Tag Archives: same sex blessings

Anglicans deal with heretical bishops by waiting for them to die

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That seems to be Rev. Gary Nicolosi’s approach in this article. While waiting for wayward bishops to die might appear to be gentler than summarily defrocking them – assuming the process isn’t artificially hastened – it doesn’t work particularly well in a church like the Anglican Church of Canada which is producing new heretical bishops at a greater rate than it is burying them.

Bishop Paul Moore of New York told a story several years ago about an incident that occurred in his junior year at General Theological Seminary. Some of the students were upset by a headline in The New York Times stating that the bishop of Birmingham (England) did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus. The students rushed to their theology professor, Dr. Marshall Boyer Stewart. “Dr. Stewart, Dr. Stewart,” said the students, “what are we going to do? The bishop of Birmingham, a real English bishop, does not believe in the resurrection!” Dr. Stewart put his face in his hands, sighed and said, “Well, the bishop of Birmingham will die someday, and the next bishop of Birmingham probably will believe in the resurrection.” That, Bishop Moore said, is how Anglicans deal with heresy!

Nicolisi’s article deliberately muddles the necessity for confronting heresy by quoting Matthew 13:24-30, the parable of the weeds: in his view, heresy is a weed that, if uprooted, might also uproot the wheat. This, of course is a typically devious liberal misapplication of a parable. While we are not to uproot possible unbelievers from the church, allowing teachers – bishops – to spout anti-Christian nonsense is an entirely different issue.

2 Peter 2:1-3 puts pay to the idea of  tolerance  for false teachers; unsurprisingly, Nicolosi doesn’t quote from it.

Will the Anglican Church of Canada get out of the marriage business?

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The Anglican Church of Canada has been considering getting out of the marriage business and, instead, just “blessing” the state version of marriage.

An obvious reason for this is that the state has altered the meaning of marriage from the union of one man and one woman to the joining in a sexual, but otherwise indeterminate fashion, of men with men and women with women. The Anglican Church of Canada, applying its typical reverse-prophetic sycophancy, wants to go along with this, but has to overcome one minor hurdle: the Bible.

The answer to the problem is simple: stop marrying people altogether, just “bless” what has already been done.

From here:

A small group of bishops will lay the groundwork for a discussion of marriage within the life of the church at the November House of Bishops meeting in Niagara Falls.

The impetus for this discussion is a General Synod request to the faith, worship and ministry committee to consider the implications of having Anglican clergy cease to solemnize marriages.

It all makes perfect sense: by devaluing the idea of marriage, the church has rendered it meaningless, so why keep on doing it?

What’s more, there is a efficient replacement:

When Miguel Hanson and Diana Wesley get married today, they won’t stand before a gray haired minister holding a Bible.

Instead, they’ll be looking at a 30-inch monitor.

On one half of the screen, they’ll see a virtual minister with an animated, square face with blue eyes and thin, oval glasses.

His voice will be heard over a sound system while the text of what he’s saying will show up on the other half of the screen.

And the sermon would be shorter and make more sense.

Switzerland to vote on incest legality

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From here:

Switzerland is considering a repeal its incest laws to make sexual relations between family members legal.

It claims the law is ‘obsolete’ and that the courts have dealt with just three cases since 1984.

The upper house of the Swiss parliament has drafted a law de-criminalising sex between adult consenting family members which must now be considered by the government….

Politicians of both the left and right are outraged at the suggested change. But Green party MP and lawyer Daniel Vischer said he saw nothing wrong with two consenting adults having sex, even if they were related.

The Green MP’s seeing nothing wrong with incest is an apt illustration of what happens when you toss out the foundation upon which right and wrong are based: in this case, Judeo-Christian ethics.

When that is gone, subjectivity replaces it and all it takes to turn a wrong into a right is for someone to see it that way. One wonders what churches will do with this if it passes; will they bless same-sex partnerships between siblings?

More on the BC court of appeal ruling

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On Monday November 15th, the legal wrangling between the Diocese of New Westminster and parishes that have left the diocese because of theological disagreements reached another milestone.

The highest court in British Columbia ruled not to overturn an earlier court decision that said the parishes could not continue to use their buildings for non-diocesan purposes: the buildings remain with the diocese and the departing congregations must vacate them. No decision has yet been made to pursue one more possible appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Ostensibly, this Anglican squabble began with the Diocese of New Westminster’s decision to proceed with the blessing of same-sex civil marriages in selected parishes. The disagreements run far deeper than that, though. Liberal Anglican dioceses – New Westminster is one of the most liberal – have been slowly eroding the basic Christian faith for decades. Bishop Michael Ingham, in interviews and his book “Mansions of the Spirit”, has questioned the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, his Virgin birth, his divinity and his uniqueness. What, as a bishop, he should defend, he has undermined.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, sought to calm the storm created by the vehemence of such disagreements by trying to find an Hegelian middle ground between the diametrically opposed positions taken by Anglican liberals and conservatives. At the Lambeth conference he used indaba groups – small groups where everyone has a chance to speak – to accomplish this. Although his technique made everyone moderately unhappy, it at least held things together, so it was hailed as a success and adopted by the Anglican Church of Canada at its recent synod.

The result was a statement on human sexuality which declares that the Canadian national church has not officially approved the blessing of same-sex civil marriages, but dioceses are free to make their own decision. It’s an Anglican version of “don’t ask, don’t tell”. Dioceses are proceeding apace with same-sex blessings while the national church quietly averts its gaze: the dioceses that are performing same-sex blessings are doing so in the closet.

Although the Anglican Church delights in trying to find doctrinal middle ground, when it comes to who owns church property, the quest for compromise is strangely absent. As one of the trial judges noted: “I could not help but feel that counsel’s respective submissions were like two ships passing in the night, as were the legal authorities on which they relied.” There were no courtroom indaba groups; when it comes to buildings, winner takes all.

The judges perceptively noted that: “[p]resumably the Bishop and the Synod have chosen to take the risk that the policy allowing same-sex blessings will indeed prove to be ‘schismatic’; or that clergy in the Diocese will for the foreseeable future find themselves ministering to vastly reduced or non-existent congregations.”  As the number of people attending an Anglican Church declines, many dioceses, including New Westminster, are busy merging parishes and closing unused buildings. If there is a final legal victory for the diocese, it will be a pyrrhic victory won at the cost of taking fellow Christians to court to obtain possession of buildings for which they have no real use – other than to sell to the highest bidder.

In former times, a sustained decline in church attendance would have been cause for self examination, a time to ask the question “are we doing something wrong?” – particularly when evangelical churches who have a less fluid view of what constitutes Christian doctrine are growing. Not so here. In a move that in business would be seen as a sign of mental instability, the strategy appears to be to win the hearts of potential parishioners by suing the largest congregation in Canada, evicting them from the building for which they have a legitimate use and proceeding full steam ahead with the agenda that caused the rift in the first place.

There are numerous similar court cases in progress with other dioceses. This decision by the BC court of appeal does not bode well for parishes that have left their diocese. The consolation that these parishes have, though, is that a church is a community of people whose allegiance cannot be dictated by a court. A church building can change hands but, when standing empty, it will be nothing more than a rather sad reminder of the folly of a church hierarchy that has lost its way.

Diocese of Toronto publishes Pastoral Guidelines for the Blessing of Same Gender Commitments

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Read it all here:

The following guidelines are presented in order to offer a generous pastoral response to stable committed same gender relationships in our diocesan family seeking a blessing of their commitment. The guidelines were formed after consultation with a Commission of clergy and laity across a variety of theological perspectives and opinions seeking to recognize the sensitivity of the issue while being pastorally appropriate. In our discussions, we have seen that there is great diversity among parishes that are opposed to same gender commitments, similar to the diversity found in parishes that are in favour. Recognition of this diversity affirms that parishes which hold similar viewpoints on this subject are not to be painted with one brush, and represent the rich breadth of life in parishes, with parishioners who are theologically astute and deeply committed Christians. The diversity of our diocesan community demonstrates that we are called to witness to the faith in a variety of ways, and though such witness is rooted in differing interpretations and understanding of holy scripture and the tradition, they are recognizably Anglican.

The exercise is obviously being undertaken as an experiment to see how it goes. Or, to put it less kindly, to see how vehement the opposition is (not very, most of those who still care have already left), whether it is likely to provoke sanctions from on high (unlikely, since it uses the weasel designation of “pastoral”) and whether, by hammering the wedge in a little further, the opposition is worn down a little more (probably):

Permission to be given to a few selected parishes – The diocesan bishop will designate a limited number of parishes to be given permission to bless people in same gender commitments.

Criteria for selection:

a. The Diocesan Bishop will select the parishes to be considered for permission

b. Parish will have demonstrated a process of prayer, education, consultation, discernment and consensus development that widely engages the parish community.2

c. When the Priest, Churchwardens, and Advisory Board/Parish Council feel that consensus has been reached, the Churchwardens will write a letter to the Diocesan Bishop outlining the process and decision reached and request permission be granted.

d. The Priest will separately communicate his/her support of such a decision and concurrence that the parish is ready to participate in accordance with these guidelines. If either the priest or Churchwardens do not concur then the process ceases.

e. The Diocesan Bishop, at his discretion, may grant permission to one or more of these parishes.

f. Permission will be given for a two year period. At the end of that period, permission may be renewed or withdrawn after review.

g. Permission is granted for the clergy/parish relationship at that time. When a cleric leaves a designated parish the designation will be revisited with the Diocesan Bishop upon the appointment of a new cleric.

h. The Area Bishop will be kept informed through the process and consulted prior to a final decision.

i. The parish will be expected to report annually to the diocesan bishop through the office of the Area Bishop indicating the number of blessings and offering evaluative remarks on the significance of the practice for the mission of the parish.

Those in a same-sex relationship don’t have to be civilly married to receive a blessing:

Same Gender Blessings – This pastoral response is extended to couples in our midst who seek to live in mutual love and faithfulness in a stable, long-term committed relationship. A blessing may be made available to couples who are not civilly married as the blessing is not considered to reflect, or to be understood as, marriage.

a. The blessing of any same gender relationship is expected to be part of an existing pastoral relationship with a priest and local congregation.

b. At least one of the couple should be baptized.

Clergy who disagree with same-sex blessings are still required to implicitly condone them through referrals:

Clergy who object to blessing same gender relationships will be asked to exercise pastoral generosity by referring same gender couples seeking a blessing, if requested, to the Area Bishop.

And let’s be sure we all understand that this has nothing to do with same-sex marriage. Nothing at all. One step at a time.

In order to be clearly distinguished from a marriage liturgy, the act of worship will NOT include the following:

i. An exchange of consents. It is presumed that participation in this service is sufficient consent.
ii. Opportunity for public legal or canonical objections. However the officiating priest may not bless the couple if either is legally married to someone else.
iii. A declaration of union.
iv. No rite of civil marriage will be conducted in the context of the blessing act of worship.
v. No signing of a marriage register will take place.
vi. A nuptial blessing – understood as any of the prayers found on page 567 of the Book of Common Prayer (1962) or on page 534-535 and 548 – 549 of the Book of Alternative Service (1985) or any blessings found in the marriage liturgies of other provinces of the Anglican Communion.

h/t to my underpaid research assistant.

The Diocese of Montreal’s same-sex marriage liturgy

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Has been published:

The Blessing of the Marriage

The people remain standing. The couple kneel, and the celebrant says one of the following prayers.

Most gracious God, we give you thanks for your tender love in sending Jesus Christ to come among us, to be born of a human mother, and to make the way of the cross to be the way of life. We thank you, also, for consecrating the union of two people in his name. By the power of your Holy Spirit, pour out the abundance of your blessing upon this couple. Defend them from every enemy. Lead them into all peace. Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon their foreheads. Bless them in their work and in their companionship; in their sleeping and in their waking; in their joys and in their sorrows; in their life and in their death. Finally, in your mercy, bring them to that table where your saints feast for ever in your heavenly home; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.

Reading the liturgy reinforces the grotesqueness of calling a same sex union “marriage”.  It does violence to Mark 10:6-7, makes a mockery of marriage and a laughing-stock of the putative church.

A diocese that is unable to see such a cheap counterfeit for what it is, is no longer entitled to call itself a Christian church.

Diocese of Montreal: whatever you do, don’t repeat the marriage vows

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The Diocese of Montreal has a “Protocol for Use” of the rite for the blessing of Civil Marriage. All of which is a euphemism for blessing same-sex unions. You can read the “Protocols” on page 2 here:

‘The marriage vows should not be repeated’
There is an intimate relationship between the vows of marriage and prayers of blessing which may follow them, even when there is a considerable interval of time between the two events.

Nothing that is done in the blessing of a civil marriage should reflect negatively on the original exchange of vows. The blessing of a civil marriage is not a second marriage. The marriage vows should not be repeated.

It is pretty clear that the intent is to ratify in a Christian – or at least Anglican – setting the sexual union of same-sex partners. That liberals in the Anglican Church would like to actually marry same-sex couples is beyond doubt. They must think the timing is not quite right: that the average Montreal Anglican is not quite “ready”; that to do so would finally push parishioners over the edge; that conservatives haven’t quite all left yet. Thus, for the moment,  we have “Protocols of Use”.

So whatever you do, don’t repeat the marriage vows. I did once, but I think I got away with it; yes, this is a farce.

Anglican Church of Canada’s Sexuality Discernment Statement now available in French

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Just what we’ve all been waiting for:

Sexuality discernment statement released in French.
General Synod’s statement on sexuality discernment is now available in French. At the General Synod 2010 meeting, members met several times in small groups to discuss human sexuality. This statement is a report from these conversations and acknowledges the differing viewpoints on human sexuality within the church as well as members’ desire to stay in conversation.

This translation will mainly be of interest to Anglicans in the Diocese of Quebec – well, and Montreal, although Montreal is largely bilingual. The average age of a Diocese of Quebec Anglican is 75 and, as you can imagine, they’ve all been champing at the bit to talk about gay sex: now they can really get down to what interests them before shuffling off this mortal coil:

The Diocese of Quebec is all but dead, its bishop told the Canadian House of Bishop at their fall meeting in Niagara Falls, the Anglican Journal of Canada reports.

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.

Marriage in the Diocese of Niagara

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It’s not what it used to be. A comment from someone prompted me to take another look at the Niagara rite of blessing of civil marriage: it would be used for the blessing of same-sex partners (one of whom has to be baptised – why?), but, presumably could be used to bless heterosexual civil unions too. We are assured in the introduction that the “rite is innovative” – and indeed it is as an excercise in maudlin sentimentality:

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now, there is no more loneliness.
Now you are two persons, but there is one life ahead of you.
Go now to your dwelling to enter into the days of your life together
And may your days be good and long upon the earth

From there it lurches recklessly into the assertion that same-sex attraction and its fulfilment is a sacred God-given gift and a bodily expression of Christ’s perfect love:

In your mercy you befriend those who wander in loneliness and shame, those oppressed because of difference, those who do not know the value of their unique and sacred gift; and by your Holy Spirit you awaken in them the dignity of humankind and the responsibility of embodied love, as perfected in Jesus Christ, who loved and gave himself for us, showing us the way to intimacy with you and with one another.

None of which overshadows the Proclamation of the Word with its suggested secular readings. Here is one from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, “We two boys together clinging” – a poem about gay love:

WE two boys together clinging,
One the other never leaving,
Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions making,
Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,
Arm’d and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving.
No law less than ourselves owning, sailing, soldiering, thieving,
threatening,
Misers, menials, priests alarming, air breathing, water drinking, on
the turf or the sea-beach dancing,
Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking, feebleness
chasing,
Fulfilling our foray.

Or the couple could select “The Road Goes Ever On”. While it works pretty well in Lord of the Rings, I wonder if the happy couple look forward to wading through the festering marshes of Emyn Muil, only to end up in Mount Doom where the bride will have his finger bitten off and thrown into the molten lava, ring and all.  Although – maybe that’s an apt metaphor.

Apparently, the Diocese of Niagara is too theologically conservative for some

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From the Niagara Anglican (page 8):

Have the gays of the Diocese achieved their goals? Not really. Okay, let’s be honest, not at all. The Diocese of Niagara has agreed upon and published the Niagara Rite of Blessing of Civil marriage. Right? No, actually. This document is to be used at the discretion of individual priests to bless, for example, a gay couple already married in the civil courts. Priests have been able to bless most anything (such as furniture, hymn books, pets) and anyone (such as those going on a long trip) so why was all this effort necessary to enable them to bless same-sex unions? Furthermore, is anyone performing this rite?

But there now is a movement towards the development of a liberal breakaway group. More walking. This concept has matured enough to reach my generally un-political ears. Here is a paraphrase of a recent email:

“The leaders of the Diocese are doing their best but what’s happening is that many genuine seekers of God’s Spirit are being left on the side of the church’s road-way simply because they are homosexual. After years of unsuccessful struggle to make the Anglican Church of Canada inclusive, there is now a very serious call to begin an alternative (liberal) church that expresses no protest, politics, or need for property. They are people who simply want to worship God together by sharing the scriptures and breaking bread in justice and love.”

This tends to confirm my suspicion that General Synod, by neither approving nor condemning the blessing of same-sex unions, has stirred discontent in both conservative and liberal camps. While the stubbornly optimistic are prepared to soldier on under the guise of compromise, the more strident, hot-blooded – if I may be allowed such an oxymoron – Anglicans are still straining in opposite directions.

So while I find it difficult to image a more liberal diocese than Niagara, clearly for some, Niagara is simply too orthodox. For how many, I wonder? Between 3 and 5? More than 5? Surely not more than 10. Will they try to take their buildings with them? Will the diocese find itself in the peculiar position of suing liberals as well as conservatives while trying to persuade the apathetic centre to continue paying for lawyers?

The parish I attend has a potting shed that it might be willing to rent to a breakaway Anglican hyper-liberal cartel.