Interesting report from the Daily Mail: The Church of England warned last night that it is under pressure to accept gay marriage.
But two senior bishops - writing on behalf of the CofE - said it is not prepared to abandon its traditional teachings in favour of the idea of 'gender neutral' marriage.
They said that the Church of England considers 'it is vital for the Church to maintain a critical distance from the state and to resist what the state is doing if this is at odds with Scripture.'
The fears over same sex marriage were made public at a meeting of the Church's parliament, the General Synod.
The really interesting part, though, is the
written response to Sweden:
We must however say that already, from the viewpoint of the Church of England, the existing practice in the Church of Sweden of blessing same-sex relationships was problematic, not least becase the same practice in one or two member churches of the Anglican Communion has led to divisions within our Communion. Although there is a continuing debate among Anglicans about human sexuality, the teaching and discipline of the Church of England, like that of the Anglican Communion as a whole as expressed in the Lambeth Conference of 1998, is that it is not right either to bless same-sex sexual relationships or to ordain those who are involved in them.
If we understand the situation in the Church orf Sweden correctly, what is now proposed appears to be a fundamental re-definition of the Christian doctrine of marriage and of basic Christian anthropology. This development might be seen as part of a wider shift within Western culture and theology to a position in which the idea of a fundamental distinction between the genders is seen as irrelevant and in which marriage is therefore seen as something that can and should be gender neutral. This position would be at odds with the biblical teaching about the significance of God's creation of human beings as male and female as this has been received by the Church of England and by the Catholic tradition in general. (Emphasis mine)
Wonder if a similar letter was sent to
815. ....
Comments:
Interesting report from the Daily Mail: The Church of England warned last night that it is under pressure to accept gay marriage.
But two senior bishops - writing on behalf of the CofE - said it is not prepared to abandon its traditional teachings in favour of the idea of 'gender neutral' marriage.
They said that the Church of England considers 'it is vital for the Church to maintain a critical distance from the state and to resist what the state is doing if this is at odds with Scripture.'
The fears over same sex marriage were made public at a meeting of the Church's parliament, the General Synod.
The really interesting part, though, is the
written response to Sweden:
We must however say that already, from the viewpoint of the Church of England, the existing practice in the Church of Sweden of blessing same-sex relationships was problematic, not least becase the same practice in one or two member churches of the Anglican Communion has led to divisions within our Communion. Although there is a continuing debate among Anglicans about human sexuality, the teaching and discipline of the Church of England, like that of the Anglican Communion as a whole as expressed in the Lambeth Conference of 1998, is that it is not right either to bless same-sex sexual relationships or to ordain those who are involved in them.
If we understand the situation in the Church orf Sweden correctly, what is now proposed appears to be a fundamental re-definition of the Christian doctrine of marriage and of basic Christian anthropology. This development might be seen as part of a wider shift within Western culture and theology to a position in which the idea of a fundamental distinction between the genders is seen as irrelevant and in which marriage is therefore seen as something that can and should be gender neutral. This position would be at odds with the biblical teaching about the significance of God's creation of human beings as male and female as this has been received by the Church of England and by the Catholic tradition in general. (Emphasis mine)
Wonder if a similar letter was sent to
815. ....
Comments:
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9 Comments •
One wonders indeed, Jackie. Good catch.
This shows that the CoE isn’t nearly as far gone nor so thoroughly compromised as TEC or the ACoC. Or Ireland, Scotland, or Wales, for that matter. But the same deadly infectious disease has been contracted, and it is very much in doubt if the CoE has a strong enough immune system to overcome it.
But I’ll let some of our British contributors speak to that.
David Handy+