Christian people of good conscience, good will, and discernment cannot long remain amongst the doctrinally indifferent, theologically ignorant...the wantonly, reckless and willfully hostile liberals. It's gold paint "sprayed" on a coiled, steamy horse turd. Marines can handle that. The phony pietists, faint of heart, and minimalists can't.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9389926/New-challenge-to-CofE-as-US-Anglicans-approve-gay-marriage-service.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9389926/New-challenge-to-CofE-as-US-Anglicans-approve-gay-marriage-service.html
New challenge to Cof E as US Anglicans approve gay 'marriage' service
The Church of
England’s opposition to same-sex marriage is facing a major challenge from
within after Anglicans in the US approved same-sex blessings in churches.
Gay Marriage Photo:
ALAMY
By John Bingham, and Jonathan Wynne-Jones
8:50PM BST 10 Jul 2012
Bishops in the American Episcopal Church, part of the
Anglican Communion, voted overwhelmingly to accept a special liturgy for what
is effectively a form of homosexual wedding.
The liberal stance of American Anglicans has proved one
of the biggest challenges to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams’s
authority during his 10-year tenure.
Its decision nine years ago to consecrate the first
openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, triggered a crisis in the
Anglican world, splitting the 77 million-strong Communion into liberal and
conservative camps.
He has dedicated much of the last nine years to trying to
heal the divisions it caused without success.
When Dr Williams was faced with the same choice over the
ordination of Jeffery John as Bishop of Reading he was forced into a bitter
u-turn, an episode which came to marr his tenure at Lambeth Palace.
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Now the American church has opened up a new challenge to the
authority of the Archbishop as titular head of the Anglican Communion by
accepting same-sex blessing services.
Although some Church of England clergy already offer
informal prayers for couples in civil partnerships, formal blessing services
have been ruled out.
And last month Dr Williams and his counterpart in York,
Dr John Sentamu, put their names to a strongly worded rejection of the
Government’s plans for same-sex marriage in Britain.
They argued against the prospect of homosexual weddings
in churches and even suggested that the issue could lead to the
disestablishment of the Church of England. But many within the Church have
questioned the document.
Yet in a vote at the Episcopal General Convention in
Indianapolis, the American House of Bishops has voted by almost three to one to
adopt a special rite called "The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong
Covenant." Last night it was also expected to receive the full support of
other delegates.
The Convention has also approved new guidelines making it
easier to ordain transsexuals as clergy.
The US votes are bound to prompt a fresh challenge within
the Church of England.
Although it was not on the agenda at this week’s General
Synod in York, a question-and-answer session with the Archbishops was
nonetheless dominated by challenges to the official Church response to the
same-sex marriage consultation.
Robert Key, the former Tory MP for Salisbury and a member
of the Synod, said: “I have no doubt that when we have drawn our conclusions
about women bishops we will move on to the whole question of gay marriage
because we have to come to a conclusion about that … it is certainly not going
to go away.”
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