July 15, 2009
Support by US Episcopalians for homosexual clergy is contrary to Anglican faith and tradition. They are leaving the family
by Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham
In the slow-moving train crash of international Anglicanism, a decision taken in California has finally brought a large coach off the rails altogether. The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States has voted decisively to allow in principle the appointment, to all orders of ministry, of persons in active same-sex relationships. This marks a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion.
Both the bishops and deputies (lay and clergy) of TEC knew exactly what they were doing. They were telling the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other “instruments of communion” that they were ignoring their plea for a moratorium on consecrating practising homosexuals as bishops. They were rejecting the two things the Archbishop of Canterbury has named as the pathway to the future — the Windsor Report (2004) and the proposed Covenant (whose aim is to provide a modus operandi for the Anglican Communion). They were formalising the schism they initiated six years ago when they consecrated as bishop a divorced man in an active same-sex relationship, against the Primates’ unanimous statement that this would “tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level”. In Windsor’s language, they have chosen to “walk apart”.
Granted, the TEC resolution indicates a strong willingness to remain within the Anglican Communion. But saying “we want to stay in, but we insist on rewriting the rules” is cynical double-think. We should not be fooled.
The article continues with insight on the sanctity of marriage from an historical and theological perspective.
Please read the rest of the article at Times Online
1 comment:
God bless Bishop Wright. I'm concerned, however, about what his last couple of paragraphs mean for us in the ACNA.
"Ways must be found for all in America who want to be loyal to [the Anglican Communion], and to scripture, tradition and Jesus, to have that loyalty recognised and affirmed at the highest level."
Isn't that what the ACNA is trying to do?
Tom Brisson
St. Paul's, Visalia
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