Newly elected Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry makes a point.
Yesterday the General Convention of The Episcopal Church -- bishops, clergy and laity making like a legislature -- brought our marriage ceremonies and definitions into line with the expansive expression of love that is sweeping the land. Good for them.
According to a friends I count on to know a thing or two, the new PB explained at his press conference:
That's done, thanks to decades of patient, urgent struggle, much pain and some joy. Now can my church gets its mind and heart around other justice agendas?"It's marriage. It's not gay marriage. It's not straight marriage. It's marriage."
I'm pretty pleased with my church this week. I may even back off on my usual opinion that the main problem with the Episcopal church is the episcopate!
ReplyDeleteWhat is your thought on this?
ReplyDeletehttp://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/anglican-head-expresses-concern-about-episcopal-vote-gay-marriage
Hi Brandon: Actually I thought Welby was kind of reserved. That train has left the station. He's trying to hold together an empire-derived vision of an Anglican communion in which national churches were autonomous but recognize, politely, some primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This has ceased to exist for the last 15 years or so as national churches have evolved in different directions.
ReplyDeleteMost of the national Anglican churches in western-oriented, English speaking countries have painfully and slowly evolved in the direction of full inclusion for gays. Many others, especially in Africa, have taken on some of the cramped theology so beloved of US fundamentalists. All are trying to respond to what are too often felt as existential threats. None of us behave at our best we hang on to being threatened. This is particularly bad behavior in a church.
But so it goes. The Brits respond by trying to muddle through and make a mess of it ...