I didn’t get up early to watch the royal wedding. My wife did, though, so when I appeared, cup of tea in hand, the affair was in full swing with Justin Welby presiding over the recital of the marriage vows.
“An American gave the sermon”, my wife said.
“Yes, Michael Curry”, I replied. “You remember, the fellow in charge of The Episcopal Church – the church that isn’t allowed to represent Anglicanism anywhere. Except unimportant events like royal weddings.”
“It was all about love”, she said. “But he did mention Jesus”.
“Which, TEC’s or the real one?” I asked.
“Don’t be silly”.
“Well”, I said, “You know that Michael Curry doesn’t believe in marriage, don’t you? At least, not the same Judeo-Christian marriage that has been going strong for 6000 years: he thinks men can ‘marry’ each other!”
“That’s daft”, she replied. “Still, he did talk about love a lot. Don’t they look lovely together?”
“So it was a John Lennon sermon? – you know ‘All you need is Love’.”
“I suppose so. He was very enthusiastic about their love: he said we will see the end of poverty because of it.”
“I don’t expect Harry and Meghan will see much poverty”, I agreed. “Her dress wasn’t cheap, was it?” “Hang on a minute, isn’t that George Clooney in the congregation?”
“Yes dear, Meghan is a Hollywood actress, of course George is there. Do try to keep up, dear.”
“I don’t see Elton. Surely they didn’t forget him!”
“Yes, he’s there with his husband. Or is it his wife…… it’s hard to keep these things straight”.
“I’ll leave you to it”, I said, “it’s too much excitement for me first thing in the morning”.
What better way to sum up my enthusiasm for all this than with a pearl of wisdom from Michael Curry:
“The power of love is demonstrated by the fact that we are all here. Two young people fell in love and we all showed up!”
Coincidentally, my morning Bible reading included a passage from John (not Lennon) which offers a different explanation of why Michael, Justin, George, Elton, et al “showed up”:
For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. (John 12:43)
“Love will end poverty?” A warm and fuzzy yet meaningless and unrealistic platitude. It hasn’t yet, and that’s the thing about platitudes – they actually accomplish nothing except substitute emotion for action. Even Jesus didn’t end poverty. In fact he told us the poor will always be with us. But the Hollywood elites and other wealthies who were there probably nodded in pious agreement, will return to their multi-million dollar homes saying, “Yes, someone should do something about poverty.”
All of this like the marriage itself serves State purposes. Particular purposes I believe are national unity instead of bad race relations, and the strengthening of ties with Canada and the States. I really don’t believe that Cantuar invited Curry of his own accord! All of the arrangements were carefully orchestrated. It’s nice that the young people seem to like each other, but we’re talking politics not theology with such invitations.
Indeed the entire exercise was nothing but politics. It clearly demonstrates that the Anglican Communion — at least within the English and American churches – has abandoned the God of the Bible to the god of political expediency. Until the Anglican Communion as a whole is ready to accept THE WORD over that of apostate so-called bishops it will never prove to be Christian.
Actually I meant that this whole thing has everything to do with Downing Street and nothing to do with Lambeth.
The Queen, whose net worth is about $550 million, is still the governor of the Church of England. Unfortunately, this situation will not be changed in the near future.
At least the Queen is a Christian which is more than you can say for some Church of England clergy.