FAITH

Piddingworth Greg Benton

PIDDINGWORTH

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'Piddingworth...where St. George's Cross is not yet banned.'
--Mark Steyn

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A significant part of Piddingworth's on-going mission includes the promotion
of Christian life and virtues, as well as to celebrate and honour that great faith
given to the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, once and for all, to the apostles
and all the saints.

Sadly, many in this generation, tempted by the illusions, inventions and novelties
of "New Age" paganism, have turned away from the enduring truths that are
the foundation of our civilisation and of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.
Some within the Church itself have advocated replacing much of the Faith with worldly,
political and ridiculous pagan notions that are quite beyond the pale.

Thankfully, there remains, still and forever, the Living Water of Christ,
the Son of God, for those who thirst for true happiness, and the answer to life's
purpose and meaning found in the Sacramental life and the Sacred Scriptures.

The Christian faith was deeply held and lived by my West family at Piddingworth,
Stanmer Farm, East Sussex. In the midst of their labours, tragedy and much suffering,
there emerged from that place, the gentle, loving, humble and good example of Rose West,
my grandmother, whose quiet gift, by God's grace, has not been forgotten.

Since 1991, I sought to dedicate much of my work and ministry to her beloved memory,
and that of my 'West family', for the sake of the Kingdom of God.

I naturally treasure the English Church and it's beautiful traditions from which
I first received the grace of the Christian life in baptism and ministry but am deeply saddened
by the recent, devastating and, in places, perverse innovations in faith, teaching,
practice, within the Anglican Communion. The result is that the Anglican Church
has increasingly become moribund in most places outside of Africa.

Having isolated itself from its Catholic and Orthodox brethren, it has chosen,
in a variety of ways, to abandon the vital Catholic and Apostolic tradition it once claimed
to defend following four centuries of religious and political conflict.
The once-great hope for the reconcilation between Canterbury and Rome is gone.
So many 'shepherds' have abandoned their 'sheep'...and the sheep have been scattered
with many now 'lost'. I am sympathetic to those who have been alienated but hope
that they will seek the riches of faith where they may be found in the Church instituted by Christ Himself either through the proposed Anglican Ordinariate or individually as may be
appropriate. Yet, I realise, even among those very close to me, how difficult such
a change can be; and so hope that in good conscience all will find their
fulfilment in the promises of Christ according to their own hearts.

Add to the Anglican scandal that of the perversions among the clergy and religious
in the Catholic Church itself, and it would seem that a whole generation has gone
quite mad and that the Evil One, whom Christ named and exorcised, has grown
insidiously and deliberately within the Christian family. It makes one sick and
causes one to weep for those who have suffered as a result.

Whilst my religious and spiritual identity remains deeply attached to the Anglican
cultural heritage, I have, since 1998, embraced in conscience, and am in full communion
with the Catholic Church and the authority of St. Peter. I pray in hope with St. Thomas More
and St. John Fisher that, by God's grace, the English Church will be restored; by fidelity
to Christ's enduring gospel, for the sanctification of the world and the fulfilment
of His kingdom.

Gregory Benton
updated April, 2013