Updated Friday evening
Here are three:
Another version of this article is at Huffington Post The Real Reason for the Anglican-Episcopal Divide
Other news reports:
Religion News Service Daniel Burke Episcopal Head Lashes Out at Anglican ‘Colonial’ Uniformity
Reuters Tom Heneghan Church rejects Anglican pressure over gay rights and earlier Avril Ormsby Latest Anglican peace bid meets with skepticism
Friday evening update
Here’s a fourth analysis:
Living Church and Covenant Ephraim Radner Actions Now Have Consequences
“Despite their smackdown, I think that Rowan Williams and Katharine Jefferts Schori might actually agree on the fundamental questions of identity, mission, and 21st century change. I also suspect that Rowan Williams would secretly find the “sweeping tidal change” more spiritually interesting than trying to keep the Anglican institutional ship afloat in the waters. But he thinks he’s in charge – and he’ll be captain of his Titanic until the last.” – Diana Butler Ross, ‘beliefnet’ – Diana’s insightful essay on the recent exchange of Pentecost Letters, featuring the ABC and the Presiding Bishop of TEC – though obviously from… Read more »
I think these three Responses should be read widely by all Anglicans/Episcopalians. They frame the issues in a very useful way. Hopefully we can begin to learn the roots of our disagreements and then be able to fashion a culture of mutual understanding. We are not there yet.
Thank you for posting these three thoughtful essays. Diana butler Bass does an especially good job of framing the background and the issues. I would commend her piece especially to people who are coming to this issue for the fisrt time, or who have kept only sporadic track of the events of the last several years.
A King:
The problem, as I see it, is that those opposed to TEC’s position on these matters see no need to take anyone else’s advice. They are firm in their belief that they are not only right, but on God’s side of the issue…and anyone holding a different view is not just misguided but upholding evil.
I wish commentators would stop speaking as if gay marriages are already a done deal in the Anglican Church of Canada. Rightly or wrongly, they’re not. Two dioceses have moved officially to allow the blessing of same sex unions, but no diocese has amended its marriage service to allow for gay marriage, and the Church as a whole has not made up its mind on the issue. So Diane Butler-Bass is quite wrong when she speaks of ‘the Canadians (who let gay Christians get married)’.
You know, Tim, that much hangs on how we understand the emphasized word “formally.” If Uganda once “formally” accepted North American congregations, have they “formally” changed their practice in turning those congregations over to ACNA? Had Uganda and others not acted, there would be no ACNA. If the Church of England has “formally” recognized civil partnerships for C of E clergy, is that somehow less important than that they have not “formally” allowed for blessing of those partnerships? (And, as both Bishop Jefferts Schori and Archbishop Hiltz have alluded, that such partnerships are in fact blessed much more often and… Read more »
The Archbishop of Canterbury supports a “Covenant” document which would in effect, marginalize and disenfranchise various Anglican communities with punishment for not adhering to new dogma that essentially devalues the glbt members of those various national churches. Call it what you wish but I see no other possible interpretation. Rowan Williams wants to centralize power and that is a Roman Catholic model which is experiencing major dysfunction and collapse. I realize their may be some historical inaccuracies in the Presiding Bishop’s pastoral letter and these are being corrected through the various comments by posters to these various threads, but I… Read more »
Tim is quite correct that the matter of same sex MARRIAGE has not even been broached in any official capacity in the Anglican Church of Canada. Even in the pair of dioceses that have authorized the blessing of same sex unions and in the handful more that appear to be moving in that direction, we are still talking about blessings. That said, same sex marriage is now legal across Canada and, to be fair, I doubt anyone on either side of the blessings issue would not see the move to marriages as the next logical and inevitable step. But as… Read more »
In some senses Diane Butler-Bass is right about “the Canadians’. As a secular society legal same sex marriage is an accepted fact. Some diocese are allowing, under the House of Bishops guidance, a celebration around the civil marriage of a same sex couple. This celebration includes the Eucharist and prayers for the couple. So, in that sense we Canadians do allow gay Christians to get married and then we celebrate the occasion.
Both Fr Malcolm and Rae Fletcher are correct. The picture of the current policy presented in the article cited is exaggerated, but it is true that there has been a shift from talk of “blessing of same-sex unions” to “blessing of civil marriages” and the current pastoral scheme of the House of Bishops has been used to some generous extents, including Nuptial Masses with the Justice of the Peace’s bits sandwiched between the Liturgy of the Word and of the Eucharist.
Both Fr Malcolm and Rae Fletcher are correct. The picture of the current policy presented in the article cited is exaggerated, but it is true that there has been a shift from talk of “blessing of same-sex unions” to “blessing of civil marriages” and the current pastoral scheme of the House of Bishops has been used to some generous extents, including Nuptial Masses with the Justice of the Peace’s bits sandwiched between the Liturgy of the Word and of the Eucharist. Posted by: Geoff on Saturday, 5 June Excellent progress made ! This is how it will come to be… Read more »