The Church of England issued this briefing note to members of the House of Lords in preparation for the Second Reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. It includes a Q and A section which goes into a number of details.
For convenience of comparison, here is a link to what was issued at the time of the Report/Third Reading in the House of Commons.
They do harp on about consummation and adultery, as if any and all relationships have to be reduced to issues of sex. It’s an obsession.
Next time Anglicans complain about being treated as homophobic bigots, they need to be shown that briefing note. It’s the CofE speaking ex cathedra for the purposes of directing its troops in the legislature, and it’s a nasty, mean-spirited piece of bile. If decent Anglicans don’t want to be associated with it, they should speak out against it.
The claims that Welby is a man of the future are revealed as complete nonsense, of course. It’s a briefing note that says the CofE intends, corporately, to remain stuck in the 1950s. No women, no gays, no future.
On the other hand, Observer, the Church of Canada and TEC have women and gays and still don’t really appear to have a future. The downward spiral continues.
I would suggest, Chris H, that TEC and the AngChCanada, suffer the *collateral damage* from being associated w/ the “Christian” and/or “Catholic” policies like that of the Briefing Note linked (or much worse!). Christian homophobia sets the agenda, grabs the megaphone. LGBT-affirming Christianity too often can’t be heard above the noise.
Then TEC should have the courage to walk away from the communion, if it’s truly holding them back. They won’t because they’re so small; they need to be a part of the communion in order to seem important anymore. I can’t remember the last time an article in the paper about TEC didn’t include, “TEC is a part of the Anglican Communion with 70 million members”. It has to put that in there because they’re trying to compete with the Catholics and Orthodox for power and importance. “TEC, with about 2 million members and 650,000 attendees….” doesn’t have the same… Read more »
Please focus any further comments on the topic of the Church of England, and not on other provinces of the Communion.