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Loading ...Anglican Church may have ‘two track’ structure
07.27.2009 2:38pm EDT
(London) The Archbishop of Canterbury says the Anglican Church may have to accept a “two track” communion in which believers can hold different opinions about gay clergy and same-sex unions.
Rowan Williams wrote on his Web site Monday that there are “two styles of being Anglican” and that both sides should work together to maintain the church.Williams is the Anglican spiritual leader. His comments are in response to a decision by U.S. Episcopalian church last week to authorize bishops to bless same-sex unions and research an official prayer for the ceremonies.
The Episcopal Church caused an uproar among some Anglicans in 2003 by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Williams, has struggled since to keep the communion unified.
Leeanne,
I left atheism because I found it empty and lacking. I feel even more convinced I did right when the most I get out of it even today is yada, yada, yada. If yada, yada, yada is the most atheism has to offer me by way of brilliant literate expression, then I did OK by leaving it behind.
It’s ashame all life can’t be like mindless religious believers and followers. Don’t like a passage? Gloss over it and pretend it isn’t there. Don’t agree with something, did you go against the “good book” ask for forgiveness… yadda yadda. Does god hate us or not?
Who cares. I hate god.
God doesn’t pay the bills or feed the kids or make anything better or worse. When will anyone ever realize that…
I think Quakerism is the only religion that is actually accepting and equal for all people gay or lesbian or trans or not. They don’t change or bend things or stretch words or use only parts of a religious book to suit them.
I understand all the hupla about gay news, written by gays so it’s gay, however, the religious puke that is constantly spewed, I mean honestly.
In this day and age does ANY gay or lesbian or trans person stay up at night thinking they are going to hell anymore? Does anyone really care what these so called good moral people have to say?
Thomas,
I don’t have iPods and don’t need them. And I am not going to put away my faith to please you or make you feel better.
I have found far more discrimination and sexism in the community of 365 gay.com than I have in the gay-friendly church I willingly and gladly attend every Sunday.
Verrrrry interesting….. how many OTHER splinter groups of the “christian sect” have more than one way to salvation? Don’t get me wrong, I am a believer, but these clowns are full of it. Shit or get off the pot, kids.
“Two track” no kidding they don’t have a choice!
I feel sorry for people incapable of transcending the big three desert religions. Christians, Muslims and Jews are following belief systems rooted in inequality, fear, superstition and ignorance. This is just the latest example not only of “SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL” but of hypocrisy in its purest form.
There are alternatives to those who hate us so: I’ve found buddhists very welcoming; also Unitarian Universalists and the latter include atheists among their brethren. There is no need for “loyalty” to those who have used their religion to persecute us.
Any LGBT person who remains Catholic, Protestant, Muslim or Jewish should put away the iPod and seriously exam their own beliefs, and just how much they have to hate themselves to enjoy what should be a spiritual life. How spiritual are the Catholics and Mormons who stripped me and millions other of their human rights? How spiritual are Muslims who strap explosives onto brainwashed men, women and children to blown up innocent civilians? How spiritual are the Jews who unthinkingly support Israel and its maintenance of the largest concentration camp in Gaza, since the horror of Auschwitz.
These are not spiritual people, and their religions are bogus, and it’s time we all moved on.
The conservative faction won’t rest until they purge the liberals. The money is with the liberal faction, the numbers are with the conservatives (when you include Africa). There’s no way that the liberal branch is going away, so the only answer to that is a full split. The sooner it comes, the better, and not least because the liberals have first dibs on the structure of the church. They need to push the conservatives out. These are matters of doctrine that can’t be left to populist whim. Either the church is an accepting, love-affirming church, or it exists to create rules defining what love is, or whose love is valid. Maybe that works on people in countries where machete-swinging genocide is an acceptable practice, but this is one of those times when I have no problem saying that the African contingent needs to keep all of its nasty and self-confirming primitive stereotypical ignorance in its own toxic criminal landscape. The African Anglicans are unsuited for a civil society, let alone accepting the subordinate place of religion in such a society. The African faction has done everything it can to foment discord and division–where in any version of the New Testament did Jesus ever endorse or engage in such negative and energy-sapping behavior? He didn’t.
If there must be two synods or tracks within the Anglican-Episcopal church, then so be it. I will will stay with the wing of the church that follows the teachings of Christ Jesus– to bring all people unto Him, not the wing of the church that wants to shut doors and separate people from Him. I am Anglican and Gay– and proud of both.
I think it is truly naive to even think that the “conservative” base of the Anglican church would accept the idea of a two-track communion anyway. With fundamentalism it is all or nothing. GLBT people are such an anathema/heathen to the fundamentalists, they would accept us on a “two track” system. However, they will more than accept the money that filters down to them from the Episcopal heathen.
Sacraments and Orders – implements for the exercise of control; implements designed my men.
So much for “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.” You can’t have a branch of the Church Catholic (which Anglicanism WAS) in which half do not recognize the Sacraments and Orders of the other half. Canterbury is not the pope; the provincial Archbishops are not the college of cardinals; Lambeth Conference is not a General Synod of the Anglican Communion. Anglican Churches are autocephalous provincial bodies. It’s no accident that the most “liberal” of the provinces are in countries with democratic governments.
When Rowan Williams was elevated to be Archbishop of Canterbury there was widespread celebration as he had previously stated he believed in LGBT equality. However, as is often the case, when someone ascends to a position in which they could do something to advance LGBT rights, they backtrack, Williams backtracked and in a major way.
If you want to check out his full article, it’s here: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2502
The way I read it, he’s saying that without consensus with Christianity (and I don’t just mean Anglicanism), then same-sex blessings should not be allowed, nor should Lesbians or Gays in committed relationships be ordained, let alone elevated to higher positions within the Church.
He then goes on to say that the future could bring a two-tier membership structure; where the Conservatives are full-fledged members of the communion, with the right to attend international events, synods, etc., and “associated” members are still in communion with the wider Church but cannot be part of the “decision making” process. This, to me, smacks of “seperate but equal.”
And as for all the conservative Episcopalians who are breaking from the national Church, and aligning with African or South American dioceses; I have one thing to say to you. Do what the Anglicans in England did when the CofE started ordaining women – convert to Roman Catholicism. They will even take married priests; which puts the celebacy issue into a whole new light.
And a side note to the South American and African Churches and bishops who are establishing a “parallel” heirarchy in this country – BUT OUT! and MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS! When you can look at me and tell me that you are doing everything in your power to alleviate poverty and murder in your own countries, and when you vocally oppose dictarships in your own country, then come talk to me!