Ignoring the smell of brimstone and the tongues of flame scorching their khakis, Espiscopal church leaders passed a resolution giving dioceses the option of blessing same-sex unions. From the WaPo:
The church's House of Bishops approved the measure by an overwhelming voice vote after removing language that had called for developing a nationwide official liturgy for same-sex commitment ceremonies.While gay rights advocates were giving each other high-fives, others criticized the vote that come on the heels Rev. V. Gene Robinson's confirmation as a bishop in New Hampshire.
"They passed a local option, and a local option translates into anything goes," said the Rev. David C. Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, a group devoted to biblical orthodoxy. "Of course yesterday they voted to break 2,000 years of biblical faith and mores, and we're just beginning to grapple with the fallout from that." Some delegates to the church's General Convention here wore ashes on their foreheads and others walked out of today's legislative sessions......one deputy read a vociferous protest, repeating a call made by 19 bishops Tuesday for intervention by the archbishop of Canterbury, the communion's spiritual leader, and the heads of its member churches.
"We believe this is a profound misstep contrary to the word of God and the traditions of the church Catholic," said the Rev. Kendall Harmon, a theologian from South Carolina. "But understand this clearly: We are not leaving the church. It is rather the church that has left the historic faith and has fractured the Anglican Communion, for whose restoration we pledge our faithful and loving efforts."
I pray for the conversion of those who have been duped into believing the "I'm ok" theology of our time. Maybe it's a lack of faith on my part, but I'm not hopeful that the order of the Episcopal church will be restored.
It's too bad the Archbishop of Canterbury can't put the smack down on the whole debacle!
Order?
Sal - go read up on how the ordination of women started in the ECUSA. Or the ordination of openly non-celibate homosexuals.
One of the many problems of the ecclesiology of the ECUSA is that sometimes their bishops just DO things already voted down at the General Convention and then the ECUSA sucks it up and accepts the fait accompli.
I can hold out no hope of restoration inside the institution. The orthodox will either drift away or enter parish-by-parish into schism -- though in fact the number of bishops they'll be in communion with if they're taken in by the Southern Hemisphere Anglicans will be larger than the rump ECUSA.
Remember, however, that the vote passed. That means that some serious faction of the 2 million-odd wants this.
Yep, the professor has it right. Even if the Convention had turned down Canon Robinson, his supporters would have gone ahead, obtained a consecration, and installed him anyway, with hardly a tut-tut of protest from the Presiding Bishop.
I don't see any of this any stranger than the reason for the Anglican Church's existence in the first place. Remember the sect was founded on a syphilitic king's whim.
I am perplexed by why they would pass something that would vary from diocese to diocese. "Sorry, that blessing's no good here, you've crossed the diocese line."
Well, first, as to the hope that order will be restored, it would seem that the game is up. Although it's hard for many of us to accept, we must admit that the ECUSA is dead. Not that it's going away any time soon -- no, it may even grow, for all I know. All we can say for sure is that, despite the many faithful Christians struggling to hold the line, it's all over. All one can do, if one remains, is do so in the knowledge that the cause is lost.
As for that sect crack -- it is true that Henry VIII was a weasel, an ass, a nogoodnik. His conflict with Rome was just another chapter in the struggle between Roman jurisdictional authority and the power of kings and emperors. (I wonder what would have happened had Henry II not gone to Canossa.) Still, the existence of splintered, dying Christendom is a fait accompli. There is nothing to be done. Like faithless Israel and Judah in the Old Testament, the western Church must face exile. Only our Lord knows what he will make of us.
I don't know -- maybe it's time to swim the Bosporus.
Anyway, thanks for the space to vent. I wish peace to all.