Having driven thousands of people out of the pews through its obsession with same-sex marriage, the Anglican Church of Canada has decided to concentrate on “evangelism and discipleship and mission” instead.
This, of course, is unfamiliar territory for the ACoC. Nevertheless, I have every confidence that – just as it did during the decade of evangelism – the ACoC will spend the next 10 years or so trying to decipher what those terms really mean, having conversations about them and, after establishing a commission to study the numerous theological interpretations that can be ascribed to them, acknowledge that, as theological abstractions, they do actually exist.
From here:
After three years spent in intense debate over a resolution to allow the marriage of same-sex couples, the House of Bishops intends to shift its focus to “evangelism and discipleship and mission” in the next triennium, says Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, following the house’s September 22-27 meeting in Winnipeg.
“In the last number of years…the vast majority of our time in meetings was consumed by conversations about same-sex marriage,” said Hiltz in an interview. “And the bishops are saying, ‘We’ve just got to have a more balanced agenda.’ ”
Bishop Mary Irwin-Gibson, of the diocese of Montreal, agreed, saying in an interview that the same-sex marriage debate has taken up “way too much airtime” in recent years. She said she hopes the house can “get on with the mission of the church” by making it “more vital and adept” at creating disciples.
If the same-sex marriage vote had gone the other way at general synod, I very much doubt that the bishops would be so willing to adopt a “more balanced agenda”. As it is, liberals have their way and same-sex marriages are proceeding without having to wait for the 2019 vote to finalise the issue. In Ecclesiastical Newspeak, this is called an “interim pastoral provision”, permitting bishops to ignore pettifogging details like synods, votes, canons, the Bible, God and Jesus.
Hiltz said no attempt was made to place a moratorium on same-sex marriages until after the second vote in 2019. What he heard from some bishops who announced their intention to allow same-sex marriages in their dioceses was that such marriages could happen, but as an “interim pastoral provision” that would require “the bishop’s knowledge and permission.” The bishop would also have to authorize a rite to be used to solemnize the union since the current liturgies, in the Book of Common Prayer and the Book of Alternative Services, cannot be used until the marriage canon is formally amended.
When asked how this arrangement was received by the house, Hiltz said, “I didn’t see any major reaction. No blow-up, no pushback.” He said that the bishops understood this as a pastoral provision.
To qualify my second paragraph above a little: one bishop, at least – Montreal’s Mary Irwin-Gibson – does have a clear idea of what “discipleship” really means – hard to believe, I know. “Discipleship” is marrying more same-sex couples:
“I’m interested in marriage as a Christian avenue of discipleship”
As long as the ACoC is lead by apostates such as Fred Hiltz the only so-called evangelism that can take place is to continue in their attempt to deceive orthodox Christians into believing they have changed. That cannot take place until they publicly repent from their actions in turning people from the Gospel to the worship of political correctness – a term that is deceptive in itself. Until that takes place the ACoC cannot claim to be a Christian church as they continue in their worship of the god of this world and NOT the GOD of the Scriptures. Currently they are disciples – that is disciples of Satan.
Christian believers get married and give births to potential disciples of Jesus. The church has been doing that for the last two thousand years. Let parents be missionaries to their own children! It will be one of a good beginning for the discipleship programme in 2016 and beyond.
How ironic, then, that the ACoC has been so dedicated to promoting unions that are, by definition, sterile.
Well now “the fields…they are white already to harvest”
– gay wedding white,
and with so many Episcopal marrying Sams to reap what they have sown.
+ John 4
… would require “the bishop’s knowledge and permission.”
Scripture has lost its authority but, not to worry, bishops have retained theirs. All is well…
Now that the “theological left” has achieved its ends, they try to shut down the conversation.
You are much too polite to refer to these apostate bishops as the “theological left”. The correct term would be apostates who have abandoned their allegiance and vows they have made before our Lord at the time of their ordination and/or consecration.
Yes…and the Pre-Cambric Right should get over and come to terms with reality…because it´s 2016 !!
That appears to be the full extent of your repertoire. You will have a real problem in 3 months.
Well the original Trudeau comment was “Because it’s 2015!”
It probably has legs.
Then it’ll be 2017 !!..and you will still be living in the Middle Ages
Or as Arius might have said, “Because it’s 316.”
The book of Jude tells it all. I wonder if they have read it. Oh excuse me, the liberals/apostates don’t believe the Bible and yet it speaks about them here so clearly.
Jude – New International Version (NIV)
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for[a] Jesus Christ:
2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord[c] at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”[d] 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.
11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.
12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”[e] 16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.[