Tag Archives: same sex blessings

The Diocese of BC conducts its first same-sex blessing

Posted on by
8

Bishop James Cowan performed the first same-sex blessing in the Diocese of BC on June 1. As the article below notes, everyone processed into the church immediately following the civil wedding: the distinction between marrying and blessing that dioceses who perform same-sex blessings were so keen to make has, for all practical purposes, already vanished.

I notice that “Draw the circle wide, Draw it wider still” has made a comeback –”a step in drawing wider a circle of welcoming inclusiveness which needs to be drawn wider still.” Or to put it another way: you can’t hide; no matter how fast you run, we are coming for you and, when we find you, you will be included.

SS-blessingIt was a wonderful, exciting, joyous and emotional service which took place in the Church of St. John the Divine, Victoria, on Saturday June 1.

To the magnificent sounds of Sigfrid Karg-Elert’s Marche Triomphale from St. John’s Casavant organ, the large community of parishioners, family and friends processed into the church immediately following the civil wedding of Paul Gillan and Michael King in the church garden.

In a grace-filled landmark service of praise and thanksgiving, Bishop James Cowan conducted the first Blessing of a Same Sex Union to occur in the Diocese of British Columbia.

In his brief homily, the bishop noted the significance of this event in the Anglican church. Referring to the words “Draw the circle wide, Draw it wider still.” from the just-sung hymn “Draw the Circle Wide” (CP 418), Bishop James acknowledged that this service marked but a step in drawing wider a circle of welcoming inclusiveness which needs to be drawn wider still. He paid tribute to the long struggle for equality advanced at many Synods over the years by the parishioners of St. John’s and other churches in the diocese. In this service which included choral Eucharist, Bishop James spoke of God’s covenant with us.

As we gathered together to witness and bless the public commitment of Paul and Michael to each other, the bishop reminded us that all our covenants with family and friends are signs of God’s faithfulness and love, living expressions of God’s promises to us and sources of hope to others.

With joy in our hearts, we celebrated the covenant between Paul and Michael, praying that the life they share will reflect the love of God for the whole world. We also pray that this is just a beginning.

Fred Hiltz thinks marrying same-sex couples is going to be controversial

Posted on by
2

Very astute.

From here:

The primate said he was not surprised that the resolution asking the Council of General Synod to prepare a resolution for 2016 that would change the marriage canon to allow same-sex marriage “sparked some difficult moments.”

Asked to comment on opinions expressed by some members that there wasn’t enough time to debate on the merits of the resolution, Hiltz said, “It doesn’t matter what kind of resolution you have on the floor that’s going to change the marriage canon of the church so that same-sex couples can be married. It’s going to be controversial.”

Reacting to statements made by some members that allowing same-sex marriage is a big leap from the blessing of same-sex unions, the primate said, “None of that surprises me. There’s nothing new in that perspective; that’s been there in the life of the church for many years.”

Saying “[t]here’s nothing new in that perspective” is evading the point.   For years, the Anglican Church of Canada has been boring everyone – well, Anglicans, most of whom already have one foot in the grave – to death with explanations of why blessing same-sex couples is not the same as marrying them. The former, supposedly, is not against “core doctrine”; no-one is suggesting that the church is going to embark on the latter, we were assured, so there is really nothing to worry about.

Now the ACoC is going to vote on performing same sex-marriages in spite of all protestations to the contrary; naturally no priests would be compelled to perform same-sex marriages. Given the church’s duplicitous performance thus far, does anyone believe that?

The Church of England’s Faith and Ambiguity Commission Report

Posted on by
Reply

The Church of England has issued a report on marriage, same-sex marriage and same-sex civil partnerships.

Following the fine Anglican tradition of definitiveness aversion, it is sufficiently polysemous to allow some to conclude that the CofE rejects the blessing of same sex couples, others to conclude that same sex couples should be given “pastoral accommodations”, “recognition” and “compassionate attention” (in North America, dioceses called that a “generous pastoral response” shortly before launching into same sex blessings) and Giles Fraser to say:

Dr Giles Fraser, a former Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral who is now priest-in-charge of a South London church, said: ‘You cannot escape what is down in this document in black and white.

‘This is saying you can bless same-sex relationships as long as you don’t say what you are doing. It is a wink to people like me who want to go ahead.

‘It is coded language which says do it, but don’t advertise.’

And you thought Rowan Williams had left the building.

Another Canadian Anglican diocese starts same sex blessings

Posted on by
1

The Diocese of B.C.:

In 2010 I was asked by Synod to implement the blessing of same sex unions in the Diocese at
a time that I thought to be appropriate. I was asked to issue guidelines and a rite to be used.

Attached below are the Guidelines for the Blessing of Same Sex Unions in the Diocese
of British Columbia.  I am authorizing the blessing rite of the Diocese of New Westminster for
use in this Diocese, not a specific British Columbia rite.

As every other Canadian Anglican bishop who has authorised same-sex blessing rites, Bishop James Cowan is careful to call it a blessing rite, not a marriage.

Similarly, here, on page 2, the Diocese of Huron’s Keith Nethery bemoans the fact that journalists are unable to make the distinction between blessing a married homosexual couple and actually marrying them:

As an aside I can be all but 100 per cent certain that there isn’t a main stream reporter any where capable of understanding the difference between a Blessing and a Marriage – trust me I have tried to explain it to them.

Nethery doesn’t give journalists the credit they deserve for seeing through the mincing sophistry in which the Anglican Church Canada conceals its true motives, the better to befuddle the unwary. After all, homosexual marriage is legal in Canada and the ACoC clearly believes such “marriages” are a legitimate expression of marriage; if they didn’t, they could hardly bless them. So why doesn’t the Anglican Church of Canada stop the hypocritical harping on the fragile distinction between blessing something that has already been done and actually doing it?

Because that’s how pusillanimous Anglican clergy operate. When a rector wants to move a piano from one side of the church to the other, he moves it one inch per week; it takes a year to reach the other side but no-one notices.

Tolerance and inclusion in the Church of Scotland

Posted on by
4

The Church of Scotland has succumbed to the spirit of the age and is in the process of deciding to approve the ordination of clergy in same-sex relationships and the blessing of same-sex couples.

Not all agree. Rev. Dr. William Philip doesn’t, so his church is losing its building, Bibles, hymn books and an organ.

What do the liberals want with Bibles?

From here:

The minister of St George’s Tron in Glasgow has preached his last sermon in the building, before the Church of Scotland seizes the premises.

The congregation, which has been meeting in its Buchanan Street venue for more than 70 years, split from the Kirk in June over the ordination of openly homosexual ministers.

Since then St George’s Tron has been embroiled in a legal dispute about its building, which has recently undergone a £2.6 million refurbishment paid for by its members.
Last Wednesday, law officers appeared at the church prayer meeting demanding the return of bibles, hymn books and an organ.

The minister, Rev Dr William Philip, described the Kirk’s actions as “shameful”.

He said: “Having law officers disrupt a church meeting and intimidate a church is something we associate with China or former Soviet dictatorships but is the last thing we expected from the so-called national Church.”

Bishop Dennis Drainville has an ingenious scheme to resuscitate the Diocese of Quebec

Posted on by
40

According to Bishop Dennis Drainville his diocese, the Diocese of Quebec, is dying:

The Rt. Rev. Dennis Drainville said his diocese was “teetering on the verge of extinction” according to an account given by the church’s official newspaper.

Of the diocese’s 82 congregations, 50 were childless and 35 congregations had an average age of 75. These graying congregations often had no more than 10 people in church on Sundays, he said. “The critical mass isn’t there, there’s no money anymore,” he said.

In a flash of brilliance rarely seen illuminating the dimly sputtering synapses of a Canadian Anglican bishop, Drainville has decided that the answer to replenishing his childless congregations is to start blessing homosexual couples. Because their couplings produce so many offspring.

Same-sex couples in the diocese of Quebec will soon be able to receive a blessing of their civil union, according to the Anglican diocese’s newspaper, the Gazette.

[….]

In his charge to synod, Drainville expressed his intention to provide a rite of blessing and pastoral support for persons living in “committed, same-gender relationships.” This blessing is not a marriage, he emphasized, but rather “the blessing of civil union that has already taken place.”

The Diocese of Edmonton consigns itself to history’s church dustbin as it converses itself into irrelevance

Posted on by
2

A brief perusal of the diocesan rag reveals:

The diocese voted by 80% laity and 70% clergy to bless same-sex liaisons, demonstrating the lemming like instinct of catering to 0.69% of couples at the expense of 99.31% of couples. This calls for a “we are the 99.31%” Occupation initiative.

The bishop is telling everyone not to worry: she wouldn’t do so if there were not good reasons to worry.

The diocese is convinced that the Gospel has a more than infinitesimally tenuous connection to the Five Marks of Mission.

The bishop makes much of “walking together” and “finding common ground” – clearly, she didn’t notice how well that worked for Rowan Williams.

Apparently, the diocese has “embraced a proactive approach to ministry”; it obviously believes that committing verbicide in the interests of maximising incoherence is going to help.

The expected clichés are scattered with abandon throughout the paper: “standing together against global injustice”; “sustain and renew the life of the earth”; “safeguarding creation”; “transforming unjust structures of society”; “fair trade diocese” …. And so on, forever and ever awomen.

All that is missing is the only thing that is needed: a desire to bring people to reconciliation with God the Father through the atoning sacrifice of God the Son in order that they might attain life everlasting.

Diocese of Edmonton to vote on same-sex blessings at October Synod

Posted on by
2

From here, where there is also a report on “human sexuality” that informs us that it is all about far more than just what is done with our genitalia. Who knew? Read it for yourself, but it seems clear to me that the tenor of the report is to push for passage of the resolution while hoping that conservatives don’t leave because of it. After all, they probably contribute most of the money.

Resolution – G-3 – Blessing Same-Gender Committed Unions

Moved by: Very Rev. Neil Gordon

Seconded by: Ven. Chris Pappas

Be it resolved:

That Synod request the Bishop to grant permission to any clergy who may wish to offer prayers of blessing for covenanted same-gender relationships.

h/t: A Reasonable Faith

 

According to the ACA, the Diocese of Toronto's gift of $250,000 to the Diocese of New Westminster was a tithe

Posted on by
10

As I mentioned here, “the Diocese of Toronto’s Bishop Colin Johnson has paid Bishop Michael Ingham $250,000 for being the Canadian test case in the building dispute between the ACoC and ANiC. …. the ruling sets a Canadian precedent, effectively guaranteeing that the ACoC will be able to hang on to church properties – so that they can close and sell them.”

Rev. Dr. Murray Henderson from the Anglican Communion Alliance, a conservative group within the Anglican Church of Canada, has made a rather extraordinary statement about what he calls this  “tithe” to New Westminster:

I further advocated at the Council Meeting that the announcement of the gift make it clear that this was not our taking a stand on the issue of same sex blessing, but strictly a matter of paying our fair share as a diocese and parishes which are interested in maintaining our ownership of our property. The Archbishop made this clear in his announcement last Saturday.

It is evident he does not wish the Diocese of Toronto’s payment to be a condoning of same-sex blessings – even though the diocese is actively engaged in performing them – but, rather, wants to pay a “fair share” of the litigation cost of ejecting worshipping congregations from buildings for which they have a use to place them in the hands of dioceses who are allowing them to stand empty.

It’s not entirely clear to me whether it is worse to bless same-sex couples or turf fellow Christians out of their buildings but evidently, it is to Rev. Henderson: how far would he take it, one wonders? Would he be content to see all parish buildings stand empty so long as his diocese retains ownership of them and has not taken a “stand” on same-sex blessings – even though, to the un-blinkered it obviously has?

Not only does the ACA statement illustrate the impotence of struggling conservatives in the ACoC but it bodes ill for any plausible possibility of a conservative come-back within the church. To make it worse, I fear Rev. Henderson has strained out a gnat (albeit a big hairy one) and swallowed a camel.

Diocese of Niagara: Frodo and Gandalf walk down the aisle hand in hand

Posted on by
Reply

The Diocese of Niagara has a liturgy for blessing same sex marriages.

Those same sex couples who are a little uncomfortable with some of the things the Bible has to say about their nocturnal hanky panky, needn’t worry since they can choose a “secular reading” for the Proclamation of the Word. And why not? After all, the Bible has no place in today’s Anglican church; neither does God, come to think of it.

One of the readings is J.R.R Tolkien’s “The Road Goes Ever On”; it can be found in The Hobbit and in Lord of The Rings where it works very well. I’m not sure that it is quite so well suited to the Proclamation of the Word, though. One can only hope that, after reciting it, the happy couple both disappear when they put their rings on.