.
... for those who continue the struggle in the Canadian Anglican Church toward the full inclusion of all the baptized in the Body of Christ. Today's razor-thin defeat of a resolution to permit the blessing of same-sex unions is a deep disappointment. Yet given the extraordinary international pressure put to bear on the deliberations of the the General Synod the fact that the margin was indeed as small as it was gives hope to those committed to "laboring on."
.
May God bless them in their work and in their witness!
.
"Holy God, you promised Abraham and Sarah that you would bless them so that their descendants would be a blessing to all humankind. As Jacob wrestled with you throughout the night, refusing to let you go until you blessed him, grant each of us the courage to claim your blessing as our baptismal birthright. Open our ears so that we can hear what your Holy Spirit is saying to the church. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen."
3 comments:
As disappointing as the outcome of today's vote is
As sad as it makes me for all my LGBT brothers and sisters to have to wait yet again for our Church to recognize the truth and blessedness of our lives and commited relationships
I believe two extraordinary things have happened at this General Synod.
The first was the election of our wonderful new Primate, ++ Fred Hiltz- an action of the Spirit lead by the laity.
The second was revealed in todays vote when laity and clergy alike voted that it is clearly the mind of the Church to bless committed relationships of LGBT people of faith. The confirmation is to be found in the numbers- where the total of votes for SSBs was a solid majority.
Already tonight there is much talk of the possibility of individual dioceses acting within canon law and authorizing SSB's within their jurisdiction. While I will welcome and support these individual acts of courage- hopefully even within my diocese, these will be but details in something much larger and wondrous.
For I truly believe we LGBT people of faith are being used wondrously by God in these difficult times to free the patriarchy from their worst fears-
To God's greater Glory
Amen
The results of the vote show not a defeat for the motion but a veto by the bishops. I expect many of the bishops who voted against the motion did so not out of personal conviction but because they were afraid of the political fall out that would result from the passing of the motion. It's Rowan Williams syndrome.
This is a curious situation, as the General Synod has now neither "affirm[ed] the authority and jurisdiction" of dioceses to "authorise the blessing of same-sex unions", nor explicitly denied them that authority.
It is similar to the Australian situation, in which the General Synod decided that it could "not condone" the blessing of same-sex unions. It did not explicitly prohibit same-sex blessings, but everyone seems to assumes that that is what was intended.
Post a Comment