Category Archives: Same-sex marriage

Anglican clergyman agues for civil same-sex marriage before Australian parliament

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The very Reverend Peter Catt reckons that same sex marriage doesn’t impinge on marriage at all, even though it unavoidably changes the Biblical definition of marriage from a divinely established covenant between a man and a woman to something arbitrary and man-made. Rev. Peter Catt is Dean of St. John’s Cathedral, so perhaps he hasn’t been able to find the time to read the Bible.

From here:

THE Anglican Church of Australia’s Very Reverend Peter Catt says a same-sex marriage Bill would not deny or denigrate the legitimacy of marriage.

Addressing the parliamentary hearing on same-sex marriage on behalf of the church’s social responsibilities committee, Dr Catt said civil unions instead extended the liberties of same or opposite-sex couples.

“I really don’t see that this impinges on marriage at all,” he said.

He said children were better off in a relationship with good values, which included gay couples, and said bad marriages actually did more to undermine the institution of marriage.

The Anglican Journal barely contains its glee in reporting a Catholic favouring same-sex marriage

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Apparently, it brings us one step closer to everyone being equal[ly daft].

In the Anglican Church of Canada, agreeing with a government when it wants to introduce same-sex marriage legislation and disagreeing with a government when it introduces spending cuts are both known as prophetic social justice making. A prophecy occurring after the fact would be risible for any institution that was less behind the times than the ACoC, of course: but what else can you expect from a church that consecrates a bishop to the dulcet prophetic tones of All You Need is 1960’s Love.

From here:

Brisbane, Australia – As Australia debates gay marriage, one Catholic member of Parliament, who is in favor, says his faith informs his thinking, but not necessarily his decision-making.

In taking this stance, Brisbane Labor MP Graham Perrett is opposing both his church and his party but said he believes “it is time for this nation to protect committed, monogamous relationships, whatever the gender of the adults who wish to have their relationship recognized by the state.”

New York clerk resigns over gay marriage

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There was a time when an employer regarded the existence of principle in an employee as a demonstration of worth. In the ‘60s I remember a pacifist friend applying for a job with IBM telling his interviewers that his conscience wouldn’t permit him to work on any military projects. He was employed anyway, on the grounds that IBM likes to hire people with principle. I’m not sure if his resolve was ever put to the test and I doubt that today’s IBM values any principle other than an employee’s desire to help it make a profit.

We live in an age pseudo-tolerance: everyone is tolerated whose ideas do not depart from the dictates of the zeitgeist: thus a New York clerk whose conscience will not permit her to marry a same sex couple has been forced to resign.

From here:

Reacting to the news that the first New York State town clerk has resigned rather than sign her name on a same-sex “marriage” license, Gov. Andrew Cuomo insisted Tuesday that “the law is the law.”

“When you enforce the laws of the state, you don’t get to pick and choose which laws,” he said, according to the NY Daily News.  “You don’t get to say, ‘I like this law and I’ll enforce this law, or I don’t like this law and I won’t enforce this law’ – you can’t do that.”

“So if you can’t enforce the law, then you shouldn’t be in that position,” he added.

From a purely practical perspective, since the clerk has not mounted a campaign to dissuade other clerks from marrying same sex couples, she is not in any way hampering the enforcement of the law. The law, miserable as it is in this case, is in no danger of floundering for a lack of willing clerks.

Laura Fotusky is a person whose conscience is not aligned to contemporary mores: this is an affront to the gatekeepers of conventional morality and they will not rest content until she and any other dissenters have their thoughts conformed into the narrow confines of fashionable dogma.

We are, after all, a broad minded-society

 

Episcopal bishops gleefully welcome New York same-sex marriage

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The news that a law permitting same-sex marriages in New York has been approved is all it took for bishops in The Episcopal Church to fall over themselves in their eagerness to slavishly follow the world’s lead. In contemporary ecclesiastical parlance, this is called being prophetic. It used to be called being relevant but that is so 1990s.

You can read more on their enthusiastic rejoicing here:

At least one U.S. Episcopal Church bishop in the state of New York has said that clergy in his diocese may solemnize same-gender marriages as soon as the state’s recently passed Marriage Equality Act goes into effect.

“The Episcopal diocese of Long Island will engage this new law with a generous and open response allowing, under the provision of our General Convention, the use of rites for same-gender marriage by priests of this diocese who believe they are called to preside at the exchange of vows, once the law has taken effect in 30 days,” Bishop Lawrence Provenzano said in a June 25 statement.

Meanwhile, Bishop Prince Singh of Rochester said in a statement e-mailed to Episcopal News Service that he would soon set up a diocesan task force “to help us chart our course to engage this journey reverently, deliberately and in congruence with church law.” Singh told ENS that he was “working on some more specific direction for the diocese.” He had actively campaigned for at least two years for passage of the law.

Diocese of Western New York Bishop William Franklin said in a statement welcoming the law’s passage that he will be holding meetings soon “for members of our diocese to listen to how Episcopal churches in Western New York might integrate this decision into our life.”

Diocese of New York Bishop Mark Sisk said in a statement that “the legislation, as enacted, appears to be closely aligned with the long standing views of this diocese that the civil rights of all people should be respected equally before the law.”
All four praised passage of the act. The bishops of Albany and Central New York did not respond to ENS requests for comment.

 

UK: Same-sex marriages to be permitted in Anglican churches

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From here:

Ministers are expected to publish plans to enable same-sex couples to “marry” in church, the BBC has learned.

Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone is to propose lifting the ban on civil partnerships taking place in religious settings in England and Wales.

There are no plans to compel religious organisations to hold ceremonies and the Church of England has said it would not allow its churches to be used.

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the change was “long overdue”.

Civil partnership ceremonies are currently entirely secular.

What next for the Church of England, one wonders. This, perhaps:

RUNCORN – England – Under new Coalition rules spearheaded by Nick Clegg, all churches in England and Wales will now be forced to include gay bath houses in the religious buildings.

The new initiative pushed through by Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, will involve massive renovations to all the churches in the British Isles.

Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone is to propose pushing through the gay bath house bill making it compulsory to include bath houses in all religious settings in England and Wales.

“We’ll have bath houses where the men and priests can congregate and even a viewing gallery where Coalition church bath house inspectors can ensure that the gay orgies within the churches are conducted in a gay enough manner,” Arch Deacon of the Bristol Diocese, Henry Felcher, told the BBC.

Already, there has been interest from some celebrities like George Michael and Sir Elton John.

“We’ll be going to church a lot more often in England now. I’ll bring the baby with me to tell him about the bees and the bees,” Sir Elton John told the Los Angeles Times.

The Very Rev. Katherine Ragsdale did something old-fashioned, traditional, and family value-focussed

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She married another woman.Add an Image

From here:

It’s not that we wanted to make a political statement……

The direction of the Holy Spirit seems readily discernible to many of us.  The Church, throughout the world, is growing in the direction of inclusion and justice for all God’s people, including Mally and me.  For now, the fights continue.  Anglicans, among others, fight and threaten schism over our marriages, over our love, and our lives.  Mally is Canon to the Ordinary (the Bishop’s chief of staff), and I am the President and Dean of an Episcopal Seminary.  Because of this, we are in danger of becoming the newest poster-children in this on-going fight.  All of this–for doing something as old-fashioned, traditional, and family value-focused as getting married surrounded by friends and family in the church.

What can one possibly say in the face such chutzpah?

Nice hairdo, sweetie.