaer (St. David's)
Manorowen (St. Mary's)
Mathry (Holy Martyrs)
Pontfaen (St. Brynach's)
Puncheston (St. Mary's)
St. Nicholas (St. Nicholas')
* * * * * * *
