Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Episcopals to debate gay marriage, consecration of gay bishops
07.13.2009 1:31pm EDT
(Anaheim, Calif.) The Episcopal Church’s national convention will take up whether the church will approve religious ceremonies for same-sex couples and whether gay bishops should be consecrated, reports UPI.
“It’s important that we recognize the equal stature of all Christians in the church so that we model that type of inclusivity in civil society,” Bishop Marc Andrus of the Diocese of California said.This is the first national convention of the Episcopal Church in three years. The Episcopal Church, with 2.1 million members, is the U.S. branch of the global Anglican communion, which has 77 million members, many of them religious conservatives in Africa. The church has been divided over the consecration of gay bishops since the ordination of Rev. Gene Robinson in 2003.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has tried to hold the fragile communion together by getting churches to observe a voluntary moratorium on consecrating another openly gay bishop and developing prayers for same-sex unions. But many fear a split is inevitable.
“If we are not extremely careful at this convention, we could find ourselves outside the Anglican Communion, and that would be a tragedy for all of us,” Bishop William Love of Albany, N.Y., said. “My fear is that the Episcopal Church destroys itself.”
“If we are not extremely careful at this convention, we could find ourselves outside the Anglican Communion, and that would be a tragedy for all of us,” Bishop William Love of Albany, N.Y., said.”
Why would it be a tragedy? Sometimes, being extremely careful only ends up with you not living your values…
Let the split occur.. Be done with them, and then live those values of inclusiveness. Your example will likely bring many of them back..
Check it all out on http://www.StandFirminFaith.com live from LA,CA.
So the Conservative Anglicans bitch about gay priests and bishops in the US…but remain silent on Africans bishops and priests who have several wives, plus mistresses and “personal assistants” just because that is “the local culture”…ha?
Bama, as a life long Episcopalian … I say … well said.
SteveMD2 is using strong language, but I understand what he means and I basically agree with him. There’s nothing Godly about hate and bigotry. Suppose the anti-LGBT parishes leave the Episcopal church, and they’re only 5 to 10 percent of all parishes. The church will then be more solidly pro-LGBT; gay priests and same-sex marriage won’t be an issue. The church will be less divided and will become a stronger force for love and acceptance of LGBT people. In today’s accepting climate, the church could end up attracting more people than it loses by standing up for equality and basic fairness. This could show the Presbyterians and ELCA Lutherans that the sky won’t fall if they become welcoming denominations. The end result could be very beneficial.
I am constantly amazed at the hisorical inaccuracy that is bandied around regarding the Episcopal Church, the Church of England and the Anglican Communion as a whole.
John Said: The Anglican Church was started because King Henry VIII wanted a divorce and the Bishop of Rome wouldn’t give him one.
First of all, there were Christians in Britian before Augustine “Roman Catholicized” the islands. Representatives of the British Church were in Nicea when the Nicene Creed was written.
However, after Henry VIII broke with Rome, the Church adopted many Protestant ideas. So much so, that when Henry’s daughter Mary became Queen, she forced the population to “convert” back to Catholicism. Mary’s sister, Queen Elizabeth I was raised in Holland as a Protestant and most of the people returned to and accepted the Protestant faith.
As for “the Episcopal Church (USA) coming into being after we won our Revolution …”
Following the Act of Union – England and Scotland, while two distinct countries, were ruled as one. And that includes the Anglican Church. So regardless of wether bishops in the newly formed United States were consecrated by bishops from England or Scotland, they were still following the Apostolic Succession.
I just wish people would get their facts straight.
People should also remember that the current debate (conservative vs inclusive) within the Episcopal Church USA did not start with the ordination of Gene Robinson, but rather started with the ordination of women. The elevation of Gene Robinson added to the conservatives’ ire that was further compounded when the Church elevated a female to be Presiding Bishop.
I am still amazed at how conservative Episcopalians in the United States are trying to form their own “breakaway” sect of Anglicanism. In the Church of England (the Mother Church), when they started ordaining women, many conservative Anglicans converted to Roman Catholicism. I say, let them do that in this country instead of trying to tear the Church apart!
Harold S., the Episcopal Church is trying to stay in the Communion because we would like to continue to be in Communion with other like-minded churches around the world. In fact, the Episcopal Church doesn’t want to leave and isn’t going anywhere. The question is whether the Archbishop of Canterbury will sit by as other churches in the Communion force the Episcopal Church out, not because it followed its own polity and allowed the election of a gay man in a long-term relationship to be a bishop, but because the man in question was honest about his sexual orientation and his personal relationship.
To kncjr re: your question: Of course. Why do you ask?
“If we are not extremely careful at this convention, we could find ourselves outside the Anglican Communion, and that would be a tragedy for all of us,” Bishop William Love of Albany, N.Y., said. “My fear is that the Episcopal Church destroys itself.”
HOORAY! Now, if that works can we be hopeful that the process can be used to destroy all the others? Hope springs eternal!
As an Anglican in Canada, where we are having similar debates. If the church is to follow Jesus’ commandment to love one another as He loved us, the Anglican-Episcopal church has no choice but to be affirming and welcoming. Of course any church or parish should only bless a same-sex marriage (or any marriage) when it is also prepared to give that couple full support, but the option for parishes and dioceses to do so– and to ordain openly LGBT persons to priesthood must be available.
I do not want anyone to leave, but if someone must leave, let it be those who want to separate LGBT people from Christ.
Does anyone understand what SteveMD2 is trying to say?
Can someone explain to me why the USA Episcopal Church couldn’t stand on its own and just seperate from the Anglican Church???? What would the disaster be???
The Anglican Church was started because King Henry VIII wanted a divorce and the Bishop of Rome wouldn’t give him one. It was established because Rome would not recognize the ultimate authority of the Crown over the Church in England.
The Episcopal Church (USA) came into being after we won our Revolution. Former Anglicans in the new United States sent to Scotland to have bishops consecrated, therefore it is more accurate to say that the “Mother” church of the Episcopal Church is in Scotland, not in England.
Those two little details – our revolution and where our church comes from – seem to have escaped Archbishops of Canterbury for some years now. This one is about to learn them.
Wasn’t the Anglican church founded on separating itself from a wild element?
American Episcopalians should remember that — distancing themselves from a conservative element intent on hate.
Who want to be in communion with the Satans of the church.
More then let them leave, throw them out. Keeping them would be like the Jews (my people) keeping the hitlerites as members of the human race.
The presiding bishop of the Episcopal church recently defrocked 61 of their bigot priests who joined the tyrants of the Africa ‘communion of Satan’..
She has the right idea. Congratulate her. She has an office in NY you can find find via Google, and leave a message.
BTW – it appears that what a Ep. priest told me a few years ago is correct. Only about 5%, max 10% of the Ep. churches will join the Satanists.
And our local Epis. church here in our conservative wealthy MD community told me that the gay support / opposition here is framed by the generational gap. Nothing is more important long term then supporting schools and colleges who have gay-straight alliances, Lambda chapters etc.
That someday in the future, the bigoted churches will become museums. To teach future generations how they really were all about being houses of hate. In the name of God.
And BTW, some episcopal churches do perform commitment ceremonies. I’ve attended one. BTW, I also learned that Methodists (usually relatively conservative) have gay ministers, and some of them even perform committment ceremonies. Ignoring the national church.
If the church goes ahead and authorizes same sex ceremonies, and does not put in bans or delays re gay bishops, etc., it will be another “shot heard round the world”. Just like MA marriage was.
And remember, this battle is all about exposing the bigots who hate in the name of God. The same churches who gave the world the hatred of the Jews, which hitler leveraged to power (cath). And the so. white Baptists – the institution of slavery, and its successor segregation.
If you believe in heaven and hell, you should pray that God comes back and shows the world who inhabits his re-education camp. And it sure won’t be the gays.