Updated Saturday
Muriel Porter reports in the Church Times Setback to same-sex weddings in Australia.
BISHOPS in Australia have declared that it is not “appropriate” for same-sex weddings to take place in Anglican churches or halls, or the chapels of Anglican schools or other Anglican organisations, given the Church’s doctrine of marriage as being between a man and a woman.
They will give “further consideration” to the appropriate content of informal prayer for same-sex couples outside a public service, as well as to the difference between blessing and solemnising a marriage, and the issues involved in Anglican officials’ being present at a same-sex marriage or blessing.
The Anglican Church’s response to the passing of same-sex marriage legislation in Australia late last year (News, 15 December) was decided at the Bishops’ annual meeting, held in March, in Canberra…
The full text of the document is now available here.
A Church in Wales solution here?
Why are they wasting their breath, so many reels of paper, and our patience ?
They have nothing to say.
The bishops of Australia should be commended for a robust statement. What a contrast with the C of E.
It’s a pretty pathetic statement. It has not been published but discovered only through media agencies – where is the official copy online? The use of the language “appropriate” indicates that nothing has actually been decided or interpreted one way or the other. And most significantly the statement is in contradiction of the Australian Church’s agreed doctrine on marriage as evidenced in the acceptance of remarriage of divorcees provided for in General Synod canons.
What else to be expected from Australia! Quite positive for them. Unlike the negative dragging of leaden feet by the Church of England house of Bishops.
When will the church of England Bishops believe the Gospel of inclusive love, and act on it!
Fr John Emlyn
“The Anglican Church’s response to the passing of same-sex marriage legislation in Australia” is, in common with the Church of England, to sulk and pretend that it didn’t happen and even if it did it is only a passing fad. It’s sad to see that the positioning of Anglicanism as a church whose strategy is managed decline into a rump organisation of elderly bigots isn’t just an English problem. Roll the clock forward thirty years. What do Anglican churches look like? A group of people on walkers, spitting hatred towards gay people between breaths on their portable oxygen machines, every… Read more »
Please don’t be ageist, IO.
I’m not being ageist. I’m stating a simple fact that if an organisation closes the doors to new members, the average age of its members is going to increase by a year every year. With some honourable exceptions, Anglicanism has decided, as a matter of policy, to remain proudly homophobic while society changes. It is already largely a denomination of, for and by people born before 1960. If it remains so, then in 2050 it will be mostly 90 year olds. That’s not ageism, that an simple observation that putting up a sign saying “new thinking not welcome” has an… Read more »
If you doubt interested observer, just read the report to the Church of Scotland on its future. Less ministers, an aging congregation, much less money in the coffers. This report will be debated at its upcoming Annual Assembly.
But this is a Church that has recognised gay clergy, but is held back by being the Established church, having to provide a church and minister in every parish, even in wild areas.
Fr John Emlyn